Embracing Midlife: Congregations As Support Systems [Paperback]

Lynne M. Baab (Author), Lynne B. Baab (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Alban Inst; 1 edition (October 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566992168
• ISBN-13: 978-1566992169
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,329,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm so excited about my 2011 book, Friending: Real Relationships in a Virtual World, because it reflects many of the lessons from all my childhood moves and it draws on interviews with dozens of people about what friendship looks like today, with Facebook and so many other new ways to communicate. In the videos on this page, I talk about what I learned from writing Friending. I invite you to visit my website, www.lynnebaab.com, to learn more about my books and to read articles I've written on some of the same topics as the books.

I lived more than half my childhood overseas, which gave me an international perspective that has borne fruit late in life with our 2007 move to New Zealand. I've been thinking about friendship all my life, and moving so far away made me even more convinced that I wanted to write a book on friendship.

I currently teach pastoral theology at a university in Dunedin. I am still deeply engaged with the topics I've written about it my books. I keep a sabbath every week and I still see fasting as a significant way to disengage with the consumer culture. I love and practice a variety of spiritual disciplines which are meaningful to me and have shaped my spiritual life. I still enjoy thinking about and talking about personality type and issues of midlife, and I continue to speak and teach about preventing burnout among Christian leaders.

I am so grateful for the privilege of being a writer. If you have read my books, thank you. If you choose to purchase one of my books for the first time, I hope and pray that it will encourage you to live a richer and fuller life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Embracing Midlife: Congregations as Support Systems, March 2, 2000

By 

Dennis (Washington, DC (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embracing Midlife: Congregations As Support Systems (Paperback)

"What is wonderfully rewarding about Embracing Midlife is that it is not only enriching as a guide to one's own spiritual growth, it is written as the foundation for a community of faith that wants to join with its members on their midlife pilgrimage," notes Speed B. Leas, Senior Consultant, Alban Institute. Just published by the Alban Institute, Embracing Midlife: Congregations as Support Systems explores ways congregations can serve and support growth at midlife.

According to Lynne M. Baab, the book's author and an associate pastor at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Seattle, people look to their faith communities for reassurance. In Embracing Midlife, Baab addresses special issues faced by many of today's adult in congregations whether experiencing their midlife years as a struggle with gentle but persistent questions, as a welcome change of direction, or as a life-altering period of crisis.

"The voice of midlife can be loud, intrusive, and defiant but it is more likely to be soft, evasive, and sad. It is most often a voice that simply becomes less and less audible as it moves from the front row of the institution to the back row on its way toward an unobtrusive, and often final, exit," notes Nancy Bost Millner-adult development expert-in the foreword of Embracing Midlife. Millner says that Baab assists the reader in recognizing these midlife voices and "offers delightful, realistic stories from people in their middle years."

Rabbi James Mirel, co-author of Stepping Stones to Jewish Spiritual Living: Walking the Path Morning, Noon, and Night, applauds Midlife for addressing "a vital topic that few, if any, have ever addressed." Mirel says, "The human issues of midlife play a significant role in every congregation, whether it be Jewish or Christian, large or small, city or town. Lynne Baab's Embracing Midlife is a unique resource to help congregations support both individuals and groups in the midlife demographic as they explore the new possibilities ahead and come to terms with what has come before." Lynne M. Baab has led seminars in a variety of settings and taught classes at Seattle Pacific University and Christian Bible Institute, Seattle, WA. Baab served from 1993 to 1997 as the religious and spiritual issues interest area consultant for the Association for Psychological Type. She is the author of Personality Type in Congregations: How to Work with Others More Effectively (Alban Institute, 1998).