Strength for the Journey: A Pilgrimage of Faith in Community

"This book is the story of intertwined journeys--how one woman observed and experienced the shifts and struggles of mainline religion as she lived her own journey in eight Episcopal congregations over two decades. And it is the story of each congregation at a particular moment in its history. Each experienced some degree of ferment about its identity, about the denomination, about its vocation and mission in the world, and about the nature of faith community. Those conflicts have changed me, have changed the congregations, and, I believe, are changing the nature of mainline churchgoing."

— from the Introduction

"Embroidering her commentary with the intricate knots and binding strands of the Church's history among us, Bass renders for us a new fabric of many colors and invites us to shelter ourselves within its triumphant folds. She also, as I have said from the very beginning, thereby creates something of a post-modern amazement."

— From the Foreword by Phyllis Tickle

"Diana Butler Bass has written a rare kind of book. Part religious travelogue, part contemporary tracing of one pilgrim's progress, part spiritual autobiography, Strength for the Journey gives us a very personal and a very acute view of what life is like for a committed Christian today."

— James P. Wind, president, The Alban Institute

"A compelling intertwining of a personal spiritual journey and the recent history of Protestantism. Diana Butler Bass makes the case that baby boom seekers are drawing the Church into a new, more authentic Christianity."

— Nora Gallagher, author, Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith

"With the insights of a mystic, Diana Butler Bass recounts her spiritual pilgrimage from Methodism to evangelicalism to the benumbing diversity of the Episcopal Church, where she found a spiritual home. Along the way, she offers a guided tour of the crises and the controversies afflicting mainline Protestantism over the past several decades. For anyone looking for evidence that the glass of manline Protestantism is half full rather than half empty Strength for the Journey offers a persuasive case."

— Randall Balmer, author, Growing Pains: Learning to Love My Father's Faith

"The church cannot depend on the past for its future."

— Diana Butler Bass

At a time when many mainline churches were losing members, Diana Butler Bass chose to stay and discover the vibrancy at the very heart of her faith. She was not alone. There has been a quiet resurrection in the mainline tradition, energized by a new generation of churchgoers and a host of new members. The reemerging Protestant mainline possesses an unexpected and underestimated vitality. And in recent decades, mainline churchgoing has been anything but dull, as congregations have struggled to understand their identity and vocation in a changed world.

In Strength for the Journey, Diana Butler Bass illustrates the dynamic strength and persistence of mainline Protestantism. While many baby boomers left the church, only to come back later in life, Bass was a "stayer" who witnessed the struggles and changes and found much there that was meaningful. Offering thought-provoking portraits of eight parishes she attended over two decades, she explores the major issues that have confronted mainline denominations, congregations, and parishioners during those years— from debates over women clergy to conflicts about diversity and community to scrimmages between tradition and innovation.

Diana Butler Bass's story reveals the church's history among us. She uses her life as the focal point to tell the larger story of contemporary mainline church life, with all of its ups and downs. During the last two decades, she says, "the church was being quietly transformed by the experiences of stayers like myself who demanded different visions and practices of churchgoing than the institution had traditionally offered." And out of the turbulence, a new kind of mainline congregation has been emerging, and a new period of American Protestantism is being born.

In Strength for the Journey, Diana Butler Bass illustrates the dynamic strength and persistence of mainline Protestantism. While many baby boomers left the church, only to come back later in life, Bass was a "stayer" who witnessed the struggles and changes and found much there that was meaningful. Offering thought-provoking portraits of eight parishes she attended over two decades, she explores the major issues that have confronted mainline denominations, congregations, and parishioners during those years-- from debates over women clergy to conflicts about diversity and community to scrimmages between tradition and innovation.

Diana Butler Bass writes a weekly newspaper column on contemporary religion as New York Times syndicate columnist. In addition to being a popular speaker, retreat leader, and seminary professor, this scholar of American religion serves as director of faith formation at Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia.

Coming home : All Saints-by-the-Sea, Santa Barbara, CA, 1980-1981 — Competing authorities : Christ Church, South Hamilton, MA, 1982-1987 — The establishment : St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC, 1987-1989 — Practicing faith : Church of the Holy Family, Chapel Hill, NC, 1989-1991 — Interim : Santa Barbara, CA, 1991-1994 — The open door : Trinity Church, Santa Barbara, CA, 1995-1997 — The household of God : Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Memphis, TN, 1997-2000.