When Steeples Cry is a book about embodiment, yours and mine. It is not meant to be a 'how-to-book,' but it envisions you being a different kind of leader to your community. Written primarily, but not exclusively, for church leaders and those seminarians who will serve in mainline Protestant churches, When Steeples Cry identifies the work of mourning as a significant aspect of being a church leader in North America today. Leading your congregation towards gratitude, gladness, and praise, to rebuild ruins and to be a 'tree of righteousness' is a difficult call. This book explores the diverse nature of loss occurring in North American church contexts: numerical, relationship, material, identity, functional, role, and systemic losses, and suggests how to grieve loss well and move on from it in healthy, life-giving ways.
