Chicago Neighborhood Prayer Guide

Informed by key passages in the Bible, the Chicago Neighborhood Prayer Guide is a resource to aid believers in seeking the welfare of the city through prayer. Listing the 77 communities (comprised of 221 micro-neighborhoods) that make up the city of Chicago, this prayer guide provides information about the history, demographics, and needs of the neighborhoods which make up each community, and gives suggestions for how to specifically pray, praise, and give thanks.

If your church relocated, would your neighbors notice? Would there be an outcry for you to stay? Whether you are a church planter, pastor, community activist, missionary, college ministry leader, or simply a Christ-follower looking to impact your community, this resource is for you. Neighborhood Mapping by Dr. John Fuder is an engaging, practical tool available to assist workers in the field to better understand the communities they are involved with. It awakens the neighborhood explorer with effective methodology for "exegeting" their neighborhood, offering surveys and samples to lead them in that process. Dr. Fuder calls believers to shift the focus from inside the church building to those who live in the community. He offers here an easy-to-use resource for those who care about ministry to “the least of these.”

Community development -- the economic, physical, and social revitalization of a community, led by the people who live in that community -- offers a wide range of exciting and rewarding employment options. But until now, there has been no "road map" for professionals, volunteers, students, or anyone wishing to become involved in the field.A Guide to Careers in Community Development describes the many different kinds of community development jobs available, ranging from community organizing, to financing housing and new businesses, to redeveloping brownfields. It offers advice on how to break into the field along with guidance for career advancement and lateral movement.Following an introductory chapter that offers an overview and definition of community development and its history, the authors describe: different institutions in the field and how they fit together pros and cons of community development careers, with a self-assessment quiz for readers to use in analyzing their suitability for the field the work and skills involved in different kinds of positions how to prepare for and move up in a career how to land that first job Also included are detailed appendixes that provide information on job descriptions with salary ranges; universities and colleges offering community development curricula; training programs; where to look for job announcements; internet resources; internships, fellowships, and volunteer positions; and much more.A Guide to Careers in Community Development is an essential reference for anyone interested in working in the community development field, including graduate and undergraduate students, volunteers, and mid-career professionals seeking a more fulfilling line of work.

In this interfaith book Lucinda Mosher investigates different understandings of destiny, loss, death, and remembrance in America's many religions. Using stories and interviews with a variety of religious adherents and health professionals, the book wrestles with questions such as: how can our religion guide us in making decisions about certain kinds of medical treatment options? What religion-related issues would it be helpful for a healthcare provider to know? How do different religious traditions help manage our grief? In a globalized society religious traditions sit alongside each other as never before, and the need for religious literacy and multifaith chaplaincy is increasingly recognized. By looking at multireligious America, this book provides an essential exploration of different attitudes to death, helping members of all faith communities to become more literate with each other's religious traditions.

The newsletter of former Peace Corps and VISTA volunteers.

Praying is the second in a series of books that offer Christians a new way of understanding what it means to live and worship among America's many faiths, and introduces them to the religions that make up the American neighborhood. Praying will explore public, family, and individual worship in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Baha'i, Zoroastrianism, American indigenous spiritualities, Chinese spiritualities (Confucianism, Taoism), Shinto, and Afro-Caribbean religions. Praying answers and discusses questions such as these: How does your religion understand/measure the passage of time: daily, weekly, annually, over the course of a lifetime? What is the vocabulary of ritual and practice in your religion? (e.g., worship, prayer, meditation, pilgrimage, feasting and fasting) Is there a distinction between public and private/individual worship/practice in your religion? What are this religion's most distinctive practices? What makes them so significant? Praying includes a quick guide to each religion, a glossary, and recommended reading.

The importance of Chicago in American culture has made the city's place in the American imagination a crucial topic for literary scholars and cultural historians. While databases of bibliographical information on Chicago-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s. In The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 1,200 works of fiction significantly set in Chicago and published between 1852 and 1980. The synopses include plot summaries, names of major characters, and an indication of physical settings. An appendix provides bibliographical information for works dating from 1981 well into the 21st century, while a biographical section provides basic information about the authors, some of whom are obscure and would be difficult to find in other sources. Written to assist researchers in locating works of fiction for analysis, the plot summaries highlight ways in which the works touch on major aspects of social history and cultural studies (i.e., class, ethnicity, gender, immigrant experience, and race). The book is also a useful reader advisory tool for librarians and readers who want to identify materials for leisure reading, particularly since genre, juvenile, and young adult fiction, as well as literary fiction, are included.