Frank Carlson Library

Intentionally provocative, Alban founder and former president Loren Mead's dynamic work sets out dramatic and compelling challenges for today's churches. Mead chose the word "meltdown"-a strong term, indeed-very carefully and consciously. His clarion call urges congregations to direct attention to their dwindling financial resources and their unreliable fiscal practices, and to take major action now-or face disaster in the future. Mead addresses changing...

Asking parishioners for money is very different from creating congregations of generous people. In this provocative book, stewardship consultant Michael Durall argues convincingly that annual pledge drives inadvertently perpetuate low-level and same-level giving in congregations. Written with the voice of experience, this book will help clergy and lay leaders initiate and sustain effective stewardship programs. Durall believes that asking for money...

More than Money is a wondrous journey to 11 congregations across the United States that have been transformed by living out stewardship that is more than fundraising. Important factors emerge from the lively descriptions and records of dialogue between McNamara and the pastors and lay leaders he visited: The pastor's leadership is a linchpin of stewardship endeavor, they are willing to talk directly with their members about money. The churches take...

Reveals the history of money in the United States, from the wampum and foreign coins used by colonists, to the new paper money designed to be difficult to counterfeit and the quarters honoring the states.

Discusses ways of paying for goods and services, from the barter system used for hundreds of years to electronic funds transfers that were made possible only recently, and describes the first banks.

Tired of having two rooms that no one uses, Jo-Ann wants her living room and dining room pulled together and made family-friendly. The solution: a modern classic remake that pulls the whole family in.

Cindy has always wanted to take a vacation in Southern France. So Stephen and Alfredo brought Southern France to her. They turned her bedroom into a Provence masterpiece.

Howard and Susan are getting married. However they have a tight, tight budget. So the couple turn to Stephen and Alfredo who turn a basic backyard wedding into an elegant affair to remember.

Suzy and Patrick have a fantastic living room with some really great pieces, but the layout doesn't quite work. Our design duo's dynamic dressing rearranges some pieces and adds others to make the room fit together perfectly.

14 year old Morgan wants to update her childhood bedroom. Stephen and Alfredo decided to give her a stylin' 60's pad with hot pink walls and a new daybed where she and her friends can hang out.