Church meetings-that dreary chore that both clergy and laypeople often so un-derstandably dread-are re-visioned here as sprightly events of vitality and pur-pose, in which church members rediscover their common calling and find practi-cal ways to honor that vision, together. Gaylord Noyce brings to this re-visioning of meetings his relentlessly lucid and faithful common sense; his expertise on group process, leadership and conflict, and, most of all, his own 'relaxed curiosity-a quality he recommends for anyone approaching the ordeal of a church meeting.

Noyce understands as well as anyone else why meetings often seem so tedious. That's why he can teach us how the vitality can happen, and, more importantly, that it can happen."