Church Life
Showing 751–800 of 857 resultsSorted by latest
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Saying Goodbye : A Time Of Growth For Congregations And Pastors
$23.00Add to cartLeaving a pastorate is hard on both congregation and pastor. Learn how to make this transition a growth experience for all. Written for congregations and pastors, Goodbye skillfully weaves accounts from clergy, laity, and educators of seven denominations with White’s own insight as a former General Presbyter to create a resource for meaningful and healthy partings. Includes examples of a “farewell” worship service and litany for closure of a ministry.
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Inviting Church : A Study Of New Member Assimilation
$23.00Add to cartEver wonder why some people never return after their first visit? Why some join but you rarely see them? Or why others become active participants in your church family’s life and worship? Discover how your congregation can meet growth challenges. Based on Alban Institute research, The Inviting Church includes a self-study design for assessing assimilation processes and analyzing visitors’ perceptions.
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Total Ministry : Reclaiming The Ministry Of All Of Gods People
$23.00Add to cartUsed successfully in Episcopal dioceses and congregations, Total Ministry describes a new way for local congregations (especially small ones) and judicatories to organize their response to God’s call and to provide resources, support, and encouragement for ministry-a way that is not dependent only on full-time, seminary-trained, ordained leaders.
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Evaluating Ministry : Principles And Processes For Clergy And Congregations
$23.00Add to cartGrounding evaluation in the theological and organizational context of mission (everyone a minister), Hudson describes case studies of four successful evaluation models that include the whole church. She suggests how “whole church” reviews might result in stronger pastoral ministry and new directions for mission. An important resource that will help clergy and laity explore mutual ministry, judicatory executives strengthen congregations, and new pastors get through their first congregational evaluation.
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Once And Future Church
$23.00Add to cartMead takes a broad look at past and present changes in the church, and postulates a future to which those changes are calling us. Denominations, once structured to deliver resources to far-off lands of foreign mission, now encounter the mission field in the layperson’s workplace and the community surrounding the local congregation. Thus, the church is called to reinvention for this new mission frontier. Study guide information follows.
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In Between Church
$23.00Add to cartAlban Senior Consultant Mann draws on her lengthy experience in helping congregations deal with the hurdles and anxieties of expansion or contraction in size. Often, congregations experiencing size change do not recognize the need to change culture and form as part of the successful adaptation process. Mann details the adjustments in attitude-as well as practice-that are necessary to support successful size change.
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Discerning Your Congregations Future
$31.00Add to cartDrawing on extensive consulting experience with congregations, the authors provide a step-by-step guide to congregational planning that grounds strategic planning techniques in a process of spiritual discernment. The result: members will own the vision and be eager to participate in the congregation’s calling, life, and ministry. You and your planning committee learn the theory behind the techniques, along with receiving help for addressing specific situations.
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Once And Future Pastor
$25.00Add to cartHobgood examines new pressures on clergy that are emerging in the “post-Christendom era:” financial stresses; the effects of a conflicted and confrontational culture; the needs of an increasing number of people living broken or dependent lives; dysfunctional behavior on the part of pastors and parishioners; questions regarding clergy respect and job satisfaction. How is ministry being affected by these changes? What skills will clergy need as they enter the new century? An invaluable resource thoroughly grounded in research and full of practical observations for clergy, judicatory executives, seminary professors, and long-range planners.
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User Friendly Evaluation
$23.00Add to cartEach congregation must evaluate itself in light of its own mix of gifts, backgrounds, talents, and opportunities. Presenting the best of evaluation theory past and present, Woods shows clergy and lay leaders how to engage in mutual evaluation-not judgment-of ministry, mission, and community as a shared responsibility. The goal is building up the congregation. A special chapter provides commentary from church evaluation experts Roy Oswald (Alban), Paul Light (ABUSA denominational staff), and Jill Hudson (PCUSA judicatory executive) on dilemmas congregations face in evaluation
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Longing For Community
$21.99Add to cartUnderstanding the strength and unity of the ummah- the worldwide Muslim community-and its role in an individual’s identity is essential in comprehending the struggles that Muslims undergo as they turn to faith in Jesus Christ. It has been a place of security, acceptance, protection, and identity; turning away from it entails great sacrifice. Where, then, will Muslims who choose to follow Jesus find their longing for community fulfilled: ummah, church, or somewhere in between?
Longing for Community compiles the research and reflection of twenty missiologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and linguists-among them Muslims who have become believers in Jesus Christ- presented at the second Coming to Faith Consultation in February 2010. The contributors explore the multiple levels and hybrid nature of social identity, pointing to the need to free our discussions from single- dimensional scales, which are far from adequate to describe the complex nature of conversion and lived-out faith. Beyond the issue of identity, the contributors offer important lessons from mission history, explore liturgy as an appropriate vehicle for teaching, discuss appropriate means of communication, and point to both the need and contextually appropriate possibilities of greater involvement of women in training and ministry.
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Your Church Sign
$19.99Add to cartSigns have been almost as much a part of the modern church as the front doors. For that matter, they’ve been the entry into church life for countless people who have responded to their brief but cogent message. Your church sign has more potential than you may imagine — if you’re smart in using it. Your Church Sign offers you sound pointers on signage. You’ll find tips on impactful sign placement, captions, themes, and how to write effective messages. And you’ll get more than one thousand ready-made, eye-catching sayings. Some are humorous, some are encouraging, some are wise, some are convicting. All are designed to turn scant seconds of drive-by time into active spiritual awareness. Arranged by theme, Your Church Sign offers captions on: -Marriage and the Family – Prayer – Going to Church – Seasonal Themes – Christian Living – God in Charge – Evangelism – The Bible – Speech . . . and more. Turn to this practical, easy-to-use book for fast ideas and proven advice for helping your church sign make a difference in people’s lives.
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Partners In Ministry
$21.99Add to cartCould you use a partner in your ministry? Utilize the laity! Writing from the standpoint that ministry is the fundamental vocation of all Christians, the authors provide practical guidance on how the work of clergy and laity complements and strengthens each other; understanding of the functions of each; and direction on building ministry teams.
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Torch Of The Testimony
$14.95Add to cartThe 2,000 year history of those Christians – and churches – that have stood outside the Protestant-Catholic tradition. This book was originally published in India in 1964 and is little known in the western world. Beginning in the first century John Kennedy traces the history of Christian groups who remained outside formalized religion down through the ages. A stirring, passionate and sometimes heart-rending story of suffering to the centrality of Christ within the Body of Christ.
John W. Kennedy is from Great Britian, but has lived in India since 1952 ministering among indigenous and apostolic Christian groups.
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Imagining A Church In The Spirit A Print On Demand Title
$23.99Add to cartEveryone has an opinion about why mainline churches are declining, but few provide concrete, workable ideas to help stem the tide. As an academic, Johnson effectively couples his suggestions with McDonald’s pastoral experience. Together, they seek to re-energize the body of Christ with new vision.
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How To Meet In Homes
$11.95Add to cartThis book is an invitation to revolution!
Warning: Do not read this book if you enjoy Sunday morning church services!
This book is for those believers, be they Catholic, Protestant, Conservatives, Fundamentalists, or Pentecostal/Charismatics who want to utterly abandon it all, from top to bottom, and start over in a way that is a revolutionary, radical departure from all present-day church practices. -
Waking To Gods Dream
$20.99Add to cartBone-weary pastors can easily slip into survival mode, leading to spiritual stagnation for themselves and their flock. Relating his own brush with burnout, Wills shares how his large church went from decline to dynamic growth. Learn how the personal commitment of his leaders—more than mere innovation—helped infect the congregation with a vision for outreach.
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Congregations In Conflict
$47.99Add to cartCongregations in Conflict uses the suburbs of Chicago to examine the nature of American congregations as institutions, looking in particular at how they deal with conflict within their ranks, to gain insight into religious culture. In detailed and well documented case studies of conflict in twenty-three congregations including Protestant parishes, Catholic parishes, and Jewish synagogues, Becker examines such factors as organizational processes, the extent and types of ties among church members, their shared understandings about mission and identity, and their level of public commitment. At the local level Becker finds vital “public religion”: congregations that provide caring and support for members, service to the local community, and important arenas for moral debate and public activism.
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Worship Maze
$24.99Add to cartIVP Print on Demand Title
As the debate over worship styles rages, leaders and laypeople are often caught in confusion. Which style is right for your congregation? With gentleness and sensitivity, Basden addresses this question. His examination of five worship styles (liturgical, traditional, revivalist, praise, and seeker-sensitive); practical suggestions for choosing a style; and more will help you approach worship with joy.
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Stewardship Scrapbook
$24.00Add to cartThis remarkable book represents the very best of William Phillippe’s lifelong stewardship files: materials he has used in four decades of training, talks, and sermons about giving to the church. It includes biblical texts, sermons, sermon ideas, inspiring stories, quotations, and other miscellaneous suggestions and aids for ministers, lay leaders, and others interested in the many facets of stewardship.
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Royal Waste Of Time
$37.99Add to cartLearn how worshiping with appropriate adoration can liberate the hearts of jaded churchgoers who are trapped in today’s postmodern, media-saturated culture! Based on solid theological and biblical foundations, Dawn offers experience-based insights to help you navigate beyond destructive worship wars and stimulate renewal in your congregation. Includes nine Scripture-based sermons.
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5 Star Church (Reprinted)
$18.00Add to cartEver wonder how a restaurant or hotel earns a five-star rating? Is it the people? The location? The service? In most cases, it is all of this and more. Why should your church be any different? The Five Star Church reveals how you can pursue Christian excellence and uphold the Lord’s command to “honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). It contains tips, tools, and the inspiration you need to build a top-quality church that people will flock to and participate in. Now matter how small your ministry or budget, God can use your church effectively to make everyone there feel welcome and cared for–the marks of a five-star church!
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Rehearsing The Soul
$14.99Add to cartThe church choir prepares musically and vocally at each of its 52 weekly rehearsals. It is the purpose of this book to assist in choir members’ spiritual preparation, as focus is aimed away from notes and rythms and temporarily toward matters of faith and life. These thoughtful, easy-to-use devotions are ideal for use during choir rehearsal, before a choir program, or as food for personal meditation. Written by a life-long participant in the music of the church, each devotion is geared toward church choir members and their particular faith-walk. Each week’s devotional reflection begins with a Scripture or hymn passage and concludes with a brief prayer.
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Preaching While The Church Is Under Reconstruction
$22.99Add to cartIn this book the author constructs a framework for how to preach in this time of transition and failing certainties. He demonstrtes that, enlivened by the work of God’s Spirit, it is possible to preach with vision and insight, and help God’s people perceive their place in the world which God is creating anew
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Losing Our Virtue
$25.50Add to cartWells loudly throws down the gauntlet to the evangelical church in this perceptive analysis of our culture in crisis. Painting a vivid description of society’s moral and spiritual confusion, he explains how the church can regain its effectiveness and influence in our postmodern world. A challenging look at social reform vs. spiritual transformation.
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Equipping Your Church To Minister To Ex Offenders
$8.95Add to cartPrison ministry does not end at the prison gates. In any area of the country where there is a prison or a jail, or where ex-offenders reside, there is a need to help incarcerated men and women make a successful transition from prison to society. These 104-page manual gives practical, Biblically-based instructions on starting such a ministry, whether through the local church, or as a separate ministry working with the local church. This manual includes the following topics:
WHO ARE EX-OFFENDERS, AND WHY SHOULD THE CHURCH REACH OUT TO THEM?
WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET THE CHURCH INVOLVED?
THE GOAL OF EX-OFFENDER MINISTRY
INITIAL PREPARATION FOR THE EX-OFFENDER MINISTRY
DEALING WITH RACIAL ISSUES AND CROSS-CULTURAL SITUATIONS
FINANCING THE EX-OFFENDER MINISTRY
PEDOPHILES AND SEX OFFENDERS
GODLY LOVE TOWARD THE EX-OFFENDER-WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
DISCIPLESHIP FOR THE EX-OFFENDER: LEAVING THE NETS
THE PRUNING PROCESS: HOW TO DEAL WITH SUFFERING
THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS FOR THE MINISTRY TO INMATES AND EX-OFFENDERS
SCRIPTURES RELATED TO PRISONERS
LEGAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF YOUR MINISTRY
STARTING AN AFTERCARE CENTER
BENEFITS FOR THE ELDERLY AND DISABLED
THE WORK OPPORTUNITY TAX CREDIT ACT
FEDERAL AND STATE BONDING FOR EX-OFFENDERS -
Spectacle Of Worship In A Wired World
$23.99Add to cartExamining the three central elements of electronic culture the author demonstrates that for those steeped in this culture, meaning arises from the convergence of these elements rather than from any one of them individually. He goes on to discuss how these are already present in Christian worship and how they might be made more evident. In adition, he explains that worship can serve as a corrective to electronic culture and concludes the book with suggestions on how to build worship around an awareness of this new kind of human perception.
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Revolution In Leadership
$25.99Add to cartEquipping God’s people for the ministry to which they are called can no longer be the responsibility solely of professional clergy. Increasingly we see that a new team of leaders, drawn from the membership of each congregation or its community, is arising to meet the challenges that ministry in the third millenium will present. Yet where, and how, will these leaders be trained?
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Snapshots Of The Kingdom
$11.99Add to cart24 Chapters
Additional Info
Picture perfect moments. The Gospels are full of them. Reading The Bible can be a lot like bringing out the family album. Because photographs help us remember. They bring to mind times and places important to us. They recapture people, relationships, and priorities. They help define us. Snapshots bring a piece of the past into the present. Have you ever thought of the Gospels as snapshots of Jesus’ life and ministry? Each episode, each story is a picture of His kingdom on earth. By reading them we learn what Kingdom life is like. Steve Rodeheaver is convinced that one of the primary purposes of the Church is to be a snapshot of God’s kingdom. When people see Christians in action, he says they should see wallet-size pictures of the coming Kingdom. Our lives and ministries are to reflect the model Jesus gave us so long ago. Snapshots of the Kingdom will challenge you to answer the call to Kingdom living. The opportunities are all around you. Right now. Where you are. It’s an adventure guaranteed to bring your life back into focus. -
Where The Nations Meet
$30.99Add to cartIVP Print on Demand Title
Peppered with inspiring and challenging stories from multicultural congregations, this book not only provides a theological basis for multicultural ministry but also suggests how such ministry can be successfully conducted in all churches. This book for all pastors and laypersons who want their church to be a place of unbounded celebration where the nations meet.
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Human Disability And The Service Of God
$34.99Add to cartHuman Disability and the Service of God is an important contribution to the growing literature on religion and disabilities. In this volume major Christian scholars across the biblical, historical, theological, and pastoral fields bring their areas of expertise to bear on the challenge of a holistic ministry that will no longer marginalize persons with disabilities.
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Masters Plan For Making Disciples (Reprinted)
$20.00Add to cart1. The Vision To Fulfill
2. The People To Win
3. The Fellowship To Cherish
4. The Ministry To Give
5. The Discipline To Keep
6. The Power To BecomeAdditional Info
Robert Coleman’s best-selling The Master Plan of Evangelism, which has sold over two million copies, told how Jesus made disciples. Now learn how the disciples did it in this companion volume. The Master Plan of Discipleship, now available in mass-market paperback, will help you discover a discipling lifestyle from the early church. -
Religious Experience In Earliest Christianity
$25.00Add to cartCombining trenchant criticism with careful analysis, Luke Johnson calls for a radically new direction in New Testament studies, one that can change the way we view the entire phenomenon of early Christianity. In three fasinating probes of early Christianity – examining baptism, speaking in tongues, and meals in common – Johnson illustrates how a more holistic approach opens up the works of healings and religious power, of ecstasy and spirit – in short, the religious experience of real persons. Early Christian texts, he finds, reflect lives caught up in and defined by a power not in their control but engendered instead by the crucified and raised Messiah Jesus.
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Rural Ministry : The Shape Of The Renewal To Come
$30.99Add to cartGrounded in social research, Rural Ministry evaluates the diminishing establishment of the church in rural America, which is linked to the fifty-year-old crisis in rural ministry. It names the primary issues for leaders of Protestant and Catholic churches to ponder: the graying of the population; the closing of schools, hospitals, and factories; and the corporate buyout of farms during the 1980s. In addition to retelling the history of this crisis, Shannon Jung and the other contributors to this volume offer a set of Christian principles that respond to social problems in rural life. The situation is so intense that the book offers examples from around the heartland of cooperative or collaborative parishes that blend denominational and theological differences across the Protestant and Catholic spectrum.
Key Benefits: Offers a vision of nationwide renewal in rural America; Advocates true ecumenical solutions to issues confronting the rural church in America; Sidebars feature examples and illustrations; Informs new rural ministers of the culture and issues about to confront them, allowing them to better handle the challenges and opportunities of the rural environment; Motivates congregations to activate ministries in new and provocative ways, insuring the spread of the gospel; Can help troubled churches survive.
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44 Questions For Congregational Self Appraisal
$23.99Add to cartChurches don’t sit still; they are either planning for the future or wishing for the past. Yet, even when setting about to discern the future into which the Spirit is leading, how does a congregation map its way? How does it understand its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and limitations, gifts and graces? In 44 Questions for Congregational Self-Appraisal, Lyle E. Schaller directs the reader to the crucial questions a church must ask itself if it is to understand its mission and the course it must chart in order to achieve that mission. He helps pastors, congregational leaders, and strategic planning groups understand that the questions we ask and the data we gather tend to set our priorities, and for this reason it is crucial to seek the correct information from the outset. Schaller shows church leaders how not to become trapped by “means to an end” questions (real estate, staffing, money, and schedules) and focus instead on questions related to the congregation’s distinctive mission (identity, purpose, role, and God’s call) and message.
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Brazilian Popular Church And The Crisis Of Modernity
$129.00Add to cartThis study explores one of the most dramatic contemporary interactions between religion and politics: the development of progressive Catholicism in Latin America. From the late 1960s this religious movement sought to transform the church and society. In the 1980s, however, the popular appeal of liberation theology was threatened. Focusing on a Brazilian community, Manuel Vasquez’ incisive book examines the fate of progressive Catholicism amid changes in the Vatican and in the economy, and a wider crisis of modernity and humanistic thought.
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Reshaping Religious Education
$39.00Add to cartCelebrated religious educators Harris and Moran challenge the religious education community to risk change. They identify a process of creative and imaginative education, moving beyond traditional solutions while incorporating ecumenical and international perspectives.
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Deeply Woven Roots
$25.00Add to cartImproving the quality of life in your community. Gunderson takes the eight major strengths of congregations and shows how they can be used to fill the gap between what a health care system will pay for and what it won’t in caring for their members. Help your church become a more imaginative, courageous, and effective enabler of healing and well-being in personal and societal life.
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Truly The Community A Print On Demand Title
$31.99Add to cartOriginally published in 1992 as The Hilarity of Community, this edition includes a new title, preface, and entirely new cover design. Truly the Community continues to be one of the best sources for understanding what it means to live together as the church of Christ.
Many writers, both secular and religious, have decried the lack of intimacy and community in our contemporary culture. Few of them, however, offer practical suggestions for counteracting the isolation and alienation felt by so many people today. But Marva Dawn does this–and more–in Truly the Community. Through an intensive study of Romans 12, Dawn offers specific guidance for building vital Christian community life.
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After Our Likeness
$37.99Add to cartIn this first volume in the Sacra Doctrina series, Miroslav Volf explores the relationship between persons and community in Christian theology. The focus is the community of grace, the Christian church. The point of departure is the thought of the first Baptist, John Smyth, and the notion of church as “gathered community” that he shared with Radical Reformers. Volf seeks to counter the tendencies toward individualism in Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest viable understanding of the church in which both person and community are given their proper due.
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End Of Christian Psychology
$13.00Add to cartEastgate Publishers Title
What can be wrong with “Christian psychology”? When it is comprised of the same confusion of contradictory theories and techniques as secular psychology. “Christian” psychologists have simply borrowed their theories and techniques from this world’s wisdom. Packed with biblical and scientific evidence, this book thoroughly demonstrates that professional psychotherapy with its underlying psychologies is questionable at best, detrimental at worst, and a spiritual counterfeit in any event.
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Another Days Journey
$19.00Add to cartAn analytical portrayal of the internal life of black churches and their many effective forms of social ministry. The author provides the reader with an excellent set of practical guidelines that churches will find useful as they strive to increase their resources for worthy projects.
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Praying Church Sourcebook (Reprinted)
$36.00Add to cartInnovative ideas for your prayer ministry.
Use the link above to download the table of contents and a sample chapter!As seen in Pray! magazine, this best-selling resource a “must-have” for anyone involved in prayer ministry. In 33 chapters and over 350 pages, you’ll discover how to implement effective prayer strategies, including
concerts of prayer
solemn assemblies
houses of prayer
prayerwalkingThe Praying Church Sourcebook also features valuable essays on prayer, true stories of prayer in action, a directory of selected prayer ministries, and a reading list of classic and contemporary books on prayer.
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Crisis In The Church
$29.95Add to cartDrawing on his wealth of experience as both a seminary professor and minister, John Leith identifies and confronts the contemporary crisis in theological education. He argues that the crisis in the seminaries is interwoven with the crisis in the church, and that the secularization of educational institutions has led seminaries to move away from their primary responsibility – preparing pastors for ministry.
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Contemporary Worship : A Sourcebook For Spirited Traditional Praise And See
$31.99Add to cartThis handbook contains everything a congregation needs in order to plan, launch, and stabilize contemporary worship services. Three formats for contemporary worship are shown: spirited-traditional, contemporary praise, and contemporary seeker (or outreach-oriented) services. The resources include sample formats, sample messages that are appropriate for the format, sample skits, interviews, or dramas, and a database of worship choruses that are appropriate to each of the three contemporary formats.
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Life And Thought Of Kanzo Uchimura 1861-1930 A Print On Demand Title
$25.99Add to cartWhile staying in the United States in 1884 at the age of 23, Kanzo Uchimura (1861-1930) felt a sense of religious calling that led him to devote the rest of his life to Christian mission in Japan. His subsequent life and work earned him recognition as one of the most important Japanese thinkers, essayists, and theologians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Uchimura claimed that Japan adopted Western civilization at the reopening of the country in the late nineteenth century but did not adopt Christianity itself – the very cause, spirit, and life of Western civilization. This was the origin of all the difficulties Japan had been experiencing. There is no question that Uchimura believed Christianity would save Japan and the Japanese; the real question was “What kind of Christianity?”
In his view Christian faith entails a radical dependence on the gospel; baptism, communion, and the other sacraments are not necessary. He also believed that God’s truth can be revealed directly to each individual, so that an intermediary between God and people, such as a minister, priest, or pope, is not required. This argument led Uchimura to start the Mukyokai-shugi (Non-churchism), a denial of the institutional church. Miura here explores in depth this theme in Uchimura’s thought as well as Uchimura’s particular vision of Japan’s mission to the world.
This study not only offers Western readers new information about Kanzo Uchimura and the Japanese Non- church Movement; it also provides important insights into the way Christianity can be indigenized in a new culture, such as that of modern Japan.
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Images Of The Church In Missions
$19.99Add to cartThe Bible shows that the very existence of the church is grounded in God’s saving mission. The church is a visible demonstration of the reign of God, his “experimental plot” in the midst of history, pointing toward the restoration of all things.
Driver offers studies of 12 biblical images for understanding the church. They steer us toward a church more in harmony with God’s missionary purpose for his people, and toward a mission solidly based in the biblical vision of peoplehood. These images communicate with power and clarity, reflecting the sense of identity in early Christian communities. In our own time, such images can inspire the church to live up to its reason for being. The images the church uses to understand itself will largely determine what the church will become.
Driver explores images of pilgrimage, of God’s new order, of peoplehood, and of transformation. By its calling, the church must be in mission. The church needs the vital sense of identity inspired by these biblical images to serve God’s saving purpose for all creation.
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Connecting To God
$23.00Add to cartAlthough spiritual growth occurs within an individual, Ware explains that it is the calling of the congregation to be a community of support and encouragement. Indeed, it is amidst the support of a group that an individual learns how to live out personal faith. Ware provides a very practical and accessible model of spiritual formation for self-directing groups that can be led by clergy or laity. Includes thorough guidelines, do’s and don’ts, and ground rules for the successful pursuit of spiritual growth in small groups. See also Ware’s helpful book on spiritual type on next page.
