Download or read book Called to Be Church written by Anthony B. Robinson and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2006-02-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biblical scholar Robert Wall and pastoral leader Anthony Robinson here join forces to bring the Acts of the Apostles forward to our time as a resource for congregational renewal and transformation.Featuring both careful exegetical study and exciting contemporary exposition, the fifteen chapters of Called to Be Church each first interpret the text of Acts as Scripture and then engage Acts for today's church. The book dives into many of the most vexing issues faced by the church then and now -- such issues as conflict resolution, pluralism and multiculturalism, sexuality, money, church and state, the role of the Holy Spirit, and more.Enhanced by study questions at the end of each chapter, Called to Be Church will lend itself especially well to small-group study within congregations. Pastors, lay readers, students, and ordinary believers alike will find the book helpful and inspiring.
Download or read book Upon This Rock written by Jason G. Duesing and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A recent conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary featured speakers addressing topics set forth in the article on “The Church” in the Southern Baptist Convention’s Baptist Faith and Message statement. Upon This Rock gathers those presentations and answers such questions as: • What is the basis for our denominational distinctives? • Are they merely a collection of “faded traditions” or true doctrinal necessities rooted in the Bible alone? • Are they theologically rich cornerstones of faith that easily transcend time, culture, and preference? Contributors include Malcolm B Yarnell III (“Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church: A Theological Exposition of Matthew 16:13-20”), Paige Patterson (“Observing the Two Ordinances of Christ”), Thomas and Joy White (“Church Officers and Gender: Can Women Be Pastors? Or Deacons?”) and Bart Barber (“A Denomination of Churches: Biblical and Useful”) as well as Jason G. Duesing, David Allen, Emir F. Caner, James Leo Garrett, Jr., and Byron McWilliams.
Download or read book In Search of the New Testament Church written by C. Douglas Weaver and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When John Smyth organized the first Baptist church, he wanted to establish the New Testament church; believer's baptism was the missing link. Baptists of subsequent eras often continued the search to embody New Testament Christianity. Alongside the quest for the New Testament church (and congregational community), Weaver especially highlights the Baptist commitment to religious liberty and the individual conscience. Both chronological and thematic, this book addresses such themes as the role of women, the social gospel, ecumenism, charismatic influences, and theological emphases in Baptist life.
Download or read book Great Church Fights written by Leslie B. Flynn and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Baptist Way written by R. Stanton Norman and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2005 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Baptist Way is an introduction to the principles that distinguish Baptists from other Christians. In some cases these ideas were once peculiarly Baptists, though they are now more widely held among other groups. For Stan Norman, healthy Baptist churches intentionally and diligently adhere to their Baptist distinctives.
Download or read book Center Church written by Timothy Keller and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practical and Gospel-centered thoughts on how to have a fruitful ministry by one of America's leading and most beloved pastor. Many church leaders are struggling to adapt to a culture that values individuality above loyalty to a group or institution. There have been so many "church growth" and "effective ministry" books in the past few decades that it's hard to know where to start or which ones will provide useful and honest insight. Based on over twenty years of ministry in New York City, Timothy Keller takes a unique approach that measures a ministry's success neither by numbers nor purely by the faithfulness of its leaders, but on the biblical grounds of fruitfulness. Center Church outlines a balanced theological vision for ministry organized around three core commitments: Gospel-centered: The gospel of grace in Jesus Christ changes everything, from our hearts to our community to the world. It completely reshapes the content, tone, and strategy of all that we do. City-centered: With a positive approach toward our culture, we learn to affirm that cities are wonderful, strategic, and under-served places for gospel ministry. Movement-centered: Instead of building our own tribe, we seek the prosperity and peace of our community as we are led by the Holy Spirit. "Between a pastor's doctrinal beliefs and ministry practices should be a well-conceived vision for how to bring the gospel to bear on the particular cultural setting and historical moment. This is something more practical than just doctrine but much more theological than "how-to steps" for carrying out a ministry. Once this vision is in place, it leads church leaders to make good decisions on how to worship, disciple, evangelize, serve, and engage culture in their field of ministry—whether in a city, suburb, or small town." — Tim Keller, Core Church
Download or read book Claiming Resurrection in the Dying Church written by Anna B. Olson and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2015-03-18 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you minister faithfully to a congregation that is in decline? While many congregations struggle with trying to find the key to regrowth, pastor Anna Olson suggests that the answer may actually be to accept and embrace this moment for what it is. In this beautifully written work, Olson helps pastors recognize that, while the congregation might be going away, the community of which it is a part is still very much alive. Using her own experiences in a dying congregation, Olson encourages pastors to use this opportunity to explore new ways to minister, freely and selflessly, and provides a powerful model of what faithfulness to the gospel looks like. This hopeful book about letting go of false hope gives pastors the guidance they need for ministering effectively during the final stages of a church's life.
Download or read book Earth Church written by Jim Blackburn and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Who Runs the Church written by Zondervan, and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Churches have split and denominations have formed over the issue of church government. While many Christians can explain their church's form of rule or defend it because of its "tried and true" traditions, few people understand their church's administrative customs from a biblical perspective. Who Runs the Church? explores questions such as: What model for governing the church does the Bible provide, and is such a model given for practical or spiritual reasons? Is there room for different methods within Christianity? Or is there a right way of "doing church"? And, finally, how (and by whom) should the church be governed? Four predominant approaches to church government are presented by respected proponents: Episcopalianism - represented by Peter Toon Presbyterianism - represented by L. Roy Taylor Single-Elder Congregationalism - represented by Paige Patterson Plural-Elder Congregationalism - represented by Samuel E. Waldron As in other Counterpoints books, each view is followed by critiques from the other contributors, and its advocate then responds.
Download or read book Baptist Foundations written by Mark Dever and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, representatives of several North American Baptist seminaries and a Baptist university make the exegetical and theological case for a Baptist polity. Right polity, they argue, is congregationalism, elder leadership, diaconal service, regenerate church membership, church discipline, and a Baptist approach to the ordinances.
Download or read book A History of the Black Baptist Church written by Wayne E Croft and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The history of black people in the United States is a history of challenge and resilience, of suffering and solidarity, of injustice and prophetic resistance. It is a history steeped in the hope and strength that African Americans have derived from their faith in God and from the church that provided safety, community, consolation, and empowerment. In this new volume from pastor and scholar Rev. Dr. Wayne Croft, the history of the black Baptist church unfolds-from its theological roots in the Radical Reformation of Europe and North America, to the hush arbors and praise houses of slavery's invisible institution, to the evolution of distinctively black denominations. In a wonderfully readable narrative style, the author relates the development of diverse black Baptist associations and conventions, from the eighteenth century through the twentieth century's civil rights movement. Ideal for clergy and laity alike, the book highlights key leaders, theological concepts, historic events, and social concerns that influenced the growth of what we know today as the diverse black Baptist family of churches"--
Download or read book Reclaiming the Church written by John B. Cobb and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What has happened to the once robust mainline church in the United States? Decrying the professionalization of theological education, Cobb calls for the church to return to its theological vocation so that its members can in turn resume their passionate commitment to faith.
Download or read book Devoted to God s Church Core Values for Christian Fellowship written by Sinclair B. Ferguson and published by Banner of Truth. This book was released on 2020-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being a Christian is not an individualistic or isolated activity. Believing also involves belonging. Being a Christian, by definition, involves belonging to the church. This is not a book full of ideas about how your church ought to change or what it needs to do in order to grow or to be successful. Rather it is about how we fit into our own church. There are hallmarks of church life that should be stamped on all our churches because they are applicable everywhere and anywhere -- New Testament values for any size of church, in any part of the world, at any time. Devoted to God's Church will serve to help new Christians understand what it is to be part of a church, and will also be a refreshing reminder to every Christian of what it should look like to belong to the family of God.
Download or read book The Sensuous in the Counter Reformation Church written by Marcia B. Hall and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-22 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the promotion of the sensuous as part of religious experience in the Roman Catholic Church of the early modern period. During the Counter-Reformation, every aspect of religious and devotional practice was reviewed, including the role of art and architecture, and the invocation of the five senses to incite devotion became a hotly contested topic. The Protestants condemned the material cult of veneration of relics and images, rejecting the importance of emotion and the senses and instead promoting the power of reason in receiving the Word of God. After much debate, the Church concluded that the senses are necessary to appreciate the sublime, and that they derive from the Holy Spirit. As part of its attempt to win back the faithful, the Church embraced the sensuous and promoted the use of images, relics, liturgy, processions, music, and theater as important parts of religious experience.
Download or read book Transformational Church written by Ed Stetzer and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2010 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is time to take heart and rework the scorecard. --
Download or read book Baptist Distinctives and New Testament Church Order written by Kevin T. Bauder and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The purpose of this book is both to articulate the Baptist distinctives and to discuss some of the practical issues that arise from applying them"--P. 12.In Baptist Distinctives, Kevin Bauder not only spells out the beliefs that make Baptists different from others, he shows the Biblical bases, discusses differences between Baptist groups, and explains how the Baptist distinctives affect believers' lives, especially their church life--from publisher description.
Download or read book Righteous Discontent written by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1994-03-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Du Bois noted has gone largely unstudied until now. In this book, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham gives us our first full account of the crucial role of black women in making the church a powerful institution for social and political change in the black community. Between 1880 and 1920, the black church served as the most effective vehicle by which men and women alike, pushed down by racism and poverty, regrouped and rallied against emotional and physical defeat. Focusing on the National Baptist Convention, the largest religious movement among black Americans, Higginbotham shows us how women were largely responsible for making the church a force for self-help in the black community. In her account, we see how the efforts of women enabled the church to build schools, provide food and clothing to the poor, and offer a host of social welfare services. And we observe the challenges of black women to patriarchal theology. Class, race, and gender dynamics continually interact in Higginbotham’s nuanced history. She depicts the cooperation, tension, and negotiation that characterized the relationship between men and women church leaders as well as the interaction of southern black and northern white women’s groups. Higginbotham’s history is at once tough-minded and engaging. It portrays the lives of individuals within this movement as lucidly as it delineates feminist thinking and racial politics. She addresses the role of black Baptist women in contesting racism and sexism through a “politics of respectability” and in demanding civil rights, voting rights, equal employment, and educational opportunities. Righteous Discontent finally assigns women their rightful place in the story of political and social activism in the black church. It is central to an understanding of African American social and cultural life and a critical chapter in the history of religion in America.
