Download or read book The Challenge of the Empty Pew written by Linford Lee Martin and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Empty the Pews written by Chrissy Stroop and published by . This book was released on 2019-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Empty Pew written by Marjorie Hyer and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Pew written by Catherine Lacey and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER of the 2021 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award. Finalist for the 2021 Dylan Thomas Prize. Longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. One of Publishers Weekly's Best Fiction Books of 2020. One of Amazon's 100 Best Books of 2020. “The people of this community are stifling, and generous, cruel, earnest, needy, overconfident, fragile and repressive, which is to say that they are brilliantly rendered by their wise maker, Catherine Lacey.” --Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers A figure with no discernible identity appears in a small, religious town, throwing its inhabitants into a frenzy In a small, unnamed town in the American South, a church congregation arrives for a service and finds a figure asleep on a pew. The person is genderless and racially ambiguous and refuses to speak. One family takes in the strange visitor and nicknames them Pew. As the town spends the week preparing for a mysterious Forgiveness Festival, Pew is shuttled from one household to the next. The earnest and seemingly well-meaning townspeople see conflicting identities in Pew, and many confess their fears and secrets to them in one-sided conversations. Pew listens and observes while experiencing brief flashes of past lives or clues about their origin. As days pass, the void around Pew’s presence begins to unnerve the community, whose generosity erodes into menace and suspicion. Yet by the time Pew’s story reaches a shattering and unsettling climax at the Forgiveness Festival, the secret of who they really are—a devil or an angel or something else entirely—is dwarfed by even larger truths. Pew, Catherine Lacey’s third novel, is a foreboding, provocative, and amorphous fable about the world today: its contradictions, its flimsy morality, and the limits of judging others based on their appearance. With precision and restraint, one of our most beloved and boundary-pushing writers holds up a mirror to her characters’ true selves, revealing something about forgiveness, perception, and the faulty tools society uses to categorize human complexity.

Download or read book Comunidade de Amor written by James A Cress and published by Casa Publicadora Brasileira. This book was released on with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Se conservar os membros é um problema para você, aqui estão as respostas. Este livro desafiador apresenta diretrizes e métodos que funcionam na vida real. Como lidar com novos membros? Eles precisam de cuidados, precisam ser treinados, equipados e usados no serviço do Senhor para se tornarem verdadeiros discípulos. Fazer discípulos é tarefa da igreja local e não pode acontecer em nenhum outro lugar. Leia este livro e transforme sua igreja em uma comunidade de amor.

Download or read book God Will Help You written by Max Lucado and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2020-12-29 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all experience disappointing setbacks, overwhelming loneliness, and paralyzing fear at some point in our lives. It sometimes seems as if nothing will help. In God Will Help You, New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado encourages us to trust in the God who is working miracles in the big and small things. With God, no setback is too big to solve, and no prayer goes unnoticed. God is still working. Each chapter offers reassurance through miracles big and small that He will meet us in the midst of life's messes. God will help if you feel anxious, solve your problems, through fear if you are stuck, when you are lonely, in daily life in illness, during grief, with guidance, to forgive God Will Help You is an interactive book: filled with biblical miracles and current stories thoughts to ponder, prayers, Scripture, and journaling prompts with space for reflection with an easy-to-read and easy-to-use design and a beautiful ribbon marker This book is a great self-purchase for anyone struggling with anxiety, loneliness, grief, or fear. God Will Help You is a thoughtful gift for anyone who has recently lost a loved one, needs an encouragement, endures a difficult season, or struggles with daily stressors.

Download or read book A Stranger in the House of God written by John Koessler and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-08-30 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growing up the son of agnostics, John Koessler saw a Catholic church on one end of the street and a Baptist on the other. In the no-man’s land between the two, this curious outside wondered about the God they worshipped—and began a lifelong search to comprehend the grace and mystery of God. A Stranger in the House of God addresses fundamental questions and struggles faced by spiritual seekers and mature believers. Like a contemporary Pilgrim’s Progress, it traces the author’s journey and explores his experiences with both charismatic and evangelical Christianity. It also describes his transformation from religious outsider to ordained pastor. John Koessler provides a poignant and often humorous window into the interior of the soul as he describes his journey from doubt and struggle with the church to personal faith

Download or read book The Empty Church written by Shannon Craigo-Snell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-08 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why go to church? What happens in church and why does it matter? The Empty Church presents fresh answers to these questions by creating an interdisciplinary conversation among performance studies, theater directors, and Christian theologians. The result is a compelling depiction of church as a performative relationship with Jesus Christ, mediated by Scripture, in hope of the Holy Spirit.

Download or read book At Your Best written by Carey Nieuwhof and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A perceptive and practical book about why our calendars so rarely reflect our priorities and what we can do to regain control.”—ADAM GRANT “Carey’s book will help you reorganize your life. And then you can share a copy with someone you care about.”—SETH GODIN You deserve to stop living at an unsustainable pace. An influential podcaster and thought leader shows you how. Overwhelmed. Overcommitted. Overworked. That’s the false script an inordinate number of people adopt to be successful. Does this sound familiar: ● Slammed is normal. ● Distractions are everywhere. ● Life gets reduced to going through the motions. Tired of living that way? At Your Best gives you the strategies you need to win at work and at home by living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow. Influential podcast host and thought leader Carey Nieuwhof understands the challenges of constant pressure. After a season of burnout almost took him out, he discovered how to get time, energy, and priorities working in his favor. This approach freed up more than one thousand productive hours a year for him and can do the same for you. At Your Best will help you ● replace chronic exhaustion with deep productivity ● break the pattern of overpromising and never accomplishing enough ● clarify what matters most by restructuring your day ● master the art of saying no, without losing friends or influence ● discover why vacations and sabbaticals don’t really solve your problems ● develop a personalized plan to recapture each day so you can break free from the trap of endless to-dos Start thriving at work and at home as you discover how to be at your best.

Download or read book Michigan Christian Advocate written by and published by . This book was released on 1950 with total page 1212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Blood Stained Pews written by Carl Kuhl and published by FEDD. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if the church became more than a home for the hypocrites? What if the church became a hospital to heal the hurting? When the carnage of war broke out on D-Day, the wounded were brought to an empty, nearby church and laid on the pews so medics could treat them. When the war was over, and the blood-stained pews discovered, the townspeople decided to preserve the stains to remind all who would come afterward: This is the place where the wounded are welcome. Blood Stained Pews is a chance to examine Jesus’ original intent for the church, a hospital for the broken. Pastor and author Carl Kuhl is clear: Christians have been getting this wrong, but in this book, he gives clear steps to change our hearts, our practices, and ultimately our churches through the power of open brokenness. Through personal stories and powerful insights, Carl implores us to more deeply consider God’s grace and turn our churches into the places people run to when they’re wounded.

Download or read book The Sacred Canopy written by Peter L. Berger and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVInfluential scholar Peter L. Berger explores the sociological underpinnings of religion and the rise of a modern secular society/divDIV /divDIVAcclaimed scholar and sociologist Peter L. Berger carefully lays out an understanding of religion as a historical, societal mechanism in this classic work of social theory. Berger examines the roots of religious belief and its gradual dissolution in modern times, applying a general theoretical perspective to specific examples from religions throughout the ages./divDIV /divDIVBuilding upon the author’s previous work, The Social Construction of Reality, with Thomas Luckmann, this book makes Berger’s case that human societies build a “sacred canopy” to protect, stabilize, and give meaning to their worldview./div

Download or read book Empty Churches written by James L. Heft S.M. and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-22 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based in the idea that social phenomena are best studied through the lens of different disciplinary perspectives, Empty Churches studies the growing number of individuals who no longer affiliate with a religious tradition. Co-editors Jan Stets, a social psychologist, and James Heft, a historian of theology, bring together leading scholars in the fields of sociology, developmental psychology, gerontology, political science, history, philosophy, and pastoral theology. The scholars in this volume explore the phenomenon by drawing from each other's work to understand better the multi-faceted nature of non-affiliation today. They explore the complex impact that non-affiliation has on individuals and the wider society, and what the future looks like for religion in America. The book also features insightful perspectives from parents of young adults and interviews with pastors struggling with this issue who address how we might address this trend. Empty Churches provides a rich and thoughtful analysis on non- affiliation in American society from multiple scholarly perspectives. The increasing growth of non-affiliation threatens the vitality and long-term stability of religious institutions, and this book offers guidance on maintaining the commitment and community at the heart of these institutions.

Download or read book Kafka s Novels written by Patrick Bridgwater and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kafka's three novels, to be understood as an ever more intricate portrayal of the inner life of one central character (Henry James's 'centre of consciousness'), each reflecting the problems of their self-critical creator, are tantamount to dreams. The hieroglyphic, pictorial language in which they are written is the symbolic language in which dreams and thoughts on the edge of sleep are visualized. Not for nothing did Kafka define his writing as a matter of fantasizing with whole orchestras of [free] associations. Written in a deliberately enhanced hypnagogic state, these novels embody the alternative logic of dreams, with the emphasis on chains of association and verbal bridges between words and word-complexes. The product of many years' preoccupation with its subject, Patrick Bridgwater's new book is an original, chapter-by-chapter study of three extraordinarily detailed novels, of each of which it offers a radically new reading that makes more, and different, sense than any previous reading. In Barthes' terms these fascinating novels are 'unreadable', but the present book shows that, properly read, they are entirely, if ambiguously, readable. Rooted in Kafka's use of language, it consistently explores, in detail, (i) the linguistic implications of the dreamlike nature of his work, (ii) the metaphors he takes literally, and (iii) the ambiguities of so many of the words he chooses to use. In doing so it takes account not only of the secondary meanings of German words and the sometimes dated metaphors of which Kafka, taking them literally, spins his text, but also, where relevant, of Czech and Italian etymology. Split, for ease of reference, into chapters corresponding to the chapters of the novels in the new Originalfassung, the book is aimed at all readers of Kafka with a knowledge of German, for the author shows that Kafka's texts can be understood only in the language in which they were written: because Kafka's meaning is often hidden beneath the surface of the text, conveyed via secondary meanings that are specific to German, any translation is necessarily an Oberflächenübersetzung.

Download or read book Under One Roof written by William J. Smith Jr. and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2016-07-16 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About the Book This book acknowledges the need to identify and embrace todays generations. Under One Roof provides pastors, church leaders, and laypersons with insight for the cultivation of an intergenerational church. This resource offers the necessary tools, allowing each generation to be valued while keeping the church focused on its mission of kingdom building. Book Reflections Congregations interested in closing the generational divide will find Smiths book a must read. He gives keen insights for how to attract younger individuals and incorporate them into the life of the congregation with older generations. A great resource for leaders and congregations! (Dr. F. Douglas Powe, James C. Logan professor of evangelism and urban ministry and associate director of the Center for the Missional Church at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC, and author of New Wine, New Wineskins). Dr. William Smith has emerged as a new and fresh voice in the intergenerational church movement. Using biblical models, historical research, theological reflection, and coupled with his own research, Dr. Smith creates an intergenerational ministry model that will help to close the generational divide within the African-American community. This book is beneficial not only to the African-American church but to Christendom in general. Every pastor and mainline church needs to have this book on their shelf. This is a masterpiece that will last for the ages (Dr. Lucius Dalton, senior pastor of Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and mentor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio).

Download or read book Brothers We are Not Professionals written by John Piper and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2013 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Piper pleads with fellow pastors to abandon the professionalization of the pastorate and pursue the prophetic call of the Bible for radical ministry.

Download or read book Gospel Centered Youth Ministry written by Cameron Cole and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2016-02-12 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Youth ministry is an essential part of most evangelical churches. And yet, there is a surprising lack of resources written specifically for youth workers focused on viewing all aspects of youth ministry through a gospel-focused lens. Featuring contributions from a host of experienced youth workers from a wide variety of churches, this how-to manual offers guidance related to every facet of youth ministry, from planning short-term mission trips to working with parents. Theologically rooted yet eminently practical, this handbook will equip youth leaders to effectively shepherd the young people under their care—training them to live faithfully in their homes, churches, and schools.