Download or read book Willow Creek Seeker Services written by Gregory A. Pritchard and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 1995-12-01 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive study of the worship service style that is influencing thousands of churches and their leaders worldwide addresses controversies and draws lessons for the church today.
Download or read book Rediscovering Church written by Lynne Hybels and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1997-12 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rediscovering Church is the candid story of Willow Creek Community Church's phenomenal growth, from 100 members meeting in a Palatine, Illinois, movie theater to its present Sunday morning attendance of 15,000. Bill Hybels and his wife, Lynne, tell about Willow Creek's beginnings, its struggles, the philosophy behind its success, and the strategies that have made it a model for church growth. The first half of the book, written by Lynne Hybels, explores the early years of Willow Creek and the personal accounts behind one of this century's most remarkable church stories. It offers an honest look at the ways God has used both the strengths and weaknesses of His people, creating a church of believers who have had tremendous impact for Christ in their community. In the second half of Rediscovering Church, Bill Hybels helps you apply the strengths of Willow Creek's ministry philosophy to your own congregation's mission. From mission statements to developing leadership, making sound financial decisions, and handling growth, Bill stresses that God wants to build His church to be an effective and committed community of faith that reaches out to a hurting world, to be the body of Christ in real and tangible ways. Rediscovering Church draws on the experiences of Willow Creek to show how one fellowship crystallized its mission and methodology, its vision and values. The Willow Creek story provides an example that churches and individuals alike can turn to for inspiration, encouragement, and a means of uncovering the pattern for their own unique mission and ministry.
Download or read book Reveal written by Greg L. Hawkins and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to spiritual growth, we need to be able to measure more than numbers. We need a glimpse of people's attitudes, thoughts and emotions. We need a tool that reveals the heart of each person. Now Willow Creek invites you to learn what it discovered in a three-year process of study and research--involving six other churches as well as Willow Creeks' own congregation. Discover the four segments that characterize the journey of spiritual growth. Learn more about what catalyzes and stunts spiritual growth. And understand how the church needs to change in order to help people become more like Christ. What you discover here may challenge you. Or confirm nagging suspicions you've had all along. Either way, the findings in REVEAL will undoubtedly change the way you think about church--and what it really takes to make a difference.
Download or read book Evangelicalism written by Richard Kyle and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-31 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most forms of religion are best understood in the con- text of their relationship with the surrounding culture. This may be particularly true in the United States. Certainly immigrant Catholicism became Americanized; mainstream Protestantism accommodated itself to the modern world; and Reform Judaism is at home in American society. In Evangelicalism, Richard Kyle explores paradoxical adjustments and transformations in the relationship between conservative Protestant Evangelicalism and contemporary American culture. Evangelicals have resisted many aspects of the modern world, but Kyle focuses on what he considers their romance with popular culture. Kyle sees this as an Americanized Christianity rather than a Christian America, but the two are so intertwined that it is difficult to discern the difference between them. Instead, in what has become a vicious self-serving cycle, Evangelicals have baptized and sanctified secular culture in order to be considered culturally relevant, thus increasing their numbers and success within abundantly populous and populist-driven American society. In doing so, Evangelicalism has become a middle-class movement, one that dominates America's culture, and unabashedly populist. Many Evangelicals view America as God's chosen nation, thus sanctifying American culture, consumerism, and middle-class values. Kyle believes Evangelicals have served themselves well in consciously and deliberately adjusting their faith to popular culture. Yet he also thinks Evangelicals may have compromised themselves and their future in the process, so heavily borrowing from the popular culture that in many respects the Evangelical subculture has become secularism with a light gilding of Christianity. If so, he asks, can Evangelicalism survive its own popularity and reaffirm its religious origins, or will it assimilate and be absorbed into what was once known as the Great American Melting Pot of religions and cultures? Will the Gospel of the American dream ultimately engulf and destroy the Gospel of Evangelical success in America? This thoughtful and thought-provoking volume will interest anyone concerned with the modern-day success of the Evangelical movement in America and the aspirations and fate of its faithful.
Download or read book Seeker Churches written by Kimon Howland Sargeant and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's religious landscape is in flux. New churches are springing up and many older churches are redefining themselves to survive. At the forefront of this denominational free-for-all are evangelical "seeker" churches. These churches target "seekers"-individuals of any faith or denominational background who seek spiritual fulfillment but are not currently affiliated with any specific church. By focusing on this largely untapped group, seeker churches have become one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the country. In his study, Kimon Sargeant provides a sociological context for the rise of these churches by exploring the rituals, messages, strategies, and denominational functions of this emerging form of American evangelical Protestantism. Featuring live bands, professional lighting and sound systems, and multi-media presentations, seeker churches are attracting many people who have "dropped out" of organized religion. To broaden their appeal, they offer attenders advice on everyday issues ranging from relationships to finance. Sargeant focuses on the success of the Willow Creek Association, the seeker church association started by the Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. With over 5,000 member churches, the seven-year old association has already outdistanced 90 percent of American denominations and is the leader of the seeker church movement. Through eyewitness accounts and careful research, Sargeant reveals the "seeker" movement to be a "reformation" of American Protestantism.
Download or read book The Future of Protestant Worship written by Ronald P. Byars and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past several years, churches have engaged in an ongoing debate between two different styles of worship--"traditional" and "contemporary." Here, Ronald Byars argues that many of the differences between the two styles are superficial. Authentic worship, being wholly theocentric, can and must be both responsive to contemporary culture and grounded in history and tradition. Thus, rather than merely trying to please their members, congregations must focus on exploring worship that is biblical, honors our communion with the saints, and takes seriously the ways that our culture is reshaping us. He concludes with a description of an authentic, postmodern Protestant worship service.
Download or read book Secular Steeples written by Conrad Ostwalt and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2003-03-24 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conrad Ostwalt explores the confluence of religion and popular cultural forms in the secular world, demonstrating that a secular religiosity has co-opted some of the functions previously reserved for religions institutions.
Download or read book Secular Steeples 2nd Edition written by Conrad Ostwalt and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Scandinavian [Nordic] countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland experienced the effects of the German invasion in April 1940 in very different ways. Collaboration, resistance, and co-belligerency were only some of the short-term consequences. Each country's historiography has undergone enormous changes in the seventy years since the invasion, and this collection by leading historians examines the immediate effects of Hitler's aggression as well as the long-term legacies for each country's self-image and national identity. The Scandinavian countries' war experience fundamentally changed how each nation functioned in the post-war world by altering political structures, the dynamics of their societies, the inter-relationships between the countries and the popular view of the wartime political and social responses to totalitarian threats. Hitler was no respecter of the rights of the Scandinavian nations but he and his associates dealt surprisingly differently with each of them. In the post-war period, this has caused problems of interpretation for political and cultural historians alike. Drawing on the latest research, this volume will be a welcome addition to the comparative histories of Scandinavia and the Second World War.
Download or read book Courageous Leadership written by Bill Hybels and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book you hold resonates with this conviction: that leaders such as you have the potential to be the most influential forces on planet Earth. Yours is the staggering responsibility and the matchless privilege of rallying believers and mobilizing their spiritual gifts in order to help people who are far from God become fully devoted followers of Christ. Life transformation and the eternal destinies of real people depend on the redemptive message entrusted to the local church. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to lead your church effectively so God’s message of hope can change the world? Then this book is for you. Courageous Leadership is Bill Hybels’ magnum opus, a book far too important to be written before its time. Only now, after nearly thirty years leading his own church from a handful of people with a burning vision into a globe-spanning kingdom force—only after almost three decades of victories and setbacks, of praying hard and risking big—is Hybels ready at last to share the lessons he has learned, and continues to learn, about Christian leadership. Too much is at stake for you not to maximize your spiritual gift of leadership, insists Hybels. In this passionate, powerful book, he unpacks the tools, tasks, and challenges of your calling. You’ll discover the power of vision and how to turn it into action. You’ll gain frontline insights for developing a kingdom dream team, discovering your leadership style, developing other leaders, making decisions, walking with God, embracing change, staying your God-given course, and much, much more. Drawing on his own richly varied life experiences, Hybels fleshes out vital principles with riveting firsthand stories. This is far more than another book on leadership strategies and techniques. You’ll find those topics in here, to be sure. But beyond them, you’ll find the very essence of one of today’s foremost Christian leaders—his fervent commitment to evangelism and discipleship and his zeal to inspire fellow church leaders even as he seeks to keep growing as a leader himself. If unchurched people matter to you . . . if you love seeing believers serve passionately with their spiritual gifts . . . if God’s heartbeat for the church is your heartbeat as well . . . then this book is a must. Courageous Leadership will convince you to lead with all your might, all your skill, and all your faith. And it will give you the tools to do just that.
Download or read book Reading Evangelicals written by Daniel Silliman and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of five best-selling novels beloved by evangelicals, the book industry they built, and the collective imagination they shaped Who are evangelicals? And what is evangelicalism? Those attempting to answer these questions usually speak in terms of political and theological stances. But those stances emerge from an evangelical world with its own institutions—institutions that shape imagination as much as they shape ideology. In this unique exploration of evangelical subculture, Daniel Silliman shows readers how Christian fiction, and the empire of Christian publishing and bookselling it helped build, is key to understanding the formation of evangelical identity. With a close look at five best-selling novels—Love Comes Softly, This Present Darkness, Left Behind, The Shunning, and The Shack—Silliman considers what it was in these books that held such appeal and what effect their widespread popularity had on the evangelical imagination. Reading Evangelicals ultimately makes the case that the worlds created in these novels reflected and shaped the world evangelicals saw themselves living in—one in which romantic love intertwines with divine love, humans play an active role in the cosmic contest between angels and demons, and the material world is infused with the literal workings of God and Satan. Silliman tells the story of how the Christian publishing industry marketed these ideas as much as they marketed books, and how, during the era of the Christian bookstore, this—every bit as much as politics or theology—became a locus of evangelical identity.
Download or read book Biblical Church Growth written by Gary L. McIntosh and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2003-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: McIntosh explores the biblical basis for church growth, giving leaders eternal principles rather than temporary models for growth.
Download or read book The Eternal Current written by Aaron Niequist and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A call for Christians to move past the shallows of idealized beliefs and into a deeper, more vibrant, beatitude-like faith rooted in sacred practices and intimate experiences with God. When the limits of his own faith experience left him feeling spiritually empty, Niequist determined God must have a wider vision for worship and community. In his search, Aaron discovered that there was historical Christian precedent for enacting faith in a different way, an ancient and now future way of believing. He calls this third way "practice-based faith." This book is about loving one's faith tradition and, at the same time, following the call to something deeper and richer. By adopting some new spiritual practices, it is possible to learn to swim again with a renewed sense of vigor and divine purpose.
Download or read book Renovation of the Church written by Kent Carlson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-11-21 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity Today Book Award winner Leadership Journal Top Book of the Year Copastors Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken tell the story of how God took their thriving, consumer-oriented church and transformed it into a modest congregation of unformed believers committed to the growth of the spirit--even when it meant a decline in numbers. As Kent and Mike found out, a decade of major change is not easy on a church. Oak Hills Church, from the pastoral staff to the congregation, had to confront addiction to personal ambition, resist consumerism and reorient their lives around the teachings of Jesus. Their renewed focus on spiritual formation over numerical growth triggered major changes in the content of their sermons, the tenor of their worship services, and the reason for their outreach. They lost members. But the health and spiritual depth of their church today is a testimony of God's transforming work and enduring faithfulness to the people he loves. Honest and humble, this is Kent and Mike's story of a church they love, written to inspire and challenge other churches to let God rewrite their stories as well. Read it for the church you love.
Download or read book Sensational Devotion written by Jill Stevenson and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Sensational Devotion, Jill Stevenson examines a range of evangelical performances, including contemporary Passion plays, biblical theme parks, Holy Land re-creations, creationist museums, and megachurches, to understand how they serve their evangelical audiences while shaping larger cultural and national dialogues. Such performative media support specific theologies and core beliefs by creating sensual, live experiences for believers, but the accessible, familiar forms they take and the pop culture motifs they employ also attract nonbelievers willing to “try out” these genres, even if only for curiosity’s sake. This familiarity not only helps these performances achieve their goals, but it also enables them to contribute to public dialogue about the role of religious faith in America. Stevenson shows how these genres are significant and influential cultural products that utilize sophisticated tactics in order to reach large audiences comprised of firm believers, extreme skeptics, and those in between. Using historical research coupled with personal visits to these various venues, the author not only critically examines these spaces and events within their specific religious, cultural, and national contexts, but also places them within a longer devotional tradition in order to suggest how they cultivate religious belief by generating vivid, sensual, affectively oriented, and individualized experiences.
Download or read book Grow Your Church from the Outside In written by George Barna and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2002-10-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the author, America has more unchurched people than the entire populations of all but 11 of the world's 194 nations! Based on research among several thousand unchurched people, the book discusses their values, attitudes, beliefs, religious practices, demographics, life goals, and spiritual expectations. Using additional research conducted among churches that have had great success in attracting and retaining unchurched people, the author also outlines perspectives and effective strategies for churches that wish to reach those who avoid churches. Understanding what makes the unchurched tick will give you a better chance of relating to them in meaningful ways.
Download or read book Essays on the History of Contemporary Praise and Worship written by Lester Ruth and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-03-09 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeking to push the historical study of the liturgical phenomenon known as "Contemporary Worship" or "Praise and Worship" to a new level, this collection of essays offers an introduction to the phenomenon, documents critical aspects of its development, and suggests methods for future historical study. This multi-authored work investigates topics in both the Pentecostal and mainline branches of this way of worship, looking at subjects little explored by prior work. The provocative issues explored include Integrity Hosanna! Music, James White, charismatic renewal, John Wimber, the development of second services, Black Gospel, overlooked (non-white) sources of worship music, degree programs for worship leaders, and Robert Webber.
Download or read book Move written by Greg L. Hawkins and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on surveys from more than 280,000 people in more than 1,200 diverse churches, "Move" presents the startling results of the latest REVEAL research. The text draws on compelling stories from people of varying spiritual maturity and pastors who talk candidly about the spiritual health of the American church.
