Download or read book Gaining By Losing written by J.D. Greear and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that’s exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn’t how many people you can gather. It’s about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God’s. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.

Download or read book When Home Hurts written by Jeremy Pierre and published by Christian Focus. This book was released on 2021-09-10 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dealing wisely with domestic abuse in the church

Download or read book Building Children s Ministry written by Tina Houser and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2008-02-19 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A step-by-step guide to building a strong children's ministry that is a vital part of the church. People know they are called to children's ministry when they get goose bumps and butterflies from something a kid says or an idea that they know will communicate the gospel to children. Building Children's Ministry provides the practical information to transform those feelings and that calling into a successful children's ministry that is integrated into the life of the congregation. The book is divided into topical chapters, including: Getting the support of the pastor and the congregation Statements of purpose Budgets and fundraising Recruiting and keeping volunteers Safety and security Discipline and appropriate policies Choosing and evaluating curriculum Publicity Building Children's Ministry is a practical guide through the challenging (but exciting) steps between recognizing the need for children's ministry and creating a program that ministers to children and their families.

Download or read book The Confessing Baptist written by Robert Gonzales and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by Robert Gonzales Jr. A growing number of Baptist churches today are rediscovering their confessional heritage. The contributors to this book welcome this rediscovery. Indeed, they hope it continues! With that end in view, they have written and compiled these essays to celebrate and commend the use of creeds and confessions in Baptist faith and life. The primary audiences they have in view are local church leaders and members because sound theology is not just the province of the academy but is essential to the health and ministry of the local church. Contributors: Nicolas Alford, Thomas K. Ascol, Brian Borgman, Vadim Chepurny, Robert Gonzales Jr., Michael A.G. Haykin, Jeffrey D. Johnson, Thomas J. Nettles, Samuel E. Waldron, Luke Walker, Steve Weaver

Download or read book Baptist Battles written by Nancy Tatom Ammerman and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1979 Southern Baptists have been noisily struggling to agree on symbols, beliefs, and practices as they attempt to make sense of their changing social world. Nancy Ammerman has carefully documented their struggle. She tells the story of the Baptist reversal from a moderate to a fundamentalist outlook and speculates on the future of the denomination. Ammerman places change among the Southern Baptists in the context of the cultural and economic changes that have transformed the South from its rural past into an urbanizing, culturally diverse region. Not only did the South change; Southern Baptists did as well. Reflecting this diversity, the Southern Baptist bureaucracy was relatively progressive. During the 1960s and 1970s, moderate sentiments prevailed, while fundamentalists remained on the margins. These two were, however, becoming increasingly divergent in what they considered important about being a Baptist, in their views about the Bible, in their attitudes on the origination of women, on Christian morals, and on national politics. Late in the 1970s, a fundamentalist coalition emerged, followed by unsuccessful efforts by moderates to oppose it. The battles escalated until 1985, when 45,000 Baptists gathered in Dallas to decide between contending presidential candidates. That dramatic event illustrated the extent to which organized political resources were determining the course of the conflict. Ammerman studies these strategies and resources as well. Examining how this tension affected Baptists, Ammerman begins with case studies of the change it is producing in Baptist agencies. But she also brings us back to the local churches and individual believers who are renegotiating their relationships within their denomination. She asks whether the denomination's polity can accommodate an increasingly diverse group of Baptists, of whether the only way dissidents can have a voice is through schism.

Download or read book Into the Pulpit written by Elizabeth H. Flowers and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-04-09 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debate over women's roles in the Southern Baptist Convention's conservative ascendance is often seen as secondary to theological and biblical concerns. Elizabeth Flowers argues, however, that for both moderate and conservative Baptist women--all of whom had much at stake--disagreements that touched on their familial roles and ecclesial authority have always been primary. And, in the turbulent postwar era, debate over their roles caused fierce internal controversy. While the legacy of race and civil rights lingered well into the 1990s, views on women's submission to male authority provided the most salient test by which moderates were identified and expelled in a process that led to significant splits in the Church. In Flowers's expansive history of Southern Baptist women, the "woman question" is integral to almost every area of Southern Baptist concern: hermeneutics, ecclesial polity, missionary work, church-state relations, and denominational history. Flowers's analysis, part of the expanding survey of America's religious and cultural landscape after World War II, points to the South's changing identity and connects religious and regional issues to the complicated relationship between race and gender during and after the civil rights movement. She also shows how feminism and shifting women's roles, behaviors, and practices played a significant part in debates that simmer among Baptists and evangelicals throughout the nation today.

Download or read book Succeeding at Seminary written by Jason K. Allen and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminary is an important step toward ministry—but only when you make the most of it. Many seminarians finish their education with regrets and missed opportunities. They feel spiritually drained, they never connected with their professors or colleagues, they are plagued with a long list of “What Ifs?,” and worry they wasted this time. And many, as they enter the ministry, discover gaps in their education and are left thinking, If only my seminary had taught me that. Prepare for your calling and make the most of your theological training with Succeeding at Seminary. Seminary president Jason K. Allen provides guidance for incoming and current seminary students on how to maximize their education experience. You’ll learn how to select the right institution and weigh the pros and cons of online or in-person classes. You’ll also receive tips for developing rapport with peers and professors and get insights for how to navigate a work, study, and family-life balance to help you survive the rigors of advanced theological learning. Seminary can offer the opportunities and education you need to flourish in ministry, but only if you are ready to make the most of it. With Succeeding at Seminary,you’ll get the guidance and encouragement you need to maximize your seminary opportunity and excel in your calling.

Download or read book One in Hope and Doctrine written by Kevin T. Bauder and published by Exhibit A. This book was released on 2014 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Works and Letters of Cleve Brantley written by Lawrence Cleveland Brantley and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of seven booklets written by Lawrence Cleve Brantley (1909-1988), along with some of the many personal letters written to Gary W. Long, expounding various topics and passages of Scripture. In addition, there is a biographical sketch of Bro. Cleve. - Publisher.

Download or read book The Sound of the Dove written by Beverly Bush Patterson and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Sound of the Dove, Beverly Bush Patterson explores one of the oldest traditions of American religious folksong, a national heritage of great beauty and dignity that remains vital in the lives and worship of predestinarian Primitive Baptists in the southern mountains. This unaccompanied and frequently unharmonized congregational singing challenges our assumptions about creativity, aesthetics, meaning, and identity. Patterson's revealing study incorporates interviews, field observations, historical research, song transcriptions, and musical analysis. She uses seventeenth-century English documents to trace historical antecedents of Primitive Baptist singing and to frame her discussion of religious belief and gender roles as they intersect with singing. One chapter is devoted to the role of women in this church.

Download or read book Southern Baptist Politics written by Arthur Emery Farnsley, II and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike other recent studies of the Southern Baptists, Southern Baptist Politics was written after the culmination of the &"Baptist battles&" of the 1980s, when Fundamentalists had effectively taken control of the denomination. It also considers the SBC not simply as a denomination but as an organization with characteristics similar to other voluntary associations in American society&—an approach that promises to be useful for the study of other religious groups in America. Arthur Farnsley concludes that the SBC, as an American denomination, had within itself the seeds of pragmatism and individualism that characterize most American voluntary organizations. Of primary interest to Farnsley are the crucial issues of authority and power. Taking his cue from Paul Harrison's classic study, Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition, Farnsley considers how authority has traditionally been exercised within the SBC, and how Fundamentalists maneuvered within this existing authority structure to seize power. According to Farnsley, disgruntled Fundamentalists soon discovered that they could exploit the democratic elements within the SBC polity to their advantage. So successful were they in their efforts that by 1990 all significant leadership positions within the denomination were filled by Fundamentalists, thus enabling them to take, and hold, institutional power. The lessons of Southern Baptist Politics extend beyond this one denomination. By using the Southern Baptists as a case study, Farnsley asks what the SBC controversy can tell us about religious organizations in America, about dealing with cultural pluralism, and about institutional means for creating change.

Download or read book A History of the Baptists Volumes I and II written by John T. Christian and published by Solid Christian Books. This book was released on 2014-03-05 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In attempting to write a history of the Baptists no one is more aware of the embarrassments surrounding the subject than the author. These embarrassments arise from many sources. We are far removed from many of the circumstances under survey; the representations of the Baptists were often made by enemies who did not scruple, when such a course suited their purpose, to blacken character; and hence the testimony from such sources must be received with discrimination and much allowance made for many statements; in some instances vigilant and sustained attempts were made to destroy every document relating to these people; the material that remains is scattered through many libraries and archives, in many lands and not always readily accessible; often, on account of persecutions, the Baptists were far more interested in hiding than they were in giving an account of themselves or their whereabouts; they were scattered through many countries, in city and cave, as they could find a place of concealment; and frequently they were called by different names by their enemies, which is confusing. Yet it is a right royal history they have. It is well worth the telling and the preserving.

Download or read book Baptists and the Holy Spirit written by C. Douglas Weaver and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The record is clear that Baptists, historically, have prioritized conversion, Jesus, and God. Equally clear is that Baptists have never known what to do with the Holy Spirit. In Baptists and the Holy Spirit, Baptist historian C. Douglas Weaver traces the way Baptists have engaged--and, at times, embraced--the Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic movements. Chronicling the interactions between Baptists and these Spirit-filled movements reveals the historical context for the development of Baptists' theology of the Spirit. Baptists and the Holy Spirit provides the first in-depth interpretation of Baptist involvement with the Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic movements that have found a prominent place in America's religious landscape. Weaver reads these traditions through the nuanced lens of Baptist identity, as well as the frames of gender, race, and class. He shows that, while most Baptists reacted against all three Spirit-focused groups, each movement flourished among a Baptist minority who were attracted by the post-conversion experience of the "baptism of the Holy Spirit." Weaver also explores the overlap between Baptist and Pentecostal efforts to restore and embody the practices and experiences of the New Testament church. The diversity of Baptists--Southern Baptist, American Baptist, African American Baptist--leads to an equally diverse understanding of the Spirit. Even those who strongly opposed charismatic expressions of the Spirit still acknowledged a connection between the Holy Spirit and a holy life. If, historically, Baptists were suspicious of Roman Catholics' ecclesial hierarchy, then Baptists were equally wary of free church pneumatology. However, as Weaver shows, Baptist interactions with the Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic movements and their vibrant experience with the Spirit were key in shaping Baptist identity and theology.

Download or read book King James His Bible and Its Translators written by Lawrence M. Vance and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-20 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book How to Pray written by Ronnie Floyd and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through biblical teaching, personal insights, and practical instruction, this timeless Prayer 101 introduction to God's never-ending call to join him in prayer charts a course to encourage readers to pursue a lifelong journey of prayer.

Download or read book The Message of Genesis written by Ralph H Elliott and published by Hassell Street Press. This book was released on 2021-09-10 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Baptist Roots written by Curtis W. Freeman and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This in-depth examination of baptist theology provides insight into the contemporary issues related to baptist identity.