Download or read book A View from the Back Pew written by Tim O'Donnell and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2011-02-10 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engages with the taboo questions of Christianity as investigative reportage, exploring the "mysteries of faith". Is America becoming preoccupied with religion? In a country with a tradition of keeping matters of creed private, we are now seeing religion in the headlines almost daily, while ironically, escalating numbers of Americans are abandoning organized religion altogether. A recent Pew survey of Americans show: 91% believe in God, 44% have switched religions, 71% of 18-30 year-olds are “spiritual but not religious” and the Catholic Church estimates at least one third of Catholics are lapsed. We are a nation under God, a country of believers it seems, but one undergoing a collective shift in our allegiance to organized religion. But, before the individual shifts they are aided by looking at what they were taught to believe in the first place. A View from the Back Pew: God, Religion & Our Personal Quest for Truth investigates the mysteries of faith in a no-holds-barred exposé into the very core of the Christianity. Candid, humorous and controversial, Tim O’Donnell takes us on a powerful search for balance – between faith and personal experience, between the roots of Christianity and layers of doctrine and between ritual and the connection to the entity we call God. A View from the Back Pew is not written for theologians or the so-called spiritual illuminati, but for ordinary people who are asking deeper questions about their faith. Before one can venture from the safe harbor of organized religion to the open water of spirituality, it helps to be clear about what causes our quandary. This book helps deal with the imprint religion has made while leaving out the guilt commonly linked to asking such questions. “My hope” writes O’Donnell “is that if you are drawn to the Divine but labor over dogma and ritual, you will find a fresh perspective in my view from the back pew”.

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 Preaching from the Pew written by Patricia G. Brown and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this deeply spiritual and prophetic collection of sermons, meditations, and prayers, Pat Brown takes the reader on a personal journey into and out of some of the most critical challenges facing the church in these turbulent and confusing times. She unveils her story of God's handiwork in shaping her life as a child of the Reformed tradition and as the mother of a special needs son. In a time when the call for justice withers on the vine as the church struggles with itself, this book is required reading for every perplexed servant of Jesus Christ.

Download or read book The View From the Pew written by Chaplain Johnny D and published by Covenant Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-10-09 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The View from the Pew began in the form of email encouragers sent to a group of Christians involved in a church plant. Its purpose was to share biblical thoughts which were both encouraging and reflective. Each encourager was written to be viewed as one sitting on the pew, letting the Word speak to the heart.

Download or read book Sittin in the Front Pew written by Parry Ann Brown and published by Villard. This book was released on 2002 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Returning to Baltimore from Los Angeles to bury her late father, Glynda Naylor and her three sisters celebrate their father's life and search for answers about who the real Edward Naylor, who had raised them after their mother's death, was. Original. 35,000 first printing.

Download or read book Parenting in the Pew written by Robbie F. Castleman and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2012-11-14 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this upbeat book Robbie Castleman shows parents how to guide their toddlers and teenagers to participate more fully in the worship of the church. This significantly revised and updated edition includes a new preface and new appendices with ideas for children's sermons and intergenerational community.

Download or read book My View from the Pew written by Rod Bruner and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2021-10-11 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ? • Why the world came to be filled with discord? • If God really exists, why doesn’t He fix it? • Is there a penalty we must pay for sinful acts? • Is there a way we can escape this dilemma? • Is the Old Testament important today? • Is prayer important in our belief system? • Is faith important in our relationship with God? • What does it mean to worship in Spirit and Truth? • What does “Born Again” really mean? ********************** I acknowledge that I’m not a member of the clergy, nor am I able to claim an educational degree of any high importance (especially in theology). I do however have many years experience fortified by attending church, Bible study, seeking out the council of the Holy Spirit and learned mentors, and doing some serious praying. The result was this book, “My View from the Pew”, which when translated means...a layman's attempt to simplify and bring to an understandable and workable theology that which otherwise might be (in some cases) unnecessarily complicated.

Download or read book Intentional Preaching written by Meirwyn Walters and published by . This book was released on 2020-03 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intentional Preaching, written by Meirwyn Walters, is the handy guide that every preacher needs. In preparing and delivering their sermons, preachers make dozens of decisions, some intentionally, many perhaps less so. Why not make thoughtful decisions for everything that goes into preaching a good sermon? From first words to hand gestures, choosing a text, masterful use of exegesis, captivating illustrations, titles, approaches to reading Scripture, use of voice, PowerPoint, applications that stick, and scores of other aspects of sermon preparation and delivery, this book explores the panoply of elements in good preaching. Targeted at preachers, the book consists of 117 "squiblets" ranging from a sentence to three or four pages, each on a particular aspect of preaching. Some are quite short, offering practical wisdom, some provide specific advice and tools, and some contain vignettes from the field. In this delightful and sage book, there is something for every preacher to improve his or her preaching. "Although pastors may have talked among themselves about how to construct effective sermons, they have seldom brought the listeners into the conversation. . . . They need a word like this from a layman, a lawyer, and a committed follower of Jesus who really is a friend of preachers." --Haddon Robinson Key points and features: - Explores the panoply of elements in good preaching, from hand gestures, to use of voice, to captivating illustrations, and more - Easily readable (and incredibly humorous) short chapters for busy pastors - A handy guidebook in a small trim size, packed with snippets of sage advice

Download or read book The Devil in Pew Number Seven written by Rebecca Nichols Alonzo and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2010-07-27 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2011 Retailers Choice Award winner! Rebecca never felt safe as a child. In 1969, her father, Robert Nichols, moved to Sellerstown, North Carolina, to serve as a pastor. There he found a small community eager to welcome him—with one exception. Glaring at him from pew number seven was a man obsessed with controlling the church. Determined to get rid of anyone who stood in his way, he unleashed a plan of terror that was more devastating and violent than the Nichols family could have ever imagined. Refusing to be driven away by acts of intimidation, Rebecca’s father stood his ground until one night when an armed man walked into the family’s kitchen . . . And Rebecca’s life was shattered. If anyone had a reason to harbor hatred and seek personal revenge, it would be Rebecca. Yet The Devil in Pew Number Seven tells a different story. It is the amazing true saga of relentless persecution, one family’s faith and courage in the face of it, and a daughter whose parents taught her the power of forgiveness.

Download or read book A View from the Pew written by Forrest Davis and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2008 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just who was Abraham Lincoln? How did he become one of the most admired persons who ever lived? What daily experiences lead him on the path to the Presidency of the United States of America at the most difficult time of its existence? Why is he the man visitors come streaming to discover in the heartland of central Illinois This work of Historical Fiction answers the question of what Lincoln's daily life was like. By selecting 3 very different years and researching them on a day-to-day, month-by-month basis, the picture of our 16 President becomes clearer. What Did Lincoln Do in 1832? is told through the eyes of Peggy Rutledge, one of Anne's younger sisters, and details the daily life in the remote log cabin New Salem Illinois Lincoln Do in 1842? is told through the eyes of Jed, a twelve-year-old boy whom Lincoln befriends in the booming town of Springfield Illinois What Did Lincoln Do in 1862? is told in a stream-of-consciousness style by Tad Lincoln, Abraham's youngest son. It details the year in the White House in which Willie dies and writes the Emancipation Proclamation. This work of Historical Fiction is grounded in research and footnoted for those whose spark is lit to do further study on this unique American who strode from obscurity to center stage not so long

Download or read book Remove the Pews written by Donna Schaper and published by The Pilgrim Press. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pastor and author Donna Schaper takes the long view of religious institution in an age of rapid change. The question of who the church is today—and how it uses its buildings—is connected to the church’s past identities and its future hopes. Schaper is both concrete and provocative in her examination of how the church might be renewed for the modern age.

Download or read book Pew Sisters written by Katie Schuermann and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every woman in the pew has a story of God's faithfulness, and women love nothing better than to revel in one another's experiences and celebrate the sisterhood of believers. Pew Sisters helps get that celebration started. Devotional in both tone and form, this twelve-session study tells what God is doing in the lives of real women today. From depression to grief to cancer, women from all over the Church share their stories here for the consolation and encouragement of their sisters in faith. We are all one in the Body of Christ, so these beautiful women are your pew sisters. Their joys are your joys, and their sorrows are your sorrows. They share the same faith as you, eat at the same table as you, and inherit the same paradise as you. Join them in the pages of this study and in your own small group. Book jacket.

Download or read book Room with a Pew written by Richard Starks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An offbeat and entertaining account of a journey through Spain – staying only in ancient monasteries.

Download or read book The View from the Pew written by Dale Soderberg and published by . This book was released on 2006-12-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My book was inspired by God in the form of poems, some nights I would be in bed when a word from God would enter my mind, I than get out of bed and write them down, and the following morning I completed my poem. My poems are an inspiration to all who will read them, there's one in this book for all, both young and old. Just listen to God as you read along and God will lead your heart. My book is dedicated to the Lord thy God for He is my inspiration and the light of life, I'm sure if you read this book God will bless you in many ways, please open your heart and let Him come in, for He wants to be your friend.

Download or read book A Voice from the Pews written by Paul Sheldon and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2013-05-28 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does God speak to the common man? Is His voice heard among the populace of the pews, and can a common man speak from the pews? Realizing that not everyone holds a doctorate or serves as a professional church leader, A Voice from the Pews attempts to share insights and devotionals from the life and experiences of just such a common man. Using word pictures, Scripture references, and life experiences, Mr. Sheldon hopes his book will encourage you through a variety of circumstances.

Download or read book From Politics to the Pews written by Michele F. Margolis and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most substantial divides in American politics is the “God gap.” Religious voters tend to identify with and support the Republican Party, while secular voters generally support the Democratic Party. Conventional wisdom suggests that religious differences between Republicans and Democrats have produced this gap, with voters sorting themselves into the party that best represents their religious views. Michele F. Margolis offers a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom, arguing that the relationship between religion and politics is far from a one-way street that starts in the church and ends at the ballot box. Margolis contends that political identity has a profound effect on social identity, including religion. Whether a person chooses to identify as religious and the extent of their involvement in a religious community are, in part, a response to political surroundings. In today’s climate of political polarization, partisan actors also help reinforce the relationship between religion and politics, as Democratic and Republican elites stake out divergent positions on moral issues and use religious faith to varying degrees when reaching out to voters.

Download or read book The View from the Pew written by Alex A. Meñez and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-03-11 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Love stories are always captivating. And when it is the love story of a catholic priest, it is intriguing. This book is about the love story of two priests. "Both stories reveal their pain and struggles to decide against a law imbedded for centuries in the solid structure of an institution and in the cultural psyche of both laity and clergy. In the end, love and grace triumph" (From a peer review).A highlight of this book is my reformist concern related to clerical behavior. And I speak from my experience and expertise of forty years in the ministry. Ecclesiastics should know that when I left the service of the altar, I bore no bitterness or regret. I am, therefore, their best ally to tell them the truth in love. An added weight for my credibility is because my observations are based mostly on the pronouncements of Pope Francis.The book will make some clerics uncomfortable. Many will find it comforting and uplifting. All will find it a good resource for reflection and a compelling guide for examination of conscience to hopefully bring about the clergy reform in attitude and lifestyle.I have a chapter on celibacy. Some will ask, what more is there to talk about this topic. And I say, because I present celibacy with a focus on chastity. Celibacy without chastity is a farce. Perhaps someday the church will change its law on celibacy, definitely not in my lifetime. But it will. This book will tell you why.This book can be used as a primer in the seminary formation program. As Cardinal Robert Sarah has warned, "The Christian priesthood is going through a major crisis," and at the root of this quagmire "is a deep flaw in their formation."The laity will benefit from this book, especially among the churchgoing, those engaged in religious formation, those in search of their faith's relevance or simply the spiritually hungry and the families and friends of priests all over the world. The book strongly emphasizes the equality in dignity of all Christian faithful (clergy and lay) based on the grace of baptism. This will help the laity value and uphold their proper role, viz. that together they build up the Church of Jesus Christ.