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The Once and Future Wesleyan Movement
by Scott J. JonesJones argues that several unique factors remain available to The UnitedMethodist Church today from the period of rapid growth between 1800 and1840. Drawing on the image of Loren Mead’s Once and Future Church and Moises Naim’s analysis in The End of Power,Jones argues that a viable future for United Methodism is to recapturethe dynamism of being a movement, with many of the characteristics ofearly 19th century Methodism coming to the fore. It will draw on threekey works about Methodism in the first half of the 19th century: NathanHatch’s Democratization of American Christianity, John Wigger’s Taking Heaven by Storm, and Gregory Schneider’s The Way of the Cross Leads Home.The book talks about how the Wesleyan form of church contains importantresources for the future of Christianity. It focuses on the UnitedStates and the first half is broadly applicable to all denominations inthe Wesleyan tradition. The last half of the book discusses obstaclesthat are currently preventing the United Methodist Church from achievingits potential. It closes with a hopeful vision of what a renewed UnitedMethodism might look like.
Immersion Bible Studies: Job
by Lee A. SchottThere is more to the story of Job than the first and last chapters, for it is the chapters in between that mirror man's own life struggles. Immersion: Job enables readers to enter the story and experience the trials of life through the eyes of Job. Easy-to-follow, step-by-step suggestions for leading a group are provided, as well as questions to facilitate class discussion. Immersion, inspired by a fresh translation--the Common English Bible--stands firmly on Scripture and helps readers explore the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs of their personal faith. More importantly, they’ll be able to discover God’s revelation through readings and reflections.
Hidden Treasures: Finding Hope at the End of Life's Journey
by Covenant Renewal MinistriesMany people are facing life-threatening diseases, terminal illness, and the long-term care of elderly parents, but have few resources to rely on in these difficult times. They often keep their challenges private only to suffer in silence with no real support system. This book delivers practical solutions to the problems everyone must deal with when they are experiencing the degradation of the quality of their life or the potential loss of a loved one. Based on experiences derived from 25 years of prayer ministry, Bertram’s Hidden Treasures provides insight and guidance to equip patients, family members, and friends to walk through these challenging times with foresight, looking for and expecting to see God at work in many miraculous ways. It offers sound advice grounded in the truths found in Scripture and the wisdom revealed through real-life stories and case studies. This book helps those who have ever wondered . . . If God is good, why are we going through this? What will our family do during this crisis? How do we fight the fear that is trying to consume us? How can we encourage reconciliation in our family? Where can we find peace in the journey? What happens when we die? Is there life after death? What is heaven like?Hidden Treasures will inspire, motivate, and encourage loved ones to begin to walk the road to heaven without the fear and anxiety associated with death and dying. They’ll discover that the Word of God has answers to the questions that seem to have no answer; and that comfort awaits as they begin to view their situation from a heavenly perspective. Ultimately, it reveals that hope is available, death with dignity is possible, and there are hidden treasures to embrace along the way.
Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program Guide with Download Library
by Herb MillerTeaching Stewardship from a Spiritual Perspective–Consecration Sunday Program Guide, Revised and Updated Edition.Consecration Sunday approaches financing the ministries of your congregation by teaching stewardship from a spiritual perspective rather than a fundraising perspective. It focuses on the question, "What is God calling me to do?" rather than, "What does the church need in order to pay its bills?" This revised edition offers updated language, references, and statistics while keeping everything that has resonated with the program for more than 25 years intact. Digital materials available with the Program Guide are now available via Internet download, are updated and include social media posts in additional to letters and other proven communications tools. The Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program is a proven winner; it has helped thousands of congregations increase financial giving by 15% to 30%. What do I need to get started? Order the Stewardship Program Guide (9781791024024) and gather a team. Purchase copies of the Team Member Guide (9781791024048), one for each member of your team. These resources provide complete instructions for implementing the program successfully. Also Available: Consecration Sunday Estimate of Giving Cards Pkg. of 100 (9780687064069)Living Gratitude Devotional (9781791024062) Does it work? Thousands of congregations have experienced 15% to 30% increases in financial giving with the Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program the first year plus additional significant increases in subsequent years of its use. One congregation obtained these impressive multi-year results: First year, a 14.4% increase in giving; second year, 10.3% increase; third year, 13.4% increase; fourth year, 13.6%; and fifth year, 19.6% increase. A congregation's financial secretary said, "More than two-thirds of our households made some degree of annual increase each year we used Consecration Sunday. And each year we used the program, four to six additional households decided to tithe (some of those donors grew from giving 4 percent of their income to giving 10 percent of their income)."
Liturgies from Below: Praying with People at the End of the World
by Claudio CarvalhaesIt’s been said that prayer is the vocabulary of faith. This book offers a wealth of resources from forgotten places to help us create a new vocabulary for worship and prayer, one that is located amidst the poor and the major issues of violence and destruction around the world today. It is a collection of prayers, songs, rituals, rites of healing, Eucharistic and baptismal prayers, meditations and art from four continents: Asia-Pacific Islands, Africa, Americas, and Europe. Liturgies from Below is the culmination of a project organized by the Council for World Mission (CWM) during 2018-2019. Approximately 100 people from four continents worked with CWM, collaborating to create indigenous prayers and liturgies expressing their own contexts, for sharing with their communities and the rest of the world. The project was called “Re-Imagining Worship as Acts of Defiance and Alternatives in the Context of Empire”. The author and others spent weeks living in each of four communities for several weeks/months, getting to know the people, and then facilitating the people’s own creation of prayers and liturgies. The author, other scholars, pastors, artists, activists and students all came from radically different ethnicities, races, sexualities, churches and Christian theologies. The people in each location were poor, living in very challenging communities, living in oppressive and seemingly hopeless situations. After some time, they wrote prayers and stories of their experience trying to live the Christian faith in utterly abandoned places. What we have here is an immensely rich and varied collection of liturgical sources from various communities dealing with issues of violence, immigration/refugees, drugs, land grabbing, war on the poor, attack on women, militarization, climate change, and so on.
Plenty Good Room: A Lenten Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals
by Lewis V. Baldwin Marilyn E. ThorntonThis unique short-term Bible study combines an in-depth look at Scripture, American history, and the music and lyrics of six African American spirituals. The six-session study provides biblical, social, and historical analyses of the spirituals: 'Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit," "This Lonesome Valley," "Bow Down on Your Knees," "Plenty Good Room," "Ain't Dat Good News," and "Were You There?" Marilyn E. Thornton wrote all-new lessons appropriate to the season.Leader helps can be found in the book providing discussion questions and activities. Plenty Good Room is a powerful resource for small groups, Sunday schools, choir groups, and any setting where persons seek to enrich their devotional and spiritual experience through God's Word and music.
Longing to Pray: How the Psalms Teach Us to Talk with God
by J. Ellsworth KalasFrom the Foreword - This little book invites us to study with some ancient experts in prayer, the persons who wrote the Book of Psalms. We haven't read long in the psalms before we realize that the authors were altogether human, with a massive catalog of troubles, inconsistencies, and questions. Their lives were marked by breathtaking highs and lows, with sometimes only a few paragraphs between. But with all of that, they were saints. They left us with the greatest collection of prayers in the possession of our human race.What was their secret? I believe it was the quality of their friendship with God. And of course the language of that friendship is prayer. The psalmists don't give us any formula for effective praying. They don't offer a set of rules. But if we read their prayers carefully, we will learn something of their secret, the secret of the Ultimate Friendship. I hope through this book to start us on that special journey.---- J. Ellsworth KalasThe book will contain a disussion guide by John Schroeder
The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus (The Way)
by Adam HamiltonTravel with Adam Hamilton as he retraces the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Once again, Hamilton approaches his subject matter with thoughtfulness and wisdom, just as he did with Jesus’ crucifixion in 24 Hours That Changed the World and with Jesus’ birth in The Journey. Using historical information, archaeological data, and stories of the faith, Hamilton follows in the footsteps of Jesus from his baptism to the temptations to the heart of his ministry, including the people he loved, the parables he taught, the enemies he made, and the healing he brought.Everything needed to conduct a 7-week study during Lent and Easter for ages 13-18. Use with the adult-level DVD.
Her Restless Heart - Women's Bible Study Leader Guide: A Woman's Longing for Love and Acceptance (Stitches In Time Ser. #1)
by Barbara CameronBased on a novel by acclaimed Christian fiction author Barbara Cameron, Her Restless Heart is the story of an Amish woman caught between the traditions of her faith and the pull of a different life. This six-session Bible study explores the heart’s longing for love and acceptance and the Bible’s answer to this universal human need. The study equips women as they seek to know God’s plan for their lives and find satisfaction and fulfillment. The Leader Guide contains six session guides plus leader helps. Her Restless Heart is the second study in the Faith and Fiction Bible study series that uses Christian fiction as a backdrop for exploring biblical themes.
Women Bishops of The United Methodist Church: Extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit
by Margaret Ann Crain Sharon Zimmerman RaderBishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader and Dr. Margaret Ann Crain interviewed the women bishops of The United Methodist Church, the first denomination to elect women to the episcopacy. Through the stories they collected, they learned what enabled these women to persevere, claim authority, define leadership in their own ways, and rise to the episcopacy. Their stories reveal how these clergywomen changed the church, blazing leadership trails both before and after their elections.This book shares inspirational stories and pivotal moments that illustrate how these women managed the complexities of family, faith, and authority. Through their histories, women bishops have made––and will continue to make––both realized and unrealized differences in The United Methodist Church.
Take Time for Christmas
by Peg AugustineToo often our children get caught up in the hustle and bustle that surrounds the Advent season and miss what it means to really prepare our hearts and minds to welcome the Christ child. This year help your child to 'Stop, look, and listen" by reading how the characters in the Christmas story stopped what they were doing and looked and listened to the messages from God. Contemporary text along with the traditional Christmas story help children connect what is being done at home and at church to what happened so long ago when God gave us the first and best Christmas gift.
Immersion Bible Studies: Apocrypha
by David A. DeSilvaJourney inside the pages of Scripture to meet a personal God who enters individual lives and begins a creative work from the inside out. Shaped with the individual in mind, Immersion encourages simultaneous engagement both with the Word of God and with the God of the Word to become a new creation in Christ Immersion, inspired by a fresh translation--the Common English Bible--stands firmly on Scripture and helps readers explore the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs of their personal faith. More importantly, they’ll be able to discover God’s revelation through readings and reflections.
Church in the Inventive Age
by Doug PagittMany books seek to predict the future of Christianity, but few help usgrasp the opportunities of the current situation and equip us tonavigate the present. Doug Pagitt, author, radio host, and pioneeringleader, does just that, offering fresh, optimistic insights andpractical suggestions. According to Pagitt, the last two centuries canbe divided into four epochs: Idyllic, Industrial, Informational andnow-Inventive. The Inventive Age - our currently reality - presentsdistinct opportunities for how faith communities think, what they value,and the tools they use. Pagitt offers leaders in Christian communities(and beyond) essential frameworks for participation in the InventiveAge.
The Way of Jesus: To Repair and Renew the World
by Bruce ChiltonThe way of Jesus means that despite our tears and scars, we can become vessels of divine light. A young man loses his wife while their baby escapes without injury. In abject grief he reaches out to a friend for solace. What words of comfort are even possible? How can Jesus repair and renew these lives in this world? Author Bruce Chilton begins in the everyday. He shows how following Jesus not only repairs shattered lives, but renews them. While no broken life is ever simply reassembled and although there is no magic going back to the pristine, repair and renewal will empower us to truly live and love again. But our path requires something from us--mindful practice of Jesus' teachings about the soul, spirit, kingdom, insight, forgiveness, mercy, and glory.
Elijah - Women's Bible Study Participant Workbook: Spiritual Stamina in Every Season (Elijah)
by Melissa SpoelstraGo the distance in the life of faith.Life is like a rollercoaster. One day it seems that everything in life is good, and the next day it can feel like everything is falling apart. Then there are those in between days when we’re coasting along without much thought to the highs or lows. The prophet Elijah experienced this rollercoaster ride as well. One moment he was hiding out in the wilderness during a famine, being fed by the ravens, and the next he was on the mountaintop where God showed up in a powerful way with fire and then rain. Even Elijah grew weary of all the ups and downs, telling God, “I have had enough” (1 Kings 19:4). He needed spiritual stamina in order to keep on going and fulfill all the plans God had for his life. We do too!In this six-week study grounded in 1 and 2 Kings, we will examine the life of the prophet Elijah, an ordinary man who did extraordinary things for God in the midst of the highs and lows of life. We’ll learn some of the spiritual stamina secrets that helped him to hold on and persevere in faith, including practical habits related to making decisions, caring for the soul, accepting his circumstances, mentoring, and finishing well—which was his ultimate legacy. Whether we’re currently in a mountaintop season where we’re experiencing God’s power and blessing, a valley season where we feel like running away, or somewhere in between, Elijah’s life will inspire us to go the distance in the life of faith. Best of all, his story will challenge us but not shame us, because we’ll discover that Elijah was just as human as we are. He doubted and struggled just as we do, but ultimately, he chose to believe God. As we study his life, we will grow in faith and develop spiritual stamina that will help us not only to survive but actually thrive in every season.Bible Study Features:- Examine the life of the prophet Elijah.- Learn practical disciplines that give us spiritual stamina for every season in life.- Grow in faith and be inspired by an ordinary man who did extraordinary things for God.- Be enabled to not just survive but thrive in the midst of the ups and downs of life.The participant workbook, to be used along with the study's DVD, includes five days of lessons for each week, combining study of Scripture with personal reflection, application, and prayer.Other components for the Bible study, available separately, include a Leader Guide, DVD with six sessions of about 25 minutes each, and boxed Leader Kit (an all-inclusive box containing one copy of each of the Bible study’s components). A companion Prayer Devotional is also available.
Tattered and Mended: The Art of Healing the Wounded Soul
by Cynthia RuchtiArtisans can reclaim exquisite beauty from the broken, frayed, and hopefully shattered—perhaps once thought beyond repair. But what about us? What of the wounds that keep us from living the life we want to live?In Tattered and Mended, readers walk through a gallery of reclaimed and restored art as well as broken and restored lives of those who have gone before us. With a gentle touch and personable wisdom, Cynthia Ruchti shows how even the most threadbare soul can once again find healing and hope.
Being Black, Teaching Black: Politics and Pedagogy in Religious Studies
by Nancy Lynne WestfieldIn this volume a group of eminent African American scholars of religious and theological studies examine the problems and prospects of black scholarship in the theological academy. They assess the role that prominent black scholars have played in transforming the study and teaching of religion and theology, the need for a more thorough-going incorporation of the fruits of black scholarship into the mainstream of the academic study of religion, and the challenges and opportunities of bringing black art, black intellectual thought, and black culture into predominantly white classrooms and institutions.
Just in Time! Easter Services, Sermons, and Prayers
by Rev Kenneth H. Carter JR.Based on the Revised Common Lectionary and broadly ecumenical, this addition to the Just In Time! series provides creative liturgies, sermon helps, and prayers for Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday, and the 40 days of Easter.
Heroes, Rogues, and the Rest: Lives That Tell the Story of the Bible
by J. Ellsworth KalasThe Bible is filled with heroes and rogues, and this new edition brings them vividly to life. Each chapter includes a key Scripture passage and an examination of a particular biblical character’s story, including the characteristics that defined that person, and what we can learn from them and their contribution to our faith and our lives as believers.
Words of Life Youth Study Book: Jesus and the Promise of the Ten Commandments Today (Words of Life)
by Adam HamiltonNearly everyone has heard of the Ten Commandments, the list of "thou-shalt-nots" found in the Bible. Jesus saw these commandments not as onerous burdens, but as guideposts to help us experience a good and beautiful life.In this book of Scripture and inspiration, bestselling author Adam Hamilton brings modern eyes to the most important set of ethics in history. He considers the commandments in their historical context, considering the meaning of each commandment in Hebrew, unpacking how Jesus reinterpreted them, and showing how every thou-shalt-not was intended to point to a life-giving "thou shalt." He also explores how the latest research in science and psychology illuminates these commandments, rightly understood, as a way of ordering one's life beautifully in the present day. In a culture marked by workaholism, materialism, and social media-driven envy, God has given us a time-tested path that leads to gratitude, confidence, and peace.This Youth Study Book takes the ideas presented in Adam Hamilton’s book and interprets them for young people grades 6-12.
Learning to Study the Bible Leader Guide For Tweens: For Tweens
by L. J. ZimmermanLearning to Study the Bible guides your tween students through eight weeks of Bible discovery. They’ll explore the wonders of biblical geography and archaeology. They’ll compare and contrast biblical genres. They’ll learn the history of biblical interpretation, and discover that they are Bible interpreters too! Students will become familiar with Bible dictionaries, commentaries, concordances, maps, and more. Best of all, they’ll practice sharing their Bible knowledge with others each week. Session Outline and Learning Goals: 1. Who? * Learn to identify the original author and audience * Understand your own social location and biases * Practice reading a text with the author and original audience in mind 2. What? * Understand the significance of genre * Practice identifying genre in biblical texts 3. When? * Understand the significance of historical context * Learn about the major social contexts of biblical texts * Practice reading Scripture contextually 4. Where? * Learn how to utilize biblical maps * Understand the significance of geography and shifting national borders for biblical interpretation * Practice interpreting a biblical text with a geographical lens 5. Why? * Learn about the formation of the canon * Understand the significance of a text’s changing meaning over time * Practice reading a text with multiple layers of meaning 6. How? Close reading * Learn the value of reading texts slowly and carefully * Understand how to use study bibles and commentaries * Practice reading a short text carefully 7. How? Side-by-side reading * Learn about the Revised Common Lectionary and its purpose * Understand how to use a concordance to cross-reference texts * Practice reading a text intra-canonically 8. How? Lectio Divina * Learn about the ancient practice of Lectio Divina * Understand the significance of a spiritual reading of Scripture * Practice Lectio Divina individually and as a group 1. Who? * Learn to identify the original author and audience * Understand your own social location and biases * Practice reading a text with the author and original audience in mind 2. What? * Understand the significance of genre * Practice identifying genre in biblical texts 3. When? * Understand the significance of historical context * Learn about the major social contexts of biblical texts * Practice reading Scripture contextually 4. Where? * Learn how to utilize biblical maps * Understand the significance of geography and shifting national borders for biblical interpretation * Practice interpreting a biblical text with a geographical lens 5. Why? * Learn about the formation of the canon * Understand the significance of a text’s changing meaning over time * Practice reading a text with multiple layers of meaning 6. How? Close reading * Learn the value of reading texts slowly and carefully * Understand how to use study bibles and commentaries * Practice reading a short text carefully 7. How? Side-by-side reading * Learn about the Revised Common Lectionary and its purpose * Understand how to use a concordance to cross-reference texts * Practice reading a text intra-canonically 8. How? Lectio Divina * Learn about the ancient practice of Lectio Divina * Understand the significance of a spiritual reading of Scripture * Practice Lectio Divina individually and as a group
Godspeed: Voices of the Reformation
by David TeemsFor the Protestant reformer, times were treacherous. The reformer lived, moved, and exercised his or her faith within the shadow of a powerful church that dominated Western culture. Many of these men and women paid the ultimate price for their faith. Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, Godspeed is a 365-day devotional that features the words of prominent reformers, including Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Calvin, and others, thoughtfully illuminated by best-selling author David Teems with both historical precision and charm. Godspeed: Voices of the Reformation possesses a startling relevance for today’s reader, offering a word of hope and comfort. The reformer’s voice is clear and bright and comes to us with the authority of heaven.
Curating Church: Strategies for Innovative Worship
by Jacob Daniel MyersIf we are willing to shift our approach to church, we will better connect with increasingly heterogeneous cultures. This shifting requires curation. Church leaders must learn to be curators! Churches in modernity were set up to facilitate a particular kind of experience with God. Church was its own (protected) culture. In the wake of postmodernity, facilitated by new forms of (digital) communication, we are entering a new epoch in the history of the church. Curators manage the tasks of connection, preservation, and transformation, in their care for cultural artifacts and communities.When someone serves as a curator, they make connections between different elements in the culture, preserving the best of cultural traditions, and promoting fresh ways of thinking and being in the world. What might this work of curation mean for us? In Curating Church, readers learn how curation can reorient and sharpen the ways and work of the church. Curation can inform how we connect with cultures beyond the church, preserve what is best in the rich history of Christian thought and expression, and nurture spaces where contemporary persons may be transformed by the gospel. This book helps readers to understand with new richness the church and the world, and it equips them to become active in making those connections—as curators—with and for others.
Restored Leader Guide: Finding Redemption in Our Mess (Restored series)
by Tom BerlinOften we make a mess of our lives and wonder if there is any redemption. In this six-week study, pastor and author Tom Berlin helps us see our mess through the eyes of Christ to find redemption and restoration. Using Scripture, devotional tools, and the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, St. Augustine, John Wesley, Evelyn Underhill, and others, Berlin encourages reflection and meditation through our own brokenness. Only then can we focus on the cross as the place where we truly surrender control, leave our mess, and find redemption.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the 6-week study for Lent, including session plans and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
George Buttrick's Guide to Preaching the Gospel
by George A. Buttrick Charles N. Davidson JR,"Does the preacher now impress us as a ‘legate of the skies’? To many he is a pathetic figure, an anachronism, a stage-joke—an inoffensive little person jostled by the crowd, and wearing the expression of a startled rabbit. With one hand he holds a circular hat on a bewildered head and with the other desperately clutches an umbrella. The crowd pushes him from the sidewalk; the traffic shoots him back into the crowd. Some curse him; a few laugh; most are unaware of his existence." (George Buttrick, Lyman Beecher Lectures, 1931).Whether we need preaching has been asked for hundreds of years, long before an age of media saturation from streaming 24-hour news, entertainment, politics, and sports. This question hounded George Buttrick, one of the most profound preachers of the twentieth century and often compared with Billy Graham. Buttrick offers a compelling answer to the question, but his answer remained hidden for 40 years until now.In George Buttrick’s Guide to Preaching the Gospel, we learn why the world needs competent preachers, what the preacher must preach about, and how the preacher goes about creating the sermon with daily discipline and several practiced skills, including research, charting, outlining, writing, and performance. These writings have never been published before and were found by his grandchildren after his death. A brief biography of Buttrick introduces this master orator and professor to readers who do not know his work.