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Robert Muthiah believes a deepened theology of the priesthood of all believers is essential for answering the crucial questions of what shape the church should take in the twenty-first century, and how this theological query relates to the lived experiences of congregations. Emerging churches, which tend to develop vibrant practices of the priesthood of all believers, need to develop more fully their ecclesiological underpinnings, while historic churches, with a well-developed theology of the priesthood of all believers, need a renewed vigor to allow this theology to shape their congregational lives. With recourse to relevant New Testament texts and theological conversations, The Priesthood of All Believers in the Twenty-First Cenutry argues for a fresh understanding and embodiment of the priesthood of all believers by setting ecclesiology, postmodern culture, and congregational practices in dialogue. Elements of the discussion include ecumenical and Free church perspectives, Trinitarian correspondence, postmodern social structures, the relevance of Alasdair McIntyre's social practices for congregations, and forms of congregational leadership.
What could be better than brunch on a Sunday morning? For most people in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, the answer of gathering to worship the Triune God and be sent as witnesses would not be top of mind. And yet, across the Pacific Northwest the authors discovered deeply rooted missional communities worshipping God and serving their neighborhoods, offering evidence of unexpected Cascadian treasure in clay jars. Join the authors on a treasure hunt throughout the region as they identify new patterns of post-Christendom Christianity that will inspire and challenge your understanding of church.
The eight essays in this volume approach the study of the Radical Reformation from new perspectives and challenge some of the basic assumptions of the field. Some critique and problematize the typologies developed to distinguish Reformation radicals from each other and from the Magisterial Reformers. Others apply an equally iconoclastic approach to existing scholarship on the relationship between religious change and socio-political radicalism in early modern Europe. A final group concentrate specifically on revising the history of Anabaptism by tracing its long-term development across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and recovering the lives of normal Anabaptists to write a true social history of the movement that avoids relying on the biographies and prescriptive writings of its leadership.
Distillation of crucial issues for the church by one of the leading voices in missional theology Since the publication of the groundbreaking volume Missional Church in 1998, there has been wide-ranging engagement with the theme of the missional church. One of the leading voices in the missional church conversation, Darrell Guder here lays out basic theological issues that must be addressed for the church to serve God faithfully as Christ's witnessing people. Guder argues that there are major consequences for every classical theological locus if the fundamental claims of the missional church discussion are acknowledged. In Called to Witness he delves into these consequences, saying that we need to keep doing missional theology until it is possible to leave off the "missional scaffolding" because, after all, mission defines the very essence and calling of the church.
During the upheavals of the Reformation, one of the most significant of the radical Protestant movements emerged — that of the Anabaptist movement. Profiles of Anabaptist Women provides lively, well-researched profiles of the courageous women who chose to risk prosecution and martyrdom to pursue this unsanctioned religion — a religion that, unlike the established religions of the day, initially offered them opportunity and encouragement to proselytize. Derived from sixteenth-century government records and court testimonies, hymns, songs and poems, these profiles provide a panorama of life and faith experiences of women from Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Austria. These personal stories of courage, faith, commitment and resourcefulness interweave women’s lives into the greater milieu, relating them to the dominant male context and the socio-political background of the Reformation. Taken together, these sketches will give readers an appreciation for the central role played by Anabaptist women in the emergence and persistence of this radical branch of Protestantism.
The Gospel Places Peacemaking at the center of Christian identity. Over the centuries, however, churches have divided over the role and place of the peacemaking imperative in their lives and teachings. This volume offers deep ecumenical discussion of the relationship of the church to its peacemaking mission from the standpoints of history and the contemporary context. Contributors representing ten major faith traditions -- Lois Y. Barrett, Alexander Brunett, Murray W. Dempster, Donald F. Durnbaugh, John H. Erickson, Eric W. Gritsch, Jeffrey Gros, Paul Meyendorff, Lauree Hersch Meyer, Thomas H. Olbricht, Thomas D. Paxson Jr., James F. Puglisi, John D. Rempel, Alan P. F. Sell, and Glen H. Stassen -- address this crucial topic from the perspective of their own churches and explore paths that could lead to the reconciliation of existing differences.
Does your leadershipstyle fit new ways of doing church--leadership that is organic and elasticand that finds ways to seize God-given opportunities? Looking back anddrawing on the ancient Christian tradition, Bob Whitesel describes seven traitsfor successful leadership, which he characterizes by seven symbols: O (the Greek symbol theta) – the firstletter of the Greek word theosstresses that God is the source of the burden for others and provides the powerto help them. Rx (the medical prescription symbol) – an emphasis on addressing the spiritual and physical health of leaders. G (a stylized “G” for “graffiti”)– the edgy, colorful, and artful collages that help define contemporar...
Christian leaders at every level of the church are working in the crucible of multiple realities where paradoxical trends occupy the same space and time. Today church leaders find themselves bearing witness to the gospel in contexts of discontinuous change. Nowhere is the complexity of mission strategy more apparent than in the relationships among denominational leaders and church planters. Enlightenment era models of mission relied heavily on models applied to cross-cultural contexts with little consideration of the congruence of the model with the cultural context. While mission practitioners have done their share of experimentation in the field, denominational centers typically play the r...