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Church and Order. A Reformed Perspective are the Onclin lectures given at the Faculty of Canon Law in Leuven during February 1998. The first four chapters give a perspective on the fundamental principles of Reformed Church Government. Follows a discussion of what a Church Order as a document of order in the church is all about - its scope, its authority, its relationship to Holy Scripture etc. The last chapter is a reflection on how the rights of people can and should be protected in reformed churches - a burning issue in our day. The book is also an attempt to take note of canon law developments within the Roman Catholic Church and also to contribute to the dialogue between Rome and the churches of the reformation.
Church polity, as a theological discipline, has become increasingly aware of the challenge of contextuality, due to tendencies like secularization in the global North and a renewed awareness of inherited cultural and religious traditions in the global South. The ecumenical movement offers a particular framework for reflection on such developments. Contexts I and Contexts II of Protestant Church Polity in Changing Contexts contain proceedings from an international conference held in Utrecht in November 2011. Contexts I (ISBN 978 3 643 90310 5) includes essays in the fields of ecclesiology, church history, missiology, inter-cultural theology, and practical theology. The companion Contexts II (ISBN 978 3 643 90311 2) presents a number of case studies. (Series: Church Polity and Ecumenism. Global Perspectives - Vol. 2)
Scripture promises that God's people "shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them" (Is. 65:22-23), and that Christ "will turn...the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Mal. 4:6). Yet Christian parents today face a disturbing exodus of their children from the Church to the world. Why is this? What is the place of children within the faith? What do the promises mean? Recognizing that this subject is fraught with difficulty and grief, the twelve contributors to this volume seek to address the hard questions and lay a biblical foundation of hope for our children. Contributors include Timothy Bayly, Joel Belz, Randy Booth, David Hagopian, Douglas Jones, Dr. Nelson D. Kloosterman, Dr. Charles Alan McIlhenny, Dr. Robert S. Rayburn, G. Mark Sumpter, Tom Trouwborst, Benjamin K. Wikner, and Douglas Wilson.
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Orange City was founded in 1869-1870 as a colony of Dutch Americans from Pella. Led by Henry Hospers, the colonists made Orange City the center of Dutch agricultural expansion in northwestern Iowa and farther west. By 1874, the town had railroad connections, was the seat of Sioux County, and had a Dutch-language weekly newspaper that was read in the Netherlands as well as around North America. Hospers, along with others, founded an academy in 1882 to train young people in the classics and the Reformed faith. By the 1930s, the academy was maturing into what is now Northwestern College. The town's populace has never been exclusively Dutch; nevertheless, the Dutch heritage of the settlement has remained central to Orange City's identity. A tulip festival held in 1936 became an annual event that continues to draw tens of thousands of visitors each May. In 1986, a Dutch-front initiative was launched that has transformed much of the town with a distinctive Dutch look.
Given its affinity with questions of identity, autobiography offers a way into the interior space between author and reader, especially when writers define themselves in terms of religion. In his exploration of this "textual intimacy," Wesley Kort begins with a theorization of what it means to say who one is and how one's self-account as a religious person stands in relation to other forms of self-identification. He then provides a critical analysis of autobiographical texts by nine contemporary American writers—including Maya Angelou, Philip Roth, and Anne Lamott—who give religion a positive place in their accounts of who they are. Finally, in disclosing his own religious identity, Kort concludes with a meditation on several meanings of the word assumption.
As a response to the unique challenges facing the twenty-first-century American church, church planting has become a popular topic. But at a time when churches that spread the seed of the Word through preaching, the sacraments, and prayer are greatly needed, much of the focus has been on planting churches that adapt pop culture to meet “consumer demand.” In Planting, Watering, Growing, the authors of this collection of essays weave together theological wisdom, personal experiences, and practical suggestions, guiding readers through the foundations and methods of planting confessional churches that uphold the Word of God.