The American Churches

Author : Bob Smietana
Publisher : Worthy Books
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2023-08-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 154600162X

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Reorganized Religion by Bob Smietana Pdf

"A superb examination of the future of Christian institutions.... A must-read for anyone invested in the fate of the American church." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) Uncover the ways the Christian church has changed in recent years--from the decline of the mainline denominations to the mega-churchification of American culture to the rise of the Nones and Exvaneglicals--and a hopeful reimagining of what the church might look like going forward. The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented spiritual, technological, demographic, political and social transformation-- moving from an older, mostly white, mostly Protestant, religion-friendly society to a younger diverse, multiethnic, pluralistic culture, where no one faith group will have the advantage. At the same time, millions of Americans are abandoning organized religion altogether in favor of disorganized disbelief. Reorganized Religion is an in-depth and critical look at why people are leaving American churches and what we lose as a society as it continues. But it also accepts the dismantling of what has come before and try to help readers reinvent the path forward. This book looks at the future of organized religion in America and outline the options facing churches and other faith groups. Will they retreat? Will they become irrelevant? Or will they find a new path forward? Written by veteran religion reporter Bob Smietana, Reorganized Religion is a journalistic look at the state of the American church and its future. It draws on polling data, interviews with experts, and reporting on how faith communities old and new are coping with the changing religious landscape, along with personal stories about how faith is lived in everyday life. It also profiles faith communities and leaders who are finding interesting ways to reimagine what church might look like in the future and discuss various ways we can reinvent this organization so it survives and thrives. The book also reflects the hope that perhaps people of faith can learn to become, if not friends with the larger culture, then at least better neighbors.

Author : Paul B. Mojzes
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Page : 546 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2018-08-23
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781467450577

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North American Churches and the Cold War by Paul B. Mojzes Pdf

History textbooks typically list 1945–1990 as the Cold War years, but it is clear that tensions from that period are still influencing world politics today. While much attention is given to political and social responses to those first nuclear threats, none has been given to the reactions of Christian churches. North American Churches and the Cold War offers the first systematic reflection on the diverse responses of Canadian and American churches to potential nuclear disaster. A mix of scholars and church leaders, the contributors analyze the anxieties, dilemmas, and hopes that Christian churches felt as World War II gave way to the nuclear age. As they faced either nuclear annihilation or peaceful reconciliation, Christians were forced to take stands on such issues as war, communism, and their relationship to Christians in Eastern Europe. As we continue to navigate the nuclear era, this book provides insight into Chris-tian responses to future adversities and conflicts. CONTRIBUTORS William Alexander Blaikie James Christie Nicholas Denysenko Gary Dorrien Mark Thomas Edwards Peter Eisenstadt Jill K. Gill Michael Graziano Barbara Green Raymond Haberski Jr. Jeremy Hatfield Gordon L. Heath D. Oliver Herbel Norman Hjelm Daniel G. Hummel Dianne Kirby Leonid Kishkovsky Nadieszda Kizenko John Lindner David Little Joseph Loya Paul Mojzes Andrei V. Psarev Bruce Rigdon Walter Sawatsky Axel R. Schäfer Todd Scribner Gayle Thrift Steven M. Tipton Frederick Trost Lucian Turcescu Charles West James E. Will Lois Wilson

Author : Tish Harrison Warren
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 189 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2016-11-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780830892204

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Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren Pdf

Christianity Today Book of the Year In the overlooked moments and routines of our day, we can become aware of God's presence in surprising ways. How do we embrace the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred? Framed around one typical day, this book explores life through the lens of liturgy—small practices and habits that form us. In each chapter, Tish Harrison Warren considers a common daily experience—making the bed, brushing her teeth, losing her keys. Drawing from the diversity of her life as a campus minister, Anglican priest, friend, wife, and mother, Warren opens up a practical theology of the everyday. Each activity is related to a spiritual practice as well as an aspect of our Sunday worship. Come and discover the holiness of your every day.

Author : Peter Cha,S. Steve Kang,Helen Lee
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2009-09-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780830875429

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Growing Healthy Asian American Churches by Peter Cha,S. Steve Kang,Helen Lee Pdf

The Asian American church is in transition. Congregations face the challenges of preserving ethnic culture and heritage while contextualizing their ministry to younger generations and the unchurched. Many Asian American church leaders struggle with issues like leadership development, community dynamics and intergenerational conflict. But often Asian American churches lack the resources and support they need to fulfill their callings. Peter Cha, Steve Kang and Helen Lee and a team of veteran Asian American pastors and church leaders offer eight key values for healthy Asian American churches. Drawing on years of expertise and filled with practical examples from landmark churches like Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles, NewSong Church and Lighthouse Christian Church, the book provides soundly biblical perspectives for effective ministry that honors the Asian American cultural context. Insights from such pioneering leaders as Ken Fong, David Gibbons, Grace May, Wayne Ogimachi, Steve Wong, Nancy Sugikawa and Soong-Chan Rah make this an essential guide for Asian American church leaders wanting to help their congregations achieve health and growth. Produced in partnership with the Catalyst Leadership Center, a resource organization for Asian American church ministry.

Author : James Gillespie Birney
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 46 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 1840
Category : Enslaved persons
ISBN : CHI:20064520

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The American Churches by James Gillespie Birney Pdf

Author : Dean R. Hoge
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1996-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0664256872

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Money Matters by Dean R. Hoge Pdf

Presenting the findings of the largest and most incisive study of factors influencing church giving in America ever done, this book details information from 625 churches and their members and offers surprising conclusions about member contributions. Also provided is an in-depth exploration, with relevant case studies, of 12 successfully funded churches.

Author : Robert Wuthnow
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2009-05-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0520943066

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Boundless Faith by Robert Wuthnow Pdf

In Boundless Faith, the first book to look systematically at American Christianity in relation to globalization, Robert Wuthnow shows that American Christianity is increasingly influenced by globalization and is, in turn, playing a larger role in other countries and in U.S. policies and programs abroad. These changes, he argues, can be seen in the growth of support at home for missionaries and churches in other countries and in the large number of Americans who participate in short-term volunteer efforts abroad. These outreaches include building orphanages, starting microbusinesses, and setting up computer networks. Drawing on a comprehensive survey that was conducted for this book, as well as several hundred in-depth interviews with church leaders, Wuthnow refutes several prevailing stereotypes: that U.S. churches have turned away from the global church and overseas missions, that congregations only look inward, and that the growing voice of religion in areas of foreign policy is primarily evangelical. This fresh and revealing book encourages Americans to pay attention to the grass-roots mechanisms by which global ties are created and sustained.

Author : Russell Jeung
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0813535034

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Faithful Generations by Russell Jeung Pdf

With rich description and insightful interviews, Russell Jeung uncovers why and how Chinese and Japanese American Christians are building new, pan-Asian organizations. Detailed surveys of over fifty Chinese and Japanese American congregations in the San Francisco Bay area show how symbolic racial identities structure Asian American congregations. Evangelical ministers differ from mainline Christian ministers in their construction of Asian American identity. Mobilizing around these distinct identities, evangelicals and mainline Christians have developed unique pan-Asian styles of worship, ministries, and church activities. Portraits of two churches further illustrate how symbolic racial identities affect congregational life and ministries. The book concludes with a look at Asian American-led multiethnic churches.

Author : Winthrop Still Hudson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1953
Category : Church and state
ISBN : UOM:39015026295595

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The Great Tradition of the American Churches by Winthrop Still Hudson Pdf

Author : David T. Olson
Publisher : Zondervan
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780310277132

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The American Church in Crisis by David T. Olson Pdf

Analytical research from a database of more than 200,000 North American churches reveals the population is growing faster than church attendance. This guide shows the problems as well as the potential for American churches.

Author : H.M BAUM
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 1881
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OXFORD:555024803

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THE AMERICAN CHURCH REVIEW by H.M BAUM Pdf

Author : Richard J Boles
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2020-12-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781479801671

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Dividing the Faith by Richard J Boles Pdf

Uncovers the often overlooked participation of African Americans and Native Americans in early Protestant churches Phillis Wheatley was stolen from her family in Senegambia, and, in 1761, slave traders transported her to Boston, Massachusetts, to be sold. She was purchased by the Wheatley family who treated Phillis far better than most eighteenth-century slaves could hope, and she received a thorough education while still, of course, longing for her freedom. After four years, Wheatley began writing religious poetry. She was baptized and became a member of a predominantly white Congregational church in Boston. More than ten years after her enslavement began, some of her poetry was published in London, England, as a book titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. This book is evidence that her experience of enslavement was exceptional. Wheatley remains the most famous black Christian of the colonial era. Though her experiences and accomplishments were unique, her religious affiliation with a predominantly white church was quite ordinary. Dividing the Faith argues that, contrary to the traditional scholarly consensus, a significant portion of northern Protestants worshipped in interracial contexts during the eighteenth century. Yet in another fifty years, such an affiliation would become increasingly rare as churches were by-and-large segregated. Richard Boles draws from the records of over four hundred congregations to scrutinize the factors that made different Christian traditions either accessible or inaccessible to African American and American Indian peoples. By including Indians, Afro-Indians, and black people in the study of race and religion in the North, this research breaks new ground and uses patterns of church participation to illuminate broader social histories. Overall, it explains the dynamic history of racial integration and segregation in northern colonies and states.

Author : Philip Schaff,Henry Codman Potter,Samuel Macauley Jackson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 478 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 1894
Category : United States
ISBN : HARVARD:32044012603627

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The American Church History Series: A history of the Congregational churches, by Williston Walker by Philip Schaff,Henry Codman Potter,Samuel Macauley Jackson Pdf

Author : Sharon Kim
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2010-03-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813549477

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A Faith Of Our Own by Sharon Kim Pdf

Second-generation Korean Americans, demonstrating an unparalleled entrepreneurial fervor, are establishing new churches with a goal of shaping the future of American Christianity. A Faith of Our Own investigates the development and growth of these houses of worship, a recent and rapidly increasing phenomenon in major cities throughout the United States. Immigration historians have depicted the second-generation as a transitional generation--on the steady march toward the inevitable decline of ethnic identity and allegiance. Sharon Kim suggests an alternative path. By harnessing religion and innovatively creating hybrid religious institutions, second-generation Korean Americans are assertively defining and shaping their own ethnic and religious futures. Rather than assimilating into mainstream American evangelical churches or inheriting the churches of their immigrant parents, second-generation pastors are creating their own hybrid third space--new autonomous churches that are shaped by multiple frames of reference. Including data gathered over ten years at twenty-two churches, A Faith of Our Own is the most comprehensive study of this topic that addresses generational, identity, political, racial, and empowerment issues.

Author : Kenda Creasy Dean
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2010-07-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0199758662

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Almost Christian by Kenda Creasy Dean Pdf

Based on the National Study of Youth and Religion--the same invaluable data as its predecessor, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers--Kenda Creasy Dean's compelling new book, Almost Christian, investigates why American teenagers are at once so positive about Christianity and at the same time so apathetic about genuine religious practice. In Soul Searching, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton found that American teenagers have embraced a "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"--a hodgepodge of banal, self-serving, feel-good beliefs that bears little resemblance to traditional Christianity. But far from faulting teens, Dean places the blame for this theological watering down squarely on the churches themselves. Instead of proclaiming a God who calls believers to lives of love, service and sacrifice, churches offer instead a bargain religion, easy to use, easy to forget, offering little and demanding less. But what is to be done? In order to produce ardent young Christians, Dean argues, churches must rediscover their sense of mission and model an understanding of being Christian as not something you do for yourself, but something that calls you to share God's love, in word and deed, with others. Dean found that the most committed young Christians shared four important traits: they could tell a personal and powerful story about God; they belonged to a significant faith community; they exhibited a sense of vocation; and they possessed a profound sense of hope. Based on these findings, Dean proposes an approach to Christian education that places the idea of mission at its core and offers a wealth of concrete suggestions for inspiring teens to live more authentically engaged Christian lives. Persuasively and accessibly written, Almost Christian is a wake up call no one concerned about the future of Christianity in America can afford to ignore.