The Hidden Lives Of Congregations

Author : Israel Galindo
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2004-11-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781566996563

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The Hidden Lives of Congregations by Israel Galindo Pdf

Faced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain "stuckness," many congregations and their leaders are content to deal only with surface issues and symptoms—only to discover that the same problems keep recurring, often in different, and more serious, ways. In The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Christian educator and consultant Israel Galindo takes leaders below the surface of congregational life to provide a comprehensive, holistic look at the corporate nature of church relationships and the invisible dynamics at play. Informed by family systems theory and grounded in a wide-ranging ecclesiological understanding, Galindo unpacks clearly the factors of congregational lifespan, size, spirituality, and identity and shows how these work together to form the congregation’s hidden life. He provides useful tools for diagnosing and understanding how one’s congregation fits into the various categories he names and suggests what leadership skills are necessary to get beyond the impasse of surface issues and help the congregation achieve its mission. The Hidden Lives of Congregations provides one of the most far-reaching looks into the invisible nature of faith communities written in recent years. For seminaries and divinity schools, it provides a standard text for getting a solid start in congregational practices; for experienced pastors, it provides support for renewing ministry; for lay leaders and committees, it offers insight to deepening mutual ministry. Israel Galindo has written an indispensable manual that leaders will return to repeatedly for new wisdom and guidance

Author : Fritz Ritsch
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 121 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2023-11-14
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781666741674

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Reclaiming Power in Congregational and Community Ministry by Fritz Ritsch Pdf

Partisan religious interests have highjacked faith in America for political power, in the process dividing our nation and giving religion a bad name. Faith groups who want to build unity, in contrast, feel powerless to attain their goals. Congregations who can adapt to a more democratic approach to ministry, in which power is shared by both staff and congregants, can dramatically strengthen their congregations and serve their neighbors more effectively. Shared power strengthens individuals, congregations, and community efforts, enabling us to work with others, build community, and recognize and overcome negative power dynamics so that people can work together to build healthier congregations and communities. It also burnishes religion's tarnished image by demonstrating faithful, cooperative, and positive civic engagement for the community's good. This book also addresses the inevitable power dynamics in any congregation, allowing leaders to recognize unhealthy dynamics, foster healthy ones, and discover and cultivate the hidden power in each parishioner, so that individually they can live more fully into God's intention for them, and together the congregation can become the outpost of God's reign that it is meant to be.

Author : Lois Ann Lorentzen
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 1155 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2014-07-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781440828485

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Hidden Lives and Human Rights in the United States by Lois Ann Lorentzen Pdf

The most comprehensive collection of essays on undocumented immigration to date, covering issues not generally found anywhere else on the subject. Three fascinating volumes feature the latest research from the country's top immigration scholars. In the United States, the crisis of undocumented immigrants draws strong opinions from both sides of the debate. For those who immigrate, concerns over safety, incorporation, and fair treatment arise upon arrival. For others, the perceived economic, political, and cultural impact of newcomers can feel threatening. In this informative three-volume set, top immigration scholars explain perspectives from every angle, examining facts and seeking solutions to counter the controversies often brought on by the current state of undocumented immigrant affairs. Immigration expert and set editor Lois Lorentzen leads a stellar team of contributors, laying out history, theories, and legislation in the first book; human rights, sexuality, and health in the second; and economics, politics, and morality in the final volume. From family separation, to human trafficking, to notions of citizenship, this provocative study captures the human costs associated with this type of immigration in the United States, questions policies intended to protect the "American way of life," and offers strategies for easing tensions between immigrants and natural-born citizens in everyday life.

Author : Robert J. Suderman
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2016-09-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781498290937

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Re-Imagining the Church by Robert J. Suderman Pdf

The church. What has it become? What was it meant to be? Does it pave the way or get in the way? Are we suspicious of the institutionalization of church bureaucracy? Or thrilled with the relevant impact of its presence? Robert J. Suderman writes about the church as a practitioner. His inspiration emerges out of the crossroads of biblical vision and human sincerity always tempered with frailty. Years of ministry, never a stranger to complexity, only serve to sharpen the vision of possibility. His imagination of what can be is never divorced from the realities of what is. He does not bow to the common assumption that "you can't get there from here." "Here" is the only possible point of origin for us. In his succinct, easy to understand writing style, Suderman provides insightful and thought-provoking perspectives to what it means to be the church. To be a people "called out" to participate together in God's activity in the world, and to create programs and structures needed for effective ministry are two sides of the same coin. This book is for dreamers and bureaucrats alike; indeed, it assumes that the two are indispensable pieces of God's coming presence. Introduction by: Tom Yoder Neufeld

Author : Israel Galindo,Marty Canaday
Publisher : Chalice Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2010-03-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780827230187

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Planning for Christian Education Formation by Israel Galindo,Marty Canaday Pdf

This book was written to help congregational leaders, clergy, staff, and laypersons, plan and organize a Christian education ministry from the approach of Christian formation in a community of faith context. This book provides a model for organizing the Christian education leadership committee or team of the church, demonstrates how to use the church year as a framework for planning the Christian education ministry of the church, and gives a model for assessing the effectiveness of the educational ministry of the church and a process to help congregations move toward the Christian Education Formation approach.

Author : Asa Mahan
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1875
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OXFORD:590645669

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Out of darkness into light; or, The hidden life made manifest by Asa Mahan Pdf

Author : Jim Herrington,Trisha Taylor,R. Robert Creech
Publisher : Baker Academic
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2020-01-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781493422128

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The Leader's Journey by Jim Herrington,Trisha Taylor,R. Robert Creech Pdf

This book helps pastors and church leaders understand the role their personal transformation as Jesus's disciples plays in effective congregational leadership. It shifts the focus of leadership from techniques and charisma to spiritual transformation and developing emotional maturity so leaders can effectively lead congregations to embrace change. End-of-chapter discussion questions are included. The first edition sold more than 20,000 copies and has been regularly used as a textbook over the past fifteen years. The second edition has been revised throughout and includes a greater emphasis on Bowen Family Systems Theory.

Author : Asa Mahan
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 1875
Category : Salvation
ISBN : NLS:V000632970

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Out of Darkness Into Light; Or, The Hidden Life Made Manifest, Through Facts of Observation and Experience: Facts Elucidated by the Word of God by Asa Mahan Pdf

Author : Timothy D. Son
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2014-05-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780739183113

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Ritual Practices in Congregational Identity Formation by Timothy D. Son Pdf

Ritual Practices in Congregational Identity Formation investigates the educational roles of ritual practices in the process of congregational identity formation. Son identifies and analyzes various kinds of Christian rituals with respect to how rituals influence the formational processes of a congregation’s identity. Based on Victor Turner’s ritual theory, this book also investigates the pedagogical and transformative efficacies of ritual practices within the dynamics of congregational education.

Author : Sally A. Brown,Luke A. Powery
Publisher : Fortress Press
Page : 283 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2016-05-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781506410302

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Ways of the Word by Sally A. Brown,Luke A. Powery Pdf

Preaching, and the discipline of preaching, is at a crossroads. The changing realities of church and theological education, the diversity of our classrooms, and our increasingly complex community contexts leave us in search of tools to help train a rising generation of preachers for a future whose contours are far from clear. The questions are immense: How to support preachers in contexts that are diverse religiously, culturally, and ethnically, both inside and outside the church? How to help students take varied contexts seriously as they are formed as leaders? In Ways of the Word, a dynamic team of master preachers brings much-needed help. Different in race, gender, age, and tradition, both Sally A. Brown and Luke A. Powery speak with one voice their belief that preaching is Spirit-empowered event: an embodied, vocalized, actively received, here-and-now witness to the ongoing work of God in the world. They aspire to help students and preachers alike to reflect on a journey of learning by doing. They aim to help preachers to become more attuned to the Spirit, more adept in preaching’s component skills, and more self-aware about all that is at stake in proclaiming the redemptive work of God in specific contexts.

Author : Mary Shirreff
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1865
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OXFORD:600022413

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The hidden life, a memoir of mrs. Shirreff [compiled chiefly from her papers by W. Fawcett]. by Mary Shirreff Pdf

Author : Jim Herrington,Mike Bonem,James H. Furr
Publisher : Fortress Press
Page : 207 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2020-10-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781506463322

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Leading Congregational Change by Jim Herrington,Mike Bonem,James H. Furr Pdf

Bold transformation is needed in many of the congregations that cover the American landscape, argue Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem, and James H. Furr, authors of Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey. Drawing on their more than one hundred years of combined experience in a wide variety of church-related positions and a deep commitment to the biblical role of the local church, the authors present practical and concrete principles and concepts applicable across a broad spectrum of congregations. Leading Congregational Change presents a simple, memorable, and transferable framework along with principles of congregational transformation--such as God's call for transformation, the central role of spiritual vitality, the sequential nature of effective change, and the learning disciplines. Illustrations and action items offer adaptable suggestions and starting points for discussion. Leading Congregational Change is designed primarily for pastors and other congregational leaders who sense that things are not "just fine" in their churches and realize that deep change is needed. Judicatory staff and church consultants will also find the model for congregational transformation helpful. Individual ministries within a congregation, new congregations, and parachurch organizations can also use it to facilitate their own transformation. A church will grow when it understands and is genuinely committed to demonstrating and sharing the gospel in relevant ways. Growth will be manifested in the deeper commitment of its members. And more people in the community will hear God's call and become faithful disciples of Christ. Leading Congregational Change is a wise and faithful guide for the journey toward such transformation.

Author : David A. Keck
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 207 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2014-06-18
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781566994507

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Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors by David A. Keck Pdf

Congregations want to support their pastors, but don’t know how. Pastors love their congregations, but they don’t know what to ask of their congregations to garner needed support. Everyone wants to thrive together, but so often we get stuck. This clear and engaging guide helps pastors and congregations bridge communication gaps and set mutual goals and expectations. Reverend Keck grounds his framework of expectations on both scholarly research and on interviews he’s conducted with pastors and lay people. He finds many common difficulties in churches arise from failing to discuss priorities and expectations, and from not effectively working through the problems that arise when expectations aren’t met. For pastors and congregants to arrive at common expectations, they need to understand each other—their respective needs, hopes, and distinctive callings. This book provides concrete steps to aid congregants and pastors communicate their mutual expectations. Keck presents fifty “expectation statements”—examples of what pastors and congregations can expect of one another; a vital resource to anyone who seeks to initiate a discussion of expectations in their own church. Elucidating goals and expectations allows congregations and pastors to support one another and flourish, and fosters church health and harmony.

Author : Evan B. Howard
Publisher : Baker Academic
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2018-01-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781493411399

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A Guide to Christian Spiritual Formation by Evan B. Howard Pdf

Evan Howard, a noted authority on Christian spirituality, provides a holistic, accessible, and informed introduction to Christian spiritual formation written from a broadly evangelical perspective. Howard joins Scripture with themes of community, spirit, formation, and mission in a single integrative guide. The book includes helpful features such as figures, charts, chapter overviews, and formation-focused questions. Its evangelical-ecumenical and global perspectives will appeal to a wide audience. Resources for professors and students are available through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources.

Author : William B. Kincaid
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2012-11-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781621899174

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Finding Voice by William B. Kincaid Pdf

In Finding Voice, Kincaid employs an often used but somewhat elusive metaphor, "voice," as a way of speaking of pastoral identity and contends that a lively, imaginative pastoral voice emerges from a thorough grasp of context, theology, pastoral roles, personal journey, and systemic dynamics. Designed as a text for the field education, contextual education, and supervised ministry experiences of seminary students and others preparing for congregational leadership, Finding Voice examines in depth how people are experiencing each of these constituent parts of pastoral voice at their student ministry sites not only to learn about each of the areas, but also to recognize and understand what is being called forth in the students as they engage these five key experiences and begin to visualize their future ministry. The book further explores the opportunities created when the five aspects of pastoral identity are in conflict with one another. In the absence of any one of these or the imbalance of them, pastoral voice gets skewed, and vibrant, effective ministry is undermined. Finding Voice urges students to begin now, with field education, to engage a practice of ministry that is imaginative, courageous, nimble, and faithful.