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Author : Gregory A. Pritchard
Publisher : Baker Books
Page : 501 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1995-12-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781441215239
This comprehensive study of the worship service style that is influencing thousands of churches and their leaders worldwide addresses controversies and draws lessons for the church today.
Author : Lynne Hybels,Bill Hybels
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 1997-12
Category : Big churches
ISBN : 9780310219279
Rediscovering Church is the candid story of Willow Creek Community Church's phenomenal growth, from 100 members meeting in a Palatine, Illinois, movie theater to its present Sunday morning attendance of 15,000. Bill Hybels and his wife, Lynne, tell about Willow Creek's beginnings, its struggles, the philosophy behind its success, and the strategies that have made it a model for church growth. The first half of the book, written by Lynne Hybels, explores the early years of Willow Creek and the personal accounts behind one of this century's most remarkable church stories. It offers an honest look at the ways God has used both the strengths and weaknesses of His people, creating a church of believers who have had tremendous impact for Christ in their community. In the second half of Rediscovering Church, Bill Hybels helps you apply the strengths of Willow Creek's ministry philosophy to your own congregation's mission. From mission statements to developing leadership, making sound financial decisions, and handling growth, Bill stresses that God wants to build His church to be an effective and committed community of faith that reaches out to a hurting world, to be the body of Christ in real and tangible ways. Rediscovering Church draws on the experiences of Willow Creek to show how one fellowship crystallized its mission and methodology, its vision and values. The Willow Creek story provides an example that churches and individuals alike can turn to for inspiration, encouragement, and a means of uncovering the pattern for their own unique mission and ministry.
Author : Kimon Howland Sargeant
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0813527872
America's religious landscape is in flux. New churches are springing up and many older churches are redefining themselves to survive. At the forefront of this denominational free-for-all are evangelical "seeker" churches. These churches target "seekers"-individuals of any faith or denominational background who seek spiritual fulfillment but are not currently affiliated with any specific church. By focusing on this largely untapped group, seeker churches have become one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the country. In his study, Kimon Sargeant provides a sociological context for the rise of these churches by exploring the rituals, messages, strategies, and denominational functions of this emerging form of American evangelical Protestantism. Featuring live bands, professional lighting and sound systems, and multi-media presentations, seeker churches are attracting many people who have "dropped out" of organized religion. To broaden their appeal, they offer attenders advice on everyday issues ranging from relationships to finance. Sargeant focuses on the success of the Willow Creek Association, the seeker church association started by the Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. With over 5,000 member churches, the seven-year old association has already outdistanced 90 percent of American denominations and is the leader of the seeker church movement. Through eyewitness accounts and careful research, Sargeant reveals the "seeker" movement to be a "reformation" of American Protestantism.
Author : Richard Kyle
Publisher : Transaction Publishers
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2011-12-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781412809061
Most forms of religion are best understood in the con- text of their relationship with the surrounding culture. This may be particularly true in the United States. Certainly immigrant Catholicism became Americanized; mainstream Protestantism accommodated itself to the modern world; and Reform Judaism is at home in American society. In Evangelicalism, Richard Kyle explores paradoxical adjustments and transformations in the relationship between conservative Protestant Evangelicalism and contemporary American culture. Evangelicals have resisted many aspects of the modern world, but Kyle focuses on what he considers their romance with popular culture. Kyle sees this as an Americanized Christianity rather than a Christian America, but the two are so intertwined that it is difficult to discern the difference between them. Instead, in what has become a vicious self-serving cycle, Evangelicals have baptized and sanctified secular culture in order to be considered culturally relevant, thus increasing their numbers and success within abundantly populous and populist-driven American society. In doing so, Evangelicalism has become a middle-class movement, one that dominates America's culture, and unabashedly populist. Many Evangelicals view America as God's chosen nation, thus sanctifying American culture, consumerism, and middle-class values. Kyle believes Evangelicals have served themselves well in consciously and deliberately adjusting their faith to popular culture. Yet he also thinks Evangelicals may have compromised themselves and their future in the process, so heavily borrowing from the popular culture that in many respects the Evangelical subculture has become secularism with a light gilding of Christianity. If so, he asks, can Evangelicalism survive its own popularity and reaffirm its religious origins, or will it assimilate and be absorbed into what was once known as the Great American Melting Pot of religions and cultures? Will the Gospel of the American dream ultimately engulf and destroy the Gospel of Evangelical success in America? This thoughtful and thought-provoking volume will interest anyone concerned with the modern-day success of the Evangelical movement in America and the aspirations and fate of its faithful.
Author : Conrad Ostwalt
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2003-03-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781563383618
Conrad Ostwalt explores the confluence of religion and popular cultural forms in the secular world, demonstrating that a secular religiosity has co-opted some of the functions previously reserved for religions institutions.
Author : Ronald P. Byars
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2002-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0664225721
Over the past several years, churches have engaged in an ongoing debate between two different styles of worship--"traditional" and "contemporary." Here, Ronald Byars argues that many of the differences between the two styles are superficial. Authentic worship, being wholly theocentric, can and must be both responsive to contemporary culture and grounded in history and tradition. Thus, rather than merely trying to please their members, congregations must focus on exploring worship that is biblical, honors our communion with the saints, and takes seriously the ways that our culture is reshaping us. He concludes with a description of an authentic, postmodern Protestant worship service.
Author : Conrad Ostwalt
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2012-11-29
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781441172860
The Scandinavian [Nordic] countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland experienced the effects of the German invasion in April 1940 in very different ways. Collaboration, resistance, and co-belligerency were only some of the short-term consequences. Each country's historiography has undergone enormous changes in the seventy years since the invasion, and this collection by leading historians examines the immediate effects of Hitler's aggression as well as the long-term legacies for each country's self-image and national identity. The Scandinavian countries' war experience fundamentally changed how each nation functioned in the post-war world by altering political structures, the dynamics of their societies, the inter-relationships between the countries and the popular view of the wartime political and social responses to totalitarian threats. Hitler was no respecter of the rights of the Scandinavian nations but he and his associates dealt surprisingly differently with each of them. In the post-war period, this has caused problems of interpretation for political and cultural historians alike. Drawing on the latest research, this volume will be a welcome addition to the comparative histories of Scandinavia and the Second World War.
Author : Daniel Silliman
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2021-10-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781467462921
The story of five best-selling novels beloved by evangelicals, the book industry they built, and the collective imagination they shaped Who are evangelicals? And what is evangelicalism? Those attempting to answer these questions usually speak in terms of political and theological stances. But those stances emerge from an evangelical world with its own institutions—institutions that shape imagination as much as they shape ideology. In this unique exploration of evangelical subculture, Daniel Silliman shows readers how Christian fiction, and the empire of Christian publishing and bookselling it helped build, is key to understanding the formation of evangelical identity. With a close look at five best-selling novels—Love Comes Softly, This Present Darkness, Left Behind, The Shunning, and The Shack—Silliman considers what it was in these books that held such appeal and what effect their widespread popularity had on the evangelical imagination. Reading Evangelicals ultimately makes the case that the worlds created in these novels reflected and shaped the world evangelicals saw themselves living in—one in which romantic love intertwines with divine love, humans play an active role in the cosmic contest between angels and demons, and the material world is infused with the literal workings of God and Satan. Silliman tells the story of how the Christian publishing industry marketed these ideas as much as they marketed books, and how, during the era of the Christian bookstore, this—every bit as much as politics or theology—became a locus of evangelical identity.
Author : Greg L. Hawkins,Cally Parkinson,Eric Arnson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 110 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Christian leadership
ISBN : 074419234X
When it comes to spiritual growth, we need to be able to measure more than numbers. We need a glimpse of people's attitudes, thoughts and emotions. We need a tool that reveals the heart of each person. Now Willow Creek invites you to learn what it discovered in a three-year process of study and research--involving six other churches as well as Willow Creeks' own congregation. Discover the four segments that characterize the journey of spiritual growth. Learn more about what catalyzes and stunts spiritual growth. And understand how the church needs to change in order to help people become more like Christ. What you discover here may challenge you. Or confirm nagging suspicions you've had all along. Either way, the findings in REVEAL will undoubtedly change the way you think about church--and what it really takes to make a difference.
Author : Jill Stevenson
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2013-04-15
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780472118731
In Sensational Devotion, Jill Stevenson examines a range of evangelical performances, including contemporary Passion plays, biblical theme parks, Holy Land re-creations, creationist museums, and megachurches, to understand how they serve their evangelical audiences while shaping larger cultural and national dialogues. Such performative media support specific theologies and core beliefs by creating sensual, live experiences for believers, but the accessible, familiar forms they take and the pop culture motifs they employ also attract nonbelievers willing to “try out” these genres, even if only for curiosity’s sake. This familiarity not only helps these performances achieve their goals, but it also enables them to contribute to public dialogue about the role of religious faith in America. Stevenson shows how these genres are significant and influential cultural products that utilize sophisticated tactics in order to reach large audiences comprised of firm believers, extreme skeptics, and those in between. Using historical research coupled with personal visits to these various venues, the author not only critically examines these spaces and events within their specific religious, cultural, and national contexts, but also places them within a longer devotional tradition in order to suggest how they cultivate religious belief by generating vivid, sensual, affectively oriented, and individualized experiences.
Author : Lester Ruth
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2020-03-09
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781532679032
Seeking to push the historical study of the liturgical phenomenon known as "Contemporary Worship" or "Praise and Worship" to a new level, this collection of essays offers an introduction to the phenomenon, documents critical aspects of its development, and suggests methods for future historical study. This multi-authored work investigates topics in both the Pentecostal and mainline branches of this way of worship, looking at subjects little explored by prior work. The provocative issues explored include Integrity Hosanna! Music, James White, charismatic renewal, John Wimber, the development of second services, Black Gospel, overlooked (non-white) sources of worship music, degree programs for worship leaders, and Robert Webber.
Author : Sally Morgenthaler
Publisher : Zondervan
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780310226499
This practical manual details a culturally relevant, biblical alternative to both evanglistic and seeker sensitive worship models. It is a ground-breaking work for worship musicians and pastors. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Author : Anonim
Publisher : Zondervan
Page : 532 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9780310228783
A comprehensive listing of service-tested programming material designed to supplement a church's creative process of service planning. Second edition.
Author : James Wellman Jr.,Katie Corcoran,Kate Stockly
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2020-01-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780199827725
"God is like a drug, a high, [I] can't wait for the next hit." This direct quote from a megachurch member speaking about his experience of God might be dismissed as some sort of spiritually-induced drug riff. However, according to the research in this book, it was not only sincere, but a deeply felt, and sought-after sensibility. Megachurch attendees desire this first-hand experience of God, and many report finding it in their congregations. The book focuses on the emotional, social and religious dynamics that pull thousands of people into megachurches and how those churches make some feel like they are "high on God" and can't wait to get their next spiritual "hit." High on God gives the first robust and plausible explanation for why megachurches have conquered the churchgoing market of America. Without condescension or exaggeration, the authors show the genius of megachurches: the power of charisma, the design of facilities, the training of leaders, the emotional dynamics, and the strategies that bring people together and lead them to serve and help others. Using Emile Durkheim's concept of homo duplex, the authors plot the strategies that megachurches employ to satisfy the core human craving for personal meaning and social integration, as well as personal identity and communal solidarity. The authors also show how these churches can go wrong, sometimes tragically so. But they argue that, for the most part, megachurches help their attendees find themselves through bonding with and serving others.
Author : Dan Kimball
Publisher : Zondervan
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2009-07-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780310858508
Churches are aging. Even among megachurches with their modern technology and huge number of members, whole generations are now missing. In order to reach the 18-35 year olds, churches need to incorporate alternative worship services into their ministries that meet the unique needs of the emerging generations.In a conversational, narrative style, author Dan Kimball guides church leaders on how to create alternative services from start to finish. Using anecdotes from his own experience at Graceland, Kimball presents six creative models, providing real-life examples of each type. Emerging Worship covers key topics including• Developing a prayer team• Evaluating the local mission field and context• Determining leaders and a vision-based team• Understanding why youth pastors are usually the ideal staff to start a new service• Recognizing the difference in values between emerging worship and the rest of the church• Asking critical questions beforehand