During my tenure as a student at Barclay College, I have been consistently challenged and affirmed in multiple areas of my spiritual life. In many cases I was, it seems, laboring under a delusion that these areas were either totally secure, or fatally flawed in some way that left them beyond the reach of redemption or change. These flaws in particular were brought to light last semester, and by the grace of God I have seen that there is a path forward for me. My own stream, to use Fosters analogy, cutting thought the once barren landscape of my spiritual journey. I have come to see over the course of the past few months that I am neither as secure nor as flawed as I was once lead to believe. I am reminded of God's admonition to Ezekiel, “God grabbed me. God’s Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”I said, “Master God, only you know that.”He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones: ‘Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!’”God, the Master, told the dry bones, “Watch this: I’m bringing the breath of life to you and you’ll come to life. I’ll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You’ll come alive and you’ll realize that I am God!”1 Just as last semester God got hold of my areas of weakness, it would seem that this semester He is choosing to challenge my areas of greatest security. In reading Fosters book I was consistently challenged to reassess my belief structure about his streams, and I am now in this paper forced to make an attempt at coalescing those challeng...
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...at societal impact we once enjoyed. Like Woolman we need to consider how out testimony on equality, simplicity, and peace fit into the stream of evangelicalism. If we can recapture that passionate devotion to the King and his love and concern for the least among us then I have no doubt we will once again create tsunami like waves of impact on the world for Christ.
I have greatly enjoyed the Foster text. It challenged my thinking on several key issues and I am certain that I will be returning to it in the future as I continue this journey.
Works Cited
Foster, Richard J. Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.
Herrington, Jim, Mike Bonem, and James H. Furr. Leading Congregational Change: a Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
Integrating Change Models and the Theology of Leadership A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this
more on the congregational life of the church with more attention on the laity and its formation. Second, is how to plan, as a church and as pastors, to adjust to this shift towards congregational life and how to be better prepared as a postmodern church to be relevant in this changing time. Lastly, I received a better way of explaining the meaning of what truth is in this post modern time. I agree with Kitchens, Mead, and Roxburgh who all basically say in their own way that one change in ministry
Microsoft is Bill Gates. William Henry Gates III was born in the midst of a scenic Seattle on Thursday, October 28, 1995 to his parents Mary and William Henry Gates Jr. His childhood was uneventful and was well raised. He went to Sunday school at the Congregational church and sang in the choir. He was a Boy Scout but never showed interest for either of these activities. Gates was an unusual child who spent long periods in his room in deep thought. He loved science and showed great skill in the area of math
How much of the historical atmosphere and feeling does the congregation need to experience imaginatively for the text to op... ... middle of paper ... ...s we noted before, the people are conservative. - What are the demographics and the congregational context in which the sermon will be preached? 50-100 members predominantly white, and very traditional worship services - What current issues in the life of the congregation need to be addressed? The issues are that English is a barrier for the
England and America. Calvinist theology spread rapidly, and became the basis for many protestant denominations. These included the Swiss Reformed Church, The Dutch Reformed Church, The English Puritans, The French Huguenots, The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, The Baptist Churches, and through them the Pentecostal Churches and Assemblies of God. Jansenism, a Catholic form of Calvinism, was condemned as heretical in 1653. The central assertion of Calvinism canons is that God is able to save
After two years of part-time seminary training, Pastor Mickey Olson offered me an opportunity to explore congregational work part-time as a Youth and Family Ministry Director. I interviewed for the position and was offered the job two weeks later. Although I had immense programing skills from the medical field after co-creating programs in Moose Lake, MN and attaining accreditation and re-accreditation for programs in Virginia, MN, I felt inept as I entered programing within the volunteer world of
Monarchs have long been viewed as fairy tales and myths since the beginning of time, but the reality is these people are very real and some still exist today. Often containing religious symbolism, these ceremonies are meticulously planned and executed and are, in large part, determined by the location of the monarchy. The act of coronation refers to the authorized inauguration or enthronement of the monarch and does not imply that this is a public event. These rituals often include the monarch taking
The Baptists stands out as an interesting denomination. What attracts me to this particular denomination are their practice and their religious views. Unlike many Christian denominations, Baptists practice adult baptism; they believe that baptism should be for those who have made a conscience decision of accepting Jesus as Lord. As for their religious views, Baptists have an ever-changing view on various issues. In many ways the Baptists denomination is very traditional in their old ways but also
Branches off further, including Episcopal and Methodist Churches. The Protestant branches off a second time into two further branches. The first group includes Lutheran, Calvinist, Reform, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Unitarian, and Congregational. The second branch is the Free Churches and the denominations include Brethren, Mennonite, Amish, Baptist, Quaker, Pentecostal, and African Instituted. In all, according to Fisher, there are currently nearly twenty one thousand independent church
beliefs, practices, way of worship and polity. King Henry VIII of England, during the reformation period declared the Church to be divided. One side wanted to keep the Church Catholic and the other side wanting to get away from it. One of the events leading to the church splitting was the fact that he had an argument with the Pope because he was not granted a divorce to Catherine of Aragon. To the King getting a divorce, was not something he thought would be refused to him. The results of this decision
and promoted Havurot (small prayer groups). Among other things, Leeser produced an Anglo-Jewish translation of the Bible, founded the Jewish Publication Society, and edited a Jewish periodical, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, which attempted in its pages to unite the diverse voices of the American Jewish community. He also rallied his community to respond to incidents of anti-Jewish persecution around the world. Conservative Judaism Before the Breslau Reform Conference began in 1846
How is this possible with such an anti-truth world? It is possible when Apostolics alter their approach and how they reach out, without altering their doctrine. To gain a better understanding of this it is vital to search out the different eras leading up to postmodernism, such as pre-modernism and modernism itself. Also, one must search
over the world and swept through all the American Colonies. The results of the Great Awakening not only brought about great religious revival within the colonies but also established the need for religious rights. The Great Awakening also started a change in the society’s philosophy into a more individual and independent based mindset directly preparing the country for the Revolutionary War. The areas of the country where the Great Awakening affected strongest were the Connecticut Valley and the colony
Theological Perspective I have had many opportunities to write “statements of faith” in my many years of being entrenched in Evangelicalism. When writing a statement of faith in that context, I was essentially asked to affirm my belief in what those churches believed to be true. I wasn’t allowed to think or wrestle on my own to come up with my own theology. Writing my theological perspective here for the United Church of Christ is a new experience as I grapple with what it is I really believe
Jim Collins’s book, “Good-To-Great”, is about how to structure and manage a good organization into one that produces sustained lasting and profitable results. (Collins: pg. 14) This paper focuses on the concepts from Collins text that any church leader can acquire and apply to a local church context. There are six key concepts processed through three broad stares: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. Although this book references businesses, its concepts may also