In his long academic career at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dr. Gerhard O. Forde was known for his life-changing teaching and preaching, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for you. Forde taught that theology is for proclamation. His classes were his form of evangelism. Avoiding secondary discourse, or ......
The captivating biography of Alma Christina Lind Swensson will inspire every reader. Her work at Bethany College and Bethany Lutheran Church in Lindsborg, Kansas, demonstrated that women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provided leadership in the church, both locally and nationally. Born in Broddarp, Sweden, Alma Christina Lind ......
Shows how worship activities define the concept "church". This book explores: the meaning of the term "church"; the relationship of the local liturgical assembly and other Christian assemblies; and the personal and communal charter of the liturgical assembly. It focuses on community and assembly to discuss the sacraments.
How do you motivate the volunteers on your staff? Are you "burning out" your best people? What can you do with the pew-sitters? Do you find it hard to ask for help? This insightful, practical book by Marlene Wilson, an international authority on volunteerism, will help you answer these and other questions about volunteers in the church. ......
In the early and mid-twentieth century, Joseph Fielding Smith's (1876-1972) life as a public historian and theologian shaped the religious worldview of generations of Latter-day Saints. Matthew Bowman examines Smith's ideas and his place in American religious history. Smith achieved position and influence at a young age, while his theories about ......
Journeying in the Wilderness places a confessional understanding of faith in dialogue with five contextually altering forces in order to provide a pathway for congregations to reimagine faith formation in the midst of twenty-first-century realities.
The Intersectionality of Race, Leadership, and God
Through conversations and deep attention to the lived experience of leaders, Torrance Jones explores the intersectionality of these three worlds--Black, Christian, and leader--and inspires Black Christians to lead from the context of all that they are.
Prolific author William H. Willimon makes the compelling case that two key pastoral tasks--preaching and leadership--complement, correct, strengthen, and inform one another. Preaching is the distinctive function of pastoral leaders.
Conflict between the church of Rome and the reformers reached its most violent peak in the five years before the Council of Trent in 1545, a council the pope had been delaying for years. Luther had not only given up hope for a "free, Christian council," but had also come to the conclusion that the authority of such a council was limited to ......
Brecht here describes the years in which the distinctive aspects of the Reformation took shape. During this time four difficult conflictsthe Peasants' War, the interchange between Luther and Erasmus, debates on the Lord's Supper, and the rise of Anabaptist groupsstrengthened the need to fashion new orders for govering the church and the need to ......
How the Gospel Portrays and Negotiates Imperial Power
This book addresses the ways in which the Gospel of Matthew portrays and negotiates Roman military power. John E. Christianson argues that Matthew, writing in the years following the Jewish War, offers strategies such as avoidance, accommodation, non-violent resistance, mimicry, and dreams of divine retribution and eschatological fulfillment to ......
There are two types of conflict in congregations: conflict that kills and conflict that cultivates growth. So argues David E. Woolverton in Mission Rift: Leading through Church Conflict. Conflict that kills--that damages or destroys teams, ministries, missions, vibrancy--occurs when we as the people of God forget who we are, why we're here, ......
Carl Braaten here issues an energetic call for a truly ecumenical church, including a Lutheran rationale forrecovery of the historical episcopacy and papal primacy as servants of the gospel. Quoting Augustine's dictum that "You cannot have God for your father unless you have the church foryour mother," Braaten writes of the church's place in ......
Paul Manz enjoyed a long career, serving as organist, composer, teacher, and recitalist. Known for his improvisations, Manz cultivated and vigorously promoted the idea of the hymn festival a program of singing, readings, and organ music, often assisted by choirs and instrumentalists. Hymn festivals continue to be popular throughout the United ......
Paulos Mar Gregorios: A Reader is a compilation of the selected writings of Paulos Mar Gregorios, a metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India and a former President of the World Council of Churches.
Sexual health is an essential part of maintaining professional relationships in ministry. Focusing on implications for the practice of ministry, this book engages all dimensions of theological education and academic disciplines.
Recovering Abundance invites readers to join a movement of renewal for small towns and rural communities. Andy Stanton-Henry explores twelve civic-spiritual practices, rooted in Jesus's miracle among the multitude, demonstrating how it has been embodied in ordinary leaders and how it can be applied today.
This biography, begun by Timothy F. Lull prior to the death of Martin Luther and capably finished by Derek Nelson, is marked for its invigorating style. In this telling, Luther is an energetic, resilient actor, driven by very human strengths and failings, always wishing to do right by his understanding of God and the witness of the Scriptures.
