Christianity Commons^™

Book Review: The Churching Of America 1776–2005: Winners And Losers In Our Religious Economy By Roger Finke And Rodney Stark, Charles Salmon

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Finding The Way Forward: George Gill Hunter, Iii, Ronald K. Crandall

Great Commission Research Journal

Ron Crandall recounts some of the significant personal transitions, achievements, and contributions to evangelism and church growth made by his long time colleague. This brief “inside story” captures some of both the professional and personal life of this world-class scholar, and reveals his passionate pursuit to help thousands of churches and millions of secular and disenchanted peoples “find the way forward.” Never content to only talk about evangelism, George Hunter is portrayed as employing every gift available to equip the Church for its apostolic mission to spread the power of “Christ in us, the hope of glory.”

Book Review: The Recovery Of A Contagious Methodist Movement By George G. Hunter, Iii, Randy Willis

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Shaping Of Things To Come: Innovation And Mission For The 21st Century Church By Michael Frost And Alan Hirsch, Jihoon Lee

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Being The Church In A Multi-Ethnic Community: Why It Matters And How It Works By Gary L. Mcintosh And Alan Mcmahan, Jeffrey Medina

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Lay-Leadership: How To Develop Lay Leaders In A Local Church With Special Reference To The Hyesung Presbyterian Church In South Korea, Kang Eun Bae

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis is designed to help church leaders establish a lay leadership development process in a local church, especially in a Korean church with a size between 300 and 1,000 church members. In the first part, the fundamental knowledge of leadership is described, including the characteristics of leadership concerning lay leadership development, the reasons why a local church should develop lay leaders, and what the leaders should develop through the process. In the second part, a lay leadership development process and how to establish it in a local church is described. In the third part, Hyesung Church's leadership development process …

Reaching Secular Peoples: A Review Of The Books Of George G. Hunter, Iii, Gary L. Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

“Reaching Secular Peoples: A Review of the Books of George G. Hunter III” traces the development of the author’s thought through his eighteen books (as of June 2011). The review demonstrates that Hunter is the primary interpreter of classic church growth thought to those in the Wesleyan tradition, but he also ably speaks to members of the larger Christian family across all theological spectrums with a spirit of grace, cooperation, and collegiality. While his early books, written between 1971 and 1980, communicated insights from the emerging Church Growth movement to Wesleyans (particularly the people called Methodists), his later books demonstrate …

The North American Church Journey: Lessons We Are Learning, Daryl K. Thompson

Great Commission Research Journal

The North American church is on a journey. It is a journey compelled by the church’s decline in the past half century. The primary lesson that is being learned on this journey is that mission catalyzes Christianity in a way that nothing else does. Western European Christendom has significantly influenced the North American church. This expression of Christianity drifted radically from the early churches missional clarity. The result was an anemic Christianity that saw little personal and societal transformation. Missionally-minded and outwardly-focused pastors are essential to helping the North American church recover its missional orientation.

A Holistic Good News: Missional, Effective Evangelism And Lessons Learned While Traveling In The Hoof Prints Of Wesley, Bob Whitesel

Great Commission Research Journal

The Good News can be understood as the message of the missio Dei to which varying methods can be attached. Churches, however, often specialize in a specific part or method of that mission, e.g., helping the needy, emphasizing conversion, or promoting discipleship. This article suggests the Good News has yielded significant historical impact when churches embrace a comprehensive or holistic understanding of the Good News that includes three methodological components: establishing legitimacy by meeting the needs of non-believers, effectively facilitating conversion, and spiritual formation in small communal groups. Missional and effective evangelism nomenclature will be discussed in relation to this …

The Profile Of Asian-American Pastors, Jonathan H. Kim

Great Commission Research Journal

This case study surveyed 277 and interviewed 47 Asian-American pastors to gather information regarding their demographic characteristics, ministry context, sense of call, spiritual formation, employment status, length of tenure, conflict in ministry, and reasons for ministry or career changes. The purpose of this study was to understand personal and institutional issues affecting Asian-American pastors’ ministry tenure.

Behaving Beyond Your Barriers, Melissa Pratt

Great Commission Research Journal

Pastoral leaders must embrace the attitude that God expects His church to grow. Effective pastors must be future-focused rather than problem-focused. They must see and personally live beyond where a church is, beyond where the barriers to growth are, and into the place God wants to take His people. Pastors must identify the behaviors of “next-level” churches to evaluate what kinds of behaviors current church leaders and members should adopt. After casting a “next-level” vision, Pastors should equip their members to behave not as they are, but as they desire to become in order to push through barriers to growth.

Book Review: The Celtic Way Of Evangelism: How Christianity Won The West Again By George G. Hunter, Iii, Allan Karr

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Unchristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity . . . And Why It Matters By David Kinnaman, Matthew Costner

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Resurrecting The Celtic Model Of Evangelism For The 21st Century: George G. Hunter, Iii, James R. Farrer

Great Commission Research Journal

Dr. George G. Hunter III has been the premier author in alerting Christians in our current era to the ancient Celtic Christian style of evangelism and mission. This model, pioneered by St. Patrick, became the “greatest sustained Christian mission in Christianity’s history.” The contagious power of these Christians and their communities ushered in almost 1,000 years of Christian culture to Europe. Hunter identifies the Celtic Christians’ main strategies which can be fruitful in reaching today’s prodigals, “nones,” and modern “barbarians.” This model is urgently needed today since the United States has become the third largest mission field of non-Christians in …

South Carolina Conference Journal 2013, United Methodist Church. South Carolina Conference

South Carolina Conference Journal

THE JOURNAL OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE OF The United Methodist Church Southeastern Jurisdiction

VOLUME I 2013

Price: $30.00 per year paid in advance by subscription only (Volumes I and II included)

Edited for the Conference by KAREN H. RADCLIFFE Secretary of the Annual Conference

Florence Civic Center Florence, South Carolina

June 9-12, 2013

What Did Anglican Preaching Look Like 200 Years Ago?, Robert H. Ellison

English Faculty Research

This was a talk given during the morning worship service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Huntington, West Virginia on June 9, 2013. It was meant to offer the congregation a window into Anglican preaching of another time and place. Topics include the typical length of sermons; whether they should be read or delivered extemporaneously; and the Bible verses and topics the Victorians turned to most often in their preaching.

La Critique Des Langages Consacrés Et La Recherche D’Un Nouveau Rapport Au Monde Dans L’Oeuvre De V. Y. Mudimbe, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article shows how V. Y. Mudimbe’s work is both a space where consecrated languages (Christianity and Marxism) that wrap up themselves while pretending to explain the world or justify it are criticised, and a search for a new language to establish a new relationship with the world as it is lived, that means outside of any dogmatism and mystification. It is through this dynamic that Mudimbe has contributed to the renewal of thought and forms in Africa.

Reformed Worship (Rw) 108 - Luyh / World Communion (June 2013), Reformed Worship Editors

Reformed Worship Magazine

Features

Unity, Reconciliation, Justice by Howard Vanderwell and Norma deWaal Malefyt....4

Ten Reasons Why Hymnals Have a Future by John D. Witvliet....14

Singing the Story into Our Bones by James K.A. Smith....20

Articles

Editorial: How Can I Keep from Singing? by Joyce Borger....2

What I'm For by Paul Thé....22

The Hymnal as Teacher by Leonard J. Vander Zee....25

The God of Abraham Praise by Carol M. Bechtel....28

The Psalter in the Hymnal by Martin Tel....30

The Gifting of Songs by Joel Navarro....34

Order from Chaos by Diane Dykgraaf....37

A Hymnal …

Galileo's Muse: Renaissance Mathematics And The Arts (Book Review), Calvin Jongsma

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Reviewed Title: Galileo's Muse: Renaissance Mathematics and the Arts by Mark A. Peterson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011, 336 pages. ISBN 9780674059726.

Herman Dooyeweerd: Christian Philosopher Of Fashion, Robert S. Covolo

Pro Rege

Robert S. Covolo presented this paper at the Christian Evasion of Popular Culture Conference at Dordt College, November 2012.