Sentences with phrase «as a christian congregation»

That is why the effort to understand God Christianly, which must in the nature of the case proceed indirectly, might best proceed indirectly by way of study of the Christian thing in and as Christian congregations.

The Christian thing is to be encountered in concrete actuality in and as Christian congregations.

A Christian theological school is defined, we have repeatedly stressed, by its interest in truly understanding God by focusing study on the Christian thing; but as a matter of contingent fact it happens that the Christian thing is most concretely available for study in and as Christian congregations.

Rather, the proposal is that study of every subject matter that is selected for study (using whatever academic disciplines are appropriate) be shaped and guided by an interest in the question: What is that subject matter's bearing on, or role in, the practices that constitute actual enactments, in specific concrete circumstances, of various construals of the Christian thing in and as Christian congregations?

On the unity side, the proposal here is, quite simply, that a theological course of study would be unified if every course in it were deliberately and explicitly designed to address centrally one of the three questions about the Christian thing in and as Christian congregations (What is it?

For example, it must address such matters as whether faithfulness to that self - identification is a necessary condition for a group's counting as a Christian congregation, and whether groups that do not claim to worship in Jesus» name may nonetheless be said to know God and God's redemptive presence.

The Christian thing itself, I suggest, can be encountered concretely in and as Christian congregations; its major and most demonic distortions can also be encountered in the same place.

Not exact matches

As, islamist extremists do with their own faithful infidels, christians now can't wait to do the same within their own congregation to protect the pure christians from the infected ones.

If we are a Christian congregation we can elect a man of virtue as pastor but there is no need for any contest concerning leadership.

«As I read it, the message of the Christian Men's Movement is this: Following Jesus is not for women only, nor is it merely a spectator sport, which it tends to become for men in our domesticated, mostly female congregations.

As a former Christian, I find the idea of one man standing before a congregation several times a week, explaining his beliefs (understanding of the bible?)

It would be just as logical to rant about how Christians all go around protesting at dead soldiers» funerals, just because of those wackos in the Phelps congregation.

If the woman read only Matthew 22:34 as her Christian text, the congregation must have been confused by its connection to the Shema.

Please, if you're a Christian leader and plan on killing yourself and your congregation before on on May 21... take as many of your followers with you.

In his 1984 presidential address to the Society of Christian Ethics, Tom Ogletree noted that most Christian ethicists do not see their task as that of providing moral guidance for Christian congregations.

Though seminary faculties like to affirm, in principle, a relationship between Christian theology and the life of the church, academic theology tends to view the ministering congregation as an addendum to the really interesting issues of ethics, philosophical and political theology, or social policy.

A profound Christian revival of local congregations might be too much to hope for as a consequence of coming to grips with inclusive language, if there were not another factor common to most of the churches that have taken inclusive language seriously: they are also the churches most likely to be open to the ministry of ordained women.

I found myself almost paralyzed by fear one Sunday as I told the congregation as lovingly as I could that seeking racial justice was a part of the Christian calling.

Last January, LifeWay Research found that Protestant congregations in America were twice as likely to fear refugees as help them, though senior pastors overwhelmingly believed that «Christians have a responsibility to care sacrificially for refugees and foreigners.»

but cartoons mocking congregations as blindly following their leader to go inseminate, penetrate, etc... is condescending & horribly unfair to the many hardworking, loving christians sitting in churches everywhere and you can see why he reacted as he did.

I have no doubt that John, our choir director at one of the congregations where my father served, sincerely believed that «Whispering Hope,» a number frequently chosen by him as the choir's offertory piece, was a profoundly Christian hymn; but it was really an expression of vacuous hope without any substantive theological grounding: «Wait till the darkness is over / wait till the tempest is done / Hope for the sunshine tomorrow, after the darkness is gone / Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice / Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.»

The community of Central Florida is not accustomed to hearing white Christian leaders say, «Our concern is for the community as a whole, not just our personal congregations.»

How is it that today's generation of Christian women are more likely to list a celebrity like Angelina Jolie as their hero rather than a mentor, leader, or female friend in their own congregation?

Jackson served on staff of University Christian Church (UCC) in Cincinnati for nearly 19 years, and served as the congregation's Lead Pastor from 1996 - 2013.

From Sarah: As a clergywoman in a Christian denomination, I wonder what your journey was like — were you always accepted because you were in Reform congregations, or were there still struggles over gender issues?

Christian congregation; some have seen a theological school as distinct from but interrelated with congregations in ways analogous to the relation in the Reformed tradition between the congregation and its clergy; others have seen a theological school as related, not to congregations, but to a cadre of active clergy for whom it provides «in - service» or «extension» education.

To the contrary, the proposal urges that the best way to affirm any school's theological identity is through study focused on as a wide theological and social - cultural diversity of Christian congregations as possible.

As Charles Wood points out in Vision and Discernment, [4] inquiry always involves both capacities for «envisioning» (making synoptic judgments) and capacities for «discernment» are exercised directly in regard to concrete practices of Christian congregations.

To get down to cases, just which types of congregations ought to be selected as the variety of construals of the Christian thing by reference to which the course of study can be unified and made adequate to pluralism?

Beside preaching, explicit instruction in prayer by the pastoral leader best acquaints parishioners with the master vision of the life of the congregation as a corporate journey toward maturing in the Christian life.

I am convinced that the first major step to expertise as a guide to maturing in the Christian life is to listen to as many stories of faith journeys among members of one's congregation as pastoral access provides.

Or consider the array of questions that arise when we ask, «Is the Christian thing, concretely present in and as these congregations, true?»

By engaging people in the effort to understand God by focusing study of various subject matters within the horizon of questions about Christian congregations, a theological school may help them cultivate capacities both for what Charles Wood [2] calls «vision,» that is, formulating comprehensive, synoptic accounts of the Christian thing as a whole, and what he calls «discernment,» that is, insight into the meaning, faithfulness, and truth of particular acts in the practice of worship (in the broad sense of worship that we have adopted for this discussion).

That goal generates an interest in studying all that goes to make up congregations as enactments of the Christian thing; and congregations, in turn, invite three types of questions to focus and guide study of all that goes to constitute the Christian thing in and as congregations:

The guide as educator must monitor the enterprise to ensure that subject matter and method in each area are appropriate to the goal of a congregation maturing in the Christian life.

That a congregation is constituted by enacting a more broadly and ecumenically practiced worship that generates a distinctive social space implies study of what that space is and how it is formed: What are the varieties of the shape and content of the common lives of Christian congregations now, cross-culturally and globally (synchronic inquiry); how do congregations characteristically define who they are and what their larger social and natural contexts are; how do they characteristically define what they ought to be doing as congregations; how have they defined who they are and what they ought to do historically (diachronic study); how is the social form of their common life nurtured and corrected in liturgy, pastoral caring, preaching, education, maintenance of property, service to neighbors; what is the role of scripture in all this, the role of traditions of theology, and the role of traditions of worship?

So too, congregations may require theological schools as their intellectual centers, but a theological school can not be an adequate intellectual center «for» Christian congregations if its defining interest is to be an intellectual center for congregations.

At the same time, and without modifications of the «againstness,» a theological school's study may be «for» Christian congregations because it is the place where people can be helped to acquire the capacities for theological judgment that, as we saw, congregations inherently need in their common life.

As the Christian thing concretely present, a congregation is a complex of practices comprised of bodily and mental acts regarding ourselves, our neighbors, our shared social and physical contexts, and God.

One major place where the practices (as well, to be sure, as major and demonic distortions of them) may be encountered is the common life of Christian congregations.

That a congregation is constituted by publicly enacting a more universally practiced worship that generates a distinctive social form implies study of that public form: What are the social, cultural, and political locations of congregations of Christians and how do those locations shape congregations» social form today (synchronic inquiry); what have been the characteristic social, cultural, and political locations of congregations historically and how have those locations shaped congregations» social forms (diachronic study); in what ways do congregations engage in the public arena as one type of institutionalized center of power among others?

Some will be comprehensive and highly structured: This is how this congregation's construal of the Christian thing is best characterized concretely as a whole in contradistinction to other congregations» construals.

Consider the array of questions that arise when we ask, «How do we best understand this particular congregation as «the Christian thing» in concreto?»

I urged in chapter 7 that Christian congregations be viewed as complex sets of practices ordered to the enactment of worship of God in Jesus» name.

But, did you consider that some Christian folks are just as committed to being in their home congregations, as often as possible, as a matter of conscience and their personal faith?

... The Christian Right should consider several points after President Obama's RE-ELECTION VICTORY: look at the Affordable Health Care Act and be pleased with the benefits for their congregation members as well as for ALL AMERICANS. . . . .

EPC requires all churches to hold to «essential» tenets of the Christian faith, but allows each congregation freedom in forming opinions on «nonessential» matters, such as whether women can be elected as deacons and elders.

There is everything to commend in the attitude of humility, or thanksgiving, or petition, or intercession before God, so long as the person with the attitude is not usurping prerogatives either of God himself or of the whole congregation of Christians.

Helping a congregation to identify itself as a Progressive Christian Church can be a challenge.

What emerges is a new ecclesial identity as a «household» of local congregations, defined as Christians together meeting the needs of a particular place.