Sentences with phrase «congregational practices»

They alert us to constraints upon congregational practices, and they help us identify certain nonmoral goods relevant to theological and ethical reflection.

Description includes theological and ethical convictions, since they are embedded in congregational practices.

We examine congregational practices in terms of organic, personal, social and cultural dynamics, attending to important distinctions and interrelationships.

Although I had had clinical training and professional experience in chaplaincy and pastoral psychotherapy, I had never had an actual course in pastoral care or pastoral theology, nor had many of my courses emphasized pastoral congregational practices.

Apparently, the inclusive family ethic articulated in mainline congregations functions more as an identity marker than as a guide to congregational practice.

It is already a feature of congregational practice.

In sparsely settled regions where only a handful of Baptist churches are present, the mission should be ecumenically extended to include other denominations that share congregational practice and polity; e.g., the United Church of Christ, the Brethren, the Disciples, the Quakers.

Not exact matches

Calvin tried to implement concrete practices to advance formation, such as weekly participation in the Lord's Supper, congregational psalm singing, and a daily prayer cycle patterned after the divine office.

Some of its structures and practices have obvious origins in Christian traditions; others, equally widespread and apparently necessary to Christian congregational identity, have murkier sources or explicitly secular ones.

My working definition of the congregation is this: A congregation is a group that possesses a special name and recognized members who assemble regularly to celebrate a more universally practiced worship but who communicate with each other sufficiently to develop intrinsic patterns of conduct, outlook, and story.9 We can sharpen our appreciation of congregational structure by comparing its thick culture with that of other religious associations.

As long as a congregation seems to surmount its problems of social interaction, it is easy to forget its congregational aspects and to view its members as free agents who spontaneously collaborate to practice high Christian precepts.

There was a period for perhaps two hundred years after the Reformation during which Lutherans largely did keep to the confessions in parish practice and congregational life: weekly communion, private confession — the whole deal.

It was Wheeler who was asked to write the closing chapter, assessing the import of congregational studies for the future of the church, of the upcoming book reporting on the findings presented at the Atlanta conference (Building Effective Ministry: Theory and Practice of the Local Church, to be published by Harper & Row in early 1983).

Once we begin to think of our faith in terms of largeness instead of largess; once we begin to think of our faith in terms of measurable success or significant achievements or community stature or statistically significant gains or business models or congregational models or appropriate budget processes or cash flow direction or generally accepted accounting practices or independent audits or administrative requirements or procedural transparency or proper leadership roles or managerial responsibilities and boundaries or membership trends or effective organizational structures or current and accurate and relevant identity / purpose / vision / mission statements or strategic and tactical plans or valid and useful performance metrics — at that point, we have become money changers and temple authorities, we have deformed from a community into an industry that requires exclusionary individualism.

Once we begin to think of our faith in terms of largeness instead of largess or in terms of measurable success or significant achievements or community stature or statistically significant gains or business models or congregational models or appropriate budget processes or cash flow direction or generally accepted accounting practices or independent audits or administrative requirements or managerial transparency or proper leadership roles and boundaries or membership trends or effective organizational structures or a current and accurate vision statement — at that point, we have become the money changers — we have lost our faith and deserve to be driven away for we are neither living nor sharing the Good News.

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