Sentences with phrase «congregational story»

Here I want to demonstrate, by telling a congregational story in the light of its myth, the four features of both story and myth to which I pay special attention in the search for character.

The plot that tracks the connection between Christ and Eros in congregational story will be one that reflects not Niebuhr's «Christ against culture» category but his four other types of interaction between the two powers in human life.

The toil of Eros is essential to congregational story because, as Niebuhr perceived, Eros signifies far more than the contradiction of agape love: Eros is an image of culture itself, the expressive stuff without which the proclamation or incarnation of the Christian story is inconceivable.

They are the ones a congregational study team will use in discerning the structure of the congregational story and its mythic parallels.

Congregational story is a household confession that recognizes the continuing participation of the church in the passage of events.

To tell the congregational story, therefore, is an act of confession in which the parish acknowledges that while it is the principal author of its plot, and accepts the design of its past and the nature of its present, in the light of God's story for all humankind it also resolves to claim a transformed future.

Concentrated information about the setting of the congregational story can be obtained through such conversations.

Through the discourse of its members the congregational story establishes its world setting.

Not exact matches

And just as families select artifacts that suggest past happiness in order to soften the blows inflicted by actions of family members in less happy times, congregational histories can create illusions: authors might relate in two sentences the experience of an unhappy pastorate that led to two decades of misery — and distort the whole story by dwelling on the beauty of the old sanctuary, hence suggesting general happiness.

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.

The major aspects of parish story already examined, setting and characterization, depict features of congregational life that — though by no means immutable — usually remain the same over long periods of time.

Moreover, the myth should illuminate the four basic elements of congregational character that have been mentioned before and utilized in each of the stories of churches presented in these latter chapters.

In making this proposal I am building on a suggestion first advanced by James F. Hopewell.Growing out of years of involvement in a group exploring different ways to study congregations [1] and his own ground - breaking Congregation: Stories and Structures, [2] Hopewell wrote an essay, «A Congregational Paradigm for Theological Education.»

In a catalog I recently edited of devices and instruments for congregational research, only a small minority of the hundred or so entries is designed to explore a congregation's narrative identity.20 Most doctor of ministry programs continue the tradition: perusal of the theses and essays these programs produce strongly suggests that projects that employ contextual, mechanist, or organicist methods are more likely to be accepted than those that delve into congregational culture and story.

Not only does narrative convey the experience of corporate existence, it also characterizes the continuing form of symbolic interchange among members.14 The rich discourse that constitutes congregational life occurs almost entirely in story form.

Story expresses the intricacy of congregational life.

In the plot of the local church the story of Christ weaves itself throughout the erotic narrative, sometimes accepting and affirming the church's story as it stands (thus linking Christ and Eros), sometimes teasing (or unfolding) the congregational narrative toward the promise of the kingdom, sometimes prophetically contradicting the erotic story by disputing (thus thickening) its development, and sometimes actually transforming congregational culture by twisting its plot.

One story in today's Hartford Courant is about Governor Malloy's visit last night to the Faith Congregational Church where he explained that if the 81 state representatives and 27 or 28 senators from the poorest (and most minority) districts voted for his version of the «Education Reform» bill — it would pass.

Arranged coverage stories for congregational activities, including a full - page photo spread on our work with Habitat for Humanity