Sentences with phrase «encourage congregations»

«In our weekly sermons we encourage our congregations to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.

Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) and its 40 state affiliates, encourage congregations of all faiths to save energy, go green, and respond to climate change.

The Church said one way of tackling the long - term decline has been to encourage congregations to work more closely together.

We develop new approaches to encourage congregations to send People and money.

Greear had laid out his four «biggest passions» for the SBC in a blog accepting his nomination: to continue and deepen the focus on gospel - centeredness in theology and mission; to engage culture with grace and truth; to encourage congregations to engage in the entities and boards of the SBC; and to equip non-Anglo pastors and members.

The authors encourage congregations to deliberately acknowledge conflicts, seek out their sources and their implications.

(CNN)- A pastor encouraging his congregation to have sex?

By not encouraging your congregation to tithe (or pray daily, or fast regularly), you are doing them a disservice.

The Maryland bishop said he encourages his congregation to get through the Great Recession by saving and sharing.

My pastor actually encouraged the congregation to watch fox news.

To begin, I have encouraged the congregation to participate in something new to them: a congregation - wide theological conversation.

He calls for a return to historical forms and styles (he prefers medieval or Renaissance) and encourages congregations to design new structures or undo modern renovations.

The goal of the sermon is to give the congregation the opportunity to realize afresh the freedom and security that has been given to it in the emptying and the exaltation of Christ Jesus and to encourage the congregation to think again about its response to that soteriological event.

If a pulpit provides an opportunity to encourage a congregation to give generously to God's work through gifts and tithes, a TV pulpit multiplies that opportunity many times over.

Natalie Collins encouraged congregations to recognise that church communities are not immune from sexual impropriety, and they should take seriously the claims of women who say they have been abused.

He has the right to encourage his congregation to believe certain things, to pressure lawmakers to vote in certain ways, and to publicly protest when things don't go his way.

Encourage your congregation and community to follow evacuation notifications being issues by the authorities.

At their weekend services, they encouraged their congregation to attend the Monday game wearing Amador Blue and to cheer from the Buffalo's sidelines.

Volunteer in schools: Encourage congregation members to serve as attendance buddies or mentors for chronically absent students.

IPL encourages congregations to address climate change by being better stewards of our resources and by bringing the voice of the faith community into the policy - making arena.

Not exact matches

I had to move on to an «open and affirming» congregation where I could be encouraged in my faith instead of steadily dealing with ignorant, hurtful comments made by selective - literalist pastors.

And yet in most congregations, offerings are collected in full public view, and we're encouraged to put the money / checks in envelopes with our names on them.

So it was encouraging today to read what Paul Leader at his Perspectives blog wrote today: If there was one message I had for pastors and leaders of congregations, churches and gatherings it would be this.

Standing in front of his congregation at Ecclesia Church, a congregation he admits is different - more diverse, more urban - than many evangelical churches - Chris Seay encouraged them to do so something he said combines the ideas of sacrifice and devotion that mark the Lenten season, the 40 - day lead up to Easter.

However, he encouraged people to not let their initial passion for the issue fade away, and said churches should invite speakers so congregations are more aware of the issue.

The congregation should be encouraged to rally around the family quietly, in order to help them resist the temptation to withdraw from the sustaining, perspective - giving relationships with the extended family (including the church), which they need desperately.

If your present congregation does not permit honest, open study of the Bible and does not find its unity in Jesus Christ, his saving work for us, and his Spirit in us, I encourage you to look elsewhere.

It was further encouraged by the Holy See's approval in 1922 of the dialogue Mass, at which the congregation would together say responses to prayers of the priest.

The institutional mechanisms that demand credentials over calling and encourage large bureaucratic congregations rather than small charismatic ones are easing the prophetic daughters out of the ordained ministry.

(One way to encourage candidates for ministry, by the way, is to make the congregation's own pastor's job seem rewarding and honored.)

Do we model and encourage within the life of the congregation (not to mention the wider world) ways of dealing with conflict, with enemies, that neither shy away from addressing problems forthrightly nor simply cut off or separate those with whom we disagree?

In this regard, when we lift up before the congregation the lives of the saints who gave themselves for others and when we encourage service to those in need around us (e.g., the works of mercy) we are contributing to the formation of the kind of people on whom the just war tradition as a form of discipleship depends.

Instead of encouraging their most gifted and talented young people to consider ordained ministry as a vocation, congregations began directing their young people toward business, law or medicine.

Indeed, encouraging and supporting candidates for ministry needs to be one of the priorities of Christian congregations.

Our congregation decided to encourage these people to come to the church to share their mealtime.

One denomination has a program for encouraging local congregations and groups of churches to establish telephone crisis counseling centers.

My work as pastor is to nourish and encourage the common life in my congregation.

A social action project to encourage businessmen in the congregation and community to employ recovered alcoholics, exprisoners, and former mental patients (tertiary prevention)

We also need readers, and much of the energy in encouraging them needs to come from local congregations.

It is a travesty of the nature of the church if the programs of a congregation encourage members to pretend that their family has no trouble or tensions.

In smaller congregations, people who have already been through some family - related trauma or who have experienced recent bereavement can be encouraged to minister to others in similar situations.

If the minister undertakes to encourage and implement the crazy - quilt variety of ideas in the average congregation of what the church should be doing with its members and resources, he or she soon finds that these ideas are competitive rather than complementary.

When normal life events like teen - parent alienation, marital stress, mid-life crises, and decisions about elderly parents are hidden behind superficial relationships in a congregation, conversations that will encourage families to minister to one another are not likely to happen.

Pastor Gadiel Ríos encouraged members to open their homes for prayer and worship with their neighbors; some in his congregation of 350 have lost everything.

One congregation «encourages churchgoers to use paint and clay to tell personal stories and «unleash your theological imagination» as part of a twice - monthly art service.»

Congregations which encourage this kind of thinking and are prepared to be guided by its outcome have a fullness of Christian reality that is lacking to those that operate out of conventions and customs.

Richard F. Ward's Reading Scripture Aloud is directed at lay persons and pastors who need to encourage full participation in the worship ministries of your congregation.

Though the pastor may often read the scripture in your congregation, the reading of scripture by lay persons, that is, lay ministers, can reap great rewards by developing leadership and encouraging full participation in the presence of God.

True, not every organized religion does this, nor even every congregation within any individual church, but they are - to put it mildly - not places were one is encouraged to question the official stance.

The close attention to such parish features as ritual process and the use of Scripture encouraged in my courses does indeed help forge links to other religions, but studying the congregation because it provides a rationale for courses in other faiths remains only a part of the reason for my interest.