Sentences with phrase «local congregation»

Shows the church's true intent... stemming the losses in local congregations over the past few years.

Most metropolitan councils were organized on the basis of membership by local congregations.

In many local congregations there was a desire to express a broader message of sorrow and regret for the historical position of Indigenous people.

A few local congregations may be experimenting with real reform, and these should be celebrated.

Within most local congregations, the «environment» still lies outside the scope of concern, as though distinct from «needs of people».

Apart from occasional local congregations, the most promising place to begin is with small educational institutions closely tied to the church.

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

They called upon true believers to separate themselves from the corrupt Church and to form independent local congregations.

More worship songs than ever are flowing out of local congregations into the worldwide Church.

At first, local congregations tried to take care of the needs of their former members and friends.

In some countries it can arise from pastors in local congregations.

In fact, in both settings, there were probably more such people than are to be found in many local congregations.

True to our original purpose, PC & CC remains in close partnership with local congregations providing professional counseling and consultation in conjunction with the ongoing healing ministries of local religious communities.

Not only are there new denominations forming, such as the Association of Vineyard Churches (1982), networks of churches are emerging that are quickly becoming a nucleus for local congregations leaving mainline Protestantism.

But local congregations do not necessarily merge just because their denominations have merged.

According to the Cambridge Platform, synods had no real jurisdiction or authority over local congregations or pastors, but now even the Government was no longer interested in enforcing discipline.

But the question is: What do local congregations need most today, agitators or negotiators?

If the regional and worldwide associations of Christians were structured according to that paradigm, they would exist as communions of communions, communions of local congregations gathered around the celebration of the liturgy.

The program is based on the «simple notion that students, laypeople, pastors and professors all have a stake in the particular problems of ministry and mission within local congregations, that each has gifts to bring to the understanding of the issues and that they can work together to address those issues.»

When I pastored my last local congregation, we didn't have a vision statement.

Even though in many instances denominational structures had not been formed when independence came, invariably there were networks of local congregations ready to become denominations.

He reports that in retirement in Arizona he and his wife have found a congenial local congregation.

(CNN)- Nearly three centuries ago, in Colonial New England in the midst of a religious revival now remembered as the Great Awakening, settled ministers in local congregations complained bitterly about itinerant revivalists sweeping into town and whipping their parishioners into a frenzy.

Fresh wineskins, as local congregations adopt new administrative structures.

This corporate thrust is made through the direct effort of innumerable local congregations and through the thousands of varied denominational institutions, all of which constitute a manifold witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ as they set forth the fact that there is no human need and no human concern which is not His concern.

It will make more effectual the witness of the apparently insignificant and ineffective local congregation, at which it is easy enough to sneer if one is so inclined.

By this he means the tendency to center both practical theology and theological education on the skills that professional ministers need in order to run local congregations effectively.

Nonetheless, when Paul recovered, he and Barnabas had the courage not only to proceed to Derbe to preach the gospel there, but to retrace their steps to Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, confirming the converts they had made in those cities in the faith and establishing local congregations therein.

But local congregations also have rich opportunities.

In recent years COCU conducted experiments in joint mission and worship among local congregations — experiments which made clear the value and possibility of such a concept of congregational mission and identity.

There are many thoughtful Christians who find the life of local congregations boring and the tasks they are asked to fulfil in those congregations unchallenging.

Even its Lutheranism is unfamiliar to me: the liturgy and the preaching style at the largest local congregation, I discovered on my most recent visit, are quite different from what I have become accustomed to.

Or maybe you could bring in the pastor of a small local congregation to praise him for how he faithfully served God without giving in to the lure of a larger congregation and a larger salary elsewhere.

It is probable that few members of local congregations feel involved in the life of the WCC.

For a denomination not infrequently beleaguered by the distinction between local congregation and general agency, this mediating structure would seem an important addition to the church's life.

Are we teaching, informing and mobilizing local congregations to make an impact in this crisis?

With the exception of some statements by denominational boards and agencies, there has been a notable lack of programs and materials designed to sensitize local congregations to energy as an area of Christian moral concern.

It's unusual to have such a progressive conference in this part of the country, and I've heard of pastors from several local congregations preaching passionate sermons against the emerging church in response to the event.

The report recognizes the fact that there is disparity between the Kingdom and the actual condition of our empirical local congregations.

He also taught a course in Isaiah at the ecumenical Lenten School of Religion, a six - week venture with five local congregations cooperating.

But they were not part of a settled local congregation by whose leadership they were schooled.

Even as neighborhoods diversify, local congregations typically do not.

Hopewell's enthusiasm for strengthening the interplay between seminaries and local congregations comes from firsthand experience.

David challenges the modern need to formulate visions and set goals for local congregations.

Hopewell found neither the abstract teachings of the seminary nor the bottom - line mentality of the church of much value in dealing with the real issues of ministry and mission faced by local congregations.