Sentences with phrase «persons as the congregation»

As guest speaker, I am greeted by a handful of persons as the congregation files out of the glen.

Not exact matches

After I left New Orleans, I joined a Houston congregation made up of people who relocated to the city as a result of Katrina.

There are so many congregations doing the same thing the same way every single week — and the same way as so many other congregations — that people become starved for something, ANYTHING that's at least a change from the monotony.

To help direct the congregation's reflection, he offered two principles: «(a) unconditional respect for the human being as a person from conception to natural death; (b) respect for the originality of the transmission of human life through the acts proper to spouses.»

I was eventually laid - off to due to «lack of funds» (which I have in writing) it seemed as though people in our congregation began fleeing contemporary church and we couldn't pay me and the Lead Pastor (who sat in his office day in, day out)... I won't settle for another stagnant «building - pastor» gig, I promise.

As a young pastor I tried to maintain control of the congregation and each person in it.

We see them as obstacles and we complain that but for such and such a person things would have been better in the congregation, in the family and in the community.

This weekend, 26 people were killed and at least 20 more were injured when a gunman opened fire on the congregation of a small community church as they worshipped during a Sunday morning service.

I wrote about two dozen prayers in as many days, lucid and heartfelt, and the people of my home church distributed them to the congregation in photocopied booklets.

Release a list of all the Archbishops, Bishops, and priests that molested their congregation, with a list of who was molested, as well as complete signed apologies from all the resulting offenders, and a signed confession by the Pope that these people will be charged in a criminal court for these crimes and will not ever be allowed to preach the word of God in a Catholic church, and then, MAYBE, I'll think you have a right to tell your followers they can't do with their bodies as they please.

They should have everyone of those people come in, stand in front of the congregation and offer an apology to them for bringing shame upon them as a congregation.

Further, he insisted, a congregation's particular story, because it draws from a treasury of narrative elements available to all groups of people as they struggle for survival and meaning, is its channel to participation in the worldwide mission of establishing God's shalom.

@Luke: Admire the intention, but I reserve some skepticism, at least for now, on whether # 1 and # 2 can really be done independently of the already present spoken and unspoken expectations in the congregation, denomination and religion, as well as people's preconceived ideas of what church is (as opposed to what it would or should be).

As we have seen, having persons with such capacities in its midst is critical to a congregation's well - being.

As to obligations of a more personal nature I have many people to thank — colleagues who have advised me, students at Union Theological Seminary who have stimulated me with their responsive interest, members of the congregation of The Riverside Church, New York, who, by their attentive listening to mid-week lectures on the subjects handled in this book, have kept alive my confidence that even difficult and recondite problems concerning the Bible are of vital, contemporary importance.

At the end of my talk, a pastor, who described his congregation to me as white suburban dwellers, said to me, «You know Pastor Mike, I am just gonna» be honest, why don't your people just get a job, stop asking for a free pass and stop committing crimes?

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).

There will be some people, of course, who will resist and be alienated by such honesty between preacher and congregation, but their responses have to be accepted as inevitable.

As for the widow's mite, we have praised her devotion a zillion times, but none of us really wants a whole congregation full of generously self - sacrificing poor people, do we?

Preachers must be aware of the diversity of persons in their congregation, yet try to speak so that the Spirit, through scripture, addresses many hearts in ways that will be fitting to each, as different as these hearers are known to be from one another.

Insofar as people who make up a congregation are serious enough to be critically self - reflective about their own lives as acts of discipleship, they are doing theology, at least in an ad hoc and piecemeal way.

@Brett The early leaders of the church, Popes, Cardinals and Bishops used the generic term «wife» as church, collection of people or congregation because they knew they were about to screw the sheepies over not matter their gender.

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.

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.

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.

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.

But 1,000 or 10,000 people spread out over hundreds of smaller churches and ministries can do just as much ministry (and some of it in better ways, for the reasons you've mentioned) than when we're all clumped together in one big congregation.

«There are plenty of people there who are not real,» he says, as he acknowledges the growing discomfort of hearing his own name more often on the lips of his congregation than the name of Jesus.

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

As we carefully sorted through what people had to say in congregations where one would expect denominational boundaries to have blurred, some interesting patterns emerged.

Some say the clergy should develop more self - esteem, be more assertive, learn to say No, demand a day off — in brief, become as self - centered as many of the people in their congregations.

Because Jesus Christ is present with all people as the Giver of food and drink and as the Bread of life, and because his presence is revealed to his congregation by the Holy Spirit, and because he permits and commands us to eat and, drink, therefore we may and must eat and drink all things with Jesus in faith, love and hope.

Even spiritual associations such as religious orders and congregations were influenced by this perspective, though rare individuals stood up for the oppressed indigenous peoples and slaves as in Americas.

If the married persons in his congregation were asked to rate the relative happiness of their nuptial relationship, fewer than half would rate them as «very happy» (Ibid.

As the spiritual director of the life of the congregation, the pastor is the person charged with oversight of all church - related programs.

As long as there is one person of color in a church congregation, it is not segregated, and thus there are many many thousands of churches in America that are not segregated (here in Atlanta, I don't know of anyAs long as there is one person of color in a church congregation, it is not segregated, and thus there are many many thousands of churches in America that are not segregated (here in Atlanta, I don't know of anyas there is one person of color in a church congregation, it is not segregated, and thus there are many many thousands of churches in America that are not segregated (here in Atlanta, I don't know of any).

While that debate is important, so too is the need for congregations to meet the immediate pastoral needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well...

But as pastoral director he is to give guidance, encouragement, and leadership to a congregation of people who do the work of the Church, and who are seeking to live as committed Christians.

We spoke of many things, but the conversation repeatedly returned to the people and ministry of the Bronx congregation where he had served as interim pastor.

But, over the years, the congregation did, in fact, become more diverse, and by the time I had been there for 12 years, there were maybe 50 gay and lesbian persons, there were about 30 Hispanic individuals, there were a number of African Americans and African natives, and there was other diversity as well; and we talked a lot about how pleased we were that this was all happening.

Join pastors, college - age persons, and congregations as we continue to connect with young adults on a walkabout»

The local congregation rarely helps people see it because the church as world reality is not tangibly present there.

These conversations have made their church more sensitive to the concerns of LGBT people in their congregation and in their neighborhood and are guiding them as they seek to embody the love of Christ for all people.

Deeply religious people, and they are a small minority in every congregation, have a personal relationship with a God they feel is as present in the church as the next person in the pew.

The church becomes one more dehumanising «thing» (seeing people as things called sinners, or bums on pews, or soldiers in the work of the church, or worship leaders, or whatever) more concerned with making sure the church / congregation / denomination survives than with seeing the individuals live.

As one pastor who moved from a large church to a small church commented, I would never go back to a large church... Administrative tasks kept getting in the way of doing what I wanted to be doing,... [which is] serving a congregation and making a difference in people's lives.»

This is why the preaching moment is a confluence of people, times and contexts and therefore requires the engagement of the congregation not only as careful, critical listeners, but as participants in preparation and follow - up (Wardlaw).

To prepare for mission, in this view of things, would require the members of a congregation to discount their self - serving stuff, attempting to slough it off in order to offer their more recognizably Christian hopes and actions, such as the grace and love witnessed in their Communion, to other people.

I decided not to share the memories of my first congregation served as a pastor until one specific person died.

As both congregations dwindled due to the people moving away from the shrinking town, the pastors of the two churches decided to join forces and become one church.