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The Pastor’s Role I must say that I learned a lot from this class both through the readings and through class discussion. I really, honestly do not have anything that I starkly disagreed with in either. I found it all to be very valuable information for me and this class was extremely helpful in assisting me to better understand the current paradigm shift the church is going through. There are three take-a-ways in particular that helped me to better understand the post modern shift in the church and my role as a minister in this changing paradigm. The first take-a-way is the understanding that there is a shift occurring towards focusing more on the congregational life of the church with more attention on the laity and its formation. Second, is how to plan, as a church and as pastors, to adjust to this shift towards congregational life and how to be better prepared as a postmodern church to be relevant in this changing time. Lastly, I received a better way of explaining the meaning of what truth is in this post modern time. I agree with Kitchens, Mead, and Roxburgh who all basically say in their own way that one change in ministry that we need to focus on more is the congregational life of the church. However, I think Mead explains it best when he says that the future church must be more intentional in the spiritual formation of its laity (Mead, location 919). According to Mead, the church is moving towards becoming a more missional institution that cares for the needs of the community. Therefore, oftentimes laity will be the ones on the front lines and will need the capacity to minister to people on their own without the help of clergy. In order to do this they will need more directed and intensive training to deal with... ... middle of paper ... ...t. Now I realize that the entire universal church is going through a change and that God is doing a new thing. It appears right now, in this post modern time, that God is showing us that he is more concerned with transforming lives and making his people whole. I agree as we said in class that we are moving from orthodoxy to orthopraxy and I for one think that is a great thing. Now maybe we can move closer to becoming what God called the church to be and that is to be living vessels of his light and love in the world. Bibliography Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier . The Alban Institute, Inc., 1991. Kindle eBook file. Roxburgh, Alan J. Missional Map-MakingSkills for Leading in Times of Transisition. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Kindle eBook file.
The size of the Christian megachurch is manifested in its title, which demonstrates that this typically prodigious and resplendent edifice sustains a weekly attendance of at least two thousand congregants; and that the majority of the mega churches are of the Protestant persuasion, of which its doctrine is basically the antithesis of Catholicism’s authoritarian structures, as well as the other major religions of Islam, Hinduism and Old Testament Judaism (The Hartford Seminary). Over the years, there has not only been an enormous emergence of mega churches here in the US, but also of many disparaging remarks from the public, comedians, books and the news media, about this institution. Some assert that these types of churches are not really concerned about the souls of the people, and they are prodigious only because of the avarice, a misrepresentation of Jesus Christ and a manipulation of the hearts of people, in conjunction with a gross negligence of spiritual leadership. The truth is, that in some instances there is malfeasance, but in others, the church is led by the Spirit of God with vigor and integrity.
Oxbrow, Mark. "Anglicans And Reconciling Mission: An Assessment Of Two Anglican International Gatherings." International Bulletin Of Missionary Research 33.1 (2009): 8-10. Religion and Philosophy Collection. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.
Others have tried to do what Diogenes Allen, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary, does in his book but none with his breadth or effectiveness. That is, others have attempted to exploit for theism's benefit the hard times now befalling the modern world's emphasis on scientific reasoning and pure rationality, which for quite a while had placed Christianity (and religious belief in general) on the intellectual and cultural defensive. Many of these earlier attempts made use of the Wittgensteinian concepts of "form of life" or "language game" to show that both science and religion depended on unproven assumptions and therefore rested equally on grounds without firm foundations. These kinds of attempts, however, could most always aim no higher than to make the world safe for fideism. And fideism is not to defend the faith. What makes Allen's contribution special and important is his effort to examine in a philosophically rigorous way what we mean when we say Christianity is true. He quotes Colossians 2:2 at the start of his book, but I Peter 3:15 is just as appropriate for what follows: "Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence."
In an age when culture continues to lower standards of intellect, Marva Dawn makes compelling observations and suggestions for the Church to rethink its strategy on impacting society. How do we evangelize without weakening the message of what we are communicating? The majority of her text focuses on the worship environment generally, but later she focuses on music, preaching, and liturgy specifically. According to Dawn, a gathering of believers should emphasize God as the subject and object of worship, challenge each individual to grow in godly character, and accentuate the community of believers (not only in the room, but throughout history as well). Through this grid, she encourages leaders and participants to evaluate each worship element.
In every sense, the Emergent church is at least, improvisational. It takes Christianity, and not only challenges the traditional ways of the religion, but alters it in order to appeal to a new generation of non-believers as well as believers. The emerging church is used to describe the new and rapidly growing amount of mission Christian congregation. It is a name given to those who believe that God is the truth alone, but the old ways of exposing that fact are no longer useful in today’s society. Such things include worship, prayer, preaching, and outreach. The emerging generation sees these aspects as very flexible features of the Christian church since the old forms of expression don’t seem to have as much of an effect on society today than it did decades ago. In this logic, the emergent church is seeking alternative forms of spiritual formation that are controversial to, and within Christianity, which is making it a misunderstood movement. Like every other type of movement, this effort had just started as a conversation among its leaders.
Campbell, Ted A. “The Wesleys’ New Denomination.” Christianity Today. 11 Mar 1991: 33-35. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 24 Nov 2013
5. Blumhofer, Edith L. Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture, 1993
Richardson, William E., and Dave Kidd. “Articles.” Pentecostal Evangel. General Council of the Assemblies of God. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.
“Today, God is creating wave after wave of people receptive to the Gospel; more people are receptive to the Good News. However, churches are missing the spiritual waves because they haven’t been taught the needed skills to bring revival, health, and explosive growth.” We need to ask “What is keeping our church from growing?” not “What will make our church grow?” Some places to start questioning would be - first review the pastor of the church; are they being the example? Then to the church leader(s), staff and volunteers; are they qualified? Followed by the programs of the church; are they supporting your mission statement? There are many more question to be asked and answered. However, I believe through the lectures, training and guidance given from pastoral leadership 201 I will be able to answer this question:
I want to say what Philosophy of Ministry means to me, this is my first time attending college, as like so many others this ministry thing hit you at a young age and you began to go through life wanting to know more about Adam and Eve, Noah and Jesus, everyone else in the Bible really don’t count to you or not that important to you as a child, as a child, growing up without a father my mother had to work so we had less time with her too. Now, my mother was working a lot back then so me and my brothers and sisters had to either stay with our grandmother or stay home in the house. At “Granny’s” nothing but church on TV or Radio, so that was I knew I wanted to be a Minister. The way that I am preparing for Ministry is I went back to school to
Young, D. S. (1999). Servant Leadership for Church Renewal: Sheperds By the Living Springs. Scottdale: Herald Press.
Bolger, Ryan & Gibbs, Eddie. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian community in postmodern cultures (Grand Rapids, MI) Baker Academic, 2005
I have often been so consumed on church growth that I have overlooked the fact that there is a greater need for growth in faith as outlined in the book Transforming Evangelism. This is a sometimes hard concept for me because success is often measured on church growth.
His church is a “good sized” suburban church that has been around for 295 years. He describes the parishioners as having a “broad tent” of theological views. This congregation is open to new ideas and re-visiting the old. They appear to be carrying out intentional missional work in their community
There is no doubt that the fundamental idea of Church, faith, and prayer lived by the early Christian, needs to be rediscovered among many contemporary Christians. The conviction that the apostles had to preach the Gospel of Jesus certainly was aided by their idea of Church, faith, and prayer. In his book “Catholicism: A Journey to the Heat of the Faith”, Father Robert Barron tries to revive the idea of Catholicism that seems to weaken and lose its real sense. With my understanding of Church, faith, and prayer, I argue that because of the lack of understanding about Catholicism that exist today in our midst, many people fall short about what Catholicism really means. However, it is not my intention to answer this question.