Nigel Zimmermann presents critical reflections from leading Catholic prelates and scholars on the significance of the Second Vatican Council fifty years after it began. These include two senior Cardinals, one of whom is the head of the Congregation of Bishops and the other a member of Pope Francis' new advisory body on reforming the Roman Curia, as well as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. Together with thinkers from North America, the UK, Rome and Australia, they take up key themes from the Conciliar documents and assess the reception of the Council half a century on from its inception. In doing so, they open up new avenues for thinking through the authentic witness and teaching of the most important ecclesiastical event of the twentieth century. These avenues include discussion of themes such as the liturgy, communio, the Council in its historical context, the role of the laity, communicating the Council in a social media world, and the task of mission in the future. This volume marks a turning point in the Council's reception in the wider Church.

The story begins when I was old enough to remember being a child in theParsonage. All PK's will identify we are the first to get to church, last to leave, and there at least 3 times a week (BTU) Baptist Training Union, Prayer Service/Bible Study, and Sunday Worship ...if this has been your experience.....yep, you'redefinitely a pastor's kid.Foremost and above all I am a (PK) a preacher's kid. I am the fourth of six children.This book is mostly about my adolescent years. As I have written the clinician inme came gushing forth. I did not want to only complain. Yet I want to share somesupporting data which is public information. Too many clergy families are beingdevastated by this thing called ministry. If the truth be told many of our pastors arein affairs outside of their marriage. The other woman is the Bride of Christ. We spendso much time with her we neglect our wives and family. I speak not from an abstractperspective. I have been up close and personal in this thing called ministry.Seton Hall UniversityNewark College of Engineerig (NJIT)Jesus the Liberator Seminary

Experienced pastor and seminary teacher R. Robert Creech helps pastoral leaders increase their effectiveness by applying family systems theory to congregational life and ministry. Creech introduces readers to the basic concepts of Bowen Family Systems Theory, applies family theory to the work of ministry in church settings, and connects systems thinking to the everyday aspects of congregational ministry, such as preaching, pastoral care, leadership, spiritual formation, and interpreting biblical texts. Each chapter contains discussion questions, and there are five helpful appendixes with supplemental information about Bowen theory.

We live in angry times. No matter where we go, what we watch, or how we communicate, our culture is rife with division and polarization. Unfortunately, Christians appear to be caught up in the same animosity as the culture at large. While our faith calls us to Christian unity, the hard fact remains: our churches are tragically divided across class, ethnic, gender, and political lines. As these social chasms grow--both inside and outside the church--the role of the preacher becomes paramount. This book issues a prophetic call to pastors to use the influence of their pulpits to promote reconciliation and unity in their churches and communities. Two scholar-practitioners who are experts in homiletics and reconciliation present a practical, 7-step model that empowers faithful leaders to bring healing and peace to their fractured churches and world. The book includes questions for reflection, salient illustrations, and an accountability covenant. It also includes useful appendixes on preaching themes, preaching texts, and sample sermons from three leading preachers: Ralph Douglas West, Rich Villodas, and Sandra Maria Van Opstal.

During the 1720s, John Wesley began his quest to understand biblical holiness theologically and to experience it personally. Over the following decades, he preached and wrote about sanctification, carefully refining his grasp of the subject. This long-term investigation led him to study Scripture, reason, experience, and the Christian tradition. Then, in 1766, he published A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. That book went through several revisions and expansions, and in 1777, he issued his final edition of this work. Wesley's Plain Account of Christian Perfection became a Christian classic that now stands in the company of such devotional works as Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ, William Law's Serious Call to a Devout Holy Life, Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor, and Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Holy Dying. This edition of the Plain Account is a transcription provided by one of the leading Wesley scholars in the world.

The need to take the spiritual experience during illness into account is part of a broader trend in Western societies-a fascination with the practical uses of spirituality and its contribution to individual wellbeing, whether through a religious or a humanist tradition. This understanding of spirituality differs from traditional views embedded in religious traditions. This book takes a critical point of view at the biomedical representation of the function of spirituality in care. Medicine reorders notions such as life, death, health, sickness, and spirituality. This process is called here "sapientialization", i.e. the spiritual experience is expressed and understood under the auspices of and in terms of wisdom. This view tends to identify spirituality and ethics. I propose an alternate understanding of spirituality, grounded on its subversive power. Inspired by the work of the theologian John D. Caputo, it is critical of some problems that are associated with the sapientialization of spirituality in biomedicine, such as the medicalization of spiritual experiences or the instrumentalization of spirituality. It provides an understanding of spirituality that honours both the medical interest in it and its capacity to resist to instrumentalization.

This book stems from a concern to assist pastoral counsellors in developing a therapeutic alliance with African-American women. It focuses on the social construct of the African-American matriarch, which can easily misinform the counsellor and cause emotional jeopardy for African-American women who attempt to live up to its expectations.

We all want to know our lives matter. So did the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. He invested time and energy in every activity he could think of that might bring meaning and purpose to his life but found only disappointment, frustration, hopelessness. In our thirst for significance we, like the Teacher, give our lives--our time, talents, strength, heart--to anything we think will give us worth and purpose: Power. Relationships. Money. Pleasure. Work. But worshiping these idols has a high cost--and still doesn't bring the fulfillment we long for. In Breaking the Idols of Your Heart Dan Allender and Tremper Longman illuminate for us the Teacher's warnings and, after all his activities, his final radiant conclusion: Meaning and purpose come only when God is truly the center of our life and the object of our hope. Using a compelling fictional narrative at the start of each chapter to encourage reflection on our own life and the lives of family and friends, the authors lead us through Ecclesiastes to help us recognize and exchange cheap pursuits for the only One worth pursuing. Ecclesiastes is not an easy book to read, because transferring our worship from money, power and fame to God is not an easy road to travel. But as the Teacher discovered and wrote down for us, it leads to one conclusion: life lived abundantly, in freedom, hope, purpose, meaning.