This comprehensive biography of William Sheppard, the first African American Presbyterian missionary, presents the remarkable story of how an African American born in the South during the era of slavery emerged as one of the most distinguished Presbyterian leaders in American history. The book chronicles Sheppard's journey to the Congo, details his efforts to challenge human rights violations, and describes his impact on the areas of religion, human rights, education, and art.

Drawing from primary source documents such as diaries, letters, speeches, sermons, essays, and books from seventeenth-century colonial settlements in North America to today, this volume recovers the contributions of women to American religion. With its breadth and richness of sources it will be of interest and use to feminists, church historians, and students.

Dudley's work in Making the Small Church Effective (1978) broke new ground in understanding the dynamics of life in the small congregation. In this revised edition, Dudley revisits the small church, posing new questions reflective of the considerable changes that have swept over small churches in the last two decades. Among the most significant recent developments are shifts in institutional loyalty and individual's sense of identity in relation to larger groups and organizations. Dudley explores the key components that contribute to a small congregation's sense of unity and that motivate its members to more faithfully live out their faith.

The story of a Christian missionary who lived for thirteen years amongst the Ishmaelites of Moab, Edom, and the great peninsula of Arabia. Forder says, "My story is a simple record of ventures just as they occurred, a transcript of personal experiences and beliefs. It is sent forth to what I believe is a sympathetic public."

Details the stories, struggles, hopes, and deepest convictions of women in Scripture and history, drawing connections to the experiences and concerns of contemporary women of faith. Original.

Scholar, priest and monk, Dom Gueranger began his work in the aftermath of the French revolution, when religious life was effectively abolished in all of Europe. Aiming to restore all aspects of monastic life, the preservation of Gregorian chant - the sung liturgy of the church - was an essential part of Dom Gueranger's goal. He re-founded the Abbey of St. Peter in Solesmes, France, which flourishes today as the worldwide center of Gregorian chant spirituality and performance. For all who have been attracted to the beauty and deep spirituality of Gregorian chant, Solesmes and Dom Gueranger is an inspiration.

The Worship Workshop, rather than providing simply another manual for doing worship, offers instead an interactive workshop that helps worship teams develop more meaningful and memorable worship for the congregation. By combining liturgical history and the creative process, The Worship Workshop encourages worship teams and staff to break out of the traditional worship box in order to create diverse ways to present the Good News in worship.

Through a variety of activities, ideas, and informational handouts, The Worship Workshop helps worship committees, planners, and designers evaluate the state of their current worship, get more people involved in the planning and designing process, explore the diverse designs of congregational worship, learn the history of worship, and utilize the arts and artists in worship.

This interesting volume challenges the long-held assumption thatChristianity in India is nothing but a colonial or Western imposition. Leading experts here chronicle the histories and cultures ofIndia's many Christian communities and show that local Indianleaders were the real agents of religious change in the subcontinent.

These chapters range widely over various facets of Indiansociety and its religious developments. Of crucial importance isthe fact that in exploring their subjects the contributors take painsto avoid the Eurocentric nature of most studies of India and represent Christianity from a genuinely Indocentric perspective. Theresult is an entirely new vista from which to view the history, features, and influence of Indian Christianity.Contributors: Peter B. Andersen
Michael Bergunder
MarineCarrin
Penelope Carson
Gunnel Cederlof
Robert Eric Frykenberg
E. M. Jackson
Heike Liebau
Iwona Milewska
Geoffrey A.Oddie
Indira Viswanathan Peterson
Avril Powell
Paula Richman
Jayeeta Sharma
Harald Tambs-Lyche
Richard Fox Young

Are small membership churches simply places where attendance is dropping, the building is out of date, the programs are boring, and people don't want to change? Jeffrey Patton says absolutely not! Small churches can become explosive centers of witness and mission. In If It Could Happen Here . . . Patton describes six "levers" for transforming a small membership church: prayer, discerning a clear vision, indigenous worship, growth groups, membership recruitment, and lay pastoring.

Prepare everyone in the congregation for a meaningful Lenten season with this worship guide for Reconciliation. Designed to be used each weekday during the season of Lent, it encourages individuals to read short sections from the Bible, then reflect on the meaning of the readings in their own lives.
Six study guides for group discussion enable small groups to discuss how reconciliation is working in their own lives. Stimulating questions will lead to a shared experience and closer ties among church members.
A Companion volume of sermon outlines and program ideas is available.
Karen Helsel has served as a missionary in Bangkok, Thailand, an associate pastor of outreach and youth, and a case manager for a women's shelter for the homeless. She attended Warner Pacific College in Portland and Gulf Coast Bible College in Houston, and received her B.A. degree in Psychology from Anderson University in Indiana.

"Shoes Outside the Door is a not only a fine history of the San Francisco Zen Center and Zen in the United States, it is a cautionary tale, valuable to anyone embarked on a spiritual practice." --San Jose Mercury News. Eastern tradition collides with Western individualism in this provocative and compulsively readable investigation of Buddhism, American-style. A genuine spiritual movement becomes strangely entangled with elitist aesthetics, the culture of celebrity, multi-million-dollar investment portfolios, sex scandals, and an unsolved crime.Told Rashomon-fashion by a singular mix of hippies, millionaires, intellectuals, and lost souls whose lives are almost unbelievably intertwined, Shoes Outside the Door is the first book to examine the inner workings of the profoundly influential San Francisco Zen Center. In exploring the history of the most important institution in American Buddhism, author Michael Downing provocatively captures the profound ambivalence of people who earnestly seek both inner peace and worldly satisfaction.

The Lord's Supper is the world in miniature; it has cosmic significance. Within it we find clues to the meaning of all creation and all history, to the nature of God and the nature of man, to the mystery of the world, which is Christ. It is not confined to the first day, for its power fills seven. Though the table stands at the center, its effects stretch out to the four corners of the earth.

The Sundays of Lent don't have to be boring! Follow the lectionary and provide your congregation with exciting worship experiences by using these positive yet sensitive dialogue sermons based on Cycle A of the Revised Common Lectionary. Wit and scripture are combined to encourage Christian growth and prod listeners into making a personal commitment. In addition to six sermon dialogues, worship planning aids are included for each Sunday, along with an Ash Wednesday worship service. In addition to six sermon dialogues, worship planning aids are included for each Sunday, plus an Ash Wednesday worship service with the theme-setting sermon, "Onward! Through The Fog!" Subsequent to a position as Business Administrator of the New York State Grange, E. Morris-Pierce began studies to become a pastor in the United Methodist Church. She served as an officer in the Salvation Army for five years, and her various church positions have included church secretary, choir director, organist, handbell choir director, and Sunday school teacher. She and her husband, Rev. Norman Morris, were foster parents to sixteen children before adopting their daughter. Her own unusual childhood experiences at an orphanage and various boarding homes contributed much to her background and character.

Creative, inspiring aids to prayer in corporate worship from one of today's best known preachers and teachers.

"John Killinger has been helping us to worship the true, living, and interesting God for a long time. John loves words, particularly words spoken to God by those who have heard God speak. This is a wonderful collection of prayers." --William H. Willimon, Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry, Duke University Chapel, Durham, North Carolina

"Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise is a book of worship resources and prayers that is practical in nature and poetic in quality. An artist with words, Dr. Killinger takes our common experiences and illuminates them with deep spiritual insight." --Dr. Walter J. Vernon, Consulting Minister, First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, California

"In the tradition of Buttrick, Fosdick, Baillie, and Samuel Miller, a great preacher has shared with the church a timely and unique collection of his prayers and other aids to public and private worship. John Killinger is a wordsmith who weaves together images that lead us to the very heart of God. Pastors will find their own prayer lives deepened by this volume and congregations will discover language that bridges classical and contemporary liturgy. One cannot read Killinger's words and not be 'Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise.' " --William B. Oden, Resident Bishop, Dallas Area, The United Methodist Church

This book is a collection of eleven essays about the practice of mission. The first section, titled "Feet First," is about the way in which Christian practices, many of them taken for granted, shape mission. The next section deals with the issue of transformation in mission work and the related concerns of mutuality, solidarity, and marginality. The third section takes up the situation of the relation of Christianity to other religions. Finally, the last four essays take up spirituality as an inward and outward event, doing mission in the context of North America, and finally the development of a new theological identity based on the image of God as a missionary God.

A first approach to understanding humility is to see it as that total self-acceptance typical of untarnished humanity. Those who are humble experience no shame. They do not need lies and evasions to inflate their importance in the eyes of their associates or to buttress their self-esteem. They have overcome the tendency to regard others as competitors or rivals, and so they work with whatever they have, and waste no time envying those who possess different qualities. The humble are equally content with both the gifts and the limitations that come from their nature or their personal history. Humility brings with it a fundamental happiness that is able to cope with external difficulties and sorrows.

This is a newly typeset edition of a nineteenth century history of the Waldensian movement which the authors credit with guarding the flame of primitive Christianity against corruptions instituted by Papal authority.

This historical narrative of Protestantism in India records the views of the Tamil-speaking peoples among whom German Pietists worked beginning in 1706. The views recorded here include those of Hindus, Muslims, and Catholics, but special attention is given to Tamils who became Evangelicals. Drawing on concrete historical analysis, Tamil writings, and archival materials, D. Dennis Hudson's work not only illumines a little-known period of religious history but also raises significant questions about the relationship between faith and culture.

A new and expansive official history of the USPG commissioned to mark the tercentenary in 2001. The first half tells a compelling global story from the mission to the Americas in the 18th century, through the North China Mission in the late 19th century to today's Social Development Programme in Bangladesh. There is a particular focus on the post-1945 period of decolonization, development and dialogue with other religions. The second half is a collection of essays that give a wide range of themes and perspective from a history of missionary wives by Deborah Kirkwood to a discussion of the evolving role of the church in Zambia by Musonda Mwamba.Three Centuries of Mission emphasizes the key instrumentality of the USPG in the emergence of a worldwide network of Churches in the Anglican Communion and their significance in the world at the beginning of the new century.>