A rare discovery, A Mysterious Life and Calling is the autobiography of Charlotte Levy Riley, who was born into slavery but after emancipation achieved a fulfilling career as a preacher in the South Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, schoolteacher, and civil servant. Although several nineteenth-century accounts by black preaching women in the northern states are known, this is the first memoir by a black woman preaching in the South, both before and after the Civil War, to be discovered. Born in 1839, Charlotte Riley recounts her unusual experiences growing up as a young slave girl in Charleston under the protection of her parents and the dominion of her wealthy owners. She was taught to read, write, and sew, despite laws forbidding black literacy, and while still a slave married a free black architect. Raised a Presbyterian, she writes in her memoir of her conversion at age fourteen to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, embracing its ecstatic worship and led by her own spiritual visions. After the war, she separated permanently from her husband, who objected to her call to preach, and despite poor health pursued a career into the early twentieth century as a licensed minister of the AME church, a powerful preacher at multiracial revivals, and a school teacher and principal. She contributed to the civic development of South Carolina in the post-Reconstruction era and early twentieth century, including appointment in 1885 as postmistress of Lincolnville, an all-black incorporated town in South Carolina. She published her autobiography around 1902. Crystal J. Lucky discovered Riley's forgotten book in the archives of the Stokes Library at the historically black Wilberforce University in Ohio. She provides an introduction and notes to the narrative, explaining Riley's references to contemporaries, events, society, and religious practice throughout her childhood and the turbulent years of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Lucky also places A Mysterious Life and Calling in the context of other spiritual autobiographies and slave narratives.

Scholars have historically associated John Wesley's educational endeavours with the boarding school he established at Kingswood, near Bristol, in 1746. However, his educational endeavours extended well beyond that single institution, even to non-Methodist educational programmes. This book sets out Wesley's thinking and practice concerning child-rearing and education, particularly in relation to gender and class, in its broader eighteenth-century social and cultural context. Drawing on writings from Churchmen, Dissenters, economists, philosophers and reformers as well as educationalists, this study demonstrates that the political, religious and ideological backdrop to Wesley's work was neither static nor consistent. It also highlights Wesley's eighteenth-century fellow Evangelicals including Lady Huntingdon, John Fletcher, Hannah More and Robert Raikes to demonstrate whether Wesley's thinking and practice around schooling was in any way unique. This study sheds light on how Wesley's attitudes to education were influencing and influenced by the society in which he lived and worked. As such, it will be of great interest to academics with an interest in Methodism, education and eighteenth-century attitudes towards gender and class.

The Methodist Church, with its distinctive musical inheritance by which the worldwide Church has been enriched, famously expresses its theology through its singing. Its authorised hymnbook therefore means more than a hymn book does in other traditions - it expresses the central beliefs of the Church itself and is commended to congregations as their core worship resource. Seven years in development, Singing the Faith is authorised by the Methodist Conference and replaces Hymns and Psalms, published almost 30 years ago. Containing the classic, best loved hymns of the Christian tradition it also incorporates many bold and exciting elements including hymns, songs and liturgical chants from the world church. A large proportion of its 830+ items are 20th and 21st century compositions, offering congregations a feast of musical choices spanning centuries and continents. It is arranged thematically in three parts: God's Eternal Goodness - the Trinity, praise and adoration, creation, gathering for worship, Scripture and revelation God's Redeeming Work - the life of Christ revealed throughout the Christian year God's Enduring Purposes - the Holy Spirit, our life in God, prayer, the sacraments, our human journeys, the saints and the life to come. Many helpful indexes enable fitting choices to be made that will enrich all occasions of worship. This organ edition has been designed to meet the practical requirements of church musicians. With an enlarged page size and sturdily bound in three hardback volumes, it also lies flat on music stands.

This resource gives planners of youth group meetings everything they need to carry out theme-based programming. Each of the six themes includes five options (some configuration of programs, Bible study, service project, out and about, and community-building games), plus related food suggestions, decoration ideas, music and video recommendations, celebrations, publicity helps, and a retreat schedule. Also includes background for leaders about the themes, Scriptures, and the relevancy to students.

On July 31, 1869, twenty-two members of the holiness movement of the Methodist church gathered to pray on a beach on the New Jersey shore. Before long, Ocean Grove was established as "God's Square Mile, " the first permanent camp meeting dedicated to the pursuit of both holiness and recreational activities. In this richly illustrated account, Troy Messenger looks at the numerous informal amusements of summer life at Ocean Grove and provides a glimpse into a fascinating moment in the development of both nineteenth-century religion and an American leisure culture.

Like other seaside resorts of the time such as Atlantic City and Coney Island, Ocean Grove boasted a festival atmosphere and offered such diversions as baby parades, oriental bazaars, pageants, beach games, ushers' marches, and drills by the Young Rough Riders. While guests were forbidden to drink, smoke, play cards, or drive their cars on Sunday, they were encouraged to enjoy other pursuits that would have scandalized pious Methodists of an earlier era, such as relaxing on the beach, taking the summer off, attending popular amusements, and staging comic gender satire with cross-dressed men. At Ocean Grove, however, even seemingly frivolous activities had a higher purpose: every aspect of daily life was focused on the attainment of perfection and all were performances of "holy leisure."

The genius of Ocean Grove, Messenger argues, was in extending holiness from the parlor meeting to the beach. Here, conservative evangelicals discovered a moral imperative to enjoy rest and recreation. By praying and playing together, the people of Ocean Grove acquired a unique understanding of self and community, one that illuminates theliberal social-reform movements of the nineteenth-century religious middle class and the early leisure industry.

Stories of faith, sacrifice, commitment and sheer grit are part of the foundation and fabric of the Church of the Nazarene. Read about the extraordinary, everyday people of faith who overcame great odds and made life-changing sacrifices for the sake of the church. Such as, the theologian who started in a converted chicken-coop, the district superintendent from skid row, the pastor extraordinaire who was elected to the beer board, and the Nazarene 'Mother Teresa.' Every effective movement in Christian history succeeded because unsung heroes gave themselves to a great cause. That cause for the Nazarenes was holiness of heart and life. Each story is alive, filled with a magnetic heartbeat, and provides a bridge to connect contemporary believers with unsung heroes of the past. These stories about very human people will nourish your spirit and remind you of the amazing delight of living the Christ-led life.