Free Range Priest: Ordained Ministry Reimagined in the 21st Century PDF Download

Author: Cathie Caimano
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1365869237
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Free Range Priest ministry is how clergy can work in the 21st century church. Too many congregations can no longer afford full-time salaries for their ministers. Clergy today are serving in multiple roles within and outside the traditional church model. Becoming a Free Range Priest helps support congregations and bring the Gospel to the world in new ways.

Author: Michael Plekon
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 166678995X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Congregations are shrinking and in decline. Fewer people are part of communities of faith. Michael Plekon's previous book, Community as Church, Church as Community, traced the factors behind this as well as the resurrection of parishes that have reimagined themselves in diverse ways. Pastors have played essential roles in such transformation. But where are the ordained today? Ministry Matters is a sustained meditation on the vocation, lives, and work of pastors today. We listen to an ecumenical group of exceptional pastor-theologians on how pastors live and serve. These include George Keith, Nicholas Afanasiev, Barbara Brown Taylor, C. Andrew Doyle, Andrew Root, Sarah Coakley, Samuel Wells, Rowan Williams, Henri Nouwen, Pope Francis, David Barnhart, and Will Willimon, with commentary from Michael Plekon, who has served as priest in both western and eastern churches for over forty years. Many years of pastoral experience are shared here, providing a feast of reflection on the shepherds of God's flock.

Author: The Faith and Order Commission
Publisher: Church House Publishing
ISBN: 0715111760
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
Kingdom Calling offers a compelling theological grounding for the vocation, ministry and discipleship of the whole people of God. Building creatively on previous studies, it challenges all of us to change so that the whole church can serve the whole mission of God in the whole of life. Kingdom Calling provides a thorough diagnosis of the theological factors that have prevented such a vision being realised over previous decades. These factors are embedded in the social realities of our everyday life and in the sometimes hidden assumptions that shape our thinking in the church. By setting out a sustained proposal for the renewal of our theological imagination, the report points the way to address some deep running fault lines in our common life. Written in an accessible style, Kingdom Calling looks in turn at the vocation, ministry and discipleship of all God’s people, asking what kind of theological thinking and imagining might most help us to flourish together. It affirms and celebrates the vital lay and ordained ministry roles that support the church in God’s mission, and it identifies changes in practice that can better foster the vocation, ministry and discipleship of the whole people of God.

Author: G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611649935
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Churches experiencing numerical and financial decline may dread the day when they can no longer afford a full-time pastor. Freeing up funds that would go to a full-time salary sure would help the budgetmaybe even enough to turn things aroundbut is it even possible to run effective ministries with just a half- or quarter-time professional? Journalist and part-time pastor Jeffrey MacDonald says yeschurches can grow more vibrant than ever, tapping into latent energy and undiscovered gifts, revitalizing worship, and engaging in more effective ministry with the community.Readers get a much-needed playbook forhelping congregations to thrive with a part-time ministry model. They learn to see the model in a new light: to stop viewing part-time as a problem to be eradicated and to instead embrace it as a divine gift that facilitates a higher level of lay engagement, responsibility, playfulness, and creativity.

Author: Mark D. W. Edington
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 0819233870
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
Bivocational: Returning to the Roots of Ministry offers one answer to the pressing question of the future of congregational life in the mainline Protestant Church. The contention of the book is that the model of professional ministry we have received from the past century of congregational life is imposing unsustainable costs on most congregations and parishes. In consequence, these faith communities face stark choices for which there are no self-evident answers. Shall we close? Shall we merge with another congregation—a decision shaped by a primary value on maintaining a full-time professional in the role of ordained minister? Can we find someone who will do the job part-time? What will it mean for them—and for us? Bivocational explores the impact on the ministry, on congregations, and on denominational polities of encouraging a way forward—one in which bivocational ordained professionals, ministers working simultaneously in the church and in secular life, come to leadership positions in the church. It explores the different sorts of gifts and preparation such ordained ministers need, and how a bivocational ethos looks when it characterizes not only the ordained minister, but all ministers of the congregation—lay and ordained alike.

Author: Bo Lane
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781497410893
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description
My journey as a pastor had quite a few ups and downs. Although there were many aspects of serving in full-time ministry that I loved, there were more things that happened along the way that made a negative impact on both myself and my family. After I resigned from the pastorate, it took several years of forgiving and getting plugged in to a healthy church before I really began to heal from the hurt. Whether you've spent your entire career as a pastor or if you have recently thrown in the towel, Why Pastors Quit is an easy-to-read book that will encourage you and make you ask the question: What can I do to help change the statistics?

Author: Craig Van Gelder
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467449679
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Explores how the church has engaged—and should engage—the American context What might faithful and meaningful Christian witness look like within our changing contemporary American context? After analyzing contemporary challenges and developing a missiological approach for the US church, Craig Van Gelder and Dwight Zscheile reflect on the long, complex, and contested history of Christian mission in America. Five distinct historical periods from the beginning of the colonial era to the dawn of the third millennium are reviewed and critiqued. They then bring the story forward to the present day, discussing current realities confronting the church, discerning possibilities of where and how the Spirit of God might be at work today, and imagining what participating in the triune God’s mission may look like in an uncertain tomorrow.

Author: Rowan Williams
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1590303903
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
The place "where God happens," according to Rowan Williams's striking new reading of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, is between each other. It's a truth that we of the twenty-first century most urgently need to learn in order to heal the experience of alienation that has become endemic to our age, and these odd and appealing ancient figures, surprisingly, hold keys to this healing. The fourth-century Christian hermits of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine understood the truth of Christian community profoundly, and their lives demonstrate it vividly—even though they often lived in solitude and isolation. The author breaks through our preconceived ideas of the Desert Fathers to reveal them in a new light: as true and worthy role models—even for us in our modern lives—who have much to teach us about dealing with the anxieties, uncertainties, and sense of isolation that have become hallmarks of modern life. They especially embody valuable insights about community, about how to live together in an intimate and meaningful way. Williams makes these radical figures, who clearly have a special place in his heart, come to life in a new way for everyone. The book includes an appendix of selections from the teachings of the Desert Fathers.

Author: Eileen R. Campbell-Reed
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
ISBN: 1506470068
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life informs and inspires the practice of ministry through "on the ground" learning experienced in a variety of ministry settings. Each of the fifty chapters explores a single concept through story, reflection, and provocative open-ended questions designed to spark conversation between ministers and mentors, among ministry peers, or for personal journal reflections. The book is closely integrated with the author's Three Minute Ministry Mentor web resource.

Author: Gillian A. Frank
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469636271
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
At a moment when "freedom of religion" rhetoric fuels public debate, it is easy to assume that sex and religion have faced each other in pitched battle throughout modern U.S. history. Yet, by tracking the nation's changing religious and sexual landscapes over the twentieth century, this book challenges that zero-sum account of sexuality locked in a struggle with religion. It shows that religion played a central role in the history of sexuality in the United States, shaping sexual politics, communities, and identities. At the same time, sexuality has left lipstick traces on American religious history. From polyamory to pornography, from birth control to the AIDS epidemic, this book follows religious faiths and practices across a range of sacred spaces: rabbinical seminaries, African American missions, Catholic schools, pagan communes, the YWCA, and much more. What emerges is the shared story of religion and sexuality and how both became wedded to American culture and politics. The volume, framed by a provocative introduction by Gillian Frank, Bethany Moreton, and Heather R. White and a compelling afterword by John D'Emilio, features essays by Rebecca T. Alpert and Jacob J. Staub, Rebecca L. Davis, Lynne Gerber, Andrea R. Jain, Kathi Kern, Rachel Kranson, James P. McCartin, Samira K. Mehta, Daniel Rivers, Whitney Strub, Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci, Judith Weisenfeld, and Neil J. Young.