United by Faith
United by Faith

Author: Curtiss Paul DeYoung

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780195177527

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Presents an argument for multiracial Christian congregations in breaking down racial barriers in the United States.

Elders in Congregational Life (Newton)
Elders in Congregational Life (Newton)

Author: Phil A. Newton

Publisher: Kregel Academic

Published:

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9780825494789

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(Foreword by Mark Dever) A biblically functioning church requires intentional devotion to the New Testament model of the church. In this practical book, Phil Newton gives a definitive and biblical study of elder-based leadership.

Congregations in America
Congregations in America

Author: Mark Chaves

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0674029445

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More Americans belong to religious congregations than to any other kind of voluntary association. What these vast numbers amount to--what people are doing in the over 300,000 churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples in the United States--is a question that resonates through every quarter of American society, particularly in these times of "faith-based initiatives," "moral majorities," and militant fundamentalism. And it is a question answered in depth and in detail in Congregations in America. Drawing on the 1998 National Congregations Study--the first systematic study of its kind--as well as a broad range of quantitative, qualitative, and historical evidence, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the most significant form of collective religious expression in American society: local congregations. Among its more surprising findings, Congregations in America reveals that, despite the media focus on the political and social activities of religious groups, the arts are actually far more central to the workings of congregations. Here we see how, far from emphasizing the pursuit of charity or justice through social services or politics, congregations mainly traffic in ritual, knowledge, and beauty through the cultural activities of worship, religious education, and the arts. Along with clarifying--and debunking--arguments on both sides of the debate over faith-based initiatives, the information presented here comprises a unique and invaluable resource, answering previously unanswerable questions about the size, nature, make-up, finances, activities, and proclivities of these organizations at the very center of American life.

A History of the First Parish Church of Scituate, Massachusetts
A History of the First Parish Church of Scituate, Massachusetts

Author: Richard M. Stower

Publisher: Converpage

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 9780985828264

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The First Parish Church of Scituate, Massachusetts was gathered in 1634 but the history of the congregation begins in London in 1616. Henry Jacob, a Puritan dissenter, believed the Church of England had not reformed from the Catholic church enough and that people should form churches of their own like the first Christian churches. Jacob gathered a congregation in the Southwark borough of London in 1616, the first Independent (non-conformist) congregation in England. His successor, the Rev. John Lothrop, led the illegal congregation and for that he, along with a number of congregants, was jailed in the notorious prison, the Clink. Upon his release from prison Lothrop left for New England with some members of the Southwark congregation and settled in Scituate. First Parish in Scituate has a long, rich and surprising history. Rev. Lothrop is the ancestor to some of the most prominent American families such as the Roosevelts, the Bushes, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Georgia O'Keefe and Benjamin Spock. Two of its early ministers were presidents of Harvard College. One minister's daughter was involved in a love triangle with Henry David Thoreau and his brother, John. Another minister later became a gold miner; another, a pacifist, paid the price for the rest of his life; still another was a Shakespearean troubadour for a time. The history of First Parish is a story of a small congregation continuing over the course of over 375 years despite schisms, financial struggles and a devastating fire. It has continued to serve the town of Scituate due to the hard work of its women, men and children through the years. The Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society gave its first Congregational History prize to Richard M. Stower for A History of the First Parish Church of Scituate, Massachusetts citing it as a remarkably comprehensive study of a 379-year-old congregation that sheds important new light on every age of Puritan, Unitarian, and Unitarian Universalist History. (June 2013)

The Last Puritans
The Last Puritans

Author: Margaret Bendroth

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2015-08-12

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 146962401X

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Congregationalists, the oldest group of American Protestants, are the heirs of New England's first founders. While they were key characters in the story of early American history, from Plymouth Rock and the founding of Harvard and Yale to the Revolutionary War, their luster and numbers have faded. But Margaret Bendroth's critical history of Congregationalism over the past two centuries reveals how the denomination is essential for understanding mainline Protestantism in the making. Bendroth chronicles how the New England Puritans, known for their moral and doctrinal rigor, came to be the antecedents of the United Church of Christ, one of the most liberal of all Protestant denominations today. The demands of competition in the American religious marketplace spurred Congregationalists, Bendroth argues, to face their distinctive history. By engaging deeply with their denomination's storied past, they recast their modern identity. The soul-searching took diverse forms--from letter writing and eloquent sermonizing to Pilgrim-celebrating Thanksgiving pageants--as Congregationalists renegotiated old obligations to their seventeenth-century spiritual ancestors. The result was a modern piety that stood a respectful but ironic distance from the past and made a crucial contribution to the American ethos of religious tolerance.