The Death of Sunday School and the Future of Faith Formation
The Death of Sunday School and the Future of Faith Formation

Author: Kimberly Sweeney

Publisher:

Published: 2017-10-10

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 9780692967102

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The Sunday school model of religious education has been much beloved in our Unitarian Universalist tradition. Half a century ago, and at the time of its inception, Sunday school was a significant draw for children and families and was popular in dominant culture. Over the past two decades, religious professionals and lay leaders have been questioning the effectiveness of this model. Working harder, moving things around, and investing more money in Sunday school has not increased its effectiveness. These strategies have not worked in part because we have failed to convey that the way we have always done things is no longer serving our Unitarian Universalist congregations. While we have been applying a multitude of technical fixes to this adaptive challenge, we have failed a generation of young Unitarian Universalists. Today's reformation calls for the centering of faith formation in the mission of communities of faith.

Already Gone
Already Gone

Author: Ken Ham

Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0890515298

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NATIONWIDE POLLS AND DENOMINATIONAL REPORTS ARE SHOWING THAT THE NEXT GENERATION IS CALLING IT QUITS ON THE TRADITIONAL CHURCH.

Freeing Jesus
Freeing Jesus

Author: Diana Butler Bass

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-03-30

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0062659561

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The award-winning author of Grateful goes beyond the culture wars to offer a refreshing take on the comprehensive, multi-faceted nature of Jesus, keeping his teachings relevant and alive in our daily lives. How can you still be a Christian? This is the most common question Diana Butler Bass is asked today. It is a question that many believers ponder as they wrestle with disappointment and disillusionment in their church and its leadership. But while many Christians have left their churches, they cannot leave their faith behind. In Freeing Jesus, Bass challenges the idea that Jesus can only be understood in static, one-dimensional ways and asks us to instead consider a life where Jesus grows with us and helps us through life’s challenges in several capacities: as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence. Freeing Jesus is an invitation to leave the religious wars behind and rediscover Jesus in all his many manifestations, to experience Jesus beyond the narrow confines we have built around him. It renews our hope in faith and worship at a time when we need it most.

Faith Formation 4.0
Faith Formation 4.0

Author: Julie Anne Lytle

Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2013-03

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 0819228311

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Using an ecological approach to study how emerging technologies impact individual and communal formation, Faith Formation 4.0 looks at how our efforts to be story-keepers, story-sharers, and story-makers have evolved over four eras of human communication.Framed by the Great Commission imperative to “make disciples,” this book offers a road map to help leaders develop goals to form, inform, and transform new members, as well as long-time believers, within a faith community. The author successfully illustrates that church success depends not only on knowing the Christian message of God’s enduring love, but also how to use today’s tools appropriately for evangelization and faith formation.

Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids?
Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids?

Author: Samuel C Williamson

Publisher:

Published: 2013-12

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9781941024003

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How do we make grace part of Christian living? Does Sunday School encourage discipleship and teach our children faith? People in the world often reject Christianity simply because they can't distinguish it from mere morality. The world needs morality--oppression thrives when consciences are abandoned--but we need more than that alone. We need the gospel of grace. A gospel that has largely been lost amid the dos and don'ts and preoccupations of religious culture.12 Essays on the Distinction Between Grace and Morality Includes perspectives on topics such as: Why Do Our Children Leave the Church?Graceless Goodness: The Problem with MoralismThe False Gospel of "Just Do It"The Temptations of Christian PublishingThe Ugliness of Religious RighteousnessThe Insidious Danger of "I'd Never Do That"We Read the Bible the Wrong WayComments from Readers I like what Sam Williamson has to say about how good people--people like us--may be piling burdens on our children they can't possibly bear. Has the good news of the gospel magically morphed into bad news for them? Read Sam's provocative new book to find out. -Ann Spangler, Author, Praying the Names of God (and many other books) These days we hear so much and think so little. We consume without digesting and then wonder why our body is acting strangely. In this book, Sam helps us look carefully, graciously, and wonder-fully at the Gospel and the beliefs of our heart. -Gary Barkalow, founding director of The Noble Heart, and Author, It's Your Call. This has got to be one of the best books on raising Godly children (or simply new believers) I've ever read. Thank you. -Brian This is as clearly and as beautifully communicated as I have heard the Gospel for a long time. -Bob This is such an excellent read!!! I wish all Christians could read it. What a great blessing to see this truth presented in a way that it is so easily understood. Thank you for this thoughtful book. - Linda This is a fitting warning that Christian education could fall into moralization (and idolizing "heroes of faith"). The same warning is applicable even to the whole teaching/preaching ministry of many churches. - RayFrom the Book People often pit grace against moralism. And they should. Moralism circumvents heart-changed morality. We need moral men and women, but moralism damages the foundation of heart-change. It's okay to pit grace against moralism, but let's not pit grace against morality. Grace is the source of real morality, and grace--thank God!--breaks the bars of moralism that imprison us. Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids? exposes moralism for its false pretensions--the sham that it is--and it moves our hearts to believe the gospel, for the first, or the hundred-and-first, time.Available in Print and eBook Editions Scroll up and order your copy now.

Intergenerational Faith Formation
Intergenerational Faith Formation

Author: Mariette Martineau

Publisher: Twenty-Third Publications

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9781585956531

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Here the authors convincingly show that intergenerational faith formation, when done well, can be powerful, dramatic, even magical. Not only is there a place for intergenerational learning in parish faith formation, the authors believe there is a necessity for it. They show that intergenerational faith formation can help children, adolescents, and adults effectively identify with and integrate into the faith community because their learning and formation takes place in the context of communityall ages learning together. People will be looking for this one.

Elders Rising
Elders Rising

Author: Roland D. Martinson

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2018-12-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 150644055X

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Riding the age wave with grace In this inspiring book, Roland D. Martinson draws on the folk wisdom and experience of over fifty persons between the ages of sixty-two and ninety-seven. He puts this wisdom in conversation with scriptural and theological understandings of elders in the last third of life and sets forth perspectives on aging for individuals, groups, civic organizations, and congregations to utilize in developing a vital, resilient, and productive quality of life for elders. The book explores some current age-wave numbers and explores elderhood in relation to Scripture, theology, and the wisdom of "pioneers and pathfinders." Practical direction is given for conversation and action based on exploring elder identity, presence, partnerships, passions, purpose, powers, and promise. Martinson lays out a process for helping communities, including faith communities, become "vital aging centers" where elders are called to look honestly and hopefully at life's third chapter and to make it a time of discovery, adventure, and capacity. The volume will help congregations better serve the needs of elders and integrate elder wisdom and capacity in their mission and ministry.

How to Grow an Effective Sunday School
How to Grow an Effective Sunday School

Author: Elmer Towns

Publisher: Destiny Image Incorporated

Published: 2014-06-02

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 9780768406498

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Included with each chapter are special review questions and application projects to aid in teacher training. Whether you're a full-time church staff member or a lay volunteer, Dr. Elmer Towns' "HOW TO GROW AN EFFECTIVE SUNDAY SCHOOL" can help you achieve greater effectiveness in your Sunday School ministry.

Ancient-Future Faith
Ancient-Future Faith

Author: Robert E. Webber

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 1999-11

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 080106029X

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In a world marked by relativism, individualism, pluralism, and the transition from a modern to a postmodern worldview, evangelical Christians must find ways to re-present the historic faith. In his provocative new work, Ancient-Future Faith, Robert E. Webber contends that present-day evangelicalism is a product of modernity. Allegiance to modernity, he argues, must be relinquished to free evangelicals to become more consistently historic. Empowerment to function in our changing culture will be found by adapting the classical tradition to our postmodern time. Webber demonstrates the implications in the key areas of church, worship, spirituality, evangelism, nurture, and mission. Webber writes, The fundamental concern of Ancient-Future Faith is to find points of contact between classical Christianity and postmodern thought. Classical Christianity was shaped in a pagan and relativistic society much like our own. Classical Christianity was not an accommodation to paganism but an alternative practice of life. Christians in a postmodern world will succeed, not by watering down the faith, but by being a counter cultural community that invites people to be shaped by the story of Israel and Jesus. A substantial appendix explores the development of authority in the early church, an important issue for evangelicals in a society that shares many features with the Roman world of early Christians. Students, professors, pastors, and laypeople concerned with the churchs effective response to a postmodern world will benefit from this paradigmatic volume. Informative tables and extensive bibliographies enhance the books educational value. - Amazon.

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die
I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die

Author: Sarah J. Robinson

Publisher: WaterBrook

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0593193539

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A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.