Offer Them Christ!

Offer Them Christ!

Author:

Publisher: Lorenz Publishing Company

Published: 2019-03

Total Pages: 12

ISBN-13: 9780787763985

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Mary McDonald and Rose Aspinall combine their God-given talents to deliver a mighty anthem well-suited for missions and outreach emphases. Use either the solid piano accompaniment or dramatic Michael Lawrence orchestration to present the grand statement that we are to be a tangible expression of Gods love and grace to the world.


Where Do We Go from Here?

Where Do We Go from Here?

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2019-05-28

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781732309296

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Following the special session of the United Methodist General Conference in February 2019, a common question among both lay and clergy of the church was, "Where do we go from here?"In this book, 21 respected United Methodist leaders attempt to answer that question from their own perspectives. These writers cover the gamut of theological diversity and thought related to this topic.


Rebuilding Zion

Rebuilding Zion

Author: Daniel W. Stowell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2001-09-20

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0199923876

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Both the North and the South viewed the Civil War in Christian terms. Each side believed that its fight was just, that God favored its cause. Rebuilding Zion is the first study to explore simultaneously the reaction of southern white evangelicals, northern white evangelicals, and Christian freedpeople to Confederate defeat. As white southerners struggled to assure themselves that the collapse of the Confederacy was not an indication of God's stern judgment, white northerners and freedpeople were certain that it was. Author Daniel W. Stowell tells the story of the religious reconstruction of the South following the war, a bitter contest between southern and northern evangelicals, at the heart of which was the fate of the freedpeople's souls and the southern effort to maintain a sense of sectional identity. Central to the southern churches' vision of the Civil War was the idea that God had not abandoned the South; defeat was a Father's stern chastisement. Secession and slavery had not been sinful; rather, it was the radicalism of the northern denominations that threatened the purity of the Gospel. Northern evangelicals, armed with a vastly different vision of the meaning of the war and their call to Christian duty, entered the post-war South intending to save white southerner and ex-slave alike. The freedpeople, however, drew their own providential meaning from the war and its outcome. The goal for blacks in the postwar period was to establish churches for themselves separate from the control of their former masters. Stowell plots the conflicts that resulted from these competing visions of the religious reconstruction of the South. By demonstrating how the southern vision eventually came to predominate over, but not eradicate, the northern and freedpeople's visions for the religious life of the South, he shows how the southern churches became one of the principal bulwarks of the New South, a region marked by intense piety and intense racism throughout the twentieth century.


The Civil War in Southern Appalachian Methodism

The Civil War in Southern Appalachian Methodism

Author: Durwood Dunn

Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press

Published: 2014-02-01

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1621900169

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The Civil War in Southern Appalachian Methodism addresses a much-neglected topic in both Appalachian and Civil War history—the role of organized religion in the sectional strife and the war itself. Meticulously researched, well written, and full of fresh facts, this new book brings an original perspective to the study of the conflict and the region. In many important respects, the actual Civil War that began in 1861 unveiled an internal civil war within the Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South—comprising churches in southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, and a small portion of northern Georgia—that had been waged surreptitiously for the previous five decades. This work examines the split within the Methodist Church that occurred with mounting tensions over the slavery question and the rise of the Confederacy. Specifically, it looks at how the church was changing from its early roots as a reform movement grounded in a strong local pastoral ministry to a church with a more intellectual, professionalized clergy that often identified with Southern secessionists. The author has mined an exhaustive trove of primary sources, especially the extensive, yet often-overlooked minutes from frequent local and regional Methodist gatherings. He has also explored East Tennessee newspapers and other published works on the topic. The author’s deep research into obscure church records and other resources results not only in a surprising interpretation of the division within the Methodist Church but also new insights into the roles of African Americans, women, and especially lay people and local clergy in the decades prior to the war and through its aftermath. In addition, Dunn presents important information about what the inner Civil War was like in East Tennessee, an area deeply divided between Union and Confederate sympathizers. Students and scholars of religious history, southern history, and Appalachian studies will be enlightened by this volume and its bold new way of looking at the history of the Methodist Church and this part of the nation.


They Also Serve

They Also Serve

Author: Jane P. Ives

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Published: 2020-03-31

Total Pages: 509

ISBN-13: 1501893564

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Stories from the women and men who have served alongside Methodist and United Methodist bishops. When a bishop is elected in The United Methodist Church, it is not only the one elected who is asked to serve but his or her spouse and family as well. Hear the stories of how Methodist and United Methodist episcopal spouses have adjusted to and navigated this life-changing journey. While dealing with the full range of human experience—births, deaths, relationship struggles, and illness—they also travel the world, participate in mission and ceremonies, meet interesting people, and stand up for justice. Through hardships, celebrations, and everyday struggles, these spouses find their own paths of ministry, answering the calls that are also placed upon their lives. In these ways and many others, they also serve. Praise for They Also Served A meticulous labor of love by Jane P. Ives, They Also Served remembers faithful unsung Christians by chronicling previously unrecorded details of the spouses of episcopal leaders. Sometimes in the spotlight, often in the shadows, the bishop's spouses struggled to fulfill unpaid roles and undefined responsibilities in the church, usually far from family and friends. Ives empatheticlly highlights how these persons, usually without voice or vote, helped shape the church's mission and ministry. - Dr. Donald E. Messer, Executive Director, Central for Health and Hope: Focusing on Global HIV and AIDS, Centennial Colorado. Bishops may ebb and flow in their popularity based on their decisions, but their spouses are almost universally loved and admired. Jane Ives helps readers understand why that is the case with her comprehensive story of the impressive, diverse, and thoroughly dedicated women and men who have contributed so much to God's work. —Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership Emeritus, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC In the gospel of Luke, Jesus sent the disciples out, two by two, to every town, and country, every charge and conference. Ives' book records the wisdom of sending two, and restores the names of those often forgotten in the story of the people called "Methodists," the spouses. These are remarkable oral histories as well as timelines of social holiness and global service. This is not a book about survival in ministry and marriage; it's a testimony to those who thrived in their calling. —Heather Murray Elkins, Professor of Worship, Preaching, and the Arts, The Theological School of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey This is a book about discipleship. It is also a book about ministry and itinerancy. It tells stories of how God sometimes calls two people to the work of episcopacy, people who happen to be married to each other. It is a book that will make you laugh and cry! This book is an important addition to the literature of Methodist episcopacy. And it is a hard book to put down! —William Boyd Grove, Bishop (Ret.) of The United Methodist Church Jane Ives has given the Methodist family a priceless treasure. Through an astonishing effort to collect memories and explore archival material, she has compiled a comprehensive record of episcopal spouses, their stories, accomplishments, and contributions to the church. But this book is more than a biographical dictionary. It offers a poignant, insightful account of the lives of bishops, their spouses and families, and the impact of the church's expectations on all of them. As a little boy, I knew firsthand the phone call: get on a train to New Orleans with your sister; your Daddy is going to be a bishop. Allow me to testify, then, that this book is the real deal -- genuine, human, and rich with faith and Spirit. —Thomas E. Frank, Associate Dean for Continuing Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Science, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Laity and clergy active in United Methodist life and their spouses will want to immerse themselves in this "corporate" autobiography, which provides an overview of Methodism through almost 80 years of personal experiences and cultural change. Jane Ives, an episcopal spouse, has amassed here narratives, reports, and communications crafted by her spousal "colleagues," living and dead, as well as by those who have known them. For page after page, the reader will relive Methodism's sometimes gradual, sometimes dramatic evolution and its struggles with race, gender, inclusivity, and global relationships. The bishops' spouses have shown great creativity in making the most of their opportunities to be together during Council meetings: sharing ideas, establishing covenant and interest groups, and adjusting their organization to respond to changing needs. Ives has devoted the final third of the book to profiles of the spouses, some quite famous and others whose names are not even known. These vignettes illustrate how different episcopal spouses have lived out their own calling and how they have impacted the church and the world. —Russell E. Richey, Dean Emeritus of Candler School of Theology and William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Church History Emeritus, Durham, North Carolina