Dear Church
Dear Church

Author: Lenny Duncan

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2019-07-02

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 1506452574

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Lenny Duncan is the unlikeliest of pastors. Formerly incarcerated, he is now a black preacher in the whitest denomination in the United States: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Shifting demographics and shrinking congregations make all the headlines, but Duncan sees something else at work--drawing a direct line between the church's lack of diversity and the church's lack of vitality. The problems the ELCA faces are theological, not sociological. But so are the answers. Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan's denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone--leaders and laity alike--to the front lines of the church's renewal through racial equality and justice. It is time for the church to rise up, dust itself off, and take on forces of this world that act against God: whiteness, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. Duncan gives a blueprint for the way forward and urges us to follow in the revolutionary path of Jesus. Dear Church also features a discussion guide at the back--perfect for church groups, book clubs, and other group discussion.

Future Church
Future Church

Author: Will Mancini

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2020-12-01

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1493427806

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Church growth models have often been long on promises and short on disciple-making. We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church? Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.

Lutherans in America
Lutherans in America

Author: Mark Alan Granquist

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1451472285

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In this lively and engaging new history, Granquist brings to light not only the institutions that Lutherans founded and sustained but the people that lived within them. This shows the complete storynot only the policies and the politics, but the piety and the practical experiences of the Lutheran men and women who lived and worked in the American context. Bringing the story all the way to the present day, Granquist ably covers the full range of Lutheran expressions, bringing order and clarity to a complex and vibrant tradition.

The Old Church on Walnut Street
The Old Church on Walnut Street

Author: Chris Price

Publisher:

Published: 2018-01-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780692057575

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In the late 1800s, Norwegian immigrants began flooding into the Red River Valley. As they moved into the Grand Forks area, they brought their Old World folkways and religious practices. On the corner of Third and Walnut, Norwegian Lutherans built a small sanctuary to house their services. The building mirrored the simple worship of the Hauge Synod, the organization to which this congregation belonged. After merging with two other Norwegian churches in town, the old Trinity Lutheran structure passed into the hands of the Grand Forks Church of God, a congregation that echoed the revival fires of the Second Great Awakening. This is the story of a church building and the two assemblies that utilized it over a 100-year period.

What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?
What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?

Author: Skye Jethani

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2021-06-01

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 080249983X

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Good things come to those who believe . . . right? People like to say, “Prayer works.” But what does that mean? Prayer works for what? Getting the answers from God that we want so much? While God certainly cares for your deepest needs, Skye Jethani wants you to know that prayer is so much more than a two-way transaction with a heavenly vending machine. Jesus didn’t pray like that. And with a pastor’s heart, Skye wants to take you deeper into what Jesus, the lover of your soul, had to say about talking with God. In What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?, you’ll benefit not only from Skye’s words of wisdom but his doodles that help the visual learner connect with spiritual truth. Prayer isn’t about getting answers, but getting God. We need more prayer in our lives—not because God can give us what we crave, but because He offers himself to us in love.

Declaration on the Way
Declaration on the Way

Author: ELCA

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishing

Published: 2016-03-28

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781506416168

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"The document ... is a declaration of the consensus achieved by Lutherans and Catholics on the topics of church, ministry, and eucharist as the result of ecumenical dialogue between the two communions since 1965. It is a consensus 'on the way, ' because dialogue has not yet resolved all the church-dividing differences on these topics."--Preface.