The Art of Gathering
The Art of Gathering

Author: Priya Parker

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-04-14

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1594634939

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"Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" --Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together—at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond. In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them.

Gather God's People
Gather God's People

Author: Brian Croft

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2015-01-06

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 0310519365

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“God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The Bible tells us that we are to worship the Lord, that we were created for this purpose. But what is true worship? What does the Bible teach about the right—and the wrong—ways to worship God? In this book, pastors Brian Croft and Jason Adkins unpack a biblical theology of worship, discuss the practical matters of planning a worship service, and offer suggestions and insights on the best way to lead a worship service that honors the Lord. The Practical Shepherding series of guides provides pastors and ministry leaders with practical help to do the work of pastoral ministry in a local church. In Gather God’s People, you will learn how to apply biblical doctrine and spirituality to the practice of Christian worship.

Still Time to Care
Still Time to Care

Author: Greg Johnson

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2021-12-07

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0310116066

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At the start of the gay rights movement in 1969, evangelicalism's leading voices cast a vision for gay people who turn to Jesus. It was C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer and John Stott who were among the most respected leaders within theologically orthodox Protestantism. We see with them a positive pastoral approach toward gay people, an approach that viewed homosexuality as a fallen condition experienced by some Christians who needed care more than cure. With the birth and rise of the ex-gay movement, the focus shifted from care to cure. As a result, there are an estimated 700,000 people alive today who underwent conversion therapy in the United States alone. Many of these patients were treated by faith-based, testimony-driven parachurch ministries centered on the ex-gay script. Despite the best of intentions, the movement ended with very troubling results. Yet the ex-gay movement died not because it had the wrong sex ethic. It died because it was founded on a practice that diminished the beauty of the gospel. Yet even after the closure of the ex-gay umbrella organization Exodus International in 2013, the ex-gay script continues to walk about as the undead among us, pressuring people like me to say, "I used to be gay, but I'm not gay anymore. Now I'm just same-sex attracted." For orthodox Christians, the way forward is a path back to where we were forty years ago. It is time again to focus with our Neo-Evangelical fathers on care--not cure--for our non-straight sisters and brothers who are living lives of costly obedience to Jesus. With warmth and humor as well as original research, Still Time to Care will chart the path forward for our churches and ministries in providing care. It will provide guidance for the gay person who hears the gospel and finds themselves smitten by the life-giving call of Jesus. Woven throughout the book will be Richard Lovelace’s 1978 call for a "double repentance" in which gay Christians repent of their homosexual sins and the church repents of its homophobia--putting on display for all the power of the gospel.

Gospel Principles
Gospel Principles

Author: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Publisher: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1465101276

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A Study Guide and a Teacher’s Manual Gospel Principles was written both as a personal study guide and as a teacher’s manual. As you study it, seeking the Spirit of the Lord, you can grow in your understanding and testimony of God the Father, Jesus Christand His Atonement, and the Restoration of the gospel. You can find answers to life’s questions, gain an assurance of your purpose and self-worth, and face personal and family challenges with faith.

Gathering Together
Gathering Together

Author: Sami Lakomäki

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2014-08-12

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 0300180616

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Weaving Indian and Euro-American histories together in this groundbreaking book, Sami Lakomäki places the Shawnee people, and Native peoples in general, firmly at the center of American history. The book covers nearly three centuries, from the years leading up to the Shawnees’ first European contacts to the post–Civil War era, and demonstrates vividly how the interactions between Natives and newcomers transformed the political realities and ideas of both groups. Examining Shawnee society and politics in new depth, and introducing not only charismatic warriors like Blue Jacket and Tecumseh but also other leaders and thinkers, Lakomäki explores the Shawnee people’s debates and strategies for coping with colonial invasion. The author refutes the deep-seated notion that only European colonists created new nations in America, showing that the Shawnees, too, were engaged in nation building. With a sharpened focus on the creativity and power of Native political thought, Lakomäki provides an array of insights into Indian as well as American history.

The Gathering, A Womanist Church
The Gathering, A Womanist Church

Author: Irie Lynne Session

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2020-08-21

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1725274620

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A womanist church has great power to transform church and society, primarily because womanist theology centers the experiences of Black women while working for the survival and wholeness of all people and all creation. Experiences of the triple oppression of racism, sexism, and classism give Black women an epistemological insight into recognizing injustice and creating solutions that benefit all. The Gathering is unique, the only church founded and identified as “womanist,” applying womanist theology to the full life and worship of a church. The Gathering, a womanist faith community in Dallas, Texas, welcomes all people to partner in pursuing racial equity, LGBTQ equality, and dismantling PMS (patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism), following Jesus in liberating the oppressed and lifting up the marginalized. The Gathering, A Womanist Church tells the story of the birth and ongoing development of a womanist faith community. This book includes personal narratives of people transformed in this community, womanist co-pastors’ sermons informed by their experiences and those of other Black women, and litanies for womanist worship.

Deacons
Deacons

Author: Matt Smethurst

Publisher: Crossway

Published: 2021-03-30

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 143357165X

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How Can Deacons Mobilize Service in the Church? Deacons are essential to a church's health—yet confusion abounds regarding their biblical job description. What's their God-given role in a local congregation and how do they relate to the church's overall mission? In this short book, Matt Smethurst makes the case that deacons are model servants called to meet tangible needs, organize and mobilize acts of service, preserve the unity of the flock, and support the ministry of the elders. Clearing away common misconceptions, Smethurst offers practical guidance for deploying deacons and helping churches to flourish.

The Gatherings
The Gatherings

Author: Shirley N. Hager

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2021-03-01

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1487539398

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In a world that requires knowledge and wisdom to address developing crises around us, The Gatherings shows how Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can come together to create meaningful and lasting relationships. Thirty years ago, in Wabanaki territory – a region encompassing the state of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes – a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals came together to explore some of the most pressing questions at the heart of Truth and Healing efforts in the United States and Canada. Meeting over several years in long-weekend gatherings, in a Wabanaki-led traditional Council format, assumptions were challenged, perspectives upended, and stereotypes shattered. Alliances and friendships were formed that endure to this day. The Gatherings tells the moving story of these meetings in the words of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants. Reuniting to reflect on how their lives were changed by their experiences and how they continue to be impacted by them, the participants share the valuable lessons they learned. The many voices represented in The Gatherings offer insights and strategies that can inform change at the individual, group, and systems levels. These voices affirm that authentic relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples – with their attendant anxieties, guilt, anger, embarrassments, and, with time, even laughter and mutual affection – are key to our shared futures here in North America. Now, more than ever, it is critical that we come together to reimagine Indigenous-settler relations. Mawopiyane: Gwen Bear Shirley Bowen Alma H. Brooks gkisedtanamoogk JoAnn Hughes Debbie Leighton Barb Martin Miigam’agan T. Dana Mitchell Wayne A. Newell Betty Peterson Marilyn Keyes Roper Wesley Rothermel Afterword by Dr. Frances Hancock To reflect the collaborative nature of this project, the word Mawopiyane is used to describe the full group of co-authors. Mawopiyane, in Passamaquoddy, literally means "let us sit together," but the deeper meaning is of a group coming together, as in the longhouse, to struggle with a sensitive or divisive issue – but one with a very desirable outcome. It is a healing word and one that is recognizable in all Wabanaki languages.