The Glass Church

Download or read book The Glass Church written by Mark T. Mulder and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-17 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert H. Schuller’s ministry—including the architectural wonder of the Crystal Cathedral and the polished television broadcast of Hour of Power—cast a broad shadow over American Christianity. Pastors flocked to Southern California to learn Schuller’s techniques. The President of United States invited him sit prominently next to the First Lady at the State of the Union Address. Muhammad Ali asked for the pastor’s autograph. It seemed as if Schuller may have started a second Reformation. And then it all went away. As Schuller’s ministry wrestled with internal turmoil and bankruptcy, his emulators—including Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and Joel Osteen— nurtured megachurches that seemed to sweep away the Crystal Cathedral as a relic of the twentieth century. How did it come to this? Certainly, all churches depend on a mix of constituents, charisma, and capital, yet the size and ambition of large churches like Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral exert enormous organizational pressures to continue the flow of people committed to the congregation, to reinforce the spark of charismatic excitement generated by high-profile pastors, and to develop fresh flows of capital funding for maintenance of old projects and launching new initiatives. The constant attention to expand constituencies, boost charisma, and stimulate capital among megachurches produces an especially burdensome strain on their leaders. By orienting an approach to the collapse of the Crystal Cathedral on these three core elements—constituency, charisma, and capital—The Glass Church demonstrates how congregational fragility is greatly accentuated in larger churches, a notion we label megachurch strain, such that the threat of implosion is significantly accentuated by any failures to properly calibrate the inter-relationship among these elements.

Download or read book Powerful and Free written by Danny Silk and published by Loving On Purpose. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, "Women in Ministry"? A. Nursery Worker B. Children's leader C. Pastor D. It's complicated If you are like most your answer would be, "It's complicated". Many believers are still confused about the proper place for women in the church. Powerful and Free is a call to address the structural message of inequality.It is not a theological treatise on the biblical case for female leaders (there are many excellent resources for this already). It is not a political program to implement some kind of affirmative action in our leadership teams, because that doesn't work. Rather, it is an appeal to the hearts of men and women to recognize the existence of the glass ceiling for women and to challenge themselves to align more fully with a Kingdom vision for gender-blind leadership in the Body and equal male-female partnership in the home.

Download or read book Stained Glass Church Windows written by The Creativity Tree and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-04-03 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stained Glass Church Windows: Adult Coloring Book for hhours of your coloring enjoyment

Download or read book Behind the Stained Glass written by Christopher M. Hamlin and published by Crane Hill Publishers. This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps the most infamous incident of the Civil Rights Movement occurred on 15 September, 1963. Four young black girls, planning to serve as worship leaders for Youth Day at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, were killed in a massive dynamite explosion shortly before the Sunday service. Hamlin, the current pastor, provides a detailed history of the church as it approaches its 125th anniversary. This history differs little from that of other urban Southern black churches, and it would thus hold limited interest were it not for the tragic incident. The congregation had little involvement in social issues before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. turned the church into a staging area for his Birmingham protests. Much of the history involves a frequent turnover of pastors because of continuously disgruntled minority factions. The Reverend Hamlin has remained nine years and apparently has set the church on a positive path. This book is of interest to social historians.

Download or read book Behind the Stained Glass Windows written by John Ronsvalle and published by Baker Publishing Group (MI). This book was released on 1996 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authors John and Sylvia Ronsvalle present the results of a three-year Lilly Endowment Study which shows that both church membership and giving-as-a-percentage-of-income are declining. The study focused on many Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church. Advice for Christian leaders on reversing this trend is given as well as a thorough diagnosis of the problem.

Download or read book The Resurrection Window written by Adam Hamilton and published by . This book was released on 2017-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Glass Soldier written by Don Farrands and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the true story of a young Australian soldier whose life of opportunity was challenged by trauma and salvaged by strength. Nelson Ferguson, from Ballarat, was a stretcher-bearer on the Western Front in France in World War I. He survived the dangers of stretcher-bearing in some of Australia's most horrific battles: the Somme, Bullecourt, Ypres and Villers-Bretonneux. In April 1918, at Villers-Bretonneux, he was severely gassed. His eyes were traumatised, his lungs damaged. Upon his return home, he met and married Madeline, the love of his life, started a family, and resumed his career teaching art. But eventually the effects of the mustard gas claimed his eyesight, ending his career. Courageously enduring this consequence of war, he continued contributing to society by assisting his son and son-in-law in their stained-glass window business. Advances in medicine finally restored his sight in 1968, allowing him to yet again appreciate the beauty around him, before his death in 1976. The story of this Anzac will stir your soul. It is a story of war and bravery, pain and strength, hope and miracles. “remarkable…. deeply personal” - Barry Jones AC “extremely moving, vivid, and highly informative” - Nigel Westlake (Australian composer)