Congregational care and discipline in the San Francisco Church of Christ: A case study (original) (raw)
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000 Church, by and large, whether it"s global or national or local irrespective of denominational tags is immersed with numerous problems. Many may argue the current fiasco that the church is into not new, but similar challenges and problem the church did face perhaps may not be of similar nature or magnitude, nonetheless managed the problems effectively and efficiently and thus cruised through over centuries and still alive and "vibrant". They even go one step further by saying that no other institution or organization or even empires or kingdoms managed to survive the onslaughts, but church is still alive and active because it is founded on the life and witness of Jesus Christ, and therefore, Jesus Christ is foundation and fulcrum of the church. Are these arguments suffice and reasonable? The Universal church and the local church nowadays are at the cross road. Christianity as a religion ought to mirror the Words and Works of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, it reflects the societal ills and the church have hit the new low particularly in recent times that there"s no difference between the church and the society. Some may say that let the Universals takes care of the global concerns and the local church should respond to the local needs and spiritual concerns. However, the Scripture and the Gospel values united along with the creedal and traditional expositions and expressions. Nonetheless, the church is @ crossroads and so intensely caught up with mind-boggling problems. In such a context and background, the church in its life and witness should manifest candidly so that the adherents and the world in which it is place would repose their faith and trust. It is highly imperative that those who are concerned about the Church will have to revisit and reinvent and evolve new strategies and programs so that the church once again comes back and serve in multifarious ways to its constituencies. 001 In every period of history when Christians have faced new conditions, they have looked to the sources of their traditions for new directions… Today, new times demand new directions, so we are driven once more to examine our sources; to discover, if possible, what God is saying to us within the context of our time. Perhaps our first reaction to such a suggestion will be a sense of powerlessness. Is there anything we can do? The odds seem so Dr. I. John Mohan Razu, Professor of Christian Social Ethics resides in Bangalore.
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The church has a problem: disunity. The body of Christ has been divided and subdivided ad nauseum. Division, in fact, has become an acceptable part of the culture of the church. There are many reasons for this culture of division in the church. Some are reasonable: geography, language, culture, etc, which force the church to meet and organize in separate groups. Other reasons are not reasonable because they are not worthy of the gospel of Christ: pride, racism, prejudice, quarrels, foolish arguments, etc.
Ruminations on Church Discipline
In its 2005 convention Lutheran Church–Canada requested (res. 05.1.04a) the Commission on Theology and Church Relations to prepare a study document on matters of church and ministry. The document “Pastor and People Together in Christ's Church” has been shared with the church for reflection and study and will be included in the 2008 convention workbook. In this document the CTCR did not directly address church discipline (as requested by the resolution), but commend the following article to initiate the discussion. Written originally for the 2005 Faculty Forum of Concordia, St. Catharines, it is published also at the request of that faculty.
The Congregation: A Sociological View
This paper examines the role of the local congregation and and its people specifically in the evangelical and pentecostal context. I look at questions including: What is the meaning of the congregation? What impact does the congregation have on its local community? I conclude that local congregations play a vital role in the evangelical and pentecostal subculture.
American Journal of Sociology, 2009
Stephen Ellingson ambitiously attempts to account for the influence that the megachurch phenomenon, and the church growth industry in general, have exerted on nine Lutheran (ELCA) churches in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through the careful ethnographic study of these congregations, Ellingson explores whether these churches have been able to implement evangelical techniques and methods without affecting traditional Lutheran content. As case studies these churches enliven the theoretical investigation of three interrelated processes: first, "how and why a particular religious tradition is changed"; second, "the more general process of religious and cultural change"; and, finally, "the relationships among religious tradition, community, and moral authority" (4, 5). Ellingson rejects an exclusive adherence to either cultural, ecological, or market theories of religious change that explain religious modifi cation as a simple reaction to outside infl uences. Instead, he proposes a new "constructivist approach" of religious change as arising from congregational leaders' careful consideration of perceived threats, as well as possible solutions, to the primary tasks of providing a coherent sense of meaning and viable membership within the congregation. Th us, change "is not a sudden response to the onset of 'unsettled times' but a response to a socially constructed crisis of meaning and organizational survival that is tailored to articulate with a congregation's history and extant tradition, as well as the religious needs and interests of members who govern the organization" (13). Key to understanding this theory is Ellingson's insistence that (1) its impetus comes from within the tradition, (2) the method of change is altered to fi t the unique needs of congregations, and (3) change is primarily orchestrated by the leadership rather than the congregational membership. Th rough the process of "selective isomorphism," congregational leaders hybridize their traditions in order to respond to the narratives they themselves have constructed to address what traditional elements must be changed to meet the crises of meaning and membership. Changes to form, he concludes, will necessarily result in the transformation of a religious tradition's content. Despite Ellingson's lack of awareness of and obvious bias against evangelicalism-which he characterizes as generally emotive, homogeneous, self-interested, therapeutic, utilitarian, and jejune, in addition to comprising a seemingly conspiratorial attempt to "colonize" mainline Protestantism-this book is valuable for a Pentecostal/Charismatic audience. Ellingson provides a fresh perspective on the infl uence that a growing form of "generic evangelicalism" is exerting not only on Pentecostal/Charismatic churches but also on mainline Protestantism. Th is book should cause denominational leaders to think long and hard about the implications that seemingly innocent alterations to the form may have on the content and even survival, of their traditions. Wuthnow describes a very diff erent but no less disturbing trend aff ecting religious denominations in the United States. Based on compelling quantitative and qualitative data,
Membership retention is obviously one of the greatest challenges for ministers of the gospel. There seems to be an exponential membership loss across denominations in Christendom for the past few decades. This status quo finds-to a great extent-its roots in the methods employed to nurture a church. It is in this perspective that John Wesley's method of creating small, interactive groups in order to retain converts is evoked. This study employs a quasi-historical approach to appraise the small group ministry method revolutionized by John Wesley-for he was not the instigator of it. Upon analysis of the Wesleyan small group ministry approach, it is established that this method provides the present church with a model that is closer to the ideal pattern of the early Christian church in its various aspects. It follows that the ministry of the Methodist movement could serve as a model for the ministry of the church today. This study therefore concludes that John Wesley's method of small group ministry-despite its limitations-is an invaluable approach that should be adopted or reinforced by the Seventh -day Adventist Church as a model for discipling and retaining members.
church. Nearly forty percent, of this group, have a negative impression of Christianity. 1 The purpose of this project is to study the forces that that are transforming the American culture, and the dynamics that are perpetuating a bad image of Christianity. The author will evaluate the current state of spiritual formation in the Christian community, and make recommendations for developing an effective discipleship strategy for the church. The impetus for this paper is the Great commission issued by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 28:19. The paper will incorporate historical data, current research, surveys, and evaluations of churches that have developed successful discipleship programs.