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From This Day Forward--Rethinking the Christian Wedding

Author : Kimberly Bracken Long

Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press

Page : 207 pages

File Size : 16,32 MB

Release : 2016-06-01

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1611646715

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Book Description

Weddings have become a billion-dollar industry, with the average cost of a wedding estimated at $30,000. Taking into account dramatic shifts in attitudes toward marriage in recent years, many pastors are confused and frustrated about their role. This book offers a foundational understanding of marriage for today's North American church. Exploring current sociological analyses of marriage and the history of Christian marriage rites, Kimberly Bracken Long suggests that the church rethink its involvement in weddings and offers a distinctively Christian understanding of marriage. Today's church, Long contends, needs to reinterpret classic biblical metaphors and expand the range of scriptural sources that inform our understanding of marriage. Long also looks closely at each element of the wedding service and what makes a marriage liturgy faithful, inclusive, and sensitive to pastoral concerns. She provides practical suggestions for music and Scripture during wedding services as well as guidance on how to respond faithfully to those who are divorced or divorcing. Packed with constructive pastoral wisdom, From This Day ForwardRethinking the Christian Wedding delivers a practical theology of marriage that will be of help to clergy, seminarians, and others interested in this topic.



From This Day Forward

Author : Ted Haggard

Publisher : Waterbrook Press

Page : 100 pages

File Size : 41,33 MB

Release : 2006

Category : Family & Relationships

ISBN : 9781400072552

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Book Description

Every aspect of the wedding ceremony, from the candles to the vows, reflects God’s incredible love relationship with His people–and His ideal design for marriage. Yet amid all the planning and preparations, we often miss the underlying meaning and beauty of the ceremony. To help you more fully enter into the exquisite wonder of the wedding day,From This Day Forwardoffers a unique look at the truths symbolized by each element of the traditional marriage ceremony, including ·the lighting of the unity candle ·the entrance of the groom and his men ·the presentation of the rings and flowers ·the giving away of the bride ·the exchanging of vows ·the presence of witnesses From This Day Forwardwill open your eyes to the spiritual importance of the wedding ceremony as a beautiful expression of God’s love–and of His divine design for marriage. The wedding ceremony signifies so much more than a commitment between two individuals; it’s a living portrait of God’s love for His people. The whole drama of God’s love and plan for all of us is represented in the rites of the traditional wedding ceremony and the daily experience of marriage. God designed marriage to reveal His love relationship with His people, His bride. When others look at an excellent marriage they see a husband gladly setting aside his own desires to care for his beloved, just as Christ abandoned His life for all of us. And they see a wife who, having taken on her husband’s name and calling, loves to please him and spend time in his presence, just as believers in Christ respond eagerly to God. When your eyes are open to these realities, your marriage–and your relationship with God–will shine with the wonder of this divine romance. From This Day Forwardbeckons you into a joyful celebration of the wedding ceremony and marriage relationship as you embark on the everyday adventure of love as God designed it to be. Ted Haggardis senior pastor of the 11,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, which he founded in 1985. The author of ten books, he is a well-respected leader who currently serves as president of the National Association for Evangelicals and as a spokesperson for the Presidential Prayer Team. Ted and his wife, Gayle, have been married for twenty-seven years and are the parents of five children.



From this Day Forward

Author : Kenneth J. Foreman

Publisher :

Page : 71 pages

File Size : 17,52 MB

Release : 1950

Category : Marriage

ISBN :

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A Christ-Centered Wedding

Author : Catherine Parks

Publisher : B&H Publishing Group

Page : 256 pages

File Size : 44,95 MB

Release : 2014-05

Category : Reference

ISBN : 1433681145

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Book Description

A guide for believers who want their wedding to portray the relationship of Christ with the church and to reflect the gospel to all in attendance.



For Every Matter under Heaven

Author : Beverly Zink-Sawyer

Publisher : Fortress Press

Page : 251 pages

File Size : 22,37 MB

Release : 2022-12-08

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1506465803

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Book Description

"For everything there is a season," as the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, and that includes preaching. Beyond ordinary Sunday morning worship, many other "seasons"--special occasions--arise for preaching in the life of the church, whether by virtue of the secular calendar or celebrations or circumstances in the congregation or community. For Every Matter under Heaven: Preaching on Special Occasions offers preachers a process for creating sermons that are biblically grounded and relevant to the occasion. Two obvious occasions of this sort are weddings and funerals; however, church anniversaries, dedications of new buildings or furnishings, commitment of pledges in stewardship season, and ordination and installation services also call for preaching on a special theme or topic. In addition, some congregations acknowledge secular holidays, such as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day, in worship. Pastors are often called on to preach at events outside the church. And all congregations face local or national tragedies and crises that call for a word from the Lord. These occasions require a different kind of sermon--or at least a different process of preparation. Most preachers have been taught that sermons begin with a biblical text, usually a text prescribed by a standard lectionary. Beverly Zink-Sawyer and Donna Giver-Johnston offer preachers a process for finding appropriate sermon texts for special occasions by considering the occasion itself, the listeners who might be gathered, and the ways God is at work in that time and place. Through this process, preachers can offer a word for every matter under heaven.



Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality

Author : Mark Wingfield

Publisher : Fortress Press

Page : 192 pages

File Size : 28,56 MB

Release : 2019-12-03

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1506458580

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Book Description

Journalist and pastor Mark Wingfield describes how the congregation he serves undertook a detailed study of how the church should respond to the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members. The study was conducted by a nineteen-member blue-ribbon task force that included wide representation of the church's various constituencies. The author served as a staff liaison, recording secretary, and resource to the study group, keeping meticulous notes of the process and the aftermath of the study. Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality is written for clergy and lay leaders in Protestant congregations of all kinds who need a helpful guide to conversations about human sexuality within congregations. The book also has in mind anyone who wants to understand the controversial debates about human sexuality and the Christian church today and who desire to follow a process to discuss the topic and make decisions about how congregations and individuals will respond to matters of ministry and sexuality. This book not only details the process used at Wilshire but also tells the human story of why the study was undertaken and what happened to the lives and faith of real people inside and outside the church. The author's hope is to provide a resource to other clergy and church leaders to understand why this issue must be addressed, how difficult it is to address, and what to expect along the way. As the title indicates, even though this is a difficult conversation to have, churches must have the conversation anyway.



Liturgical Resources 2

Author : Church Publishing

Publisher : Church Publishing

Page : 329 pages

File Size : 38,12 MB

Release : 2019-11-17

Category : Religion

ISBN : 164065187X

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Book Description

In response to the 79th General Convention's resolution B012, Liturgical Resources 2 includes the marriage rites newly authorized for trial use and essays of pastoral, liturgical, and theological significance to the topic.



From This Day Forward

Author : Siggen Myhre

Publisher :

Page : 64 pages

File Size : 22,91 MB

Release : 1979-01

Category : Family & Relationships

ISBN : 9780718823801

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Book Description

An explanation of the intent and meaning behind the Christian wedding service and what it means for married life. Although aimed at those just about to get married, this book will also prove highly useful for newly-weds. With a foreword by Donald Soper.



Introduction to Christian Worship

Author : James F. White

Publisher : Abingdon Press

Page : 219 pages

File Size : 30,68 MB

Release : 2023-11-21

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1501884638

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Book Description

James White’s classic Christian worship text, revised and updated. The book students of worship have read and re-read is now revised and updated for the first time in more than twenty years. Author Ed Phillips, one of White’s graduate students, is joined by practitioners and teachers from emerging generations, who contribute timely and well-researched material from their own areas of expertise. This new content brings the original up to date, filling significant gaps since the original publication on topics like technology, arts, embodiment in and of worship, pluralism and multiculturalism, denominational changes, and changes in the spaces and forms of worship, including worship in the age of pandemics. This new edition will take its place on the shelf of every student, pastor, and leader of Christian worship.



Liturgy with a Difference

Author : Stephen Burns

Publisher : SCM Press

Page : 166 pages

File Size : 34,50 MB

Release : 2019-05-30

Category : Religion

ISBN : 033405740X

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Book Description

Christian churches in recent decades have taken some steps in their practices of liturgy and worship toward acknowledging the graced dignity of human variety. But who is still excluded? What pernicious norms still govern below the surface, and how might they be revealed? How do texts, gestures, and space abet and enforce such norms? How might Christian assemblies gather multiple expressions of human difference to propose through Christian liturgy patterns of graced interaction in the world around them? Liturgy with a Difference gathers a broad range of international theologians and scholars to interrogate current practices of liturgy and worship in order to unmask ways in which dehumanizing majoritarianisms and presumed norms of gender, culture, ethnicity, and body, among others, remain at work in congregations. Together, the chapters in this collection call for a liturgical practice that recognizes and rehearses the vivid richness of God’s image found in the human community and glimpsed, if only for a moment, in liturgical celebration. They point a way beyond mere inclusion toward a generous embrace of the many differences that make up the Christian community. With contributions from Rachel Mann, Teresa Berger, Susannah Cornwall, Miguel A. DeLa Torre, Edward Foley, W. Scott Haldeman, Michael Jagessar, Bruce T. Morrill, Kristine Suna-Koro and Frank Senn. Foreword by Ann Loades.