Understanding Church Growth


Book Description

Author Donald A. McGavran is considered a founder of the Church Growth Movement in America. In this 3rd edition of his standard work, McGavaran analyzes the causes, methods and strategies for successful church growth both in America and abroad.




The Church in Colonial Latin America


Book Description

The Church in Colonial Latin America is a collection of essays that include classic articles and pieces based on more modern research. Containing essays that explore the Catholic Church's active social and political influence, this volume provides the background necessary for students to grasp the importance of the Catholic Church in Latin America. This text also presents a comprehensive, analytic, and descriptive history of the Church and its development during the colonial period. From the evangelization of the New World by Spanish missionaries to the active influence of the Catholic Church on Latin American culture, this book offers a complete picture of the Church in colonial Latin America. The Church in Colonial Latin America is ideal for courses in the colonial period in Latin American history, as well as courses in religion, church history, and missionary history.




Streams of Latin American Protestant Theology


Book Description

Although church historians often call the 19th century the Great Century of Protestant mission, for Latin America it was the 20th century that was the great century of Protestant growth and expansion. The 20th century witnessed vast societal changes and the realization of systemic poverty and injustice as well as the exponential growth, pentecostalization, and diversification of Latin American Protestantism. Latin American Protestant Theology emerged during this century of change. This text provides an introduction to Latin American Protestant Theology by engaging its dominant theological streams (Liberal, Evangelical, and Pentecostal) and how they understand themselves through the lens of mission. The text offers both a critique of the Christendom cartography that is dominant in Latin American Protestant Theology as well as suggestions for how to move towards a transformative theology of mission. The primary intention of this text is to offer an informed outline and analysis of the theological landscape of Latin American Protestantism. The secondary intention of this book is to note the contributions as well as deficiencies of the streams of LAPT in the hope to signal a possible path towards the development of an integral, transformative, contextual, and decolonial theological voice.




New Worlds


Book Description

This extraordinary book encompasses the time period from the first Christian evangelists' arrival in Latin America to the dictators of the late twentieth century. With unsurpassed knowledge of Latin American history, John Lynch sets out to explore the reception of Christianity by native peoples and how it influenced their social and religious lives as the centuries passed. As attentive to modern times as to the colonial period, Lynch also explores the extent to which Indian religion and ancestral ways survived within the new Christian culture.The book follows the development of religious culture over time by focusing on peak periods of change: the response of religion to the Enlightenment, the emergence of the Church from the wars of independence, the Romanization of Latin American religion as the papacy overtook the Spanish crown in effective control of the Church, the growing challenge of liberalism and the secular state, and in the twentieth century, military dictators' assaults on human rights. Throughout the narrative, Lynch develops a number of special themes and topics. Among these are the Spanish struggle for justice for Indians, the Church's position on slavery, the concept of popular religion as distinct from official religion, and the development of liberation theology.




The Histories of the Latin American Church


Book Description

Latin American Christianity is too often presented as a unified story appended to the end of larger western narratives. And yet the stories of Christianity in Latin America are as varied and diverse as the lands and the peoples who live there. The unique political, ecclesial, social, and historical realities of each nation inevitably shaped a variety of Christian expressions in each. Now, for the first time, a resource exists to help students and scholars understand the histories of Latin American Christianity. An ideal resource, this handbook is designed as an accompaniment to reading and research in the field. After a generous overview to the history and theology of the region, the text moves nation-by-nation, providing timelines, outlines, and substantial introductions to the politics, people, movements, and relevant facts of Christianity as experienced in that nation. The result is an informative and eye-opening introduction to a kaleidoscope of efforts to articulate the meanings and implications of Christianity in the context of Latin America.




Brown Church


Book Description

The Latina/o culture and identity have long been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo. Robert Chao Romero explores the "Brown Church" and how this movement appeals to the vision for redemption that includes not only heavenly promises but also the transformation of our lives and the world.




Presidential Campaigns in Latin America


Book Description

How do presidential candidates in new democracies choose their campaign strategies, and what strategies do they adopt? In contrast to the claim that campaigns around the world are becoming more similar to one another, Taylor Boas argues that new democracies are likely to develop nationally specific approaches to electioneering through a process called success contagion. The theory of success contagion holds that the first elected president to complete a successful term in office establishes a national model of campaign strategy that other candidates will adopt in the future. He develops this argument for the cases of Chile, Brazil, and Peru, drawing on interviews with campaign strategists and content analysis of candidates' television advertising from the 1980s through 2011. The author concludes by testing the argument in ten other new democracies around the world, demonstrating substantial support for the theory.




The Histories of the Latin American Church


Book Description

The story of Latin American Christianity is too often appended to the end of larger narratives and is rarely given the full consideration it deserves. And yet, the rich stories of Christianity in Latin America deserve our full attention. With this brief, engaging, and helpful overview, Joel M. Cruz offers a resource that tells that story in a new way, enabling students of all kinds to better understand the histories of Latin American Christianity. Cruz's text, drawing from the larger work, The Histories of the Latin American Church: A Handbook, focuses on both the history of the region and the theology. The result is an informative and eye-opening introduction to a kaleidoscope of efforts to articulate the meanings and implications of Christianity in the context of Latin America.




The Character of God


Book Description

Dr. Sproul brings a wealth of theological, philosoph-ical, and biblical knowledge which gives to his ministry a depth and penetration not often heard today......Dr. D. James Kennedy




In Search of Christ in Latin America


Book Description

Noted theologian Samuel Escobar offers a magisterial survey and study of Christology in Latin America. In Search of Christ in Latin America examines the figure of Jesus Christ in the context of Latin American culture, starting with the first Spanish influence in the sixteenth century and moving through popular religiosity and liberationist themes in Catholic and Protestant thought of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, culminating in an important description of the work of the Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (FTL). Escobar provides theological, historical, and cultural analysis of Latin American understandings of Christ and places liberation theology within its social and revolutionary context. This book is an important step toward a rich understanding of the spiritual reality and powerful message of Jesus.