Author: Administrator

  • Guidelines for Child Care at Church-Sponsored Meetings

    Guidelines for Child Care at Church-Sponsored Meetings

    Recommended by the 207th General Assembly. How to have quality child care at church related meetings. Includes: Responsibilities of governing body, local churches, coordinator and parents. Sample employee questionnaire, background checks, resource guide.

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  • The Crucified One Is Lord

    The Crucified One Is Lord

    How shall Christians confess their faith in the midst of people whose beliefs are different? What is the shape of the faith that Christians confess? What should be the church’s stance toward other faith traditions? The Office of Theology and Worship wishes to contribute to the church’s consideration of the issue by making available to

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  • Core Values: Creating the Culture of a New Congregation

    Core Values: Creating the Culture of a New Congregation

    From the Introduction: A new church begins with a dream. Whether it begins with a presbytery commission or a group of residents, somewhere the dream is born. As the dream matures and starts to take shape, a pastor is called and charged with the responsibility of developing a handful of people into that dream church.

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  • Biblical Authority For The Life Of The Church

    Biblical Authority For The Life Of The Church

    This important paper, number 3 in the Office of Theology and Worship’s “Church Issues Series,” was produced by the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom. It is valuable to Presbyterians because it illuminates unity/diversity matters by providing fresh perspectives on the crucial question of the Bible’s authority in the church and by providing scriptural

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  • The Best of Times and the Worst of Times for Religion, Especially Christian Faith

    The Best of Times and the Worst of Times for Religion, Especially Christian Faith

    From the Publisher’s Note: […] John Leith has long been one of this church’s most significant theological voices. He is a learned thinker sho has also served as a pastor and who has devoted himself throughout his career to building up the church through the training of clergy and through his penetrating theological reflections. […]

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  • Thinking Theologically About The Church

    Thinking Theologically About The Church

    In this paper, Burgess explains what thinking theologically about the church looks like and what its sustaining 6 sources will be.

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  • The Shape Of Pastoral Ministry

    The Shape Of Pastoral Ministry

    Occasional Paper #13 reprints two significant essays that are no longer readily available. “The Maceration of the Minister” by the late Lutheran theologian Joseph Sittler is an incisive, sympathetic analysis of the plight of ministers. “The Teaching Authority of the Minister in the Reformed Tradition: A Contemporary Proposal” by Richard R. Osmer, the Thomas W.

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  • Identity, Polity, Praxis

    Identity, Polity, Praxis

    In this essay Paul Hooker Hooker calls us to hear and respond to the questions we face in this time of intense transition — starting with one of the most basic questions: “who are we called to be?” Hooker points to resources we have at hand to help us formulate strong answers to that question.

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  • Bearing The Marks Of The Church

    Bearing The Marks Of The Church

    Who or what is the church?  By what stars shall we navigate as we seek to be the church here and now?  The three essays gathered in “Bearing the Marks of the Church” use Nicene marks of the church – one, holy, catholic, apostolic – as navigation points as we seek to be the church now

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  • Ordination And Authority

    Ordination And Authority

    As Presbyterians we find ourselves in a place of enduring contention as to who should be ordained without a clear conception of why we should be ordaining anyone. And if we are unsure of the nature of ordained ministry, we certainly will be unclear as to how the ordained exercise authority. Because we live in

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  • Congregational Transformation

    Congregational Transformation

    This booklet is about Congregational Redevelopment and is one in a series of how-to booklets produced by the Evangelism and Church Development Program Area of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). To redevelop a congregation is to redirect its ministry in response to significant changes that may have taken place either among its membership or in the

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  • Peace, Unity, and Purity?

    Peace, Unity, and Purity?

    From the Publisher’s Note: The Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church was created by the 213th General Assembly (2001) in a denominational context of polarization.… In the pages that follow, you are invited to engage this process of consideration via the ruminations of three leaders of the church. It is my hope that these

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