A Free Will Baptist Handbook Heritage Beliefs Ministries

Though the church universal is an ancient institution, the contemporary ministry landscape is always changing. That's why a new resource with useful information about Christian organizations is needed. The Essential Handbook of Denominations and Ministries is an easy-to-use guide to more than 200 of the largest denominations and 300 ministries in the United States. The entries for organizations include a brief history and summary, a contemporary profile, and discussion on doctrinal emphases, creeds, membership, and interdenominational and ecumenical alliances. Pastors, ministry leaders, community leaders, and students will find this resource a helpful guide as they seek to understand Christian denominations and ministries.

Coinciding with the four-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Baptist movement, this book explores and assesses the cultural sources of Baptist beliefs and practices. Although the movement has been embraced, enriched, and revised by numerous cultural heritages, the Baptist movement has focused on a small group of Anglo exiles in Amsterdam in constructing its history and identity. Robert E. Johnson seeks to recapture the varied cultural and theological sources of Baptist tradition and to give voice to the diverse global elements of the movement that have previously been excluded or marginalized. With an international communion of over 110 million persons in more than 225,000 congregations, Baptists constitute the world's largest aggregate of evangelical Protestants. This work offers insight into the diversity, breadth, and complexity of the cultural influences that continue to shape Baptist identity today.

"Every Christian denomination has unique beliefs and practices that give it identity and define its heritage. For Free Will Baptists, this heritage includes the sufficiency of scripture. This pamphlet gives the reader a deeper understanding of the development of this historic doctrine, including: church history; Free Will Baptist historical position; and conclusions for today."--

Courage and Hope: The Stories of Ten Baptist Women Ministers is a collection of essays about Baptist women who have each served in the ministry for over thirty years. Among these women are pastors, church staff members, missionaries, mission organization leaders, and professors. Many of the stories were written by the women, and each story offers insight into its subject's calling, ministry experiences, obstacles, and the mentors and encouragers who supported her.

A Postmodern Theology of Ritual Action is a unique work that seeks to explore where we find meaning within ritual and actions within the church. Bridging hermeneutics, philosophy, and postmodern thought, this work seeks to explore how to do theology with the community through conversation. Beginning with the mindset that meaning is already present within ritual action rather than outside it, Best engages the practice of foot washing among the Original Free Will Baptist denomination of eastern North Carolina. Foot washing suggests a new future for theology, a future that models love, service, and acceptance. Incorporating insights gained from conversing with philosophy, theology, and the Original Free Will Baptists, foot washing points toward a future relational practical theology. A Postmodern Theology of Ritual Action is a captivating work that draws from both philosophers and theologians to show that we can learn much by listening to the voices of religious practitioners.

This volume is the second of a two-part work that evaluates the teaching of justification by faith from the early church to modern times in light of the Scriptures and the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Part 2 continues the evaluation begun in part 1 by examining the teaching of justification by faith from the mid-sixteenth century to the twenty-first century. Throughout these centuries numerous accounts of this foundational Christian truth have been offered, and many controversies have been and continue to be fought. Beginning with the Lutheran tradition in the opening chapter, the authors identify the contributions and shortcomings of each of the major Christian traditions. While many of the Christian traditions have contributed some light to the church's understanding of justification by faith, the authors contend that most of them have fallen short of the truth that in justification God approves the believers solely on account of their union with Christ as righteousness through faith.