Revolution In The Church

There can be no revolution in the world until there is a revolution in the Church, bringing reformation--large-scale change--that the Reformation never envisioned.

Explores the state of the church today, offering biblical guidelines for the church, a redefinition of the institution, and seven core principles of the revolutionaries who are seeking to model the church after its biblical commission.

Our entire understanding of funding and sustainability must change. Tithes and offerings alone are no longer enough to provide for the needs of the local church, enable pastors to pursue opportunities, or sustain long-term ministry impact. Growing financial burdens on the middle class, marginal increases in contributions to religious organizations, shifting generational attitudes toward giving, and changing demographics are having a negative impact on church budgets. Given that someday local churches may be required to pay taxes on the property they own and/or lose the benefit of soliciting tax-deductible gifts, the time to pivot is now. What's needed is disruptive innovation in church economics. For churches to not only survive but thrive in the future, leaders must learn to leverage assets, bless the community, empower entrepreneurs, and create multiple streams of income to effectively fund mission. You'll learn why you should and how to do so in The Coming Revolution in Church Economics.

A story of how God dramatically changes the lives of those who make Jesus their Lord.

Though sometimes a source of controversy regarding certain issues, the Catholic Church has in many ways lead the struggle for social justice and rights for the poor in our age. Pope John Paul II never lets an opportunity pass without insisting on the need for greater respect for human rights and the need to alleviate the pains of poverty. In the United States the Catholic Church is the single largest private organization providing assistance to the underprivileged--operating soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless, providing care for the sick, and education for the needy. But this struggle was not always a top priority. In fact, at the time of the French Revolution the Catholic Church was among the most conservative and reactionary of the world's powers. Church and Revolution deals with the interesting historical question: How did the Catholic Church develop from being a defender of the status quo to being a progressive force in world affairs? Thomas Bokenkotter traces the development of social justice in the Church over the 200 years since the French Revolution through portraits of fifteen colorful figures who were all key to the political revolutions of the past two centuries and who also effected the Church's response to them--including Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero; Irish emancipator Daniel O'Connell; founder of the American Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day; and Polish electrician and President, Lech Walesa.

Are you praying constricted prayers or disruptive ones? Most prayers are constricted ones. They’re prayers that only focus on one part of the Lord’s Prayer: “give us our daily bread.” They’re usually focused on self and envision God as a heavenly caretaker. Disruptive prayers, on the other hand, are powerful, uncommon, and deeply biblical. They focus on God rather than self, seek to advance the kingdom, and submit all things to God. They are also prayed with a profound belief that prayer actually accomplishes something. When we pray disruptive prayers, that’s when the revolution begins. This book shows you how to equip leaders, fuel kingdom movements, and do real damage to the powers of darkness in the here and now. But most of all, discover how your own heart will be transformed as you begin to see how much bigger prayer, and God, is than you ever thought possible.

A history of the Church during the French Revolution and its impact on the course of world history. The understanding of what happened to the Church during this period is seen as a distinct aid to one's understanding of the Revolution itself.

Having worked for three decades to develop urban ministries, Campolo suggests ways that churches can help resurrect beleaguered inner cities, illustrating proven methods used in Camden, New Jersey.

For most of the eighteenth century, British protestantism was driven neither by the primacy of denominations nor by fundamental discord between them. Instead, it thrived as part of a complex transatlantic system that bound religious institutions to imperial politics. As Katherine Carte argues, British imperial protestantism proved remarkably effective in advancing both the interests of empire and the cause of religion until the war for American independence disrupted it. That Revolution forced a reassessment of the role of religion in public life on both sides of the Atlantic. Religious communities struggled to reorganize within and across new national borders. Religious leaders recalibrated their relationships to government. If these shifts were more pronounced in the United States than in Britain, the loss of a shared system nonetheless mattered to both nations. Sweeping and explicitly transatlantic, Religion and the American Revolution demonstrates that if religion helped set the terms through which Anglo-Americans encountered the imperial crisis and the violence of war, it likewise set the terms through which both nations could imagine the possibilities of a new world.

This book describes the change from the Catholic Church of the ancien regime to the church of the early nineteenth century as it affected the institution of the Papacy and through it the Church at large.