Download Free The Empty Pulpit Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Empty Pulpit and write the review.

A down-to-earth, practical introduction to the ins and outs of preaching for lay preachers, bivocational pastors, and others newly arrived in the pulpit. Recent years have seen a considerable increase in the amount of financial resources required to support a full-time pastor in the local congregation. In addition, large numbers of full-time, seminary trained clergy are retiring, without commensurate numbers of new clergy able to take their place. As a result of these trends, a large number of lay preachers and bivocational pastors have assumed the principal responsibility for filling the pulpit week by week in local churches. Most of these individuals, observes Clifton Guthrie, can draw on a wealth of life experiences, as well as strong intuitive skills in knowing what makes a good sermon, having listened to them much of their lives. What they often don't bring to the pulpit, however, is specific, detailed instruction in the how-tos of preaching. That is precisely what this brief, practical guide to preaching has to offer. Written with the needs of those for whom preaching is not their sole or primary occupation in mind, it begins by emphasizing what every preacher brings to the pulpit: an idea of what makes a sermon particularly moving or memorable to them. From there the book moves into short chapters on choosing an appropriate biblical text or sermon topic, learning how to listen to one's first impressions of what a text means, moving from text or topic to the sermon itself while keeping the listeners needs firmly in mind, making thorough and engaging use of stories in the sermon, and delivering with passion and conviction. The book concludes with helpful suggestions for resources, including Bibles, commentaries, other print resources and websites.
Italian sermons tell a story of the Reformation that credits preachers with using the pulpit, pen, and printing press to keep Italy Catholic when the region’s violent religious wars made the future uncertain, and with fashioning a post-Reformation Catholicism that would survive the competition and religious choice of their own time and ours.
Who Moved My Pulpit? may not be the exact question you’re asking. But you’re certainly asking questions about change in the church—where it’s coming from, why it’s happening, and how you’re supposed to hang on and follow God through it—even get out ahead of it so your church is faithfully meeting its timeless calling and serving the new opportunities of this age. Based on conversations with thousands of pastors, combined with on-the-ground research from more than 50,000 churches, best-selling author Thom S. Rainer shares an eight-stage roadmap to leading change in your church. Not by changing doctrine. Not by changing biblical foundations. But by changing methodologies and approaches for reaching a rapidly changing culture. You are the pastor. You are the church staff person. You are an elder. You are a deacon. You are a key lay leader in the church. This is the book that will equip you to celebrate and lead change no matter the cost. The time is now.
What is it like to be a preacher or rabbi who no longer believes in God? In this expanded and updated edition of their groundbreaking study, Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola comprehensively and sensitively expose an inconvenient truth that religious institutions face in the new transparency of the information age—the phenomenon of clergy who no longer believe what they publicly preach. In confidential interviews, clergy from across the ministerial spectrum—from liberal to literal—reveal how their lives of religious service and study have led them to a truth inimical to their professed beliefs and profession. Although their personal stories are as varied as the denominations they once represented, or continue to represent—whether Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Mormon, Pentecostal, or any of numerous others—they give voice not only to their own struggles but also to those who similarly suffer in tender and lonely silence. As this study poignantly and vividly reveals, their common journey has far-reaching implications not only for their families, their congregations, and their communities—but also for the very future of religion.
John Frame's A Theology of Lordship series has been greeted with acclaim, The Doctrine of God receiving an ECPA Gold Medallion Award. This fourth and final volume in the series discusses God's word in modern theology and how God's word comes to us as his controlling power, meaningful authority, and personal presence. Dr. Frame says that God's speech to man is real-like one person speaking to another "God speaks so that we can understand him and respond appropriately. Appropriate responses are of many kinds: belief, obedience, affection, repentance, laughter, pain, sadness, and so on. God's speech is often propositional: God's conveying information to us. But it is far more than that. It includes all the features, functions, beauty, and richness of language that we see in human communication, and more. So the concept I wish to defend is broader than the 'propositional revelation' that we argued so ardently forty years ago, though propositional revelation is part of it. My thesis is that God's word, in all its qualities and aspects, is a personal communication from him to us." Book jacket.
In this practical book, Moore highlights the importance of adoption for all Christians, encouraging readers to lead the way in adoption and orphan advocacy out of our identity as adopted children of God.
The loss of a senior pastor is heart wrenching under any circumstances and often not foreseen. In such a time of crisis a church's leadership needs a sound plan of action, not only for finding a new pastor but also for reassuring and maintaining the congregation in the interim. In Search of God's Man is a book for deacons and lay leaders to read before they need it. Basing his counsel on his own experiences and using a direct but sensitive style, Douglas DeVore covers every aspect of the search for a new pastor from the most practical details to sensitive emotional considerations. In Search of God's Man is a compassionate, spiritual, and thorough step-by-step guide for those who find themselves at the helm during a formidable time in the life of their church. - Back cover.
Christopher is a pastor, teacher, and author with a desire to encourage and equip others in their Christian journey through sound biblical teaching. His material is available through various Bible software programs and is recognized for its faithfulness to biblical doctrine and ease of comprehension. Christopher and his wife Tanya live in North Carolina and have been blessed with two children, Makayla and Malinda. He was saved as a young man and baptized into Christian fellowship at Bethel Baptist Church in Taylorsville, NC. In 1995, Christopher was ordained as a deacon and served Bethel Baptist Church in that capacity until he accepted his first pastorate. He was ordained into Gospel ministry in September 2005 and served as pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Hiddenite, NC. Christopher continues in pastoral ministry at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Mount Airy, NC, where he has served as pastor since 2010."