Books published by Abingdon Press

This volume in "An Essential Guide series consists of six chapters: - What Is Rabbinic Literature? Why Is It Important.?- The Oral Torah- The Rabbinic Canon: Law (Halakhah)- The Rabbinic Canon: Theology (Aggadah)- Rabbinic Literature and the Hebrew Scriptures- Rabbinic Literature and the Christian Scriptures

By blending the traditional elements of the worship service with African Americanculture, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan once again provides a practical resource for planningmore of the special Sundays that congregations celebrate throughout theyear.More African American Special Days contains fifteen services forspecial occasions, including: Pastor 's Day, Men 's Day, Women 's Day, Mother 's Day, Father 's Day, Kwanzaa, M.L. King, Jr. Day, Watch Night, Usher 's Day, Homecoming/Family Reunion, Deacon s/Steward 's Day, Deaconess/Stewardess Day, YouthRite of Passage, Board of Christian Education, and Women 's Missionary SocietyDay.

For each Sunday from Advent through Candlemas (February 2), the author provides a complete order of worship, including prayers, litanies, and readings.

Eight multiple-session Bible lessons related to the life concerns of young women and featuring female biblical characters.

Pastors and worship leaders know that one encounters God through the reading of Scripture in worship. They sometimes encounter difficulty, however, in integrating the day's readings from the lectionary with the other elements of worship. While worshippers usually meet the biblical text face to face in the sermon, David Hostetter believes that it would be better if they attune to hear the Word throughout the whole of worship. This book will help pastors and other leaders weave the themes of the day's lections throughout the worship service. Entries for each Sunday of the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary include: Call to Worship Invocation Prayer of Confession and Declaration of Pardon Prayer of the Day Prayer of Thanksgiving Prayer of Dedication Offertory Prayer Prayer of Intercession and Commemoration One-sentence introductions to each of the lections.

Evangelism is not about church size but about making disciples.

Ready-to-use worship and preaching resources for themes related to Stewardship.

A major study of John Wesley's political ethics and an attempt to reformulate a Wesleyan orientation to political thinking by drawing the political implications of Wesley's "order of salvation". Was John Wesley the "fanatical Tory" conservative of many political portraits, with his loyalty to the British monarchy, his support of taxation without representation, and his severe criticism of American independence? Or was he an emergent political liberal, condemning slavery, defending the rights and liberties of the British people, and urging government intervention in the economy to relieve hunger and poverty? This historical and theological study of Wesley's political thought concludes that he is understood best neither as Tory nor as liberal (both of which he was, in important respects), but as a staunch champion of limited constitutional government and of the subordination of power to law--in the context of the "Glorious Revolution" and the organic unity of the British community. Wesley's understanding of rights is a mixture of the historical and the natural, but is closer to the adaptive conservatism of Edmund Burke than to natural rights individualism in the following of John Locke. Weber argues further that Wesley's deliberate exclusion of the people from politics can be challenged from within his own theology by recovering and developing his concept of the political image and integrating it with his understanding of the order of salvation. This process of recovery and integration discloses the political vocation for all humankind and opens the way to an authentically Wesleyan political language. It has significant implications also for rethinking Wesley's theology as such, and not only the Wesleyan language of politics. This book addresses the apparent conflict between Wesley's own political stance and his proclamation of an inclusive gospel ("free grace to all."). It focuses on the "order of salvation" and a reorientation of Wesley's approach to the Trinity. It includes an historical exploration of Wesley's political context and commitments. It opens the possibility of an authentically Wesleyan political ethic and shows how diverse views within the Methodist tradition might be reconciled through a recasting of Wesleyan theology. It will help students to see how Wesley's contribution to the realm of ethics might not be negated by his own authoritarian and patriarchal political commitments.

Hunter discusses the rebirth of the apostolic congregation, Christianity's vision of what people can become, how small groups shape an apostolic people, how lay ministry advances the Christian movement, and how apostolic churches reach secular people.

A classic guide to ethics since 1928. Nolan Harmon studied the ethical codes of conduct of five major denominations and secured the opinions of eighty-six leading pastors. Harmon uses this wisdom to show ministers how to conduct themselves ethically in virtually every phase of ministry and special occasion rituals.

Long recognized as the definitive crisis-counseling volume for the active minister, The Minister as Crisis Counselor is now thoroughly modernized to incorporate recent contributions to the field. David K. Switzer offers a comprehensive examination of both the theory and the method of crisis counseling as it relates specifically to active working pastors. Chapter titles include: The Minister, the Congregation, and Community Crisis Services; Intervening in the Suicidal Crisis; The Minister and Divorce Crises; Intervening in a Pathological Grief Reaction: A Case Study; The Minister's Role and Functioning in the Crisis of Grief; Intervening in Family Crises; Intervention Procedures; Methods of Crisis Counseling; Crisis Theory: Definition, Description, Dynamics; The Minister as Crisis Counselor.

This Sourcebook, part of a two-volume set, The Methodist Experience in America, contains documents from between 1760 and 1998 pertaining to the movements constitutive of American United Methodism.