One Assembly

One Assembly
Author: Jonathan Leeman
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2020-03-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433559625

Many churches are switching to the multisite or multiservice models to manage crowded sanctuaries due to growing attendance. This solution seems sensible in the short term, but too often churches adopt this model without taking into consideration what the Bible says about it. Illuminating the importance of physical togetherness as a way to protect the gospel, this book argues that maintaining a single assembly best embodies the unity the church possesses in Jesus Christ. Jonathan Leeman considers a series of biblical, theological, and pastoral arguments that ask us to stop and examine intuitions or assumptions about what a church is. He reorients our minds to a biblical definition of church, offering examples of churches that have thrived with a single service at a single site and compelling alternatives for those looking to solve the complications that come with a growing church.

Preaching to Korean Immigrants

Preaching to Korean Immigrants
Author: Rebecca Seungyoun Jeong
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2022-09-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3031078853

In terms of practical-theology’s critical reflection on marginalized people’s wounds in a wider society, this book investigates the question, “How to proclaim the good news in response to first-generation Korean immigrants’ contextual suffering in the United Sates?” To answer the question, the book starts with investigating Korean immigrant hearers’ contextual predicaments in a new land to point out emerging practical-theological issues in relation to the practice of preaching. In this book, the primary subjects are first-generation Korean immigrants, especially those who have relatively low socio-economic status and struggle with the purpose of their lives as immigrants, particularly those whose material dreams have been shattered. In order to proclaim the good news, this book proposes a more appropriate immigrant theology for/in the practice of preaching by reclaiming the priorities of God’s future in our lives and confirming God’s active identification with Korean immigrant congregations in the depths of their predicament. Such reconstructive work for immigrant theology arises in response to their existential hardships, marginality, ethnic discrimination, and relative powerlessness in life. While acknowledging both the possibilities and limits of the diverse forms of current Korean immigrant preaching, the book then offers a strategic proposal for a new homiletic theory, namely “a psalmic-theological homiletic.” This proposed homiletic is deeply rooted in the theology of the Psalms and their rhetorical movement. This re-envisioned mode of eschatological and prophetic preaching in times of difficulty recovers ancient Israel’s psalmic, rhetorical tradition that aims toward faith. Its theological-rhetorical strategy intends to both transform hearers’ habitus of living in faith and enhance their hope-filled life through communal anticipation of God’s coming future on the margins. Specifically, this proposed homiletic critically adopts key features from psalms of lament and their typical, fourfold theological-rhetorical movement (i.e., lament, retelling a story, confessional doxology, and obedient vow) as now core elements of a revised Korean-immigrant preaching practice.

Asian American Religions

Asian American Religions
Author: Tony Carnes
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2004-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 081471630X

Redraws old definitions of what it means to be religious and Asian American.

Pastoral Leadership

Pastoral Leadership
Author: Won Sang Lee
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2015-01-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1630877700

In ascending to heaven, Jesus Christ gave the church the Great Commission to expand the gospel to all nations. Despite this biblical commission, it is still an unfinished task. As leaders of local churches, pastors play a crucial part in this endeavor. Pastoral leadership principles have varied widely throughout history, yet it is interesting to discover the similarities between pastoral leadership principles practiced by John Chrysostom (AD 347-407) in Antioch and Constantinople, and Won Sang Lee (1937-) in Washington, DC. Despite ministering 1600 years apart, both pastors share the same core values: care for people, Christ-like character, biblical preaching, and world missions. This suggests that continued emphasis on these principles will play a significant role in fulfilling the Great Commission, independent of time and place.

The Spirit Moves West

The Spirit Moves West
Author: Rebecca Y. Kim
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2015-01-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190210834

With the extraordinary growth of Christianity in the global south has come the rise of "reverse missions," in which countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America send missionaries to re-evangelize the West. In The Spirit Moves West, Rebecca Kim uses South Korea as a case study of how non-Western missionaries target Americans, particularly white Americans. She draws on four years of interviews, participant observation, and surveys of South Korea's largest non-denominational missionary-sending agency, University Bible Fellowship, in order to provide an inside look at this growing phenomenon. Known as the "Asian Protestant Superpower," South Korea is second only to the United States in the number of missionaries it sends abroad: approximately 22,000 in over 160 countries. Conducting her research both in the US and in South Korea, Kim studies the motivations and methods of these Korean evangelicals who have, since the 1970s, sought to "bring the gospel back" to America. By offering the first empirically-grounded examination of this much-discussed phenomenon, Kim explores what non-Western missions will mean to the future of Christianity in America and around the world.

How Am I Going to Grow Up?

How Am I Going to Grow Up?
Author: Enoch Wong
Publisher: Langham Monographs
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2022-01-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1839736364

Second-generation Chinese Canadian evangelicals inhabit a complex liminal space, positioned between the world of their parents and broader Canadian society. In this study, Dr. Enoch Wong explores the “silent exodus” of these Canadian-born Chinese from their parents’ churches, tracing their journeys to negotiate their cultural, ethnic, and faith identities for themselves. Utilizing both sociology of religion and leadership studies, Wong’s research engages Robert Greenleaf’s concept of foresight in servant leadership to examine the role of church leaders in mediating (or failing to mediate) these transitions for children raised in immigrant churches. This multi-case inquiry offers insight into the concerns of Canadian-born Chinese evangelicals and the cultural and generational conflicts that prompt them to search for new communities capable of understanding their identities and supporting their yearnings – whether inside or outside of the church.