The Glass Church

The Glass Church
Author: Mark T. Mulder
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-04-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 081358907X

Robert H. Schuller’s ministry—including the architectural wonder of the Crystal Cathedral and the polished television broadcast of Hour of Power—cast a broad shadow over American Christianity. Pastors flocked to Southern California to learn Schuller’s techniques. The President of United States invited him sit prominently next to the First Lady at the State of the Union Address. Muhammad Ali asked for the pastor’s autograph. It seemed as if Schuller may have started a second Reformation. And then it all went away. As Schuller’s ministry wrestled with internal turmoil and bankruptcy, his emulators—including Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and Joel Osteen— nurtured megachurches that seemed to sweep away the Crystal Cathedral as a relic of the twentieth century. How did it come to this? Certainly, all churches depend on a mix of constituents, charisma, and capital, yet the size and ambition of large churches like Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral exert enormous organizational pressures to continue the flow of people committed to the congregation, to reinforce the spark of charismatic excitement generated by high-profile pastors, and to develop fresh flows of capital funding for maintenance of old projects and launching new initiatives. The constant attention to expand constituencies, boost charisma, and stimulate capital among megachurches produces an especially burdensome strain on their leaders. By orienting an approach to the collapse of the Crystal Cathedral on these three core elements—constituency, charisma, and capital—The Glass Church demonstrates how congregational fragility is greatly accentuated in larger churches, a notion we label megachurch strain, such that the threat of implosion is significantly accentuated by any failures to properly calibrate the inter-relationship among these elements.

Powerful and Free

Powerful and Free
Author: Danny Silk
Publisher: Loving On Purpose
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-04-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781942306085

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, "Women in Ministry"? A. Nursery Worker B. Children's leader C. Pastor D. It's complicated If you are like most your answer would be, "It's complicated". Many believers are still confused about the proper place for women in the church. Powerful and Free is a call to address the structural message of inequality.It is not a theological treatise on the biblical case for female leaders (there are many excellent resources for this already). It is not a political program to implement some kind of affirmative action in our leadership teams, because that doesn't work. Rather, it is an appeal to the hearts of men and women to recognize the existence of the glass ceiling for women and to challenge themselves to align more fully with a Kingdom vision for gender-blind leadership in the Body and equal male-female partnership in the home.

Behind the Stained Glass

Behind the Stained Glass
Author: Christopher M. Hamlin
Publisher: Crane Hill Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998
Genre: Civil rights
ISBN: 9781575870755

Perhaps the most infamous incident of the Civil Rights Movement occurred on 15 September, 1963. Four young black girls, planning to serve as worship leaders for Youth Day at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, were killed in a massive dynamite explosion shortly before the Sunday service. Hamlin, the current pastor, provides a detailed history of the church as it approaches its 125th anniversary. This history differs little from that of other urban Southern black churches, and it would thus hold limited interest were it not for the tragic incident. The congregation had little involvement in social issues before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. turned the church into a staging area for his Birmingham protests. Much of the history involves a frequent turnover of pastors because of continuously disgruntled minority factions. The Reverend Hamlin has remained nine years and apparently has set the church on a positive path. This book is of interest to social historians.

Heaven in Stone and Glass

Heaven in Stone and Glass
Author: Robert Barron
Publisher: Crossroad
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2002-04
Genre: Architecture, Gothic
ISBN: 9780824519933

Like a mystical tome awaiting to be deciphered, a Gothic cathedral holds many secrets about the soul's yearning for God. In Heaven in Stone and Glass, Catholic priest and professor of theology at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago teaches us how to read these secrets, with beautiful reflections on aspects such as light and darkness, the labyrinth, the meaning of gargoyles and demons, and the imagery of vertical space. whether you are preparing for a pilgrimage to York Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, or looking ahead to inspirational bedside reading, this book is the perfect guide.

Saint John's Abbey Church

Saint John's Abbey Church
Author: Victoria M. Young
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 675
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1452943486

In the 1950s the brethren at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint John the Baptist in Collegeville, Minnesota—the largest Benedictine abbey in the world—decided to expand their campus, including building a new church. From a who’s who of architectural stars—such as Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, Pietro Belluschi, Barry Byrne, and Eero Saarinen—the Benedictines chose a former member of the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer. In collaboration with the monks, this untested religious designer produced a work of modern sculptural concrete architecture that reenvisioned what a church could be and set a worldwide standard for midcentury religious design. Saint John’s Abbey Church documents the dialogue of the design process, as Breuer instructed the monks about architecture and they in turn guided him and his associates in the construction of a sacred space in the crucial years of liturgical reform. A reading of letters, drawings, and other archival materials shows how these conversations gave shape to design elements from the church’s floor plan to the liturgical furnishings, art, and incomparable stained glass installed within it. The book offers a rare detailed view of how a patron and architect work together in a successful building campaign—one that, in this case, lasted for two decades and resulted in designs for twelve buildings, ten of which were completed. The post–World War II years were critical in the development of religious and architectural experiences in the United States—experiences that came together in the construction of Saint John’s Abbey and University Church and that find their full expression in Victoria M. Young’s account of the process. Using the liturgy of the mid-twentieth century as a cornerstone for understanding the architecture produced to support it, her book showcases the importance of modernism in the design of sacred space, and of Marcel Breuer’s role in setting the standard.

Medieval Church Window Tracery in England

Medieval Church Window Tracery in England
Author: Stephen Hart
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2010
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1843835339

While the terms used to describe the tracery of medieval church windows are familiar (Early English, Decorated, Perpendicular), there has been no really detailed attempt to examine it as a distinct, stylistic architectural form, a gap which this book seeks to address. Based upon a visual catalogue of over 250 images of surviving types and styles from churches throughout England, it traces the progression of ideas and the continuity of motifs and themes in tracery patterns from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, showing how different themes emerged within the main architectural styles; it also looks at the distinction between a window's architectural form and its tracery style, and describes the several different tracery techniques. The volume is completed with a detailed glossary. Stephen Hart is a retired architect, and the author of numerous works, including Flint Flushwork.

This Is the Church

This Is the Church
Author: Katie Warner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2020-08-24
Genre:
ISBN: 9781505117936

The most beautiful way to introduce your little one to the incredible story of salvation history! This is the Church will dazzle you with its detailed, stained-glass illustrations and tempt you to countless readings with its rhythmic story. Through this unique picture book, which is destined to become a classic found in all Catholic homes, you and your little one will fall more deeply in love with Jesus Christ, Our Savior and King, who died and then rose and founded a Church, the Catholic Church, to share God's love with the world. If you're already a fan of Katie Warner and Meg Whalen's beautiful children's books, this one will not disappoint . . . and is likely to become your new favorite.

In Search of the New Testament Church

In Search of the New Testament Church
Author: C. Douglas Weaver
Publisher: Mercer University Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780881461060

When John Smyth organized the first Baptist church, he wanted to establish the New Testament church; believer's baptism was the missing link. Baptists of subsequent eras often continued the search to embody New Testament Christianity. Alongside the quest for the New Testament church (and congregational community), Weaver especially highlights the Baptist commitment to religious liberty and the individual conscience. Both chronological and thematic, this book addresses such themes as the role of women, the social gospel, ecumenism, charismatic influences, and theological emphases in Baptist life.

Judson

Judson
Author: David Judson
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781626400450

Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass by David Judson and Steffie Nelson is a history of the world-renowned family of artisans who began crafting stained glass windows in Los Angeles in 1897. Five generations of Judsons have worked with artists, architects, and designers to create Old World-style stained glass whose quality and craftsmanship has often been compared to the work of Louis Tiffany. Famed for its Craftsman glass, Judson arts-and-crafts era windows have been celebrated by experts in the field for decades. Judson's work with Frank Lloyd Wright on Hollyhock House in the 1920s was recently re-saluted when the house was named to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. Established in the Pasadena during the heyday of the Arroyo Culture, headquarters of Judson Studios are still housed in the original Craftsman-era home and studio of patriarch William Lees Judson. Much of Judson's finest early work was installed in religious buildings. Along with the studio's numerous institutional and residential projects, Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass illustrates fine work in churches dating back to the early twentieth century. Modern work is also featured, including the extraordinary Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs, completed in 1962, a mid-century wonder whose soaring panels of color introduced an architecturally mesmerizing approach to stained glass that had never been executed before. In 2018, under David Judson's leadership, the studio created the world's largest fused glass window for the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Including 140 panels, and measuring more than 3,400 square feet of art glass, the window made news internationally, intriguing congregants, tourists, and stained glass experts alike with its precision detail and artful melding of colors in a mural that depicted both sacred and secular stories. Once Judson Studios developed methods for blending subtle variations of color in glass for the Church of the Resurrection window, the possibilities of glass as an artist's medium were apparent. Now, in addition to its work in traditional leaded stained glass, Judson Studios is working with fine artists creating effects in fused glass that were previously unachievable. Most recently, fine artist Sarah Cain worked with Judson Studios to create a work in glass 10 feet high by 150 feet long; it was installed at the San Francisco International Airport in July 2019. About the Authors: David Judson is president of Judson Studios, the fifth generation of the Judson family to lead the studio since it was founded in 1897. David oversees the studio's creative process, where he works with architects, designers, and artists who turn to Judson for its legendary work in stained glass. In 2015, he opened the second Judson Studios facility which incorporates the firm's innovative fusing technology that allows fine artists to express their vision in glass. David is the president of the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA) and lives with his family in Pasadena, California. Steffie Nelson has covered art, design, and culture for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, W Magazine, and others.