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“...and nothing but the truth”
FREDERICK J. GAISER
(see full text of essay under “Editorial”)
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In a world of sound
bites, photo ops, and commercialized promises, telling (and doing) the truth is
all we have going for us. The church has to be the place where people hear
the unvarnished, un-neoned truth. Is that not, in a
nutshell, our mission?
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Articles
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The Mission Matrix:
Mapping Out the Complexities of a Missional
Ecclesiology
RICHARD BLIESE
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Congregations and pastors can become bewildered by the
various definitions of and many programs for mission. A “mission matrix” can
serve as a tool for a church to analyze its life and witness.
(Click Here for Full Text)
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“Stewards of God’s Mysteries”: Stewarding as a Model
for Congregational Ministry
ROLF A. JACOBSON
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Are we members of our
congregation or stewards of God’s
mysteries? Our model for ministry makes all the difference.
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Holy Friendship: Reimaging
Ministry with Homebound Older Adults
JANET L. RAMSEY
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What if ministry with homebound older adults were a
matter of developing friendship rather than tedious obligation? With care, just
such a ministry can be nourished in our congregations.
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Reexamining Relational Youth Ministry: Implications
from the Theology of Bonhoeffer
ANDREW ROOT
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Youth ministry often focuses on building relationships between
youth ministers and adolescents. But to what end? A relationship designed to
influence the other is no relationship and is unworthy of Christ. In a true
relationship Christians must be willing fully to share the place of another.
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Congregations and Public Life
RONALD W. DUTY
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Congregations are called to public life rather than to
familial coziness. By serving the public arena the congregation participates in
God’s ongoing creating activity in the world and anticipates the coming kingdom of God
in all its justice and fullness.
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Service-Learning and the Spiritual Formation of
College Students
MARK WM. RADECKE
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Experiences that take emerging adults out of their comfort zone and
immerse them in unfamiliar surroundings enable them to view the world,
themselves, God, and the things of God in new and refreshing ways.
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The 2005–2006 Essay
Prize for Doctoral Candidates
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“If you do not do this you are not now a
Christian”: Martin Luther’s Pastoral Teachings on Money
KATHRYN D’ARCY BLANCHARD
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“If you are rich and see your neighbor is poor, serve him with your
possessions,” wrote Luther; “if you do not do this you are not now a
Christian.” And are we not all “rich”? Luther’s teachings on money will make
us all squirm. Still, there is promise: genuine faith will manifest itself in
an openhanded use of our possessions.
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Resources
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer—Pastor
and Theologian of Word and World
JOHN W. MATTHEWS
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“Christian martyr” and “Righteous Gentile” have both been disputed as
appropriate titles for Dietrich Bonhoeffer, born
one hundred years ago this year. Undisputed is his incarnational
theology, always tying together word and world—a legacy brought to this
journal by its first editor, James Burtness
(1928–2006), a Bonhoeffer scholar whose recent
death we mourn and whose work we continue to treasure.
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Face to Face: Ministry in the Rural Context
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More than Just
Keeping the Doors Open
RAY BRANSTITER
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“Maintenance
Ministry” or Maintaining the Mission?
RANDALL SCHLECHT
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Texts in Context: Preaching
Mission: Call
and Promise in Matthew 28:16–20
MARY HINKLE SHORE
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Jesus’ Great Commission provides substance for many
sermons (not just one) on Christian mission, and the deeper our understanding
of the commission in the context of Matthew’s Gospel, the richer those
sermons. In all of them, done faithfully, Christ will, as he promises, be
with us to shape and inspire our witness.
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Reviews
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By Faith Alone: A Review of the Forde Festschrift
STEVEN D. PAULSON
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God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational
Theology of Creation, by Terence
E. Fretheim
H. PAUL SANTMIRE
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Paul and the Gentile Women: Reframing Galatians, by Tatha Wiley
MARILYN SALMON
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Vocation: Discerning Our Callings in Life, by Douglas J. Schuurman
MARY ELIZABETH ANDERSON
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Two Worlds Are Ours: An Introduction to Christian
Mysticism, by John Macquarrie
LAURA J. THELANDER
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