Thoughtful Proclaimer

Thoughtful Proclaimer takes you from passage choice to proclamation. This book walks with you through message preparation that transforms both your heart and the hearts of your congregation or class. Aimed at those who proclaim the Word of God in a variety of church and parachurch settings, the Thoughtful Proclaimer method uses a contemplative question-based technique to determine the Commanders intent, Gods purpose, for every passage of scripture. Gods intent for a passage becomes the point for proclamation of a redemptive and relevant message. Anderson uses humor and story to teach good communication techniques so that every message brings lasting transformation to your listeners.

“Saint Gregory of Narek, a monk of the tenth century, knew how to express the sentiments of your people more than anyone. He gave voice to the cry, which became a prayer of a sinful and sorrowful humanity, oppressed by the anguish of its powerlessness, but illuminated by the splendor of God’s love and open to the hope of his salvific intervention, which is capable of transforming all things.” —Pope Francis, April 12, 2015 This is the first translation in any language of the surviving corpus of the festal works of St. Gregory of Narek, a tenth-century Armenian mystic theologian and poet par excellence (d. 1003). Composed as liturgical works for the various Dominical and related feasts, these poetic writings are literary masterpieces in both lyrical verse and narrative. Unlike Gregory’s better-known penitential prayers, these show a jubilant author in a celebratory mood. In this volume Abraham Terian, an eminent scholar of medieval Armenian literature, provides the nonspecialist reader with an illuminating translation of St. Gregory of Narek’s festal works. Introducing each composition with an explanatory note, Terian places the works under consideration in their author’s thought-world and in their tenth-century landscape.

"Armenian Christianity manifests a unique blend of patriotism and piety - given its ethnic character from the outset and the fact of its having survived the unfavorable currents of history. Beginning from the inception of Armenian letters at the turn of the fifth century, the author surveys that blend in ancient Armenian sources spanning a thousand years. He shows how the theme finds its fullest manifestation as a literary motif in the medieval panegyrics dedicated to St. Gregory the Illuminator, founder of the Armenian Church at the dawn of the fourth century. Of these, the panegyric by Hovhannes of Erzenka (a prolific author of the thirteenth century) exhibits all the characteristics of the motif in ancient Armenian literature. Consequently, his work receives ample coverage in this unique study, including a translation of the entire text with commentary. Annotated selections from the other panegyrics on St. Gregory complete the book, the second volume in the AVANT series devoted to the study of the Armenian Christian heritage."--BOOK JACKET.

This book is a distillation of reading Acts for over fifty years, preaching it for twenty-five years, and studying it in-depth for five years. My aim is for students, church leaders, preachers, and missionaries to join me on a journey of narrative theology--a literary exploration of transformation by the Spirit and the Word in Acts. As with every part of God's inspired Scriptures, there is always more to discover and apply. As a Reformed Charismatic I believe that Acts is our story. However, rather than just attempting to copy it, I suggest that the book's unexpected literary shape reveals a challenging missional significance. The need for world gospel mission continues today. However, like the early church, we often contain the Holy Spirit within our own structures and are reluctant to move out of our comfort zones. Acts shows the church's priority is to be God's mission instrument in the world. Let's study, lead, preach, and go from Acts so that we realize Jesus's promise "that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end(s) of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

You'll hear it in news coverage of the Church scandals - Clerical Culture" - but what does it mean? In Clerical Culture: Contradiction and Transformation Michael L. Papesh provides an understanding for today's clerical system and present circumstances. Papesh describes the origin and contemporary formation of the clerical culture as well as eleven major contradictions in which today's clerical culture is trapped. To transcend these crises, Papesh calls for a spiritual approach to cultural transformation (both clerical and popular) through leadership: in holiness, in love, and in justice. Written in an engaging style and complete with raw data and appendices, Clerical Culture provides the knowledge needed to understand today's Church crisis. Chapters in Part One, Focusing the Issues are: *A Personal Story, - *The Problem, - *How the Clerical Culture Came to Be, - *The Clerical Culture: Set for the Ages, - and *Theological Underpinnings. - Chapters in Part Two, The Contradictions are: *Priestly Formation, - *Priest Accountability, - *A Priest's Personal Support System, - and *Living a Contradictory Life. - Chapters in Part Three, Considerations Toward Transformation are: *Cultural Transformation, - *Being Leaders in Holiness, - *Being Leaders in Love, - *Being Leaders in Justice, - and *The Spirit and the Bride Say 'Come'. - Also includes *Appendix 1: Cleveland Priests' Hopes and Concerns Based on Three Areas of Challenge, - *Appendix 2: Cleveland Priests' Large-Group Discussion Task Force Charges, - *Appendix 3: Summary: The Basic Plan for Ongoing Formation of Priests, - *Appendix 4: The Organizational Life Cycle: Change Grid, - and a Bibliography. Michael L. Papesh is Pastor of Our Lady of Peace Parish in St.Paul, Minnesota. "

In a kind of “Sequel” to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago (quoted throughout), with Solzhenitsyn’s intellect, honesty and intense passion for speaking Truth William Baptiste unravels 380 years of bad philosophy that has resulted in Marxism, anti-scientific Postmodernism developed by Marxists to protect Marxism from facts, and current Neo-Marxist Identity Politics which foments racial hatred, which all frequently accompany legal human-killing abortion, which was first legalized 100 Years ago in 1920 Marxist Soviet Russia as a prelude to legalizing the genocide of millions of William’s ethnic heritage. Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand . . . it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” The divisive fundamental incompatibility between democracy built on Equal Human Rights and legal slavery/legal abortion which both deny Equal Human Rights to all humans will incessantly scream for resolution, and in the end we will have to keep democracy and lose legal abortion (as we lost legal slavery), or else keep legal abortion and lose democracy. Jordan Peterson’s fellow Canadian intellectual, non-partisan thinker & logician William Baptiste, is fed up with Pro-Choice ‘Creeping Totalitarianism’ taking away normal democratic freedoms of speech, expression, assembly, conscience & religion of Pro-Life Human Rights Advocates, including real doctors who follow the 2500-year Hippocratic Medical Tradition that doctors don’t kill. Officially Pro-Choice political parties in his country and others keep asininely insisting the Abortion Debate (the Human Rights for All Humans Debate) is “settled” in their favor, all while they pass totalitarian laws making peaceful Pro-Life Human Rights Advocacy a crime in order to silence the Free Speech of Pro-Lifers. All because Pro-Choice politicians simply cannot win a respectful, intellectually honest, intelligent, rational, scientific and rigorously logical debate about abortion. Abortion which was first legalized by the evil Soviets & Nazis specifically because neither believed that killing humans is wrong. A proper, intelligent and intellectually honest Human-Rights-educated Abortion Debate (Human Rights for All Humans Debate) has never occurred, neither in the author’s country nor anywhere else. Pro-Life Equals Pro-Democracy is William Baptiste’s initial contribution to an honest, intelligent dialogue which actually considers and does not ignore established facts of Human Rights History and Biological Science; a dialogue which is conducted honestly according to sound logic, avoiding the logical fallacies of the intellectually dishonest (which include every single argument typically proposed for legal abortion). Pro-Life Equals Pro-Democracy with its Intellectual Honesty Challenge intends to both ACTUALLY START and SUCCESSFULLY END the Human Rights for All Humans Debate (the Abortion Debate) Once and For All; and Proclaims THE THINKING REVOLUTION to Protect Free Democracy For Centuries. When judged according to the objective standards of Science and Logic - and undisputed facts of Human Rights History - the Pro-Choice position for legal abortion is revealed as not even remotely intellectually defensible, and not even remotely acceptable in a LASTING democracy, which can only last on Democracy’s historic Pro-Life foundations. As Solzhenitsyn challenged the genocidal Marxist Soviet Communist Party, William Baptiste challenges every Pro-Choice Political Party which follows their legal human-killing abortion precedent to account for themselves before the public and repent of their totalitarian legal human-killing abortion evil – as intellectual honesty demands. WilliamBaptisteHumanRightsAndFreedomsForever.com