What is the church to make of the many new expressions of worship springing up across the nation and the world? A gathering of academic theologians, New Worshiping Community practitioners, and leaders from within Presbyterian councils met at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to start the conversation. New Worshiping Communities documents those discussions and provides theological and biblical foundations to the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The participants in this conversation have sought to put flesh on the bones of what a New Worshiping Community is, by defining it as: New Seeking to make and form new disciples of Jesus Christ Taking on varied forms of church for our changing culture Worshiping Gathered by the Spirit to meet Jesus Christ in Word and sacrament Sent by the Spirit to join Gods mission for the transformation of the world Community Practicing mutual care and accountability Developing sustainability in leadership and finances

For many churches, the call to make disciples comes with a realization that the church's current worship opportunities do not reach certain groups in their surrounding community. New worship services offer the most promising strategy for renewing established churches and planting new worship communities. In a post-pandemic world, churches will be challenged to reach new people with the gospel and to help them meet in a way that is meaningful to them. Accessible to ministry professionals and lay leaders, Launching a New Worship Community is a comprehensive guide to starting a new worship community—whether that means an established church beginning a new worship service or a church startup designing its first worship offering. The authors, writing with a team of church planting experts, provide practical advice rooted in solid academics, theology, and real-world experience. With this guide, readers will have the tools they need to begin and sustain a new worship community.

Sustaining Grace explores the dynamic between new faith communities and denominational systems through the lens of stewardship and sustainability. As a collection, these essays suggest that to facilitate ecologies for innovation in our current era, established congregations and new faith communities must model the sustaining grace of God to one another in creative ways. Thus, problems of sustainability are not for church planters to solve alone, but rather are related to the theologies of stewardship and the ecclesial system to which they belong. Issues of vision are not for denominational systems to theorize alone, but are given shape on their historic foundations in the creative and prophetic structures practiced in new faith communities. This book speaks to a central tension in the growing movement of church planting--the mutual need of and the mutual frustration between establishment leaders and innovators, conservators and risk takers. Standing at the contact point of that tension in one of the wealthiest mainline denominations, 1001 New Worshipping Communities and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary engage the question of faithful stewardship with voices reflecting and strategizing on each side of the tension, broadening the conversation to include those beyond the Presbyterian Church, and bringing both the academy and practitioners from church judicatories, church plants, and traditional church communities to offer a theologically grounded, practical, and generative conversation.

The Waiting Father is a collection of sermons by Helmut Thielicke, the great German preacher and theologian, which offer deep insights into the spiritual message of Jesus's fifteen major parables. They were originally preached in Michaelskirche, Hamburg, in the mid-1950s. Thielicke approaches the parables in novel ways. In treating the prodigal son, for instance, he concentrates more on the loving father than the rebellious son, emphasising the centrality of forgiveness. Similarly, when discussing the pharisee and the publican he shows that the publican is guilty of spiritual pride and arrogance, drawing attention to the dangers for the faithful. Both among expositions of the parables and among books for preachers, The Waiting Father stands in a class of its own. Great scholars are usually poor preachers, and great scholars are rarely good preachers, but Thielicke manages to combine distinguished scholarship with fine preaching.

Explores the practice of eating together as Christian worship The gospel story is filled with meals. It opens in a garden and ends in a feast. Records of the early church suggest that believers met for worship primarily through eating meals. Over time, though, churches have lost focus on the centrality of food— and with it a powerful tool for unifying Christ’s diverse body. But today a new movement is under way, bringing Christians of every denomination, age, race, and sexual orientation together around dinner tables. Men and women nervous about stepping through church doors are finding God in new ways as they eat together. Kendall Vanderslice shares stories of churches worshiping around the table, introducing readers to the rising contem­porary dinner-church movement. We Will Feast provides vision and inspiration to readers longing to experience community in a real, physical way.

"Full Kingdom potential," says George Bullard, "is a journey, not a destination. To reach your full Kingdom potential, its pursuit must be your enduring passion and desire." Drawing on his more than four decades of experience in congregational leadership, Bullard offers not just another process for congregational redevelopment. He learns from the past to take congregations on a spiritual journey that is open-ended, custom-made, and locally owned. His focus is on capacity building in each congregation, calling for a narrative approach to futuring in the life of congregations that responds to new things God is seeking to do in and through members of the congregation. From the TCP Leadership Series.