Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
As a religion founded on championing the oppressed, Christianity has enormous power to change the minds and hearts of followers. Instead of remaining the religion of the oppressors Christianity can become once again what it was when Jesus was alive: the religion for those who wish to break free from the shackles of economic, political, and social oppression. Lewter uses the pyramid analogy to convey the concept of social oppression. Christianity before the Council of Nicea was the religion of the oppressed but after Constantine adopted Christianity for the Roman Empire it became the means by which to pray for "keeping the pyramid intact" and to "remain at the top."
For African-Americans since the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Christianity has resurfaced as a religion of the oppressed. Prayer has become a means to alleviate suffering, to pray for relief as opposed to praying for status quo. When slaves were expected to worship under the faith of the oppressor they used the religion in ways the original...
They were persecuted peoples. They were ostracized and victimized for issues beyond their control: they were dark-skinned and they were female. Christianity remained the religion of the oppressed even as it was officially the religion of the politically powerful.
Now the paradigm shift is becoming visible and viable, a new Church council is called for that reflects old Church heresies in new ways. The heresies embodied by people of color and by women are precisely the issues that will be presented at the table at the next Church council. The next church council will address such heresies not once, but again and again. Issues related to the role of Christianity in the modern world and the nature of Christ therein will become core topics of debate and discussion in councils to come, keeping alive the spirit of the Church that has enabled it to survive for two millennia already.
References
Lewter, Andy. "Doctrinal Heresies of the Early Christian Church."
Church Planting: Models and Leadership Development In The Hispanic Context Church planting is a process that results in a new Christian church or parish in a new and untouched locality. Different from church development that includes the introduction of a new service, worship center, or expression that is integrated in to an already-established congregation, church planting is a concept that starts from the ground up. For a new local church to be
Church of God in Christ: Founder -- Charles Harrison Mason (1907) The objective of this research study is to examine the Church of God in Christ, a denomination founded by Charles Harrison Mason in 1907. The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) has more than six million members throughout the world and is one of the largest of all Pentecostal churches in the world. The Statement of Thesis in this work
The Catholic Church Government The internal government of the early Church was formed within the framework of the Roman Empire, and bishops exercised authority over the Christian community in each Roman municipium. By the third century, a shift took place as the bishops of each Roman province formed the habit of meeting in a provincial synod, presided over by the bishop of the capital city, meaning the metropolitan bishop or archbishop.
Church leaders have to delve deeper into leadership complexities and to discover what's new and imperative and re-draws their leadership maps and their aspirations of leadership that will drive into the expected changes. For instance a church that is not yet using online services, such as a website may not attract new comers because more people have become technology savvy and are searching for information in the internet. My argument
Here, just as the dominance of the Roman penal code would impose an acceptance of the death penalty upon adherents, so too would the Church begin to view the current patterns of social and civic order as demanding adaptation. Therefore, by the early 1990s and under Pope John Paul II, the Catholic Church officially began to pursue a more aggressive stance on stamping out the use of capital punishment
Church Body and Christ Currently, the church body does not always reflect Christ within the community or culture. That gives many people the wrong perception of the church, and of Christianity and Christ overall. With that in mind, there are several things Christians can do in order to be sure that the church is seen in a more positive and more realistic light. First, Christians can actually "practice what they preach."