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Christian Denominations: Methodist

This research guide provides resources for studying Christianity and its many denominations.

Research and Reference

Internet Resources

Streaming Media

Perspectives

The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church

The Discipline, the book of law for The UMC, sets forth the laws, plan, polity, and process by which United Methodists govern themselves. Completely revised, the 1996 edition reflects General Conference action affecting church membership, baptism, local c

Assist Me to Proclaim

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the cofounder of Methodism and the author of more than 9,000 hymns and sacred poems, including such favorites as "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," and "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." John Tyson here traces the remarkable life of this influential man from cradle to grave, using rare -- including previously unpublished -- hymns, letters, and journal materials. As the younger brother of John Wesley, Charles was a vital partner in the Methodist revival. While often standing in the shadow of his more famous brother, Charles Wesley was arguably the founder of the Oxford Holy Club, and he actually experienced evangelical conversion three days prior to John. In Assist Me to Proclaim Tyson explores, among other things, behind-the-scenes questions about the brothers' sometimes-stormy relationship. Notwithstanding all his accomplishments as an evangelist and itinerant preacher, Charles is chiefly remembered for his startling facility at writing hymns that show God at work in almost every instance of life. His remarkable legacy endures around the world, as hundreds of Charles Wesley hymns are still sung in churches everywhere today. Assist Me to Proclaim draws a picture of a man whose fidelity to both the Church of England and the original vision of Methodism energized his remarkable abilities as a revivalist and hymn writer. Readers also get a glimpse into Wesley's heart and mind through the window of his hymn texts. This is a biography that any student of church history or hymnody will welcome.

Handbook for Multi-Sensory Worship

Churches all over North America are starting contemporary worship services or incorporating elements of contemporary worship in more traditional services. While many books have discussed why contemporary worship is necessary to reaching the unchurched, too few have provided solid, practical help for planning and executing this new style of worship. In Handbook for Multi-Sensory Worship, the worship team of Ginghamsburg Church--recognized as one of the most innovative congregations today in worship planning and development--offers just this kind of nuts-and-bolts guidance on how to prepare for and execute worship in a contemporary key. Included in the handbook are worship themes that are geared to felt needs in the congregation. This book explains how to choose appropriate themes, build a service around them, and identify lections that build on these themes. Congregations will learn how to identify and address the felt needs of the pre-Christian audience in the congregation. Worship aids are thematically based: * music--which songs to use and where to get the music and permission to use it * video clips--what to use, where and how to get them, and how to get permission to use them * graphics and images--where to find images that support sermons * dramas--the book includes sources of dramas and examples that can be used by congregations and guidance on how to draw people into drama and train them to participate in worship in this way * contemporary calls to worship, prayers, offertory prayers, and sentences The handbook contains 30 complete contemporary worship services and detailed how-to instructions. The CD contains a large number of projection images linked to the text of the handbook, and to the Internet, for use in worship services.

The Methodists

Although this work takes proper notice of its origins in John Wesley's 18th-century movement in England, it assumes that in America the people called Methodists developed in distinctive fashion. The volume examines this American version, its organization, leadership, and form of training and incorporating new members. The authors treat Methodism as defined by conferences bound together by a commitment to episcopal leadership and animated by various forms of lay piety. Offering a fresh perspective based on sound, modern scholarship, this study will be of interest to scholars, students, and anyone interested in church history. American Methodists early organized into conferences that defined Methodist space and time and served as the locus of power. At the same time, they created a strong episcopal form of church government, subject to the body of preachers in conference, but free to lead and direct the organization as a whole. This mission was clear, well understood, and suited to the ethos of a growing America--to spread scriptural holiness in the land and to create a desire to flee from the wrath to come. By the middle of the 19th century, Methodists in America had grown from an insignificant sect to America's largest Protestant group. Essential to that growth were structures and processes of lay involvement, particularly class meetings and Sunday schools.

Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa

Founded by free people of color in Philadelphia in the aftermath of the American Revolution, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church emerged in the nineteenth century as the preeminent black institution in the United States. In 1896, the church opened mission work in South Africa, absorbing an independent ?Ethiopian? church founded by dissident African Christians a few years earlier. In the process, the church helped ignite one of the most influential popular movements in South African history. Songs of Zion examines this remarkable historical convergence from both sides of the Atlantic. James Campbell charts the origins and evolution of black American independent churches, arguing that the very act of becoming Christian forced African Americans to reflect on their relationship to their ancestral continent. He then turns to South Africa, exploring the AME Church?s entrance and evolution in a series of specific South African contexts. Throughout the book, Campbell focuses on the comparisons that Africans and African Americans themselves drew between their situations. Their transatlantic encounter, he argues, enabled both groups to understand and act upon their worlds in new ways.

The United Methodist Hymnal

General services -- Hymns, canticles & acts of worship -- Psalter -- Other general services & acts of worship.

Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture

In this collected work on the history of Methodism in America, a strong group of scholars seeks to overturn the long-held but erroneous view that the Second Great Awakening was largely a Puritan/Calvinist phenomenon and to assert the importance of Methodist participation. They trace the rise of Methodism from a nascent evangelical movement into the largest religious body and most extensive national organization in this country other than the Federal government.