Book Description
"The Presbyterian Trustee" is a brief, highly useful handbook for trustees in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the first to examine the office. Modeled after "The Presbyterian Elder" and the author's own "The Presbyterian Deacon," this book explores the biblical models of trustees, the historic background of the office, and the responsibilities of trustees today. Added features include a liturgy for the installation and recognition of trustees, a glossary, and a list of other recommended resources. ... Read more

Product Description
William Ramsay surveys the growth and development of the Christian church from the New Testament era to the present day. Placing special attention on the experiences of Presbyterians in America, he highlights key events and profiles prominent individuals who had an impact on the church's life. This brief review of the history that led Presbyterians to America serves as a valuable introduction for new member classes, adult study groups, and all those eager to learn more about church history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A solid, well- researched overview of the history of the Christian church
Though intended especially for Presbyterians, Church History 101: An Introduction for Presbyterians is a solid, well- researched overview of the history of the Christian church from the era when Jesus Christ walked the earth to the present. Written by a retired Presbyterian minister, Church History 101 draws on a wide variety of scriptural, historical and archaeological resources to reconstruct the daily lives of Christian faithful as well as the monumental impacts of rulers, persecutions, crusades, alleged heresy, and attempts at reformation. The text reads fluidly, and is highly accessible especially to lay readers and study groups. Discussion questions such as "To what extent does the church in our country reflect the ideas of the Puritans? To what extent should it do so?" and "What has caused Presbyterians to divide in the past? How helpful have schisms proved to be? What has helped bring many of us back together?" follow each chapter, to better stimulate contemplation and the exchange of ideas. A highly recommended resource and history refresher.
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Book Description
"The Hopewell Journey: 350 Years from Immigrant Religion to Hoosier Faith; Hopewell Presbyterian Church 1831-2006" is the story of devout European Christians who sailed from The Netherlands for the New World in 1651 in search of freedom - mainly freedom in the way they worshiped God. That group of Lowlands Dutch, French Huguenots and English settlers reached Nieu Amsterdam (New York). Before long, they swore allegiance to their new country but struggled to preserve their Dutch language, way of life and worship. When their closely-knit group of descendants began feeling hemmed in, families moved en mass in the early 1700s to New Jersey and, a few years later, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, developing the Conestoga wagon. In the late 1770s, families again packed up, loaded their wagons and traversed valleys in the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky where they settled 5,945 acres sold to them in 1786 by Daniel Boone's brother, Squire, ancestor of two Hopewell Church members. Their final move began in 1823 when Simon Covert discovered Hopewell's Big Spring, ending an almost 300-year saga with a permanent settlement west of Franklin, Indiana. This book also celebrates the farming community encircling Hopewell Presbyterian Church, founded May 23, 1831. Fourteen families, descendants of those founders still worship at the church, live here and farm or work elsewhere. Once established in a Johnson County area comparable in size to that in Kentucky, the settlers never again moved as a group. Only a few continued west - to establish churches, serve as ministers (almost 20), as missionaries (three) and to seek gold. Historians look at the Hopewell settlement and its accomplishments as the one most like the immigrants' vision of what their community could and should be. Indiana pioneers overcame severe hardships in a tangled wilderness; prospered and their children built notable houses, five of which enclose original log dwellings. Their descendants engaged in innovative farm practices; some were inventors. Illustrated stories of and by those people, their homes, their lives and Hopewell events continue the immigrants' "journey" to the present. Everyone's story is different and interesting. ... Read more

Book Description
Presbyterians: People of the Middle Way addresses the essential beliefsand practices of this reunited faith. The Student Text and Teachers Guide are superbresources for all aspects of church development and redevelopment for congregations ofall sizes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

excellent intro to distinctives of presbyterian churches
Does a very good job of breaking down what Presbyterianism is for a modern audience. Avoids reformation theological terms and puts the Pres. theology in World perspective. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A MUST FOR Every Presbyterian Elder.
Insightful information on Church polity and proceedure.It allows one to use the Book of Order to further the ends of the particular Church with confidence and prayerful surety. I am buying this copy for a newly ordained elder. ... Read more

Book Description
This second edition of Boyd and Brackenridge's acclaimed history of Presbyterian women in America traces women's affiliation with Presbyterianism for more than two centuries--from 1789 to the present. In the first century after the establishment of the General Assembly, churchmen expected females to be silent, subordinate, and submissive in the church; ordination was forbidden. However, women in the 19th century organized into local groups devoted to mission and Christian education projects. This fascinating historical account traces the evolvement of these groups into the women's boards of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that influenced women's current equal role in the pulpits, sessions, and courts of the church. Boyd and Brackenridge raise important issues concerning diversity, sustenance of community, and ordination--issues that will affect women's position in the church in the 21st century. ... Read more

Product Description
The Book of Confessions for the Presbytarian Church USA with appendix including the Confessional nature of the Church report. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Introductory Text on Historic Reformed Liturgy
Baird's book is one of the classics of Reformed liturgical literature from the 19th century. Although surpased by more recent works (Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church; Old, The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship), it remains a valuable introductory survey for those interested in our liturgical heritage and practice. Baird surveys the liturgies of Geneva (following the now-defunct idea that Calvin was the source of all Reformed liturgy), France, Scotland, the Engllish Puritans, the Netherlands, and Heidelberg.

One of the benefits of this volume, besides its narrative style of writing, is that it helps to cure the main problem of liturgy in Reformed churches--we have been led to think we are anti-liturgical, and that only Rome, Constantinople, Canterbury, and Wittenburg are liturgical. Baird goes back to the sources (ad fontes) and shows that we have always been a liturgical people, and that high Calvinist liturgy is not an oxymoron. It is only under the influence of Pietism, Puritanism, and Revivalism, that we have left our roots and become Baptist in our liturgics.

Of special note to those in the Dutch Reformed tradition (e.g., Reformed Church in America, Christian Reformed Church, United Reformed Churches, Canadian Reformed Churches, Free Reformed Churches, Heritage Netherlands Reformed Churches), is how Baird traces the daily "Morning and Evening Prayers" to be used in family worship from Geneva, through the Netherlands, into Scotland, and into America. These treasures need to be recovered in our personal and family piety. They can be found, for example, in the Psalter Hymnal (Grand Rapids: Christian Reformed Church, 1959), 188-9.

Baird also reflects upon the Dutch Reformed in his day (mid-19th century) and says, "...of all the Calvinistic Churches represented in these United States, the Dutch Reformed denomination [RCA] alone has faithfully retained her ancient forms of worship" (207).

All seminarians, pastors, and laypeople in our churches ought to read Baird. For in so doing, our worship will be strengthened and our witness emboldened. ... Read more

Book Description
Beginning with the motto "The Church Reformed and Always Being Reformed," thirteen Presbyterian leaders and representatives of a number of different groups across the theological spectrum offer their reflections on the current state of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and what the denomination needs today. The book presents various viewpoints, values, and commitments found throughout the denomination. Opening essays by Robert H. Bullock Jr. and Anna Case-Winters orient the volume. Ideal for individual as well as group study, the book includes discussion and reflection questions at the end of the chapters. Contributors include Fahed Abu-Akel, Scott D. Anderson, Jerry Andrews, Susan Andrews, John Buchanan, Jack Haberer, William Stacy Johnson, Curtis A. Jones, Richard Ray, Laird J. Stuart, Michael Walker, Barbara G. Wheeler, and Parker T. Williamson. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Presbyterian Record, published by Presbyterian Record on March 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1316 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Christians don't have to face mental illness alone.
Author: Nan McKenzie Kosowan
Publication: Presbyterian Record (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 1999
Publisher: Presbyterian Record
Volume: 123Issue: 3Page: 24-6

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Customer Reviews (1)

A Must Have Resource for any Pastor
This is leather bound and scaled down version of the Book of Common Worship that is commonly used in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other Reformed Tradition Churches.Its compact size makes it easy to use in a variety of settings and it slips easily into a suit pocket or purse.

The Pastoral version provides the liturgy necessary to conduct the Sacraments of The Lord's Supper and Baptism in settings outside of Sunday worship.This is very helpful to this pastor for sharing The Lord's Supper with parishioners in their homes or in the hospital.

Also included are the liturgies for Christian Marriage, Pastoral Care and the Witness to the Resurrection (i.e. the Funeral).

This book has proved itself helpful in working with families, because the liturgies are right there for planning purposes and this small leather bound book is much less bulky to carry and use than the hard cover version.Appropriate scripture passages and suggested liturgies are in one place for planning and use.

What I have found most helpful is the variety of prayers at the back of the book.I take this book with me on most of my pastoral visits.It also makes a great Ordination gift.
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Product Description
Special 25th Anniversay Edition Circa 1998, Printed Undated ... Read more

Book Description
The major biography of one of Scotland's most enigmatic and underrated writers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Review extracts
Mr Coker is entitled to his views but Amazon readers should be aware that all five editions of the biography received extremely favourable coverage. A selection of extracts follows:

"Andrew Lownie gives us a clear account of Buchan's career, which rattles along as pacily as a Hannay thriller...Admirably readable, this book will be invaluable to those who are now encountering Buchan's work for the first time in the World's Classics and Penguin reprints which have begun to appear since his copyrights entered the public domain in 1990. Lownie's lucid account of Buchan's life redefines the man as infinitely more complex than we thought he was." Sunday Times

"This, like many other questions about this amazing man, is answered by Andrew Lownie in his wonderful new life. Lownie explains, even more convincingly than Janet Adam Smith in the hitherto standard biography, how Buchan's successes in life never satisfied his inner yearnings...Lownie explains this inner sense of failure of this exceptional man with vastly greater insight than any previous writer...Trumpets should now sound for Buchan; and I will sound one of my own for Andrew Lownie, who has brought this most extraordinary man to life in a way no previous writer has."The Independent

"Lownie's meticulous biography is particularly good on the financial pressures which influenced most of Buchan's decisions...This formidably detailed study is a labour of love by a devoted Buchanite, a nuanced understanding of a figure who, for too long, has been regarded as an extension of his fictional heroes."The Guardian

"Andrew Lownie offers a solid and convincing portrait of a complex man, and controls the innumerable aspects of Buchan's life in an exemplary manner, without losing sight of the fact that Buchan was, in Simon Raven's words, 'a very odd fish indeed.'" Times Literary Supplement

"Andrew Lownie's meticulously researched and attractively written new biography - the first since Janet Adam Smith's in 1965 - presents us with a John Buchan who is a great deal more complex and nuanced than might be imagined from the assiduously self-promoted clubland hero persona Buchan himself created in his rise as public man and heartily outdoor countryman-author...Lownie is sympathetic to Buchan, but this is by no means a hagiography. With scrupulous honesty, Buchan's faults and foibles are exposed to us along with his undoubted virtues...this exemplary biography, full of new insights and fresh documents unearthed and published for the first time, makes fascinating reading."The Scotsman.

"Lownie's study is equally well argued and written with an evident, though at times exasperated, fondness for his subject." Scotland on Sunday

"He has been the subject of previous biographies, but Andrew Lownie's is a welcome addition...Mr Lownie has done him proud." Financial Times

"Brilliantly written and researched - and the first biography of Buchan in 30 years - Lownie draws on newly-released private papers to astutely pick his way through the public image and the passionately private man, painting a vivid and refreshingly readable literary portrait of one of the great unacknowledged and substantive figures in recent Scottish life." Catholic Life.

" The best biography yet of the creator of Richard Hannay and The Thirty-Nine Steps. It shows Buchan to be the complex and rewarding figure his fans have always known him to be."The Express on Sunday

" Lively and brilliantly researched new biography of one of Scotland's most enduringly popular writers...Buchan's was nevertheless an impressive life, and Lownie tells it with sympathy and style. The Scotsman


"It is hard to imagine how this deft portrait of the bantamweight politician and still highly readable thriller writer could be bettered...As Lownie's excellent literary criticism suggests, Buchan's paradoxical nature underlies the evergreen potency of his novels." Independent

"This exemplary biography draws on private papers not used until now to give a most convincing portrait of a complex character as well as lucid and detailed criticism of Buchan's literary oeuvre." Sunday Telegraph

"...this biography (rightly acclaimed on its first publication in 1995) will help restore a much-underated author - and historic figure - to his rightful status." Scotsman

"Andrew Lownie's widely researched biography of this fascinating, complex and enigmatic figure has to be the definitive work. Lownie is admirably objective in his approach to Buchan and perceptive on the springs of his character." Sarah Bradford, The Tablet

"...a compelling picture of the author's life, and a wide view of British political, social and literary circles during the first half of the 20th century." Scots Magazine

"...solid and scholarly..." The Globe and Mail.

"In his thorough and lucid biography, Andrew Lownie, a Scottish journalist and editor of several collections of Buchan's stories and poetry, sympathetically evokes this `highly complex and private man who may not always himself have understood his own motivations and abilities.' " New York Times

"...the full sweep of this remarkable man's career is well told by Andrew Lownie in John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier."Washington Times

Highly unsatisfactory
I can still recall the thrill, about 25 years ago, when I obtained a copy of CLUBLAND HEROES by Richard Usborne, which listed and discussed the "thriller" novels of Dornford Yates, "Sapper" and John Buchan.With the titles of the novels in hand, I was able to obtain almost all of the relevant works by all three authors, although the effort consumed... about 25 years.Buchan's novels were, I found, by far the most interesting, challenging and "literary," with Yates' running second, and I then obtained and read with interest biographies of Buchan and Yates.

Here's a new biography of Buchan and, alas, it doesn't amount to much.One of Buchan's major talents was the ability to make fast friends quickly, and this seems to have impressed the author, Andrew Lownie, more than any of his other abilities.On almost every page, once the book gets well underway and Buchan begins to mix with humanity, is a list of ten, twenty or even thirty names of people (most of whom will be unknown to any British citizen under 70, and almost all of whom will be unknown to any American citizen of any age), most of them completely unidentified within the text, that Buchan met or consorted with in the interval covered by that page.

The english style in which the book is written is at times nearly impenetrable.The author seems to have something against commas; mainly, there aren't any, and where at rare intervals one appears, there is generally no reason for it to be there.A number of sentences do not make sense, either because of misprints, or because the text proved nearly impossible to proofread so that omitted words or phrases were not detected.

Buchan's career as a politician seems to have been hampered by his fame as an author, whilst his career as an author seems to have been hampered by the demands of his government responsibilities.One recurring theme of the biography is the odd withholding from Buchan of the customary honors his many government services would ordinarily have merited. Another theme is Buchan's periodic struggles with intervals of very poor health, mainly tracking back to gastric ulcers.Another theme is Buchan's tremendous physical energy, demonstrated by the fact that in addition to working "full time" for a publisher, writing his own books, holding various political offices, etc., all simultaneously, he could always find time to walk 30 miles in a day, or climb some difficult peak with essentially no preparation.

Lownie discusses Buchan's literary activities in chapters separated from those discussing his other activities, which is good in a way, but also becomes quite confusing, since a "book" chapter, say Chapter N, can jump 5 or 10 years ahead of the following "life" chapter, N+1.

Buchan was eventually appointed Governor-General of Canada, and since this imperial officer could not be a commoner, Buchan at last became a Peer of the Realm, Lord Tweedsmuir of Elsfield. His enjoyment of the appointment was alas short-lived. He had held the office for only 5 years when a slip in the bathroom smashed his skull.

I don't know to what extent Buchan's books are read any more, or easily available any more.But his "thrillers" featuring Richard Hannay, Edward Leithen, and other characters as attractive as Buchan himself must have been in person, have a timeless quality and settings so vividly and immediately described that the reader can effortlessly imagine himself right there with the characters. The novels are as readable and enjoyable today as they ever were. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Book Description
Originally printed in 1843, "An Ecclesiastical Catechism of the Presbyterian Church" is a definitive text giving insight and instruction regarding the form of church government known as presbyterianism, or rule of elders.Replete with Scripture references, "An Ecclesiastical Catechism of the Presbyterian Church" is serious reading for all wanting to learn about this historic form of church government. ... Read more