J. S. Bach’s Church Cantatas and Church Music Today

How do we as Christians today learn about worship and church music? How do we think about not only what music we will sing in Christian worship, but also the principles that should guide us in choosing and leading church music? Certainly, there are many different ways we answer that question: we study the Bible, we sing the words of the Scriptures, we read what theologians, worship leaders, and scholars of church music are writing today, we attend lectures and conferences by scholars and practitioners of church music. In this article, I offer and explore yet another example of how we live out God’s call in leading music for the Christian church: by studying the example of a faithful Christian musician from the past. My particular example for this article is the German composer and church musician Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). I want to clarify from the start that I am not arguing that J. S. Bach is the best example of a Christian church musician and certainly not that he is the only example. But Bach does offer us one example of a musician who dedicated most of his life to creating and leading music for the Christian church and sought to do so faithfully, creatively, and skillfully.

Beyond the Threshold – Autobiography, Dialogic Interaction, and Conversion in Gerard Manley Hopkins’s and W. Abdullah Quilliam’s Poetry

The intertwinement of poetic life writing and theological reflections has a long-standing history in British literature. This paper shows how two Victorian poets – Gerard Manley Hopkins and W. Abdullah Quilliam – use dialogic strategies to establish an autobiographic voice, which becomes an essential poetic means of the text. Through the representation of dialogic encounters, the poems establish an autobiographic mode of speaking, which is used to articulate individual conversion experiences and to negotiate conversion as an encounter with God. Based on the works of Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas, I will show how a dynamic understanding of text and conversion experience is essential to a reading that seeks to explore the poetic construction of Hopkins’s as well as Quilliam’s works. The representation of the dynamic encounter of the self and the Divine in the contact zone of the text provides a frame in which the authors locate themselves with regard to the religious majority of Victorian Britain. The texts link the spiritual journey of conversion to the self as being caught in the world, responding to God’s call as an answer to the world’s condition.

Sastra Satire Kitab Yunus: Analisis Naratif Prolog dan Epilog Kitab Yunus

The anomaly of Jonah's attitude in rejecting God's call (Jonah 1) and his anger at Nineveh's conversion caused various opinions on the genre of his book. This encourages the need to produce new findings to narrow the view of experts by placing the book of Jonah as satire literature. The purpose of this research is to describe the satire elements contained in the prologue and epilogue of the book of Jonah. The method used in this research is a narrative approach using a modified method that departs from the four narrative elements namely the narrator, character (characterization), point of view, and storyline then combined with some elements of general interpretation in it. through the narrative analysis method, the researcher sees the text as a "mirror" that projects a certain picture, namely the world of narratives that provides benefits to explore the forms and elements of the prologue and epilogical satire texts of the book of Jonah. The results showed that Irony underlies all elements of satire spread in articles 1 and 4. Researchers classify the elements of irony as personification, repetition, hyperbole, sarcasm, paronomasia, and parody. These characteristics indicate Jonah 1 and 4 are narratives containing satire. The implication of the teaching of the church by referring to the didactic values in the satire of the story of Satire Jonah can be used as a reference for learning the truth of God's Word. Abstrak Anomali sikap Yunus dalam menolak panggilan Tuhan (Yunus 1) dan kemarahannya pada pertobatan Niniwe menimbulkan beragam pendapat pada genre kitabnya. Hal ini mendorong adanya kebutuhan untuk menghasilkan temuan baru guna mempersempit pandangan para pakar dengan menempatkan kitab Yunus sebagai sastra satire. Tujuan dilakukan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan unsur satire yang terdapat dalam prolog dan epilog kitab Yunus. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pendekatan naratif menggunakan modifikasi metode yang berangkat dari empat unsur narasi yaitu narator, karakter (penokohan), sudut pandang, dan alur cerita lalu dikombinasikan dengan beberapa elemen penafsiran umum di dalamnya. melalui metode analisis naratif peneliti melihat teks sebagai sebuah “cermin” yang memproyeksikan gambaran tertentu, yaitu dunia narasi yang memberikan manfaat untuk mengeksplorasi bentuk dan unsur satire teks prolog dan epilog dari kitab Yunus. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Ironi mendasari semua unsur satire yang tersebar di pasal 1 dan 4. Peneliti mengelompokkan unsur ironi adalah personifikasi, repetisi, hiperbola, sarkasme, paronomosia dan parodi. Karakteristik ini mengindikasikan Yunus 1 dan 4 adalah narasi yang mengandung satire. Implikasinya terhadap pengajaran gereja dengan merujuk pada nilai-nilai didaktis dalam satire kisah Satire Yunus dapat dijadikan rujukan untuk mempelajari kebenaran Firman Tuhan.

N.A. Berdyaev and M. Scheler: Philosophical and Anthropological Approaches to the Problem of Theodicy

The article considers the approaches to theodicy’s problem of Russian and German philosophers with clear religious orientation: Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev and Max Scheler. However, for more explicit insight into our topic we found, the article provides the general overview of theodicy tradition (Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Leibniz). Standpoints of these thinkers living in different epochs are linked by the steady belief in a reasonability of the world created by God. The main obstacle to acceptance of this argumentation is the problem of evil’s existence. The way of thinking that has the goal to demonstrate the world’s perfectness presumes either necessity of evil as a mean (for good’s revealing) or the evil’s insignificance or even its illusiveness, which is the result of “too human” perspective. Such ways of thought have become impossible since the second half of 19th century, when the concrete person’s experience (not a separated from it thought) had been recognized as a main source of philosophy. In Russian culture, this attitude became widespread after F.M. Dostoevsky, in German culture – after F. Nietzsche. Berdyaev and Scheler inherit the impulse of their thought. Distinctive feature of religious philosophies of Berdyaev and Scheler (compared to early Christian and Western philosophical and theological traditions) is conceptualization of the assertion of God’s need in human being, for God is in the process of becoming, is in the inner move toward full self-realization. And human being, who is capable to adopt or to reject the God’s “call,” is the crucial stage of God’s formation. For this tradition of theodicy, exactly human creative act and the direction of this act have the main role in world history.

Calling But Not Foreclosing: reworking Our Approach to Faith Formation

As churches continue to feel anxious about losing their young people, the impulse to find means to secure young people’s faith identities can arise. Such approaches, though well-intended, can inadvertently become exercises in identity foreclosure. Foreclosure subverts young people’s selfhood and can lead to faith and identity commitments that lack resilience. Using Søren Kierkegaard’s writings and the biblical book of Jonah, an approach to faith formation will be articulated that focuses on hearing God’s call. This approach avoids identity-foreclosing impulses by elevating the place of God’s calling in faith formation.

Semua Orang Dipilih-Nya Dari Semula: Eksegese Kitab Roma 8:28-30

In Romans 8: 28-30 it states that God chose. This arises the mistaken understanding that if God has chosen from the beginning, then there are those who are chosen and those who are not. Then, how does God's understanding choose people from the beginning? If so, are the good deeds of the believer still relevant? does the Great Commission still apply to believers? Therefore, the purpose of this writing is to seek the meaning of all the people He chose from the beginning in Romans 8: 28-30. This writing uses a qualitative writing method with a type of exegesis approach, namely Grammatical-context study. Grammatical means to examine the phrase all the people He chose from the beginning in Romans 8: 28-30. The intended context analysis is to link each analyzed word to the context in which the word is located. The findings of this writing which are related to being chosen in the Book of Romans are that the election of God from the beginning was an act of God long before all were made who knew humans and chose who would receive Christ and His glory. This calling occurs according to and based on God's purpose. God's call for believers is for a certain purpose or plan. The call is for believers to be like Christ and share in His glory and contribute well to God's plan. The purpose of the call is to accept the justification of the mistakes and sins that have been done. All sins and mistakes will be blotted out by the blood of Jesus, as a justification for His death, and His resurrection that has sacrificed for those who believe in Him. The Last is glorified. This is God's future action where He frees believers from every aspect of sin, at His second coming. This process requires all believers to be like Jesus Christ. Dalam Kitab Roma 8:28-30 menyatakan tentang Allah memilih. Hal ini muncul pemahaman yang keliru bahwa jika Allah telah memilih dari semula, maka ada yang terpilih dan ada yang tidak terpilih. Lalu, bagaimana pemahaman tentang Allah memilih orang-orang dari semula? Jika demikian, apakah perbuatan baik orang percaya masih relevan? apakah amanat agung masih berlaku bagi orang percaya? oleh karena itu, tujuan penulisan ini adalah untuk mencari makna semua orang dipilih-Nya dari semula dalam kitab Roma 8:28-30. Penulisan ini menggunakan metode penulisan kualitatif dengan jenis pendekatan eksegese yakni kajian gramatikal-konteks. Gramatikal maksudnya adalah mengkaji frasa semua orang dipilih-Nya dari semula dalam kitab Roma 8:28-30. Analisa konteks yang dimaksudkan adalah menghubungkan setiap kata yang dianalisa terhadap konteks di mana kata itu berada. Temuan-temuan dari penulisan ini yang terkait dengan dipilih dalam kitab Roma adalah bahwa pemilihan Allah dari semula merupakan suatu tindakan Allah jauh sebelum semuanya dijadikan yang telah mengenal manusia dan memilih siapa yang akan menerima Kristus dan kemuliaanNya. Panggilan ini terjadi sesuai dengan dan berdasarkan tujuan Allah. Panggilan Allah bagi orang-orang percaya adalah untuk tujuan atau rencana tertentu. Panggilan tersebut agar orang percaya menjadi serupa seperti Kristus dan ikut ambil bagian dalam kemuliaan-Nya, dan berkontribusi baik dalam rencana Allah. Maksud panggilan itu adalah menerima pembenaran dari kesalahan-kesalahan dan dosa yang telah diperbuat. Segala dosa dan kesalahan akan dihapuskan oleh darah Yesus, sebagai pembenaran atas kematianNya, dan kebangkitanNya yang telah berkorban bagi mereka yang percaya kepadaNya. Terakhir dimuliakan. Ini adalah tindakan Allah di masa depan di mana Ia membebaskan orang percaya dari setiap aspek dosa, pada kedatangan-Nya kedua kali. Proses ini menuntut semua orang percaya untuk serupa dengan Yesus Kristus.

A Quantitative Comparative Study of Employee Engagement Among Full-Time Seventh-day Adventist Pastors in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists and Its Relationship to Level of Participation in Annual Pastoral Continuing Education (CE)

Problem Research was needed to determine the relationship between pastoral CE and employee engagement to guide policy implementation as well as future efforts for pastoral professional development within the Adventist organization. Method This study presents a new theoretical Adventist pastor development model integrating several theories and concepts including: the call, the Seven Core Qualities of an NAD pastor framework, andragogy, CE, SDT, and employee engagement. Employee engagement was measured using Herzberg's hygiene-motivation factor employee engagement theory. Comparisons were conducted on six groups of pastors related to selfreported participation in annual CE. Results Major research findings indicate that pastors, perhaps inevitably as humans, are complex, and several factors seem to work synergistically to result in positive hygiene and motivation (employee engagement) scores including: The call, age, having adult children, ethnicity, a combination of CE and age, and a combination of children and CE. Of key importance, increased knowledge and specific life experiences work together to create a more engaged pastor. CE as a stand-alone factor did not have a statistically significant positive impact on hygiene or motivation employee engagement scores based on this data. Factors that have a negative impact on hygiene and motivation scores are family suffering, feeling like leaving ministry, doubting God’s call, ethnicity, and children at home or no children at all, and. The most popular CE activity of Adventist pastors was conventions, the least favorite was creating CE content for peers. Conclusions Recommendations for pastoral professional practice are related to five areas of focus: education, CE policy, coaching and mentoring, work environments, and pastoral family supports. Recommendations for future research are specific to four areas: pastoral CE, pastoral development factors, work environments, and family support. More scholarly research on pastors is urgently needed utilizing a factorial approach.

Theoligical Analysis Of Luke 957-62 Regarding Of “Following Jesus” On The Life Of Service Of A Pastor And His Calling

Introduction: The author explained number of things in Luke 9:57-62, such as (1) the interpretation of “follow Jesus;” (2) the meaning “to firstly bury my father;” (3) the definition of “saying farewell/good-by” to family; (4) the interpretation of “looking back” while plowing, and (5) connecting these four points toward the ministry and calling of a pastor. Result: The theoretical result is that “Following Jesus” means leaving all the things he previously had and starting anew with Jesus. The meaning of “to firstly bury my father” is that he wanted to take care of his or her parents up to their death, which he himself did not know when it will be. The definition of “farewell/saying good-by to the family” expressed the man lack of willingness to carry the cross of Jesus and face suffering. While “looking back” interpreted how unfocused person be in wanting to follow Jesus and doing the ministry work. Discussion: And if the four points listed are to be related in the ministry of a pastor and his calling then he needs to decide to follow Jesus if he feels the calling within him, when the call was heartily felt then a pastor has no reason to care for his parents over his service, the called pastor need not to say good-by to his family before following Jesus, and for a pastor who follows Jesus was not permitted to look back at his past life because that may interfere his focus in serving God’s call.

Prophetic Calling: At the Burning Bush

The chapter looks to the Hebrew Bible for resources to respond to the modern crisis of vocation. Prophecy appears as a special focus of discussion, since the prophet is who he is by virtue of being called. This is not a matter of psychological experiences of auditions but of understanding the essence of the prophet’s God-relationship. A paradigm case of prophecy is the calling of Moses at the burning bush. Salient features of this event include God’s call to Moses by name and the revelation of the divine name itself. Rejecting the traditional Christian interpretation of this in terms of being (‘I am that I am’), the chapter follows Buber’s and Rosenzweig’s interpretation, which brings the God-relationship into the domain of vocativity, exemplifying also ‘Jewish nominalism’, that is, attention to the centrality of the name in the human God-relationship.This is connected to the image of God in human beings.