Nature and Mission of the Church

In history, understanding the past is key to foreseeing the future and understanding the roots of the present world. As such, understanding the beginnings of the early church gives us insight into the success of the Catholic Church today and its 1.2 billion followers. The major transformation of Catholicism today can be traced to its early days, in particular, the early first century AD. After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the apostles brought themselves to embrace the mission Jesus gave them, and in doing so, they began preaching the word of God to all nations. As Christianity was still developing, a man named Saul, once a persecutor of the early Christians, would experience a powerful vision of Jesus in heaven on the road to Damascus,

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

New circumstances called for re-appraisal of the church: its position and purposes. A pragmatic response to changed

This book calls the church to rethink and modify its practices, by providing a middle path between the emerging church and the conservative that aims to benefit all. There are major shift happening in the Western Church that has people talking. The problem is that churches fail to follow a mission-centered approach. Chester and Timmis have found that in order to refocus the churches

The Protestant Reformation often gets the lion’s share of attention when discussing religious reform and renewal during the Early Modern period. However, to state that the Reformation was the only significant shift in the ideology and practice of Christianity would be to greatly undersell the importance of a myriad of religious reformers that denounced the decrepit and outdated relationship between mainstream religious practice and God. For this new wave of religious reformers, the traditions of the mainstream Church (whether Protestant or Catholic) were getting in the way of godly men and women forging a personal relationship with their savior, one in which the individual is brought into the grace of God through a true lasting connection

This interview will assess the participates input relative to historical or theological issues impacting the church. Special attention and analysis will be gathers in the areas of historical impacts, worship ramifications, and theological challenges for the 21st century. In this interview three major categories will be analysis: historical, theological, and ministry – philosophy will sum up this project.

Critical Review: “Witnesses to the world”- Chapter 4 “The Evangelists as Authors” by Daniel J. Harrington. I have reviewed the chapter entitled “The Evangelists as Authors”. I will begin by summarizing the chapter and then I will conclude by giving my personal response to the passage. In the beginning of the chapter, the author stresses that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit came from a communal and an individual level. The author emphatically states that the Gospels are believed to have been passed from people to places.

What happen next was to change the believers and establish the early church, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together

A 54-year-old Catholic woman stated in an interview conducted on the topic of the modernization of the church insightfully noted that Vatican II allowed for “practical changes,” like “ music and singing, and women allowed into upfront roles as readers, lectors, and Eucharistic ministers, as well as altar servers in some places.” Vatican II “aimed to produce a different experience of the mass,” but also set out to reposition the church in a relative relationship with the modern world (Mathis).

Today we look at three  more of the seven churches, in our study of the “History of the Christian Church. “

Within Yves Congar’s The Meaning of Tradition, he sets out to define the traditions of the Catholic Church. Congar begins his analysis of the role of Tradition in the Catholic Church by defining it; his definition states that Tradition is a gift from God that is passed down subsequent generations. According to Congar the Church’s tradition involves sharing Christ’s revelation, so that God’s revelation can be passed down throughout space and time. Congar devotes sections of his book to the role of magisterium in the Church. The magisterium has a pivotal role in analyzing the doctrines of the faith and providing the people of God with an explanation of its meaning. By doing this, the magisterium is exercising its role as the successors of Jesus’ apostles in guiding the faithful. The Magisterium is essential to ensuring that the faithful create a personal relationship with God. Congar, attributes the magisterium’s role in the Tradition of the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit. According to Congar argues that the Holy Spirit has inspired the Church throughout history. The Holy Spirit also works through the people, giving them the gifts necessary for understanding the word of God. Congar continues to ascribe the Church’s tradition to its familiar atmosphere that allows faith to grow in believers. Congar goes on to state that the Church’s tradition does not stem from Scripture alone, the uniting force of God’s word. Scripture needs to come from an inspired source, alone it can

The contemporary Catholic Church continues to be faced with the challenges of modernity. Often do members of the laity feel that the Church has become too rigid and dogmatic in its practice of spirituality. People in and out of the Catholic religion see the Church as a

List three impacts from the early Church that would benefit the ministry of the contemporary Church.

The period in which the power of the Church history was a key phase in the history of the Christian Church in the world. There was many reasons why this powerful and rich organization had a huge influence on all aspects of European life

Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume I: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. Second Edi. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2010.