Superintendent (ecclesiastical)
Superintendent is the title given to a person who is a leader of a Christian denomination at the regional or national level in some Protestant denominations. Lutheran usage This title has been used in Lutheranism since 1527 for pastors leading a denomination at the regional level. The office was similar to that of bishop, but instead of being ordained by the archbishop, the superintendent was appointed by the Crown. This new model of ecclesiastical polity was partly political, as the Roman Catholic bishops before the Reformation held considerable political power and often used it against the king. Superintendents' loyalty was supposed to lie with the head of the church, the monarch. Presbyterian usage The Presbyterian Church of Scotland's First Book of Discipline of 1560 provided for Scotland to be divided into ten dioceses with superintendents. Methodist usage The term "Superintendent" is used for several varying positions in Methodism worldwide since 1784. In the American ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christian Denomination
A Christian denomination is a distinct Religion, religious body within Christianity that comprises all Church (congregation), church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theology, theological doctrine, worship style and, sometimes, a founder. It is a secular and neutral term, generally used to denote any established Christian church. Unlike a cult or sect, a denomination is usually seen as part of the Christian religious mainstream. Most Christian denominations refer to themselves as ''churches'', whereas some newer ones tend to interchangeably use the terms ''churches'', ''assemblies'', Koinonia, ''fellowships'', etc. Divisions between one group and another are defined by authority and doctrine; issues such as the Christology, nature of Jesus, the authority of apostolic succession, biblical hermeneutics, Christian theology, theology, ecclesiology, Christian eschatology, eschatology, and papal primacy m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role or office of the bishop is called episcopacy or the episcopate. Organisationally, several Christian denominations utilise ecclesiastical structures that call for the position of bishops, while other denominations have dispensed with this office, seeing it as a symbol of power. Bishops have also exercised political authority within their dioceses. Traditionally, bishops claim apostolic succession, a direct historical lineage dating back to the original Twelve Apostles or Saint Paul. The bishops are by doctrine understood as those who possess the full Priest#Christianity, priesthood given by Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ, and therefore may ordain other clergy, including other bishops. A person ordained as a deacon, pri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Assemblies Of God
The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF), commonly known as the Assemblies of God (AG), is a global cooperative body or communion of over 170 Pentecostal denominations that was established on August 15, 1989. The WAGF was created to provide structure so that member denominations, which previously related to each other informally, could more easily cooperate on a global basis. The organizational committee, in 1988 summarized the purposes for the WAGF: to promote and facilitate world evangelization; coordinate world relief; coordinate the use of media and other technological resources to promote the cause of Christ in a way pleasing to Him; provide a strong international platform to speak out on behalf of the suffering and persecuted churches; coordinate theological education; and produce an international directory of Pentecostal churches, missions and other Pentecostal agencies to help share information. Member denominations are independent and autonomous, but they are u ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Classical Pentecostalism, baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term ''Pentecostal'' is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit in Christianity, Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the New Testament, Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31). Like other forms of Evangelicalism, evangelical Protestantism, Pentecostalism adheres to the Biblical inerrancy, inerrancy of the Bible and the necessity of the Born again#Pentecostalism, New Birth: an individual Repentance (Christianity), repenting of their sin and "accepting Jesus Christ as their personal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Presbyter
Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros'', which means elder or senior, although many in Christian antiquity understood ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as overseer. The word ''presbyter'' is used many times in the New Testament, referring both to the Jewish leadership and the "tradition of the elders", and to the leaders of the early Christian community. In modern Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican usage, ''presbyter'' is distinct from ''bishop'', and in English it is synonymous with ''priest''. In other Protestant usage, for example, Methodism, ''presbyter'' does not refer to a member of a distinctive priesthood called ''priests'' but rather to a minister, pastor, or elder. Etymology The word ''presbyter'' etymologically derives from Greek ''πρεσβύτερος'' (''presbyteros''), the comparative form of ''πρέσβυς'' (''presbys''), "old man". However, while the English word priest has p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Wesley
John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day. Educated at Charterhouse School, Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford, Wesley was elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1726 and ordination, ordained as an Anglican priest two years later. At Oxford, he led the "Holy Club", a society formed for the purpose of the study and the pursuit of a devout Christian life. After an unsuccessful two-year ministry in Savannah, Georgia, he returned to London and joined a religious society led by Moravian Church, Moravian Christians. On 24 May 1738, he experienced what has come to be called his evangelical conversion. He subsequently left the Moravians and began his own ministry. A key step ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Methodist Circuit
The organisation of the Methodist Church of Great Britain is based on the principle of connexionalism. This means that British Methodism, from its inception under John Wesley (1703–1791), has always laid strong emphasis on mutual support, in terms of ministry, mission and finance, of one local congregation for another. No singular church community has ever been seen in isolation either from its immediately neighbouring church communities or from the centralised national organisation. Wesley himself journeyed around the country, preaching and establishing local worshipping communities, called "societies", often under lay leadership. Soon these local communities of worshipping Christians formalised their relationships with neighbouring Methodist communities to create "circuits", and the circuits and societies contained within them, were from the very beginning 'connected' (hence the distinctive Methodist concept of the "Connexion") to the centre and Methodism's governing body, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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British Methodist Church
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestantism, Protestant List of Christian denominations, Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodism, Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council. Methodism traces its origins to the evangelical Christian revival, revival led by John Wesley in 18th-century Britain, and his teachings continue to play a primary role in shaping the church's doctrine and practice. John Wesley, an Anglican priest, adopted unconventional and controversial practices, such as open-air preaching, to reach factory labourers and newly urbanised masses uprooted from their traditional village culture at the start of the Industrial Revolution. His preaching centred upon the universality of God's Grace in Christianity, grace for all, the Sanctification in Christianity, transforming effect of faith on character, and the possibility of Christian perfection, perfection in love during this life. He organised the new con ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Epistle To Timothy
The First Epistle to Timothy is one of three letters in the New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the pastoral epistles, along with Second Timothy and Titus. The letter, traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, consists mainly of counsels to his younger colleague and delegate Timothy regarding his ministry in Ephesus (1:3). These counsels include instructions on the organization of the Church and the responsibilities resting on certain groups of leaders therein as well as exhortations to faithfulness in maintaining the truth amid surrounding errors. Most modern scholars consider the pastoral epistles to have been written after Paul's death, although "a small and declining number of scholars still argue for Pauline authorship". Authorship The authorship of First Timothy was traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, although in pre-Nicene Christianity this attribution was open to dispute. He is named as the author of the letter in the text ( 1:1). N ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gospel Of John
The Gospel of John () is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "Book of Signs, signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus) and seven "I am (biblical term), I am" discourses (concerned with issues of the Split of early Christianity and Judaism, church–synagogue debate at the time of composition) culminating in Thomas the Apostle, Thomas's proclamation of the risen Jesus as "my Lord and my God". The penultimate chapter's concluding verse set out its purpose, John 20:31, "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." John reached its final form around AD 90–110, although it contains signs of origins dating back to AD 70 and possibly even earlier. Like the three other gospels, it is anonymous, although it identifies an unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Epistle Of Peter
The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. The author presents himself as Peter the Apostle. The ending of the letter includes a statement that implies that it was written from "Babylon", which may be a reference to Rome. The letter is addressed to the " chosen pilgrims of the diaspora" in Asia Minor suffering religious persecution. Authorship The authorship of 1 Peter has traditionally been attributed to the Apostle Peter because it bears his name and identifies him as its author (1:1). Although the text identifies Peter as its author, the language, dating, style, and structure of this letter have led most scholars to conclude that it is pseudonymous. Dale Martin 2009 (lecture). . Yale University. Accessed 22 July 2013Lecture 24 (transcript)/ref> Many scholars argue that Peter was not the author of the letter because its writer appears to have had a formal education in rhetoric and philosophy, and an advanced knowledge of the Greek language,Achtemeier, Pa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Holy Orders
In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders include the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox (ιερωσύνη [''hierōsynē''], ιεράτευμα [''hierateuma''], Священство [''Svyashchenstvo'']), Oriental Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Assyrian Church of the East, Assyrian, Old Catholic, Independent Catholic churches, Independent Catholic and some Lutheran churches. Except for some Lutherans and some Anglicans, these churches regard ordination as a sacrament (the ''sacramentum ordinis''). Christian denomination, Denominations have varied conceptions of holy orders. In some Lutheran and Anglican churches the traditional orders of bishop, priest and deacon are bestowed using ordination rites contained within ordinal (liturgy), ordinals. The exten ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |