Evangelical churches sing hymns written between 1870 and 1920 so often that many children learn them by rote before they are able to read religious texts. A cherished part of communal Christian life and an important and effective way to teach doctrine today, these hymns served an additional social purpose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: they gave evangelical women a voice in their churches. When the sacred music business expanded after the Civil War, writing hymn texts gave publishing opportunities to women who were forbidden to preach, teach, or pray aloud in mixed groups. Authorized by oral expression, gospel hymns allowed women to articulate alternative spiritual models within churches that highly valued orality.These feminized hymns are the focus of "I Sing for I Cannot Be Silent." Drawing upon her own experience as a Baptist, June Hadden Hobbs argues that the evangelical tradition is an oral tradition—it is not anti-intellectual but antiprint. Evangelicals rely on memory and spontaneous oral improvisation; hymns serve to aid memory and permit interaction between oral and written language. By comparing male and female hymnists' use of rhetorical forms, Hobbs shows how women utilized the only oral communication allowed to them in public worship. Gospel hymns permitted women to use a complex system of images already associated with women and domesticity. This feminized hymnody challenged the androcentric value system of evangelical Christianity by making visible the contrasting masculine and feminine versions of Christianity. When these hymns were sung in church, women's voices and opinions moved out of the private sphere and into public religion. The hymns are so powerful that they are suppressed by some contemporary fundamentalists today.In "I Sing for I Cannot Be Silent" June Hadden Hobbs employs an interdisciplinary mix of feminist literary analysis, social history, rhetoric and composition theory, hymnology, autobiography, and theology to examine hymns central to worship in most evangelical churches today.

A biography of L. W. Marks, an early 20th century progressive Baptist leader, minister, publisher, businessman, and mayor of Edmond, OK.

Southern Baptists have a unique and colorful story. Birthed in the time of slavery controversy, their theology on this and human rights issues has changed as cultural and societal developments occurred. One thing that never changed, however, was their zeal for evangelism. They eventually grew to become the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Later, a major controversy in the late twentieth century pitted conservative Baptists against moderates. Both sides, however, wrote histories of the controversy from their own perspectives. These histories were significant for understanding how each side interpreted the events. These pages attempt to fill a missing gap. Readers will hear the Southern Baptist story from both sides. Understand from this how Southern Baptists work, think, grow, argue, and have changed over time. They have weathered the ups and downs of history to reveal an ever-growing heritage.

Baptists have a long and rich heritage of congregational song. The hymns Baptists have sung and the books from which they have sung them have been shaping forces for Baptist theology, worship, and piety. Baptist authors and composers have provided songs that have made an impact not only among Baptists in America but also across denominational and geographic lines. Congregational singing continues to be a key component of Baptist worship in the twenty-first century. Beginning with an overview of the British background, this book is a survey of the history of Baptist hymnody in America from Baptist beginnings in the New World to the present. Its intent is to help the reader better understand the background against which current Baptist congregational song practices operate. Unlike earlier writings on the subject, this book provides both comprehensive coverage and a continuous narrative. It gives thorough attention to the major Baptist bodies in America as well as calling attention to the contributions of significant smaller groups. The British Baptist background is dealt with in an introductory section. The book also includes many texts and tunes as illustrations of the topics being discussed and focuses on some of the contributions of Baptist authors and composers to the repertory of congregational song. Book jacket.

Contemporary American colleges are increasingly queer places, where significant steps toward inclusion of BGLT students have been made. Tracing the journey of BGLT students' emergence, which parallels the modern gay rights movement in America, this monograph provides an overview of data and theory derived from studying BGLT students and student movements in higher education. Offering context for the ways that previously marginalized students in higher education survive and thrive, this issue: Tells the story of their growing visibility on campus Summarizes collective knowledge to date about BGLT identity development Takes stock of transgender students' distinctive position and experiences in higher education Assesses the role of the BGLT campus resource center in supporting students and advancing equity. This issue develops a picture of the ways that BGLT community activism informs scholarship (and vice versa). In the telling of the movement's stories, these lessons suggest a practice of collaborative transformation for advancing the future of BGLT equality in higher education. This is Volume 37 Issue 4 of the Jossey-Bass publication ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education problem, based on thorough research and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

Only one person can give her the freedom she seeks--but is it worth the risk? Maisie Kentworth is being forced to stay on her parents' ranch. After a short-lived relationship with the wrong man, she's worried about inflaming things further between her former beau and her protective family. Left to rue her mistakes, she keeps busy exploring the idle mine at the edge of their property, where she discovers a great treasure. Boone Bragg is also stuck. With his parents on vacation, the management of Bragg Mining falls on him, and one of his advisors wants him as a son-in-law. One wrong move, and Boone will end up either offending an associate or marrying a woman he can't endure. While closing up a spent mine, Boone gets two surprises. One is a spitfire farm girl who's trespassing with a pickax, and the other is the amazing crystal cavern that she's discovered. Suddenly Boone sees a way to overhaul the family business. With part of the cavern on Kentworth land, Boone makes Maisie a proposal that he hopes will solve all of their problems. Instead it throws Joplin into chaos, and it will take all of Maisie's gumption to set things right.

The Christian Church has been "welcoming the children" in everygeneration since Jesus' earthly life. The early church, and generations of Christians since, would find expressions of care, appropriate for their times, to help needy families and dependent children.This story is about how the Christian church, with the major focus upon Arizona Baptist Children's Services (ABCS), has responded to the mandate of Jesus to "welcome the children" whose families have been crippled or absent. To tell that story, the writer has chosen to go back in time to create a context of historical examples. What ABCS and other Christians are doing in the Year of Our Lord, 2010, is little different than the experience of how the church responded to the needs of children in the first, fifth or eighteenth centuries. Only the methods have changed.The methods have evolved from foster family care to specialized services for children and families. These state-of-the art modern methods of care are described in detail. This should be helpful and informative to social workers and others who work with troubled families and children in out-of-home care in a faith-based context.

Perspectives on Church Government presents in counterpoint form the basic models of church government which have developed over the course of church history with a view toward determining which is most faithful to Scripture. Each chapter will be written by a prominent person from within each tradition—with specific guidelines dealing with the biblical, historical, and theological issues within each governance tradition. In addition, each writer will have the opportunity to give a brief response to the other traditions.