Bøger af Alvin C. Bernstine

We are people of stories, and our stories, even church stories, need not be closed-ended. To be alive is to live out a story, and for our churches to come alive, we must continue to live out the gospel story, which is a living story. Therefore, the primary need in most congregations is a dynamic and compelling story, inviting people into faithful living.I believe a narrative theological perspective and the missional approach to ministry provide local congregations an opportunity to rethink, recalibrate, and resume responsible ministry by developing dynamic stories. The narrative theological perspective embraces God-talk with a view toward enlivening faith with stories. Likewise, the missional concept provides essential dynamics for the re-storying process.

The evening and the morning represents a liturgical cadence that re-shaped the story of beginnings for a people who needed them. Exploring the Jewish perspective on the Creation Story, a hermeneutical lens is provided that gives powerful insight to what a people of faith can do to re-story a faith of resistance. Departing from the traditional evangelical understanding the Creation Story, the author follow its origin into one of the defining experiences of Jewish faith - the Exile. Exile defines and shapes the Hebrew Bible, and what evangelical Christians call the Old Testament. This is a concept that many of us chose to ignore, even while being exposes to it early our educational experiences. During this dark episode of debilitating oppression, the composers of the Creation Story redefined their reality by presenting a God who creates from the darkness, in opposition to the emptiness, and in spite of the chaos. The evening metaphorically serves as the acknowledgement of the darkness, while the morning provides the metaphor of hope of a new day. Each day, with the exception of the seventh day, addresses a dimension of the oppressive evening with the creative hope of the morning.The book is broken up into three sections, Chapters 1 through 3 are foundational, beginning with the fact that Hermeneutics Matter, secondly The Creation Story Matters, and thirdly, The Evening and The Morning Matters. The foundational chapters are used to shape a liberatory hermenutic and lens. Once the foundation has been establish, each day is presented as a homilietical response to the liberatory hermeneutic. From the perspective of the exilic experience of an African American, each day is shaped by the hermeneutical lens and questions are offered for personal thought and/or group discussions.