Search the encyclopedia
1000 articles found for “a Canaanite”
Revival Meeting
[Worship & Rites]A revival meeting is a special series of gatherings held over several consecutive days to rekindle faith that has grown stagnant. It is also called a spiritual revival meeting. In Korea, revival meetings developed as an offshoot of Bible study gatherings known as Bible conferences (sagyeonghoe).
Funeral Service
[Worship & Rites]A funeral service is a worship service held when a church member dies, in which the deceased is committed to God, the bereaved are comforted, and the hope of the resurrection is confessed. The term can also refer collectively to the several services held at each stage of the funeral process.
Church Bulletin
[Worship & Rites]A church bulletin is a newsletter that a church publishes every Lord's Day, containing the order of worship, sermon information, church news, and announcements.
Memorial Service (Chudo Yebae)
[Worship & Rites]A memorial service is a worship service in which bereaved family members and fellow church members gather, usually on the anniversary of a death or on a major holiday, to remember a person who has died. In Korean Protestantism it became established as a rite that takes the place of Confucian ancestral rites; it is also known as a remembrance service (chumo yebae).
Sacrament
[Worship & Rites]A sacrament is a rite believed to have been instituted by Christ that signifies God's grace through visible signs such as water, bread, and wine. Protestants generally recognize two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Church Dedication
[Worship & Rites]A church dedication is a service in which a newly built church building is offered to God as a place of worship. In Korean Protestant churches, it is usually held after all construction debt has been paid off.
Sermon
[Worship & Rites]A sermon is the proclamation of the Word in worship that expounds a biblical text and applies it to present-day life. It is regarded as a central element of the worship service, and in Korean Protestant churches it is commonly referred to simply as "the Word" (malsseum).
Christian Wedding Service
[Worship & Rites]A Christian wedding service is a ceremony conducted as an act of worship in which a Christian man and woman make their marriage vows before God and receive a blessing upon their union. It is usually officiated by a pastor and may be held in a church or a wedding hall.
Choir
[Worship & Rites]A choir is a body of singers that sings praise to God on behalf of the congregation during a church worship service. It is also called a sacred choir or praise choir, depending on the church.
General Assembly
[Organization & Polity]A general assembly is the highest national decision-making body of a denomination. It amends the denominational constitution, sets policy, and elects officers. Among Korean Protestant denominations, Presbyterian bodies usually hold their regular general assembly each September.
Presbytery
[Organization & Polity]A presbytery is a governing court in Presbyterian churches in which the ministers and ruling elder representatives of a given region meet to govern the churches of that region. It is the intermediate court between the session and the general assembly.
District Conference
[Organization & Polity]A district conference is an intermediate-level body formed by the churches of a given region in Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and other denominations, or the meeting that such a body holds. It occupies roughly the same position as the presbytery in Presbyterian churches.
Hymn
[Worship & Rites]A hymn is a song sung by a congregation to praise God and confess the faith; the term also refers to a book collecting such songs. In Korean Protestant churches, the term commonly refers to the common hymnal shared by many denominations.
Responsive Reading
[Worship & Rites]A responsive reading is an element of worship, and also the text used for it, in which the leader and the congregation read a passage of Scripture, usually from the Psalms, alternately verse by verse. In Korean Protestant churches it is also known as seongsi gyodok, "the alternate reading of sacred poems."
Church Constitution
[Organization & Polity]A church constitution is the foundational body of rules in which a denomination codifies its principles of confession of faith, church government, offices, worship, and discipline. Depending on the denomination, it may be called a "constitution," *The Doctrines and Discipline*, or another name.
Church Plant
[Organization & Polity]A church plant is a newly established church, founded in an area with no church or too few churches or directed toward a new group of people; the term also refers to the process of establishing such a church. In Korean Protestant usage, it commonly denotes a church in its early years with a small congregation and a limited financial base.
Denomination
[Organization & Polity]A denomination is a grouping of Protestant churches that share the same theological tradition and form of church government. Examples include the Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, Pentecostal, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.
Congregational Meeting
[Organization & Polity]A congregational meeting is an assembly of all the baptized (communicant) members registered in a local church, convened to decide important matters such as electing church officers, calling a pastor, and approving the budget. The name is used in Presbyterian churches; in Korea, other denominations use names such as "general business meeting," and the courts refer to it as a "general meeting of church members."
Pastoral District (Gyogu)
[Organization & Polity]A pastoral district is a unit into which church members are divided, by region or by group, for pastoral care and church governance. In Korean Protestantism the term (gyogu) usually refers to a pastoral district within a single congregation, while in Anglicanism it refers to a regional church unit, or diocese, under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
Particular Church
[Organization & Polity]A particular church is an individual local church that belongs to the whole church throughout the world, the universal church. The term is used chiefly in Presbyterian church constitutions. In Korean Protestant usage, the corresponding term can also refer to a branch congregation that a megachurch establishes in another area.