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Church Anniversary Sunday
[Christian Life]Church Anniversary Sunday is a Sunday on which an individual congregation remembers the day of its founding and holds a service of thanksgiving. Because it is not a common observance of the church year, each church sets its own date and manner of observance.
Term of Office for Elders
[Christian Life]The term of office for elders is the period during which an elder holds and exercises office in the church. Korean Presbyterian churches often regard the eldership as a lifelong office, with elders serving until a mandatory retirement age. Some churches also hold periodic votes of confidence in which the congregation decides whether an elder should continue in active service.
Jeremiah 34
[Bible]Jeremiah 34 is a 22-verse chapter containing an oracle delivered to King Zedekiah while the Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem, together with a declaration of judgment against the people of Judah, who made a covenant to release their Hebrew servants and then reversed it.
Lamentations 3
[Bible]Lamentations 3 is a sixty-six-verse lament in which an individual speaker, "I," mourns the suffering endured under God's wrath and then regains hope by remembering the LORD's mercy and faithfulness.
Pastor
[Church Offices]In Protestantism, a pastor is an ordained minister responsible for preaching, administering the sacraments, and caring for church members. Qualifications and ordination procedures vary by denomination.
Church Planting by Division
[Organization & Polity]The founding of a new, independent church by an existing church (the "mother church"), which sends out some of its members, ministers, and part of its finances. Also called "daughter-church planting," it is distinct from a "church split," in which a congregation divides through conflict.
Church Membership Register
[Christian Life]A church membership register is the record of a person's status as an enrolled member of a particular church, together with that member's personal details and history of faith; the term can also refer to the membership status itself.
Heresy Designation
[Heresies & Cults]A heresy designation is a formal determination by a denominational general assembly or an interdenominational church body, made after investigating the teachings of a particular individual or group, that those teachings have departed from orthodox doctrine. Because each denomination makes its own determinations, conclusions and their severity can differ from one denomination to another.
World Mission Society Church of God
[Heresies & Cults]The World Mission Society Church of God is a religious group that split from an organization founded by Ahn Sahng-hong in Busan in 1964. Its members believe Ahn Sahng-hong to be Christ at His Second Coming and Zahng Gil-jah to be "God the Mother." Major Korean Protestant denominations and ecumenical bodies have designated the group as heretical.
Love Feast
[Worship & Rites]The love feast is a communal meal that believers in the early church shared as an expression of love and fellowship. It is distinct from the Lord's Supper. In Korean Protestant churches, the term usually refers to a meal that church members share after worship.
One-to-One Discipleship
[Christian Life]One-to-one discipleship is a method of spiritual nurture in which an experienced believer is paired with another church member to study the Bible together over a set period using a prescribed curriculum, with the aim of establishing the foundations of the Christian faith.
Minister Without Charge
[Church Offices]A minister without charge is a title used in Presbyterian constitutions for an ordained minister who retains ministerial standing but has no church or institution in which he or she is assigned to serve.
Matthew 5:39
[Bible Verses]Matthew 5:39 is the verse in which Jesus teaches his hearers not to resist an evil person and, if someone strikes them on the right cheek, to turn the other also. It stands at the center of interpretive debates that extend beyond the prohibition of personal retaliation to questions of war, violence, and military service.
Absalom
[People]Absalom was the third son of King David, an Old Testament figure who rebelled against his father in an attempt to seize the throne and was killed in battle. His story is recorded chiefly in 2 Samuel.
Leviticus 20:13
[Bible Verses]Leviticus 20:13 is a provision in Leviticus 20 that declares sexual relations between men an "abomination" and prescribes the death penalty. It is frequently cited alongside Leviticus 18:22 in church discussions of homosexuality, and interpreters differ over how far it applies today.
Priest
[Bible]In Old Testament Israel, the priest held an office that stood between God and the people, offering sacrifices and teaching the Law. The New Testament carries this office forward in the high priesthood of Christ and the priesthood of all believers.
Anthony of Egypt
[People]Anthony of Egypt (c. 251–356) was an early church hermit who lived a solitary monastic life in the Egyptian desert. He is often called the "Father of Monasticism."
Amnon
[People]Amnon was the firstborn son of David, an Old Testament figure who raped his half-sister Tamar and was killed two years later by her full brother Absalom. His story is told in 2 Samuel 13.
Papias
[People]Papias was bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor in the early second century and an early church writer who left the earliest testimony concerning the origins of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.
Beth-shemesh
[Bible]Beth-shemesh, meaning "house of the sun," is an Old Testament place name that refers chiefly to a priestly city on the western border of Judah. It was the first place the ark of the covenant reached when the Philistines sent it back, and it was also where Amaziah, king of Judah, was defeated by the northern kingdom of Israel.