Description

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Take My Hand is an invitation to experience a year of preaching through the eyes of a first-year pastor. Andrew Taylor-Troutman reflects on his experience of ministry as a dynamic exchange between his theological education and the people in the pews. Each chapter consists of Taylor-Troutman's reflections about a particular aspect of living as a faith community and concludes with a sermon exploring similar themes and ideas. As this book journeys through the Christian liturgical year, Taylor-Troutman considers a wide range of contemporary church issues, including the role of children in worship and the communal practice of Sabbath. He discusses topics as diverse as the Rapture, the death penalty, and church league softball. Along the way, readers will laugh at Sunday morning bloopers, study biblical texts from new perspectives, wrestle with theological questions, and discover parallels between their own experience of faith and the life of this small, rural congregation. More than just a retrospective summary of events, Take My Hand poignantly illustrates how a pastor's work on Sunday morning grows out of his or her engagement with the hopes and fears of daily life, and the inspiring faith of men, women, and children in a church.

About the Author

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Andrew Taylor-Troutman is a pastor and a preacher, a writer, a husband, and a father. His professional and personal lives are deeply involved with storytelling: stories that are silly, poignant, profound, and commonplace. Stories that are tearjerkers and belly-shakers. Stories about his son, Sam, and the congregation he serves--New Dublin Presbyterian Church. Each in their own way, these personal narratives shed light on the great story that God is writing with humankind and all of creation.