The Sacraments (A Practical Guide)

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About the Book The Sacraments: A Practical Guide seeks to foster a recovery of worship in both Word and Sacrament among Protestant Christians, especially those in Asia. Classical Protestant understandings are seen as the basis of a contemporary liturgical piety centered on the sacraments. This book aims to encourage Protestants to rediscover their traditional sacramental theologies and practices in order that they might recover their distinctive identities and revitalize their witness in the world. To know and understand a church's sacramental faith and practice is to find the heart of its theology and faith.

Practical in nature and pastoral in its outlook, this handbook for sacramental practice focuses on baptism and the Lord's Supper with much attention given to practical matters such as the physical requirements and pastoral issues surrounding the two sacraments. This book is intended for pastors and other church leaders who want to renew the worship life of their churches by rediscovering the sacraments, particularly the sacramental theologies and practices of their own ecclesial traditions.

About the Author Jeffrey A. Truscott is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, currently serving as Lecturer in Liturgy and Worship at Trinity Theological College, Singapore, where he is also the Chaplain. Prior to that, he was Associate Professor and Dean of the Chapel at Japan Lutheran College and Theological Seminary in Tokyo. He holds degrees from two Lutheran seminaries in the United States and a Ph.D. in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

Introduction It seems as though the sacraments have little place in Protestant faith and practice today. In many churches, the Lord's Supper is celebrated at only a few Sunday services per year, while baptism is often administered outside the Sunday service with only a few regular churchgoers in attendance. For most Protestants, the sermon is the real center of the Sunday service, and it can often occupy a sizable portion of the service time, in some cases, even 60 minutes! Given that the sacraments exist on the liturgical periphery for many Protestants, why would anyone want to write a book on the sacraments for a Protestant audience? The answer is two-fold:

First, Protestants need to find their distinctiveness. It seems that Protestantism has become an undifferentiated mass of Christians despite the great variety of denominations and traditions.

**Contents and Sample Pages**