The Sacraments: A Practical Guide

Contents: Introduction. 1. The meaning of sacraments. 2. Baptismal meaning among protestants. 3. Baptism as a process of initiation. 4. Baptism and time. 5. Baptism and its physical requirements. 6. Baptism and its participants. 7. The baptismal service. 8. Baptism and its renewal. 9. Baptismal issues. 10. The lord’s supper among the protestant reformers. 11. The lord’s supper and time. 12. The lord’s supper and its physical requirements. 13. The lord’s supper and its participants. 14. The lord’s supper liturgy. 15. The lord’s supper and justice. 16. The sacramentality of other rites.

`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.