Paul McCleary Releases Book on Church Reform Movements

(PRWEB) July 13, 2015

TEMPE, Ariz. - "Within churches, there is a great deal of subtle anxiety about the future of the church," said author Paul McCleary. "There are those who see the church under pressures from a variety of sources, especially ordination of women, same sex marriages, the church's outreach to drug addicts, sex offenders and other less desirable elements of society."

Seeing how the church is under a great deal of pressure to change today, McCleary decided to write a series of three books looking into the history of reform movements within the church, especially those undergone by the Methodist Church in the United States. His first book, "Reform Movements in Methodism and How They Were Treated (1784-1830)," looked into a period marked by reformers seeking to modify the church to be more democratic. In this, the second book of the series, "Reform Movements in Methodism Brought on By Societal Issues 1830-1885" (published by Xlibris), McCleary tackles the period when the churches were subject to external social pressures on: slavery, anti-clericalism-lay involvement, prohibition and women's rights.

McCleary notes that, although this time period has been covered in other works, most of them take sides on the issue. In this book, he simply presents an analysis of the reform movements to determine the answers to such questions as: Why did they succeed? Or, why did they fail? What methodologies of organization did they use? What changes does a reform movement go through?

"One of my early involvements in my ministry was as staff to the Structure Study Commission of the Methodist Church," said McCleary. "We quickly learned how any effort to change produced a counter-force of resistance."

In sharing his analysis of past church reforms, McCleary hopes that it would help his readers come up with creative and constructive ways to help the church to change.

"Reform Movements in Methodism Brought on By Societal Issues 1830-1885"
By Paul McCleary
Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 214 pages | ISBN 9781503521773
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 214 pages | ISBN 9781503521780
E-Book | 214 pages | ISBN 9781503521797
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author
Paul McCleary has been an ordained minister for over 50 years and served as pastor, missionary, staff of a general conference committee, staff of general agencies of his denomination, and staff of ecumenical agencies. He has been a member of national and international agencies, including those on which he has served as an officer: Inter-Action, the International Forum on Child Welfare, Commission on Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service of the World Council of Churches and the nongovernmental organizations to the United Nations Children's Fund. He has conducted studies for the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

Xlibris Publishing, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider created in 1997 by authors, for authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles. For more information, visit xlibris.com or call 1-888-795-4274 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisPub on Twitter for the latest news.

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