By Ben Cachiaras
About 30 years ago our family carefully planted a small willow sapling in the yard of our cottage in northern Minnesota. Each year its expanding trunk cast graceful, new branches arching through the sky, then bowing in a figure skater”s pose to kiss the surface of Long Lake.
Soon the thick, green wisps hung down like blankets, and the willow became a gentle giant in our yard, as high as a house, and broad as a barn. Its limbs held us as we climbed and played.
We posed by that tree for countless summer photos, sunburned in our swimsuits, holding stringers of fish. The willow provided a buffer from the neighbors, so we could sit by our fire pit and air family matters in private.
That willow tree became a permanent, assured fixture at the cabin. It was a part of our family, consistently observing over the years the arrival of newborns, the passing of grandparents. Through raucous laughter around the nearby picnic table, and tears shed quietly in its shade, that tree was there, a strong, quiet friend, seeing us at our best and our worst.
It strikes me that the CHRISTIAN STANDARD is a lot like that tree. For 140 years it has graced our yard, a part of our movement”s family. A cross section of its trunk would reveal a ring for each year dating back to 1866.
This tree began to grow quietly in a world without computers, cell phones, and iPods. Before my grandparents were born, the CHRISTIAN STANDARD pushed out its arching limbs and through the generations has continued to provide needed encouragement, challenging articles, clear teaching, provoking letters, important news, and soul-feeding meditations. Its massive branches have spread across the world with spiritual food, practical help, and theological discussion.
Week after week, year after year, the has been there. It has seen and celebrated us at our best. And it has seen and mourned us at our worst.
I hadn”t given much thought to the willow tree over the years. I would say I took for granted it would always be there. But then we had to take it down. Age and disease rotted its sturdy arms, and we reluctantly said good-bye.
The first time I saw the yard after that, I felt so sad to see the void where the tree should have been. I looked up to see the gaping hole it had left behind.
As we mark 140 years we can be thankful that this magazine, far from being weak and sickly, is in strong, healthy condition. I believe it is poised to see its best days ahead. But why do we need it? What does CHRISTIAN STANDARD provide for us?
Just as the loss of our willow caused me to see its contribution more clearly, I have used this anniversary to imagine our movement without CHRISTIAN STANDARD. Clearly, without CHRISTIAN STANDARD we would find a gaping hole in the sky, to use Edwin Markham”s metaphor. If this faithful tree were lost, we would need and desire to create something just like it. Why is that? And what might the future look like?
Stay in Touch
We need CHRISTIAN STANDARD because it is the central mouthpiece of our movement. If we were a denomination, CHRISTIAN STANDARD would be our denominational magazine. Despite our nondenominational status, CHRISTIAN STANDARD functions as a hub for us””like the old-time, downtown barbershop””where what is important is reported and discussed.
Our colleges and missionaries have their newsletters; each congregation and parachurch organization has its own as well. Arching over the entire movement is CHRISTIAN STANDARD, interested in the success of each one.
Its pages descriptively share what is happening in places we may have never been. CHRISTIAN STANDARD is especially important as a communication piece to those on the geographical fringes; it is the way we keep in touch. In CHRISTIAN STANDARD IÂ read of the passing of Enos Dowling and remember his life; I learn of the birth of a new church in Manhattan. CHRISTIAN STANDARD brings their faces before mine and I learn about my family.
CHRISTIAN STANDARD is the vehicle for sharing good news in our Restoration Movement family. I pity those brothers and sisters who have good news to share, but have cut themselves off from others so that they no longer know where to share it. And I feel robbed of their fellowship when I learn they are off doing their thing without telling the rest of us about it.
Maybe it is an impressive homeless ministry in Los Angeles, a creative outreach to children by a church in Arkansas, an innovative multisite option in Iowa, inspiring unity and relief work in Louisiana, a new facility for a college in Missouri, a new preacher for a church in Kentucky, a new mission work for those far from God in Kenya, or an exciting new church start in Maryland. In each case, for hundreds of churches, CHRISTIAN STANDARD is the vehicle to share good news.
In the first century, God used letters to carry encouraging ministry reports between cities; in the 21st century he uses CHRISTIAN STANDARD. Any healthy family thrives with good communication, and degenerates in its absence. What is needed for a people like ours is precisely what CHRISTIAN STANDARD seeks to provide: communication about what is happening in our churches and around the world.
Talk it Over
We need CHRISTIAN STANDARD because it allows for a diversity of opinion on a range of topics. I am thankful that CHRISTIAN STANDARD has been unafraid to tackle tough subjects, challenging us to engage the most pressing issues in the surrounding culture as well as the thorny issues within the church. Most denominational magazines become so ideologically scripted, it makes for predictably tiring propaganda, even if you happen to agree with its perspective.
CHRISTIAN STANDARD doesn”t censor. In keeping with the best aspects of our heritage, it elicits conversation and discussion, even on hot potato topics. This gives expression to the breadth and beauty of our movement. CHRISTIAN STANDARD teaches us to respect those who perch on limbs in different parts of this tree. I have been helped to appreciate those with whom I disagree (even if they are wrong!). Hearing the rationale for their opinions makes it easier to practice love in all things.
Get Acquainted
CHRISTIAN STANDARD gives us an opportunity to hear from our most thoughtful voices. You may never sit in the classroom with Robert Hull at Emmanuel School of Religion, or go to coffee with Dave Stone. You may never pick the brain of LeRoy Lawson on church leadership, or hear Kay Moll speak on missions, or pepper Dave Faust with ministry questions. But each week, CHRISTIAN STANDARD lets us soak up a thoughtful article by them and others, putting us in their proximity so we can be enriched and edified.
Additionally, we hear from names lesser known, but whom God has gifted to write. CHRISTIAN STANDARD gives a forum for the body to share those gifts, and we all benefit.
Tell Others
CHRISTIAN STANDARD is especially important these days, because we have something to say. And CHRISTIAN STANDARD continues to be the place where it is said. As Bob Russell expressed it recently, “We have a new respect from others. We have the ear of the denominational world right now, and CHRISTIAN STANDARD gives us a means to speak.”
These are good days for Stone-Campbell Movement churches. We are now looked to as leaders in church planting. The most innovative and effective multisite models have their origins among our churches. We have many healthy small churches, some of our colleges are increasingly being noticed for their remarkable contributions, and we are setting the pace in several innovative ministries. The explosion of new church starts and megachurches among us has continued, thrusting us into this new century positioned for influence.
Now, perhaps as much as at any time since 1866, CHRISTIAN STANDARD has a story to tell, news to spread, a plea to proclaim, and substance to share.
Look Ahead
The future of CHRISTIAN STANDARD is bright. Mark Taylor and Paul Williams, with all of Standard Publishing in support, are leading this magazine in a relentless pursuit of improvement. Like the church it serves, CHRISTIAN STANDARD itself is ever reforming.
Many leaders have told me how CHRISTIAN STANDARD has a new importance in their reading. Many who were formerly 30-second-glance readers have become read-every-article types. They are increasingly proud of this magazine, and are eager to hand it to emerging leaders and those outside our fellowship.
This makes sense. The issues cover relevant themes vital to ministry in today”s context. The writers are crisp and sharp. The tools delivered are practical, the insights invaluable. CHRISTIAN STANDARD brings capable practitioners, articulate theologians, and sound leaders around the table where we can all hear them talk. As a result we are smarter, better informed, challenged, equipped, and encouraged to be all that Christ has called us to be.
I expect CHRISTIAN STANDARD to continue to reinvent itself. Already we are seeing its mission expand with alternative formats in our age of exploding technology. Now CHRISTIAN STANDARD articles are forwarded from its new e-newsletter format. The next generation will interact with CHRISTIAN STANDARD in a whole new way, through online interactive chats, blogs, and possibly receive their weekly thought through their iPod.
Keep Reading
Pick it up, read it. Like the unassuming tree standing in the corner of our yard, CHRISTIAN STANDARD continues to influence. Too many overlook the hole in the sky that would be left if we didn”t have it.
I recall the story of an old man who planted a carob tree. His neighbors laughed, reminding him he would not live long enough to enjoy its fruit. “I am planting it for my grandchildren,” he told them, “just as my grandparents planted the trees whose fruit I enjoy.”
I am grateful for those who saw to it that CHRISTIAN STANDARD was planted, and those who have nurtured its sturdy growth through the years. Most encouraging is seeing younger leaders and readers benefiting from it.
Augustine”s famous conversion experience comes to mind. He heard a child”s game in which one of the participants cried, “Tolle lege,” “Pick it up, read it.” Augustine immediately flung open his Bible to read, and it changed his life.
That captures my wish, my commendation, and my belief on this 140th anniversary of CHRISTIAN STANDARD: that many more, for many more years, will pick it up, and read it.
They and those they lead will be better for it.
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Ben Cachiaras, minister with Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, is a CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor and the newest member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee.
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