Rumors have been flying that Dave Stone and Rick Rusaw are not actually retiring from their senior pastor positions at Southeast Christian Church and LifeBridge Christian Church, respectively, but that they have declared themselves free agents and are making their services available to the highest-bidding churches at no less than 5-year, no-cut contracts with guaranteed money up-front. (Of course, these are just rumors.)
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Former senior minister Dean Smithy of Austin, Texas, is looking for a new church to serve after elders at Yellow Rose Christian Church told him he can no longer serve at theirs. Smithy and elder emeritus Robert Rogers, 87, were reportedly involved in a traffic altercation last Tuesday afternoon, precipitating an emergency meeting of the eldership. Rogers told the “young buck elders” that he thought he heard someone “tooting” at him during rush hour that day, and he looked in the mirror to see a man he described as “Smithy—I know it was Smithy” gesturing at him. Smithy told the elders he was merely waving. The elders authorized two weeks of severance and Smithy’s family of seven is permitted to live in the parsonage until Monday the week of Thanksgiving.
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Haydn Shaw has reportedly discovered yet another generational classification that will present one of the biggest challenges the church has ever seen. As details become available, we will report on the new name and description of this people grouping, which will join the likes of traditionalists, boomers, gen Xers, millennials, and gen Z. It is hoped that a few more discoveries like this will help to close generation gaps that have existed in our nation for so long.
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By now, most people are aware that the North American Christian Convention has changed its name to Spire, and that it has become a year-round, web-based, church leadership platform that can touch all of our church leaders, nationwide, every day. To accentuate that, the first gathering of Spire, set for Oct. 8-10, 2019, in Orlando, Fla., has been branded the “UnConvention.” Keurig Dr Pepper, parent company of Seven-Up (“the UnCola”), has been offered a sponsorship opportunity.
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New Deal Christian Church of Hooverville, Va., which traces its history back to the 1930s, hosted a Career Day last Tuesday for students from Roosevelt Elementary School, located across the street. White-collar, blue-collar, and no-collar folks who attend the church spoke with the children about their jobs, what a typical day is like, education requirements, and other matters related to their chosen profession. Although the church averages only 125, there were quite a variety of professions represented, including: a secretary, bean counter, soda jerk, flatfoot, grease monkey, sawbones, a shrink, pencil pusher, stewardess, trashman, undertaker, a gal Friday, ambulance chaser, a maid, ditchdigger, a hashslinger, a hack, a shrink, a housewife, and a preacher.
Christian Standard is just kidding.
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