28 March, 2024

New Book Honors Joe Grana (Plus News Briefs)

by | 7 July, 2021 | 0 comments

Colleagues and former students of Joe Grana have written a book in honor of the educator and minister. Looking Both Ways: At the Intersection of the Academy and the Church—Essays in Honor of Joseph C. Grana II was recently released by Claremont Press.

Each of the book’s 15 chapters is authored by a different person writing from their area of expertise and passion. The writers are just a few of the innumerable folks Grana influenced during his 30-plus years as professor (and 10 years as dean) with Hope International University, which he continues to serve as special assistant to the president. Grana also now serves as teaching pastor with Refinery Christian Church in Goodyear, Ariz.

The writers include David Matson, Carl Toney, Bill Baker, Kelly Dagley, Mike Goldsworthy, Jeremy Jernigan, Amy Smith Carman, Mark Krause, Steve Edgington, Bryan Sands, and co-editors Curtis Holtzen and J. Blair Wilgus, among others. The forward is written by Paul Alexander, HIU’s president.

Topics range from biblical studies (“Once More with Feeling: Communicating the Pain of Mark’s Jesus”) to ministry and pedagogy (“Taking Over for a Beloved Pastor: A Case Study” and “On the Importance of Friendship: Pedagogy for the Priesthood of All Believers”).

(Read our article from June 2020 about Grana’s retirement and his new work with Refinery Christian Church.)

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News Briefs

The Ohio Flags of Honor traveling memorial of almost 1,000 American and Ohio state flags concluded its 16-year journey at sites across the state with a display at Madison Christian Church in Groveport over the July Fourth weekend.

Gino Zimmer founded Ohio Flags of Honor after losing his son, Nicholaus, who was killed while on patrol in Iraq in 2004. About one-third of the flags carry the names of Ohio service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the War on Terror, www.nbc4i.com reported.

The flags were displayed at MCC from Friday to Monday.

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Veva Appel, the widow of Leon Appel, former president of what was then called Lincoln Christian College and Seminary, died June 27 in Lincoln, Ill. She served many years with Christian Homes Inc. (now called Christian Horizons) and was former director of development with Minnesota Bible College, her alma mater (and where she met and married her late husband). She also taught adult Sunday school classes at Lincoln Christian Church for a total of 55 years. She had a long working career after her husband’s sudden death in 1974. In “From Secretary to Field Rep,” an article from 2014, she told Christian Standard readers about “the best advice I have ever received.”

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A driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI early Friday after crashing a car into Broadway Christian Church in Lexington, Ky., www.lex18.com reported.

“The car struck one of the large concrete columns that separates two windows,” said Doug Piatt, executive minister with the church. The main exterior damage was to “the railing that protects the window wells.”

The church is awaiting an accident report from the Lexington Police Department, Piatt said Tuesday morning. An insurance claim has been filed.

The driver suffered minor injuries, according to the news website.

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After the city’s Fourth of July Parade on Sunday, Imbler (Ore.) Christian Church hosted a free community picnic that included hot dogs, baked beans, chips, watermelon, and soda.

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More than 1,000 teenagers and volunteers from Southeast Christian Church’s many campuses traveled from Kentucky and Indiana to Fort Walton Beach, Fla., for a Bible & Beach student conference June 19-24. Dangerous currents prevented the group from venturing into the ocean until the last day, but when they did, there were 88 baptisms, the Southeast Outlook reported.

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Cecil Todd is marking 72 years in Christian ministry. Todd started Revival Fires Ministry in Missouri in 1964. He has preached in 22 countries and made numerous trips to post-Cold War Russia, where he started a church and distributed more than 2 million Bibles. In total, Todd has started 21 churches and served as senior minister of five congregations. Todd also had a weekly television program that aired nationally for 20 years.

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West Seattle (Wash.) Christian Church opened its gym as a cooling center late last month during the heat wave that caused 100-degree-plus temperatures in the Pacific Northwest.

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Volunteers from Hanoverton (Ohio) Christian Church helped a community nonprofit called Brightside Project move to a new location recently, the Review reported. Brightside seeks to empower children with food, books, and other needs.

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