28 March, 2024

e2: effective elders Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary (Plus News Briefs)

by | 22 June, 2022 | 0 comments

e2: effective elders is celebrating their 10th anniversary today! On June 22, 2012, e2 was incorporated as a nonprofit parachurch ministry.  

“In this first decade of ministry,” writes e2 executive director and co-founder Gary Johnson, “the Lord has enabled us to train over 9,600 elders and church leaders in our conferences on college and church campuses. In addition, roughly 70,000 books—in seven different languages—are in circulation, equipping elders to lead the local church more effectively.” 

The leadership of e2—including the other co-founders, David Roadcup and Jim Estep—offer thanks to the Lord for his generous provision that made the first decade of ministry possible.

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News Briefs

The Church of Christ on Lewis Street in Little Rock, Ark., dedicated a new building earlier this month. The church was fire-bombed during riots on May 30, 2020.

The Solomon Foundation granted $200,000 to the church and “raised over $318,000 from families and churches all across the [United States] to help rebuild,” according to a TSF Facebook post. “[God has] truly brought us a mighty long way,” the church shared on Facebook.

In “Rebuilding Hope from the Ashes” (November 2020), Christian Standard described the Lewis Street church’s rebuilding plans, along with the challenges Black churches often face in securing construction financing.

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The Greenfield Reporter wrote a nice feature on Tony Darling, who started as senior minister of Wilkinson (Ind.) Church of Christ in May after serving several years with Knightstown (Ind.) First Christian Church.

Ministry was not Darling’s original career path. “I felt a call to ministry in high school,” Darling told the reporter. “I ignored that call because I wanted to be a law enforcement officer so bad.”  

He served in law enforcement for 20-plus years. But a firearms range training accident in 2003 that cost him an eye “really turned my attention back to Christ.” 

Over the next several years, he served as a deacon and then an elder at the Knightstown church. He became associate minister in 2012 and senior minister in 2018. 

Darling told the newspaper that all through his law enforcement career, God’s call to ministry remained. “I don’t think he ever took it away. . . . You just have to be obedient to that.”

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In recent Facebook posts, Jack Cottrell, 84, shared that “cancer has spread throughout [my] abdominal area” and an oncologist says “nothing more can be done about it.” The doctor estimates Cottrell has a “few months” to live. 

Not surprisingly, Cottrell, former longtime professor of theology at Cincinnati Christian University and the author of more than 20 books on Christian theology and doctrine, used these updates as teaching moments. 

“[W]hen we are facing death in this fallen world, it is OK to pray for healing and extension of life (plan A), but [we should] remember that if God chooses not to answer these prayers, He has a PLAN A+ waiting for us.” 

“I have had this present cancer for about a year, and I have not experienced any serious pain from it,” Cottrell wrote a few days later. “I consider this to be the way God has answered all your prayers for me. If you continue to pray for me, let it be that God will continue to spare me from serious pain. THANKS SO MUCH!”

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Darren Key (class of 1995) will speak at Manhattan (Kan.) Christian College’s 20th annual Leadership Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 22. Key serves as CEO of Christian Financial Resources, one of the largest and fastest-growing church extension funds in the country. Breakfast is free, but reservations are required. Register here.

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Rolling Hills Christian Church in Topeka, Kan., hosted a Father’s Day event for the community after services Sunday that included barbecue, yard games, root beer floats, and axe throwing, wibw.com reported.

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The funeral service for a Las Vegas police detective killed earlier this month took place Monday at Central Christian Church. Justin Terry died June 10 when a steel beam on U.S. 95 fell on his unmarked police vehicle, www.8newsnow.com reported.

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Johnson University recently received a grant from the United States Tennis Association to offer community tennis programs at its Knoxville campus.

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Send news items to [email protected].

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