By Rick Cherok
As we move toward the conclusion of 2024 and onward to the beginning of 2025, there are a few exciting things happening with Christian Standard that we’d like you to know. Moreover, we want to invite you into partnership with Christian Standard’s ministry of over one-and-a-half centuries.
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
Over the past several years, Christian Standard has asked seven or eight people in various aspects of Christian leadership to write brief stories about their favorite or most impressionable Christmas Memories. As we continue this tradition, our plan is to post a series of Christmas Memories beginning today and continuing on each day through Christmas Day. While links to these stories will be made available in next week’s Christian Standard e-newsletter, these memories may be viewed each day on the News tab of the ChristianStandard.com website.
Victor Knowles, the Founder and President of Peace On Earth Ministries (POEM) and Editor of One Body Magazine, is the author of this year’s first Christmas Memory. Victor’s memory, “The Christmas that Stank to High Heaven,” is available today. Look for other memories over the next several days until Christmas.
1717 BIBLE STUDIES
The Lookout began in 1888 as The Young People’s Standard. As a prayer movement known as Christian Endeavor was making its way across the country, Standard Publishing responded to the movement with The Young People’s Standard, a magazine designed to promote the work of young adults in the local church.
In 1894, the magazine’s name was changed to The Lookout as a reflection of its new purpose. The Lookout became a publication for the promotion of “Christian education for older young people and adults.” Throughout the magazine’s history, it has been led by influential editors like James DeForest Murch and Guy P. Leavitt, with responsible lesson writers like P. H. Welshimer and Orrin Root.
Although The Lookout has adopted to a different format over the past several years and ultimately merged with the Christian Standard, it has continued to provide reliable Bible study materials for Sunday school classes, small-group studies, and personal devotional study. Furthermore, the creation of a more true-to-Scripture scope and sequence in 2018, with respected scholars like Dr. Mark Scott and Dr. David Faust, provided for a six-year journey through the entire Bible.
Now that this massive six-year undertaking has been completed, at a cost of over $100,000, Christian Standard Media, will be offering something new and exciting to our readers. The studies that have been written for The Lookout over the past six years will be compiled and reformatted into fully downloadable files—including the Bible Lesson, Application, and Study Questions—for each book of the Bible. This new series of studies will be known as the 1717 Studies: Your Word is Truth, named after Jesus’ words in John 17:17.
The new 1717 Studies: Your Word Is Truth studies will soon be made available, beginning with the book of Galatians, from the ChristianStandard.com website for Sunday schools, small groups, and personal studies. And, while these studies are offered at no cost, our hope is that you might consider a tax-deductible contribution to Christian Standard Media to help offset the cost of providing these Bible lessons.
APPRECIATION AND APPEAL
The first edition of the Christian Standard appeared on April 7, 1866, and featured a story about the recent death of Alexander Campbell. Since that time, Christian Standard has been a critical voice within the Restoration Movement. In addition to being a source of news and current events within the Restoration Movement, the Christian Standard has maintained the ethos of the movement as found in the words of Jesus’ prayer in John 17: Unity and Truth to Win the World to Christ.
Over the past seven years, Christian Standard Media has taken several significant steps to ensure that the Christian Standard remains a viable and influential magazine for the future. In addition to establishing Christian Standard Media as a not-for profit ministry (which means your gifts are fully tax deductible), the Christian Standard, along with Bible studies, communion meditations, and other resources, are being offered as free digital downloads at the christianstandard.com website. It is our desire to see more and more readers immersing themselves into the truth of God’s Word while staying connected to the Restoration Movement.
Thank you for your continued readership and support of Christian Standard. As we approach the end of another year, will you consider making a charitable gift to Christian Standard Media? We realize that there are many worthy causes asking for your generosity in this season, but we want you to know that Christian Standard Media is a place where the beliefs we hold so dear will be shared sincerely and unapologetically. You may donate quickly, easily, and securely now at christianstandard.com/donate/.
All of us at Christian Standard wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year!
Rick Cherok serves as Managing Editor of the Christian Standard and Executive Director of Celtic Christian Mission.
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