Church Life

Church Life explores the shared rhythms, relationships, and practices that shape a healthy congregation. Discover Bible-based articles on worship gatherings, fellowship, unity, hospitality, discipleship in community, and caring for one another through life’s joys and challenges. You’ll find guidance for building a welcoming church culture, strengthening membership and belonging, handling conflict with grace, and encouraging spiritual growth across the body. Whether you’re a church leader or a committed member, these resources help you cultivate congregational life that reflects the love of Christ and supports faithful discipleship.

February 2, 2011

Christian Standard

So Long to Good-Byes

By Cal Jernigan Perhaps you heard the story of the man who was stranded alone on a deserted island for a number of years. One day a ship appeared on the horizon, noticed him, and sent some men ashore to rescue him. While helping him gather his scant belongings, the rescuers noticed three huts clustered together and asked the man about them. The man pointed to one of the huts and explained that it served as his house, and then he pointed to another and explained that it was where he went to church. The man stopped without mentioning the

December 30, 2010

Christian Standard

New Members Light Candles

This past Sunday, Crossroads Christian Church (Newburgh, IN) celebrated the year and encouraged new decisions for Christ. After covering the stage in the worship center with unlit candles, church leaders invited all those who had become a Christian or a CCC member over the last year to come forward and light one of the candles. At the end of his sermon, senior pastor Ken Idleman extended an invitation for anyone who wanted to make one of those decisions that morning to also come forward and light a candle.

December 18, 2010

Christian Standard

Churches Celebrate Our Savior”s Birth

By Jennifer Taylor So many churches, so many different ways to celebrate the birth of our Savior! Each December for the last three years, My Safe Harbor (Anaheim, California)“”a nonprofit organization providing education and support for low-income single moms and their children””has coordinated a Christmas brunch for teachers at four local elementary schools. From homemade treats and decorations to music and gifts, the MSH team provides a special time of appreciation for these hard-working teachers. Members at Anaheim First Christian Church, which helped launch My Safe Harbor, sign thank-you cards and donate money for presents (including refills for the Keurig

November 10, 2010

Christian Standard

Stop Bashing the Bride!

Mike Baker It is very popular these days to write books, make statements, post blogs, and write articles that scold, criticize, and ridicule the church (especially the 21st-century American version). Is anyone but me getting just a little defensive? Honestly, these revelations don”t inspire me, they make me want to scream, “Hey, wait a minute, you”re talking about my church!” We are talking about Christ”s bride here. Shouldn”t we be a little more careful about how we flippantly describe Jesus” wife as irrelevant, corrupt, hypocritical, and ineffective? Indulge me just a little as I defend the church I have come

August 25, 2010

Mark A. Taylor

last week of summer

I Can See You, September

As summer slips away, Mark A. Taylor reflects on the sadness and gratitude that come with changing seasons—and the fresh ministry opportunities churches often find as fall schedules and routines return.

June 6, 2010

Christian Standard

Status Quo

By Terry O’Casey The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is one of the world”s holiest sites, at the place where many believe Jesus rose from the dead. On that sacred spot, a stalemate has occurred between warring Christians. A ladder rests on the Greek Orthodox Church portion of the building, beneath the right window that is controlled by the Armenian Church. A drawing from 1834 shows the ladder fossilizing even back then. The ladder is a statement of power and control. A law called “the status quo” enacted in Palestine, first by the Turkish Ottomans in 1757 and reaffirmed

March 24, 2010

Christian Standard

Restoration Revolution: Goals to Challenge All of Us

By Mark A. Taylor “What”s not to like when you see the values expressed in Restoration Revolution?” Ben Cachiaras asked the rhetorical question in a February presentation to Cincinnati ministers. Most rhetorical questions go unanswered, but this one deserves a response. My reaction is twofold. First: All of us can agree with the lofty visions cast by those promoting Restoration Revolution, a 10-year project that kicks off at this year”s National Missionary Convention in Lexington, Kentucky, November 18-21. The goals are contained in an easily remembered acrostic: Almighty is an invitation to prayer. Restoration Revolution challenges Christian churches around the world to

February 21, 2010

Christian Standard

Welcome Home

By Marshall Hayden It was our first trip with church members to the Holy Land. Driving from the airport, our guide (who has since become our favorite guide) asked the bus driver to pull onto the shoulder of the road about a hundred yards from the top of a hill. “Follow me,” he said. As we topped the rise, there it was, spread out ahead of us, filling the horizon! “Welcome to your spiritual home,” he said. When we climbed back on the bus we heard the first strains of a recording, “Jerusalem.” It was pretty quiet. Except for a

February 21, 2010

Christian Standard

Our Holy Land Pilgrimage

By Thomas F. Jones Jr. It was late afternoon and we had just landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. There were 25 of us in the group, all midcareer pastors, 35-55 years of age, men and women. We came from all over the country. We had left the Atlanta, Georgia, airport the day before, and stopped in Frankfurt, Germany, to catch a connecting flight. We were a group of tired, hungry, Christian travelers. Once we landed in Israel we made our way through the crowded passport checkpoint, gathered our bags, and then met our Arab Christian guide

January 17, 2010

Christian Standard

A Sabbatical for Volunteers

By Wilbur Reid III Volunteer church leaders are busy. In addition to the typically demanding workweek, they have family responsibilities: driving kids to practices, maintaining the lawn, staying up with housework and laundry, and everything else that makes a healthy and happy home. On top of that, they feel a calling and responsibility to support the kingdom of God in their local church. They spend hours each week as elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, nursery workers, and small group leaders. They maintain the building and grounds, sing in the choir, and work with the youth group. This busyness leads to

January 3, 2010

Christian Standard

Local Church Membership”“Who Needs It?

By John Castelein I am pleased with the turnout. Chatting in our living room are two elders from our local church, George and Henry, and four seminary students. Jim is an intelligent MDiv student with a noninstrumental background. He can be somewhat argumentative. Diane is a new counseling major. The other students do not know she is a divorced mother who faithfully attends her church without any support from her boyfriend, the father of her little girl. Cole is single and wonders whether he belongs in seminary. Larry wants to be a church planter and has a great passion to

December 6, 2009

Christian Standard

Lessons from the Fishin” Hole

by Marcus Bigelow Last night I stopped at The Fishin” Hole in Greenville, Missouri. Greenville is a long way from most everywhere. I was looking for a friend who supposedly was eating there. I was to join him for dinner. He wasn”t there, but I decided to eat anyway, following the maxim that a full parking lot usually indicates good food. This Yankee boy walked in to find the “friendliest place in town.” Almost every table was filled. The waitresses were at a dead run. “Take any ol” table,” the cashier told me, so I sat down at one of

October 25, 2009

Christian Standard

Sixteen Minutes on Sunday

  by Daniel Schantz Childbirth can”t be harder than getting a boy out of bed in time for church on Sunday morning. Talking doesn”t work. I still marvel how a mother”s voice can be as soothing as chicken soup one moment, then suddenly turn into a weapon of mass motivation, able to penetrate thick walls, doors, and several layers of blankets. “Danny! If you don”t get out of bed this minute and get ready for church, I will send your father in there!” By 11 years of age, I had already learned to tune her out. Soon my father would

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

The Celebration of Congregationalism

by C. Robert Wetzel As a young man I spent too much time thinking about what was wrong with the church without reflecting enough on how much I was blessed in being a part of it. And when I thought of church, it was both the local congregation and broader expressions of church. There was, of course, an idealized version of what the pure, New Testament church was supposed to be, but if the ideal existed, it must be in another town, another state, or another country. Thankfully, the older I grew the more I began to see what is

May 31, 2009

Christian Standard

The Day I Went to Church and Ended Up in a Closet

  By Mark Atteberry My wife and I were vacationing in a city that is home to one of our brotherhood”s greatest churches. I won”t mention the church”s name for reasons that will become obvious as you read. Suffice to say, we couldn”t wait to worship there. We”d heard so many good things we just knew we”d have an unforgettable experience.  We did, but not in the way we expected.   WHAT HE SAID When we arrived at the sprawling campus I parked beside a woman who”d just locked her car and was heading for the nearest entrance. Having no

March 29, 2009

Christian Standard

What Is the Glue?

  By David Faust In a 1910 lecture at Yale, Charles E. Jefferson described the difference between a church and an audience, It is to be regretted that we have come to . . . judge preachers by the number of persons who listen to their sermons. A superficial man is consequently tempted to work, not for a church, but for an audience. An audience, however, is not worth working for. An audience is a group of unrelated people drawn together by a short-lived attraction. . . . It is a fortuitous concourse of human atoms, scattering as soon as

November 23, 2008

Christian Standard

The Emerging Church: A Brief History and Helpful Resources

By William R. Baker See the Main Article: “The Emerging Church and the Stone-Campbell Movement: Some Striking Similarities (Part 1)”     What is now dubbed the emerging church began with a few prominent, young, evangelical church leaders in the early 1990s who became disenchanted with the megachurches with which they were involved. It has grown now to an expanding network of mature, culturally savvy church leaders and thinkers who minister with congregations, mostly in large cities.  These leaders are attempting to embody the gospel within the challenges of a postmodern world. The crisis these leaders were experiencing, it turns

November 16, 2008

Christian Standard

Changing Signs and Signs of Change in a Tulsa Congregation

By Greg Taylor In a little corner of Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the Garnett Church of Christ, we”re trying to be a sign of the kingdom of God in a way we never would have imagined three years ago. Many churches in the past two decades have changed their names, removed the denominational “brand,” and called themselves community churches or “The River” or hundreds of other names. We made a change to our sign, but for different reasons and with a much different approach. The efforts that go along with that change, and the results, have blown our minds. We”ve changed

August 10, 2008

Christian Standard

Thursday Night Pursuits

By Phil Alspaw For the most part I love Sundays. I love coming to church. I love seeing the familiar faces of people that make up our extended family. I love seeing the new faces of those who are joining our family. I love the confused look on the faces of seekers as they try to figure out how to join in, and I love the look of believers as they reach out in opportunities to welcome these innocent new ones. I love the songs of worship, and I love that the Lord”s Supper is a part of our time

July 27, 2008

Christian Standard

Lessons Learned from Christ”s Church

By Bruce E. Shields It bothers and often mystifies me to hear people talk about their faith in God and Jesus Christ and, in the next breath, their lack of interest in the church. Perhaps we professor types share some responsibility for this, since we so often deal with the Bible, church history, and Christian doctrine””yes, and even Christian ministries””as though they have little connection with real people in real congregations. We present the ideal Christian community and then send students out into real””that is, messy””congregations. I recall reading once that the church is a little like Noah”s ark. If

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