Church &amp; Ministry

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Ministry Training & Education

Partnering to Teach the Bible

By Jennifer Johnson Southland Christian Church (Lexington, KY) has created a way to engage people who are interested in deeper study of the Bible, maintain their interest and involvement, and even train current leaders and discover future staff members: Southland University. “We”re trying to meet the needs of many different groups,” says Derrick Purvis, formation pastor at Southland. “Weekends are “˜bottom shelf” and designed to be as accessible as possible. Programs that go a bit deeper are the next step. “But we also knew a number of people wanted more challenge and more growth. The problem is it takes a

September 22, 2016

10 Business Books Every Ministry Leader Should Read

By Michael C. Mack We asked ministry leaders to tell us what book written primarily for business leaders they”™ve found helpful in their ministry leadership. “¢ The Contrarian”™s Guide to Leadership, by Steven B. Sample. “It helped me think past the clichÃ©s of leadership to practices that reflect what I think is a leader”™s honest self-evaluation before God.” “”Jon Weatherly, professor of New Testament, dean of the School of Bible and Theology at Johnson University, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Kissimmee, Florida “¢ The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni. “So much good stuff about why

September 21, 2016

Church & Ministry Church Growth

14 Observations about Church Today

By Jim Tune As a pastor and leader, I”ve noticed some changes in the spiritual climate of North America. Here are some of my observations about the current situation. 1. There”s very little nominalism anymore. This is a good thing. Cultural Christianity is dying. If someone attends church, it”s usually because he or she is investigating Christianity or committed to it. 2. Attending church isn”t on people”s minds. We used to talk about building churches with programs that would attract unbelievers. No matter how good your music, sermons, parking, or programs, most people won”t even think of coming. 3. People

September 17, 2016

How to Control Your E-mail Instead of Letting It Control You

By Michael C. Mack E-mail can be a productivity killer or, if used wisely, a productivity booster. Here are six tricks culled from LearnVest to make it the latter. Keep It Short. According to a 2015 user analysis from e-mail scheduler Boomerang, the messages most likely to get replies were in the range of 50 to 125 words. Productivity expert Chris Bailey, author of The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention and Energy, strategically keeps e-mails to three sentences or less. Anything substantially longer than that should be a phone conversation. ADDENDUM: Keep your e-mail signature short

September 12, 2016

Church & Ministry Church Leadership

Mission, Calling, Gifts, and Roles: How the Church Gets Things Done

By Jon Weatherly Human beings are social animals. We don”t simply enjoy being together. We need to be together to survive, let alone thrive. For as long as we”ve existed, we”ve lived together””working, serving, sharing, and trading.Â We have divided our labors for efficiency and followed leaders for effectiveness. Family, neighborhood, school, business, city, nation””all are humans in community, getting things done. “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Christ”s church is no less a human community. It is deliberately interactive and communal. It has always divided labor and followed leaders. It has surely succeeded

September 11, 2016

Church & Ministry Church Growth

Releasing Others to Serve: An Interview with Alex Absalom

By Kent Fillinger Alex Absalom leads Dandelion (www.dandelionresourcing.com), which empowers leaders, churches, and networks to build missional and naturally supernatural disciple-making cultures.Â He is a pastor at Grace Church in Long Beach, California, and previously spent five years on the leadership team at RiverTree Christian Church in Massillon, Ohio, where he led the church in transitioning from a purely attractional to an attractive missional model, which included the starting of about 70 midsize missional communities. We spoke with him about how churches today are unleashing their members to use their spiritual gifts””and how they can do this better. What is

September 10, 2016

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

“˜Everyone Wants a Cause”

How one church is facilitating the priesthood of all believers””inside and outside the church walls By Justin Horey Is a Little League coach a children”s ministry worker? Is a backyard barbecue a discipleship group? Is living out your faith as a public school teacher as important as serving in student ministries? At Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, the answer is yes. Lead pastor Ben Cachiaras says Mountain Christian Church encourages ministry both inside and outside the church walls, because it”s essential to do both. “We legitimize ministry even if it”s not within the four walls of the church,” Cachiaras

September 6, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

Shattered Certainties and the Challenge to Change

By Mark A. Taylor Good changes lead to happy results, right? Consider: The alcoholic decides to quit drinking. The dieter sheds unhealthy weight. A family, once separated by a parent”s overseas assignment, is reunited. But then: The addict doesn”t replace the payoff he has been receiving from his fix, and so he returns to his habit. The dieter doesn”t realize he must make a lifelong attitude adjustment about food and exercise, and so he regains the weight. The no-longer-single parent must give up some of her own autonomy now, and the result is conflict. Anyone experiencing or hoping to lead

August 30, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

Church & Ministry

More Writers You Know

Mark A. Taylor Two weeks ago I posted a list of writers from the Christian churches who have publishing success in the larger Evangelical market. It was inevitable that my list wasn”t complete, so today I”m adding three more names. Two of these, Laura Dingman (a writer for Christian Standard) and Diane Stortz (a former colleague) I should have remembered the first time around. One, Steve Carter, was suggested by a reader. I”m guessing this second list won”t be my last one. Please feel free to tell me about others we should include here. This Invitational Life, by Steve Carter,

August 22, 2016

Campus Ministry Church & Ministry

Campus Ministry at the Crossroads

By T.R. Robertson “Missionaries have long known you don”t need permission to preach the gospel,” says Lance Tamerius, “You just need a little more savvy.” Tamerius is director of the Christian Campus House at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Like many other campus ministries, CCH is taking steps to change the way it pursues God”s mission in the face of rapid changes in the culture of secular campuses nationwide. Diversity and DiscriminationÂ at Missouri Several years ago the University of Missouri asked all student organizations to sign a nondiscrimination covenant. “At that time,” Tamerius says, “we talked with our board

August 21, 2016

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

The Best Sermon I”ve Ever Heard (14)

By Arron Chambers Christian leaders, some of them preachers themselves, tell us about a sermon they can”t forget””and maybe you won”t either. Dane Voorhees Dane Voorhees is a graduate of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri. He has been serving as a worship pastor at Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Frederick, Colorado, for the past two years and recently married his beautiful wife, Shelby. He is passionate about leading people to worship Jesus in everything they do. Dane”s Best Sermon: Caleb Kaltenbach, lead pastor at Discovery Church in Simi Valley, California, and author of the book Messy Grace, preached the

August 18, 2016

Campus Ministry Church & Ministry

List of Campus Ministries for 2016

ALABAMA Auburn University Auburn Christian Fellowship (334) 821-3963 Perry Rubin www.auburnchristianfellowship.com au***********************@***il.com ARKANSAS University of Arkansas Christ on Campus*# (479) 521-8358 Mike Armstrong www.christoncampus.org mi**@************us.org COLORADO Colorado Mesa University Christian Student Fellowship (970) 433-8585 Dave Downey www.wcccm.org do**********@***il.com Colorado State University Impact Colorado* (970) 493-0094 Austin Ballard www.impactingcolorado.com au****@***************do.com Denver University Crossroads International Student Ministries*# (308) 293-3033 Christy Dallakoti www.crossroadsinternational.net in**@*********************al.net University of Colorado””Colorado Springs Kairos Christian Fellowship (719) 357-7739 Wade Gardner www.KairosHasCome.org wa***********@***il.com University of Northern Colorado Impact Colorado* (970) 493-0094 Trevor Petty www.impactingcolorado.com tr****@***************do.com FLORIDA Edison College Impact Campus Ministry””Christian Campus Fellowship (239) 691-7314 Kerry Eastridge www.impactfgcu.com ke*************@********eu.com

August 16, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

Church & Ministry

Writers You Know

By Mark A. Taylor Here”s one more indication that Christian churches and their leaders are having an impact on America: many today are sought-after book authors. I remember a conversation with a Standard Publishing salesman two or three decades ago who said this would never happen. Christian church preachers and professors just would not be accepted in the general Evangelical world, he explained. I don”t remember all his reasons, but I thought of him when I skimmed through the latest edition of a little catalog called Pastor Resources. The 62-page digest-size booklet contains ads for everything from Christian camps to

August 15, 2016

Church & Ministry Small Groups

Icebreaker Questions for Your First Small Group Meeting

By Michael C. Mack Many new small groups and classes are beginning this time of year. Jim Egli, author, along with Vicki and Melissa Egli, of 333 Amazing Icebreaker Questions, says when he launches a new group, he likes to ask seven questions that also cast vision and outline expectations for the group: “¢ Where did you go to school for the first grade? “¢ Whom were you closest to when you were 10 years old? “¢ What is something you are very good at? “¢ When did God become more than a word to you? “¢ Besides your coming

August 10, 2016

Loving Through Listening

By Jim Tune I”m pretty good at talking. It”s a big part of what I do for a living. When I look for leaders, I look for someone who can communicate. I”m convinced, though, that speaking and writing are only part of what it takes to be a great leader. Leading also involves listening. “Listening comes first,” writes Adam McHugh in his new book The Listening Life. We started listening before we were even born. Listening is a key part of what it means to be human. “Somewhere along the way we start to violate the natural order of things,”

August 1, 2016

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

The Best Sermon I”ve Ever Heard (13)

By Arron Chambers Christian leaders, some of them preachers themselves, tell us about a sermon they can”t forget””and maybe you won”t either. SHAWN GRANT Shawn Grant is a walking clichÃ©: born on Saturday, in church on Sunday. His father, Mike Grant, has been preaching in Stone-Campbell churches for more than 35 years, and Shawn decided to follow suit. He became a follower of Christ in elementary school. He received a BA in preaching and Bible from Florida Christian College (now Johnson University Florida), an MA in church history/historical theology from Lincoln (Illinois) Christian Seminary, and a PhD in interdisciplinary humanities

July 31, 2016

Church & Ministry Small Groups

5 Steps for Getting Your Group or Class to Invite New People

By Michael C. Mack How do you get members to invite people to their groups? Here are five specific principles you can use to help the people in your group or class, even the shyest ones, extend invitations: 1. The leader must go first! Don”™t go to your group with the ideas below until you have personally done these things yourself. As a leader, you are an example, a model, for those entrusted to you (1 Peter 5:3). 2. Don”™t do anything else until you”™ve spent time with God. Every strategy you use, every word you say, everything you do

July 22, 2016

Carrying to Completion

By Earl Winfrey I can”t remember a time when church was not part of my life. I was baptized into Christ at 12 and felt the call to ministry and started pursuing a deeper knowledge of the Bible at the age of 14. Unfortunately, I got mixed up with the wrong crowd during my senior year of high school. I got married two weeks after graduation, and we had our baby five months after the wedding. For the first year and a half, I lived in denial, thinking my marriage was good. Then one day I woke up to find

July 20, 2016

Church & Ministry Church Leadership

Wayne B. Smith Remembered for His Wit, Love, Faithfulness

Wayne B. Smith, 87, who helped start Southland Christian Church, Lexington, KY, in 1956 and served as her senior minister until 1995—growing the church from 152 to 3,700 weekly—died June 29, 2016. He remained faithful to the end, even encouraging a gathering of ministers in Jessamine County, KY, the day before his death. Smith, a resident of Sayre Christian Village in Lexington, was once dubbed “the Bob Hope of the Ministry.” He joked that he remembered more jokes than Scriptures. His laugh was infectious. He was known to take buckets of KFC chicken to the needy, friends, and church visitors.

July 18, 2016