Church &amp; Ministry

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Eldership

The Elder Serves the Younger

By Teresa Schantz Williams Robert Stanfill is a slight, unassuming man with a weak heart that doctors thought would have failed him years ago. So he was as surprised as anyone to find himself launching a ministry to international college students.Â Robert Stanfill and his wife, Linda, both in their 60s, had no special aptitude for work with college students from distant lands. No cross-cultural experience. And though Avila University”s campus was just a mile from their south Kansas City home, college students weren”t exactly their “crowd.” They were veteran Christians, faithful members of the Red Bridge Church of Christ,

August 7, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

Blitz Your Community

By Michael C. Mack In May, Northeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, canceled weekend church services, opting instead to serve an urban community of the city where the church has a campus. Nearly 2,000 church members rode buses to Clifton, where they were mobilized for more than 4,000 hours of service. How does a church plan a serving event of this scale? Randy Gordon, “Go and Do” minister at Northeast, suggested that church leaders “establish points of contact in the community to identify the legitimate needs.” Northeast staff and volunteers visited schools, businesses, government leaders, community ministries, and a bar owner

August 2, 2014

Church & Ministry Church Planting

Planting Where Sin Abounds

By Jennifer Johnson When Vince Antonucci prepared to plant a church called Verve in Las Vegas, he thought, Of course we”ll be on the Strip. But when he began researching that area, he discovered there were no other churches there. “I wondered if that was unique to Las Vegas,” he says. “I began looking at the most “˜sinful” neighborhoods and streets in the world””places like the Red Light District in Amsterdam, Bourbon Street in New Orleans, The Sunset Strip in L.A. There are no churches there. But Jesus went to the most sinful places and the most sinful people. He

August 1, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Campus Ministry Church & Ministry

The Sunday Night Shift

By Michael C. Mack Sunday night service attendance is plummeting in many churches. One option, of course, is simply to discontinue this longtime tradition. Other churches are finding new ways of using Sunday evenings effectively. Bobby Ross Jr., chief correspondent for The Christian Chronicle, provided five ideas for reforming Sunday nights: 1. Small group meetings. Meet in homes or other locations in smaller groups. Some churches have found that more people are involved in small groups on Sunday nights than previously attended services at the church building. 2. Sunday school on Sunday night. One church found that Sunday evening attendance

August 1, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Five Off-Target Notions about Starting a College-age Ministry

By Michael C. Mack Is your church planning a ministry to college-age students this fall? Before you do, be sure to clear away any of the fallacies church leaders often have. Brad Baker, college minister at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, lists these five: You must hire a (preferably young and trendy) full-time staff person. You must have a cool band and a world-class communicator. Your church must be close to a university campus. Your goal is to have a huge crowd of students. You need experience to start a college-age ministry. “”www.collegeministry.com/top-5-misconceptions-about-starting-a-college-age-ministry/

July 27, 2014

Intimacy and Inï¬‚uence

By Vince Antonucci (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) The best advice I”ve received is from one of my spiritual mentors, Dean Trune. In fact, you can find this advice in every e-mail Dean sends out. The advice is that the most essential thing I can do today is spend quality time with God. Jesus said we can accomplish nothing apart from him. He said as we stay connected to him, we will produce much fruit. Intimacy with God leads to influence in the world. Dean lives that, and I want to. Vince Antonucci serves

July 26, 2014

Church & Ministry

Two Kinds of Churches

By Gary Johnson (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) As the lead servant at Indian Creek Christian Church (The Creek) in Indianapolis, I will be forever indebted to the late Dr. Joe Ellis, one of my favorite professors at Cincinnati Christian University. Dr. Ellis told me there are two types of churches: member driven and mission driven.Â Member-driven churches account for roughly three out of four churches across America, and the desires of the members drive these congregations.Â However, only one of four churches in our nation is on mission to seek and to save

July 24, 2014

A Conversation with Kevin Dooley

Kevin Dooley from New Mission Systems International talks about marketplace ministry as a strategy for influencing culture anywhere. Hear this exclusive interview with CHRISTIAN STANDARD Editor Mark Taylor here.Â

July 24, 2014

Hire, Fire, Decide, Defer

By Gary Weedman (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) I have received three pieces of advice that have been of equal value to me in the latter part of my professional career.Â When I went to Milligan College, Dave Rose, a retired insurance executive and alumnus of Milligan, said to me in his cantankerous way, “Weedman, if you”re going to be a successful administrator, you need to learn what I had to learn”””˜hire slowly and fire fast.”” Take your time, attend to due diligence with the first; when you”ve made a mistake, don”t let it

July 23, 2014

A Conversation with Caleb Kaltenbach

Caleb Kaltenbach grew up as an agnostic with two homosexual parents. Now the lead pastor with Discovery Church in Simi, California, he challenged North American Christian Convention attendees to “Preach the Truth in Love.” Hear his thoughts about how to balance grace and truth, especially with homosexuals, in this exclusive interview here.

July 23, 2014

Hidden in a Field

By Jim Tune In 1989, the movie Field of Dreams was a blockbuster hit. Kevin Costner played Ray Kinsella, a 37-year-old man who always played it safe. He had never done a spontaneous thing in his life until hearing a voice one day that said, “If you build it, he will come.” After hearing the phrase several more times, he asked other farmers if they heard similar voices. Eventually Ray saw a vision of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson walking out of his cornfield. In the vision, Ray”s cornfield was transformed into a baseball diamond. When he actually “builds” a baseball field,

July 22, 2014

A Conversation about Church Leadership

David Roadcup, James Estep, and Gary Johnson have helped thousands of elders and ministers work together more productively. Their advice to resolve elder/staff conflict: “The first step is to admit you’re broken.” Click here to see their interview with CHRISTIAN STANDARD Editor Mark Taylor.

July 21, 2014

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

Put It in Print

By Rick Jett (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) The best advice I ever received was from Alan Ahlgrim, former senior minister of Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Colorado. About 20 years ago, Alan was teaching one of the graduate classes I was taking at Cincinnati Christian University. One lesson was about personal growth of a leader. He said good leaders are constantly growing. They will read, take classes, attend conferences, and interview other leaders. He explained that growing leaders will set goals. He walked us through an exercise of writing goals and action steps

July 19, 2014

Their Prison, My Freedom

By Dick Alexander (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) I was in the middle of a long period of what seemed like relentless attack from people in a church I served, when a friend advised me my critics were not the enemy, but prisoners of the enemy. It set me free””free from we-they polarization. Free from choosing sides. Free to see them with compassion. The harshest critics were prisoners. In general, they didn”t enjoy life. They were prisoners of bitterness, anger, and unresolved past hurts. His advice, the best advice I”ve received, set me free

July 17, 2014

Would a Belly Have Been Better?

By Tim Harlow (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) The best and worst advice I ever received was from Sky Allen, the previous minister at Parkview (then the Tinley Park Church of Christ). I got the same advice from my friend Haydn Shaw, who was a minister in the area. When I asked them whether I should accept the senior minister position here in 1989, both of them very strongly said “NO.” The place was a divided, leaderless, and visionless church that was being held together with duct tape by the area church planting organization.

July 17, 2014

Things Will Get Better . . . or Worse!

By Cal Jernigan (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) The best ministry advice I have ever received has to do with putting things in perspective. The simple advice was captured in one little sentence: “Things are never as good as you think they are, and things are never as bad as you think they are.”Â While it might initially sound a tad pessimistic, it”s anything but. When things are good, it”s easy to be euphoric and to exaggerate the significance and impact of what you”re celebrating. It feels so good and it feels so right.Â

July 16, 2014

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

Where’s Jesus?

By Ben Cachiaras (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) As a fledgling minister in my first senior ministry, I worked hard on my preaching. I don”t recall the biblical text I was working from, but I do remember feeling especially satisfied with the way the sermon came together one particular Sunday. It had three cleverly worded points, a couple of new insights pulled from “deep” commentaries, a funny illustration that was sure to get some yuks, and a moving conclusion drawn from an incident with my young son””people always like to hear about your kids,

July 16, 2014

Church & Ministry

A Conversation with Ben Merold

Ben Merold tells why small churches will survive, why they must, and how they can. Hear his interview with CHRISTIAN STANDARD Editor Mark Â Taylor here.

July 16, 2014

The Discipline to Discipline

By Jim Tune The words church discipline can conjure up vivid imagery that seemingly affirms the world”s worst perceptions of church. Nathaniel Hawthorne”s The Scarlet Letter serves up a twisted picture of the ostracizing of an adulteress by both church and community. Is this what we mean by church discipline””visions of Hester Prynne skulking around her nightmarish New England town? A solidly biblical approach to church discipline is the only way to heal fractures, restore right relationships, and ensure the health of the church. Discipline is not simply the unhappy task of ordering troublemakers out of the church. Indeed, discipline

July 15, 2014