Discipleship &amp; Spiritual Formation

Candyman

By Jon Wren Upon arriving in the little Russian town of Kalinovka around the turn of the 20th century, a new priest launched a program where each week children were given a short passage of Scripture to memorize—in exchange for a piece of candy. Soon, children from all over the village and countryside came to learn from the village priest and to get their candy. And of all the children who participated, a young boy named Nikki stood out by memorizing the most passages. The village elders and the priest were confident Nikki’s impressive knowledge of Scripture would lead to

May 17, 2020

Kent E. Fillinger

Report: State of Discipleship

By Kent E. Fillinger Discipleship is a hot topic in church ministries and global missions today. Churches are placing a greater emphasis on disciple-making. And missionaries are more focused on trying to establish disciple-making movements around the world. As I prepared to write this article, I received an evite to attend a webinar about “discipling people online” in response to the COVID-19 lockdown. In our annual survey, we asked a series of questions about disciple-making processes in churches, and we also asked leaders to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. Would you describe your church today as a “disciple-making church”?

April 8, 2020

How to Use Discovery Bible Study

– (Click Discovery process to download this as a pdf.) DISCOVERY: How to Lead Your Group or Class Using This Process Beginning with the lesson for March 29, 2020, we have modified the Study Questions page that is part of The Lookout study material now contained in every issue of Christian Standard. These Bible Discovery questions are developed to be used in groups and classes to do several things well: engage people directly in God’s living and active Word, allowing Scripture to speak for itself, provide space for God’s Word to saturate the minds of group members so it may

March 23, 2020

How to Use Discovery Bible Study

February 22, 2020

Megan Rawlings

The Challenge: Learn How to Study the Bible and Equip Other Women to Do the Same!

By Megan Rawlings Do you know how to study the Bible? Studying is very different from simply reading; to study requires more effort. We study Scripture to gain understanding, and understanding entails more than merely skimming through a passage and letting that be enough. For example, in Acts 8:26-40, the Ethiopian eunuch was in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah. After the Holy Spirit directed Philip to go over to the man, Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” Philip then explained the Old Testament passage

February 2, 2020

Megan Rawlings

The Challenge: Learn How to Study the Bible and Equip Other Women to Do the Same!

January 8, 2020

WHAT MATTERS MOST: Getting Better at the Two Things Jesus Said Are Most Important

By Rick Rusaw I have lived in Boulder County, Colorado, for nearly 29 years and currently work from an office on Pearl Street in the city of Boulder. Some describe Boulder as 20 square miles surrounded by reality. At times, I would agree. I don’t know of any better location for ministry than a place that embraces spirituality but rejects Christianity. Boulder often is listed as the least religious place in America. That would be true, unless you consider naval gazing, pot smoking, hiking, biking, and running to be nonreligious activities. Boulder is also ranked as one of the healthiest

October 1, 2019

David Roadcup

It’s Time for a New/Old Approach

By David Roadcup I love the pioneering personality. Such a person can blaze new trails and find new horizons in education, business, the arts, and the church. A rare breed, indeed. They should be prized for breaking ground that many others would not attempt. Micah Odor is one such pioneer. Odor serves as minister of spiritual formation with Whitewater Crossing Christian Church in Cleves, Ohio. A few years ago, he was a student in my seminary class, “Assimilation and Development of Church Members.” I had challenged students to come up with an approach to their ministry that would not only

September 27, 2019

Intentionally Small: The Places Where Discipleship Happens Best

By Michael C. Mack In his October Metrics column on small and very small churches, Kent Fillinger noted that “only 4 percent of very small churches relied on small groups as their primary form of discipleship.” That’s not surprising. Some might say very small churches are small groups. Well, that depends on how we define small groups, purely by size or by how they function. Tom Claibourne made this point in a 2012 Christian Standard article: “I have actually observed deeper interpersonal relationships, confession, and openness in the lives of Christians involved in small groups in large churches than I’ve

July 31, 2019

‘Holding the Hand of Jesus’

More from our Interview with Robert Coleman By Michael C. Mack Christian Standard interviewed Robert Coleman for our feature article in the August 2019 issue. Some material didn’t find a place in the print/digital magazine, but we felt it was too good not to share. How Coleman Came to Christ After high school, Coleman attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, where he had an athletic scholarship. One day, Coleman says, a guy on the football team asked him what he was going to do when he graduated—a question he hadn’t given much thought to before. He responded, “Well, you can’t

June 22, 2019

Jerry Harris

Considering Robert Coleman

By Jerry Harris Some people we cross paths with in life leave an indelible mark. Robert Coleman is such a person for me. A few years ago, I was part of a group of leaders who were preparing the speaking lineup for that year’s Exponential conference. The focus that year was on discipleship and its relationship to church planting. Jim Putman, a preacher whose life and ministry have been devoted to relational discipleship, was chosen as a featured speaker and also selected to help write that year’s accompanying book. He and Bobby Harrington were looking for a third person to

June 22, 2019

Spending Time with the Teacher: A Christian Standard Interview with Robert Coleman

By Michael C. Mack As he talks about Heaven, he reminds me of a young bride on her wedding day. He is a mixture of excitement, confidence, reverence, and awe. He is wide-eyed with anticipation for the doors to open and the music to begin. This 91-year-old man has studied and taught about Heaven for years, yet he humbly acknowledges his finite understanding. His wife, Marietta; his older sister, Joy; his friend Billy Graham; and many others he has known and served with over the years are already there. I had saved my question about Heaven for last—I knew it

June 22, 2019

Clarifying—and Simplifying—Our Disciple-Making Efforts

By Michael C. Mack I read Robert Coleman’s book The Master Plan of Evangelism as a seminary student in 1989, when it was in only its 45th printing, with more than 925,000 copies sold. It has now sold more than 3.5 million copies and been translated into 105 languages. I’ve read the book many times over the years. It’s hard to find a page that doesn’t contain highlighting, underlining, asterisks, exclamation points, and notes in the margins. I’ve read his follow-up, The Master Plan of Discipleship, based on the book of Acts, many times as well. These books formed my

June 22, 2019

The Life-Changing Power of Storytelling

By Mel McGowan Story forms who we are, and story has the ability to transform who we can become. Story is at the core of the human condition. From the earliest cavemen to a contemporary campfire, each generation passes on collective and individual meaning through story. Story defines who we are, why we are, where we come from, and where we could go. Without narratives connecting the dots of our experience, we can exist only as schizophrenic creatures reacting to immediate stimuli. In indigenous Australian culture, narrative “songlines” are not just rhymes to entertain children or creation myths for spiritual

June 22, 2019

Practicing the Implications of Truth: How We Become Doers of the Word and Not Hearers Only

By Wes Sebree Not even an extremely gifted communicator can rival experience as a teacher. My good friend Mike would add, “Truth is discovered, not downloaded.” In other words, truth must be experienced to take root. If these statements are accurate—and they are—we need to consider whether we want to proclaim the truth or whether we want to equip people to live faithfully. The first can be accomplished without doing the second. Additionally, equating information transfer with spiritual growth robs Christ’s body of experiencing God’s truth and love in tangible ways. This results in a subtle brand of gnosticism where

May 29, 2019

Shawn McMullen

In Praise of ‘Holiness’: New Book Seeks to Reclaim the Word

By Jim Nieman A new book by Shawn McMullen, editor of The Lookout, seeks to explain the importance of holy living and help people nurture a deeper relationship with God. McMullen titled his book Coming Home to Holiness, though he admits holiness isn’t a popular topic today. “The concept of holiness is routinely misrepresented and misunderstood in our culture,” McMullen says, “to the point that many people today are turned off by the mere mention of the word.” “I think this is why some sincere Christians, with all their love and service and devotion, still feel incomplete—like something is missing

May 22, 2019

Megan Rawlings

THE BOLD MOVEMENT

Training Multiple Generations of Women to Carry Their Swords and Use Them Properly By Megan Rawlings The alarm wakes me early on a Saturday morning. A few minutes later, I grab my Bible and race out the door, headed to a Bob Evans an hour away. I pray as I drive, asking God for boldness and that my millennial heart will be content with him receiving all the glory. I walk into the bustling restaurant and sit down in a booth across from a new disciple of Christ. The waitress brings me my usual, a cup of half coffee, half

May 22, 2019

Models of Christian Womanhood

By Jacqueline J. Holness No one told me a queen was coming to Central Christian Church in southwest Atlanta, but that’s what seemed to be happening when a tall, carefully coiffed, gray-haired woman in a flowing pink dress sashayed by me and my friends escorted by her even taller, burly husband one Sunday morning during my childhood. Who is that? I wondered as I eyed her from a back pew. As a preteen, I had begun paying keen attention to adults, other than my parents, who inhabited my world, which consisted primarily of church and school at that time. I

April 21, 2019

Listening on the Road

By S. J. Dahlman I met Peter a few weeks after arriving in Platt Bridge, then a down-at-heels village just outside Wigan, in northwest England. When we crossed paths one chilly March day and said hello, my accent caught him off guard. (Wigan wasnâ™t exactly a tourist town.) âAre you American?â he asked. âYes,â I answered. âWhat brings you here, then?â I told him I was the new minister at the Church of Christ on Victoria Road. âFancy that,â his wife chimed in. We introduced ourselves and stood chatting for a half hour. That was the beginning of an off-and-on

April 10, 2019