May 25, 2022
Lessons I Learned from Louise
After 55 years of marriage, pastor Andy Pryor reflects on what his late wife Louise taught him about life, ministry, and faithfulness.
Family & Relationships
Family & Relationships offers biblically grounded guidance for building healthy relationships at home and in everyday life. Explore articles on marriage, parenting, singleness, friendship, communication, conflict resolution, and cultivating a Christ-centered household. You’ll find practical wisdom for forming strong families, nurturing faith in children and teens, and navigating challenges with grace, truth, and hope. Whether you’re seeking encouragement, direction, or tools for discipleship in the home, these resources help you love well and reflect the character of Jesus in your closest relationships.
May 1, 2022
A Caseload of One: Cracking the Case
By Osharye Hagood In the January/February issue, Rudy told husbands about the importance of their wives. He wrote, “For, after Christ, she is your life’s work. She is God’s holy daughter entrusted to you in like manner as the church has been entrusted to Christ. Don’t exegete the text and forget to study your wife.” As a wife, I don’t believe anything is more important than being loved and understood, especially when it comes through the intentionality of investigation. Co-investigate Merriam-Webster defines investigation as “a systematic search for the truth or facts about something.” Have you ever heard someone say,
March 1, 2022
Authentic Marriage: The Relationship Between Intimacy and Conflict
Our definition of marital authenticity is “the pursuit of marriage as it existed before the fall while also acknowledging that we, as individuals, are flawed and fallen.” We live in a culture that models and promotes inauthentic relationships. The inability to be authentic causes many marriage issues and creates anemic intimacy in our unions. As a result, issues fester and eventually explode. We believe deep relationship comes from learning to navigate conflict and tension. Compliments matter as much as conflict, but in this article we will focus on the correlation between intimacy and conflict. When a couple leaves intimacy and
January 1, 2022
A Caseload of One: Keep Seeking to Know Her
When I was being trained as a minister, one of the primary points of emphasis was expositional preaching. I remember the concept “context is king” being drilled into my head like it was yesterday. It went a little like this: “Rudy, we must know what it meant to them to know how it applies to us today. Rudy, what’s the historical distance? Exegete the text, Rudy! Think exegetically, Rudy! Preach expositional sermons, Rudy!” OK, OK, OK, I got it. When it comes to our marriages, however, we are not taught to seek to understand our spouses to the same degree.
January 1, 2022
Delighting Dad
They were turning off the lights and beginning to lock the doors after worship at church this past Sunday. The crowd stuck around longer than usual because, well, I’m not really sure why, but I know it’s a sign of healthy and growing churches, so I was not upset. Anyway, my niece, Carter, knocked on the office door where I help count the offering so she could say goodbye before she made a trip with her parents to the next town over. “Bye, Mimi. I just really miss you,” she said. “Well, Bug, why don’t I come along so we
November 1, 2021
The Greatest Love Song of All Time
By Jerry Harris What is the greatest love song of all time? Ask 10 people and you’ll probably get 10 different answers. It’s said music is the language of emotion, and if true, then singing is its spoken word. Our emotions come directly from being made in God’s image because our God is an emotional God—a God who feels. Our God not only feels emotions, but he also invented them . . . and some of the best emotions are called the fruit of the Spirit. That list in Galatians 5 begins with the greatest and highest of all emotions:
September 2, 2021
THROWBACK THURSDAY: ‘Is Divorce the Unpardonable Sin?’
“In churches of Christ and Christian churches, is divorce the unpardonable sin?” Judy Norris asked in this column from 1980. "Have we become so Pharisaical that our own self-righteousness causes us to negate love?"
How the Local Church Can Make a Difference in Foster Care
A ministry that serves the foster care system isn't simple. The situations are complicated and the answers are never easy, but it’s been an incredible honor for Christ's Church of Oronogo to be invited into families’ stories.
The Hen
The metaphor Jesus' used, “as a hen gathers her chicks,” surely got his disciples' attention.
February 17, 2021
Indiana Church’s First Feature Film Encourages Fathers to ‘Fight’
By Chris Moon First Capital Christian Church in Corydon, Ind., has produced its first feature-length film. The movie, called Fight, premieres in March in theaters in Indiana and will be available for streaming after that. The film is about a boxer who falls into addiction, jeopardizing his family in the process. “We geared this movie toward dads, to teach them there’s a lot of stuff in life worth fighting for,” said the film’s director, Tyler Sansom, who also serves as lead digital pastor for First Capital. The film was produced by the church, which has been investing heavily in its
February 1, 2021
Talk About It
At some point we stopped talking to one another. Communication has become a mesh of texting, social media posts, and emails—all of it one-way dialogue that doesn’t involve seeing a face or hearing a voice. Gone are the days of eating meals together and hanging around the table long after the food has disappeared from our plates. Faded are the memories of stopping by a friend’s house just to say hello, or of picking up the phone on Sunday afternoon to call home to update Mom on the events of the week. The forced isolation imposed by the coronavirus surely
May 26, 2020
Powell Quintuplets Graduating from High School
When the Powell quintuplets were born in 2001, all of Kentucky celebrated, including Southeast Christian Church, where the Powells are longtime members. Now the quints are 18 and are all headed to the same university.
January 2, 2020
'Fire and Rain': The Power of a Praying Wife
By Megan Rawlings The lyrics of James Taylor’s song “Fire and Rain” (and this verse, in particular, “I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend . . .”) echoed in my mind as I thought about the past year. I’ve received an unbelievable number of calls from disheartened wives during the past 12 months. Many of these ladies live with men who struggle with porn, constantly threaten divorce, have affairs, and/or battle alcoholism. All of these women are Christians who are married to nonbelieving husbands; they all need reassurance they are not alone. I needed a success
November 15, 2019
Start Some New Traditions This Holiday Season!
By Michael C. Mack I love our family traditions during the holiday season: taking a drive to see the lights, decorating the house together, going to local events, and, of course, attending church services together. Over the years, our family has worked to make our traditions much more fun, fulfilling, and mission-focused through the power of invitation. One Thanksgiving almost 25 years ago, Heidi and I got to know a young man named Mark who lived at a homeless shelter. I invited him to some of our family and church events during the holidays, and he enjoyed getting out of
November 2, 2019
The Profound Impact of Parents Who Seek God
By Michael C. Mack I woke up one chilly, December morning, the excitement of Christmas, still several days away, already percolating in my 8-year-old brain like the coffee brewing in the kitchen. It was still dark outside, but the kitchen light was on. In my footy pajamas, I wandered inconspicuously toward it. As I peered around the corner, first I saw the wall clock; it was only 4:30 a.m. Then I saw my mom, sitting at the kitchen table, head down, a small journal sitting in front of her. She was silently praying. That memory is still etched on my
November 2, 2019
Family Ministry: Re-engaging Parents to Be the Primary Influencers of their Children
By Becky Drish For hundreds of years, parents recognized their role as the faith leaders in their families. That gradually changed over the past 100 to 200 years. Now, many regular churchgoers look to the church to fulfill that leadership role. As churches and children’s ministry leaders, we need to re-empower parents. Fortunately, that has begun to happen through a modern family ministry approach that has been making a steady, solid entrance into the children’s and youth ministry field over the last decade. If you frequent children’s or youth ministry conferences, you surely have seen sessions dedicated to this approach.
August 29, 2019
Single, Pregnant, and Heading Off to Christian College
Here’s a heartfelt, first-person essay that undoubtedly was the best-read and most-talked-about piece from the August 19, 1979, issue of Christian Standard. _ _ _ My Experience as an Unwed Mother By a Minister’s WifeAug. 19, 1979; p. 7 The article in your magazine about unwed mothers (March 18, “The Unwed Mother—A Dilemma”) prompted me finally to write of my experiences as an unwed mother. I was much more lucky than those described in the article. I was eighteen, had just graduated from high school, worked at a good job as a secretary, and was going to attend a Christian
April 23, 2019
‘Teach Them to Your Children’
By Stuart Powell Teaching children is an important aspect of the Christian faith and obeying the God of creation. In Deuteronomy, for example, Moses repeatedly encouraged and instructed the people of Israel to pass down information to succeeding generations: These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up. You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm and fasten them as symbols on
March 19, 2019
Benefits of the Family Meal
By Halee Wood Close your eyes and picture a family dinner. A “June Cleaver” mom is in an apron and pearls, “Ward” in a sweater and tie. The children’s hands are washed and their hair combed. The savory aroma of a home-cooked meal fills the air. Everyone, including the family dog, listens intently to what is being said. Is this what dinner looks like at your house? In real-life families dinner can be messy—there might be cooking and dining mishaps, arguing and complaining among family members, and other things competing for our attention. Though a sit-down meal as a family
September 4, 2018
Grandparent’s Day: Paving a Path to Communion
By Mandy Smith We don’t know as much about Timothy as we do the apostle Paul, but we know Paul trusted Timothy deeply. Paul sent Timothy as his representative to churches he had planted. Paul listed Timothy as a co-sender of several of his letters, and the New Testament includes two letters Paul wrote directly to Timothy. In them, we get a picture of a trustworthy and incredibly faithful young leader who had an important role in the development of the early church. So it’s significant Paul remembered the source of Timothy’s faith. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul
