Church Leadership

Interview with Matt King

By Brad Dupray Matt King”s road to accepting the grace of Christ was a long and rocky one, but today God is using Matt in a powerful way as senior pastor of Valley Real Life, a Christian church serving the Spokane Valley in Eastern Washington. Before entering vocational ministry, Matt was a sales manager for a machine tool company in Spokane, traveling extensively across North America carrying out multimillion dollar transactions. In his personal life, Matt and his wife, Nona, experienced the sorrow of infertility and miscarriage, and then were joyously surprised with the birth of Ethan just five months

September 23, 2009

Interview with Allan Dunbar

By Brad Dupray When the city of Calgary, Alberta, celebrated its centennial, Allan Dunbar was selected as one of three of the most inspirational people in its history. During 22 years as senior pastor of Bow Valley Christian Church in Calgary, where he had a national television ministry, Allan earned the respect of his countrymen, enough to spend five years on the Canadian Olympic Development Committee while leading the spiritual outreach for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Allan’s respect was well-earned within the Christian world, as well, having served as dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism, president of Puget

September 13, 2009

Don”t Just Change, Upgrade

Â by Mark Atteberry Bob Gibson was one of the greatest pitchers ever to lace up a pair of spikes. In the 1967 World Series he won all three of his starts, pitched three complete games, compiled an earned run average of 1.00, struck out 26 batters in 27 innings, and even hit a home run for good measure. And the next season, just when it seemed he couldn”t get any better, he took his game to a whole new level. His ERA for the 1968 season was 1.12, which still stands as an all-time record and probably will never

September 2, 2009

Reflecting Our Desire to Serve a Diverse Fellowship

By Mark A. Taylor How does one institution or instrument serve a fellowship like ours? Consider our diversity: “¢ Geographic: We exist all over the world, stronger in some countries than in the United States. “¢ Cultural: We thrive in small towns and at rural crossroads. But we”re growing in urban centers, too, and some of our most prominent congregations are in the suburbs. “¢ Size: Most congregations average less than 300 on Sundays. But we have the highest number of megachurches per capita of any denomination in America. “¢ Political: Even though some would never see it, we”re not

August 26, 2009

Leading the Trends

By Mark A. Taylor Sometimes church leaders are more like followers. As Paul Williams wrote, “Like lemmings, churches follow one another into the latest trends, whether proven or not, desperate for that bump in attendance and increase in per-capita giving.” It”s true there”s no new idea under the sun, including the ones I”ll share below. And there”s no virtue in ignoring a successful method or ministry just because it”s new. But the Bible suggests dozens of ideas that could breathe fresh air into our ministries””and set a good example for others to copy. Wouldn”t it be great, for example, if

August 16, 2009

A Perspective on a Long Ministry

Â Â by Randy Gariss Preacher, You”ve Got Friends This article is adapted from a chapter that appeared originally in Preacher, You”ve Got Friends, compiled by Murray Hollis. This collection of life and ministry stories and advice is written by 25 Christian leaders, all of them with considerable ministry experience. The book is available for $15 plus $3 shipping at www.christianfriendsconnexion.com. Or write Christian Friends Connexion, 1111 Windsor, Joplin, MO 64801. Â In 27 years at the same ministry, there have been multiple opportunities and reasons to leave. Sometimes the temptation to resign and start fresh somewhere else involved joy and

August 12, 2009

Interview with John Caldwell

By Brad Dupray Now in his 36th year at Kingsway Christian Church (Avon, Indiana), John Caldwell has baptized hundreds, married couples and then later married their children, buried more than his fair share of faithful church members, and preached hundreds of sermons strategically designed to manage the growth of the Christians who make up Kingsway. John was president of the 1996 North American Christian Convention and will serve as president of the 2012 National Missionary Convention after his retirement from Kingsway. John and his wife, Jan, have been married 44 years and have two children and two grandchildren. Has it

July 29, 2009

Valuable Downloads for You and Others You Know

By Mark A. Taylor Every media outlet in the country is working to make information available to readers who want it via the Internet. Here at CHRISTIAN STANDARD we”ve been doing this for years. Our Web site, www.ChristianStandard.com, offers a wealth of new and archived material from the magazine, plus our Web-only features: blogs, weekly Sunday school lessons, extended interviews, reader comments, and more. All these are reasons thousands of Web users visit our site every week. In addition we”re creating a growing list of downloads. Each of these is inexpensive, easy to order, and valuable for teaching, preaching, or

July 22, 2009

Choosing My Focus, Protecting My Ministry

I told a friend about the book we”re excerpting this week, Anne Jackson”s Mad Church Disease. “The author paints a pretty bleak picture of pain and dysfunction among those serving in local churches,” I said. My friend travels more and visits far more churches than I do, so I wanted his opinion. “Is it really that bad out there?” He answered without hesitating. “Oh, my, yes.” Some time later I listened as three Christian college professors talked about their graduates who had tried professional ministry and then left it. The details of the stories varied: unreasonable elders (or one unreasonable

July 8, 2009

Interview with David Clark

By Brad Dupray David Clark”s July 1 message at the North American Christian Convention was, “Grace that Heals,” a sermon aiming to help those who are carrying scars and pain of unresolved conflicts. At the end of his message, he invited people to bring their brokenness before God in a time of prayer for healing. In his 28 years as lead pastor of Central Christian Church in Beloit, Wisconsin, Clark has seen his church grow, not just in numbers, but in amazing outreach to the community. He and his wife of 35 years, Deby, have been blessed with four children,

July 5, 2009

A Test of Our Times

Â By Rod Roberts The opening sentence of Charles Dickens”s A Tale of Two Cities describes the era of the French Revolution: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” That well-known literary line underscores why leaders need to discern the times in which they live. Had Louis XVI understood this crucial leadership principle, he may have avoided the distinction of being the only king of France to be executed. Do you ever consider how important the times today may be to the flow of human history? Even Scripture underscores the importance of understanding the times

June 21, 2009

How to Listen to a Sermon

By Brian Mavis SHARE THIS ARTICLE WITH EVERYONE IN YOUR CHURCH. (DETAILS BELOW.) Â Â Â One hundred times more people will hear a sermon this week than preach one. So why are there thousands of articles, books, and classes on how to preach a message, but virtually none on how to listen to one? It”s because most people think listening just comes naturally. But that”s not what Jesus thought. Jesus said to “consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18). The state and fate of your life depends on how you listen. Teachers are responsible for teaching well, but you

June 14, 2009

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Pastoral Transitions & Succession

A Long Ministry

Â By Shan Wood In the summer of 1965, a young, skinny graduate of Ozark Bible College, Joplin, Missouri, moved to a small city north of Buffalo, New York. He was accustomed to life in the Midwest, so becoming minister of a small church in suburban western New York was quite a change. Moving away from family and friends to serve a new church always presents challenges, but adding such complicating factors as a first ministry in an unfamiliar region of the country usually is a recipe for a short “tour of duty.” But somehow it worked, for some 40

June 14, 2009

Church & Ministry Leadership Development

Leaders Are the Key

Â By Larry Travis and Tim Wallingford Why are 75 to 85 percent of the churches in America plateaued or declining? Why are 74 percent of those in their 20s not going to a church of any kind? We can find a clue in the ministry of Jesus. Before he launched his ministry, preached the Sermon on the Mount, confronted the Pharisees, taught in synagogues, and performed most of his miracles, Jesus selected leaders. He prayed all night before his decision. Jesus then invested the next three years equipping 12 men who, after being trained and empowered by God, turned

April 19, 2009

Congregational Membership and Worshiping Community”“A Reflection on Church Polity

Â By C. Robert Wetzel One of the most divisive issues to plague the heirs of the Restoration Movement was the question of “open membership.” It became a symbol for a number of growing differences that were emerging among Christian churches early in the 20th century. But in many respects it was an unresolved question from the earliest days of the movement. That history is well documented, and I will not go into it here. In its starkest form, the issue centered on the recognition that the Scriptures taught baptism by immersion of repentant believers for the remission of sins

April 15, 2009

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Pastoral Transitions & Succession

Interview with Gene Appel

By Brad Dupray Gene Appel became senior pastor at Eastside Christian Church in Fullerton, California, on October 1, 2008, after serving as lead pastor with Willow Creek Community Church”s South Barrington (Illinois) campus. In many ways, he has come full circle, having served as an intern at Eastside while a 20-year-old student at Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College. At 25, Gene became senior minister at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, and led the church from average weekly attendance of 400 to 8,000 during an 18-year ministry. Gene and his wife, Barbara, have three children, Jeremy, Alayna, and Jenna, with

April 15, 2009

Your Vision”“and Ours

By Mark A. Taylor One sentence stands out in Kent Fillinger”s introduction to this week”s special issue. “If you copy someone else”s vision, who will accomplish yours?” Kent quotes the book Church Unique to remind us that we must do the particular work God has for us in our communities, not copy the strategies working for someone else somewhere else. So why does CHRISTIAN STANDARD devote a whole issue to megachurches every year? “¢ Megachurches are news, and our goal is to tell you news about Christian churches and churches of Christ you won”t find anywhere else. “¢ Megachurches are

April 8, 2009