Christian Standard Updates

A Conversation with Jennifer Johnson

Meet Our Contributing Editors: In this final interview of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors, we talk with the writer who interviewed all the others. This worker and watcher of the church talks about small churches, megachurches, and the failings and future possibilities of our movement. Tell us who you are””not a recitation of your rÃ©sumÃ©, but what makes you tick. My parents like to tell the story of coming to pick me up from the toddler”s room at church one Sunday morning and discovering me hiding under a crib, calmly looking out at everybody. That kind of sums it up””I”m an

July 8, 2014

Their Advice””and Ours

By Mark A. Taylor Some of the best advice I ever received was from Roy Lawson, longtime member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee, and one of this magazine”s original contributing editors. “Emphasize people,” he told me when I asked for ways to make CHRISTIAN STANDARD more effective. “Highlight what people are doing. Promote their ministries and their accomplishments.” Through the years I”ve followed that advice in more ways than one, including a series of special posts you”ll be seeing at this site starting today, all of them from our July print edition”s central feature, “The Best (or Worst!) Advice I

July 1, 2014

My Advice

By Mark A. Taylor Some of the best advice I ever received was from Roy Lawson, longtime member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee, and one of this magazine”s original contributing editors. “Emphasize people,” he told me when I asked for ways to make CHRISTIAN STANDARD more effective. “Highlight what people are doing. Promote their ministries and their accomplishments.” Through the years I”ve followed that advice in more ways than one, none of them more engaging than the major feature of this month”s issue. I love our “Best (or Worst!) Advice” pieces for several reasons. First, of course, is the advice

July 1, 2014

Download Our New Free App Today!

By Mark A. Taylor When CHRISTIANS STANDARD”s print edition converted from weekly to monthly distribution almost two years ago, some potential subscribers said, “I”d read every issue””on my iPad.” Well, now they can. The new, free CHRISTIANS STANDARD app is available today for every smartphone and tablet, and we think you should download it today. (Search for “Christian Standard” at the Apple Newsstand, Google Play, or Amazon apps.) When you try the app, you”ll discover: “¢ A wealth of free content. The whole July issue is there! Plus a valuable compilation of “Ministry Today” columns by regular columnists Tim Harlow

February 12, 2014

Need Some Advice?

Almost everybody loves to GIVE advice, but whether or not we TAKE advice may depend on who”s giving it! Here at CHRISTIAN STANDARD, we”re wondering, Whose advice would help you most in your Christian life and Christian service? We”re planning a whole issue around this theme. “The Best (and Worst!) Advice I Ever Received.” Our question to you: Whom should we ask? We”ll recruit several dozen Christian leaders to tell us the advice they received and how it turned out for them. Who should be on our list? Please send an e-mail today to tell us. It should simply say,

December 17, 2013

More Than a Magazine

By Mark A. Taylor Do you see CHRISTIAN STANDARD magazine? Many readers say it”s the best it”s ever been. But our monthly publication is not the only media we”re using to serve readers and leaders. There”s this website, of course, with new material every day to inform and inspire you. Frequent visitors have discovered they can have total access to all the news, commentary, practical help, and biblical and theological studies here for one, low annual price. And if you want to commit to less than a year, the service offers ridiculously inexpensive one-day and one-month options. Although many of

December 1, 2013

Index to CHRISTIAN STANDARD for 2013

By Staff Some readers keep their printed copiesÂ of CHRISTIAN STANDARD for future use and reference. Each year we create an indexÂ to assist these readers. This index allows for research based on topic, author, and columnist. Click the following to access the pdf: Christian Standard Index for 2013.

May 28, 2013

Help in a Complicated Age

By Mark A. Taylor We live in a complicated world and a troubling age, which is one reason many come to a website like ChristianStandard.com. Here you find encouragement for your Christian walk, Bible teaching to help you confront ungodly influences, and models for Christian living today. And that”s not all. CHRISTIAN STANDARD offers you a connection to other nondenominational Christians around the world as well as strategies and ideas for making your ministry more effective. But while CHRISTIAN STANDARD focuses on leaders, our sister publication, The Lookout, and its website, LookoutMag.com, aims squarely at everyday Christians, regardless of their

May 24, 2013

Obituaries for 2012

ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF OBITUARIES Martha E. (Taylor) Blackmore, 90, of Tulsa, OK (formerly of Hillsboro, OH), died Feb. 18, 2012. Born in Mitchell, IN, on Aug. 30, 1921, to LaVerne and Martha Taylor, she grew up a preacher”s kid as her father ministered in Hillsboro, OH (1918-21), and then for many years in Springfield, IL. She graduated from Cincinnati (OH) Bible Seminary in 1943, and studied vocal music for four years at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She married Roy C. Blackmore in 1943, and served with him in a ministry in Louisville, KY. They were a singing and preaching

May 21, 2013

Now You Can Go “Beyond the Standard”

By Mark A. TaylorÂ Beginning this week, CHRISTIAN STANDARD is offering a new, free monthly radio program available to you via the web at BlogTalkRadio.com. Log on and listen in to “Beyond the Standard” this Thursday, May 23, at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time to see what I mean. Listeners that day will hear and interact with three contributors to our website. (Each of them also wrote for the May issue of our monthly print magazine.) George Ross, North Vernon, Indiana, talks about developing disciples, regardless of their past or the challenges of their current situation. He”s demonstrating a refreshing

April 8, 2013

Downloads

CHRISTIAN STANDARD offers a growing library of downloads that are inexpensive, easy to order, and valuable for teaching, preaching, or personal study. Students are using these in their classes. Local church leaders distribute them as handouts or file them for study. To order, click on the links below, or go towww.standardpub.com and search for them by the item numbers provided. Please note:Â These items are downloads only; no product will be shipped. _________________________ 2012 Christian Church Report–Deluxe Edition A thorough listing and analysis of a wide range of data from 344 congregations associated with

March 4, 2013

The Bible: Red Flag Edition on Sale Now!

By Jennifer Johnson I was pleased when Chad Entinger e-mailed to tell me about Deaf Missions” Bible translation and the new app that makes it available to even more people. I would not have been pleased to report on another new English translation. There are many good men and women working even now to bring us new translations of the ancient texts, but can we just admit we already have more than we need? An article on ReligionToday.com puts the number at 200, including the New International Version, New International Reader”s Version, New Revised Standard Version, King James Version, New

January 24, 2013

The Meat of the Matter

By Mark A. TaylorÂ Ben Cachiaras, senior pastor with Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, is one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s 12 contributing editors. Like all of them, he has great insight into human nature, great passion for the gospel”s potential to change lives, and great ideas for the church channeling God”s blessings to our troubled world. He met with us in our annual contributing editors retreat last week and wrote about it in his blog this week: At dinner one night we passed through a buffet line and when it was my turn at the meat counter the guy cutting

January 10, 2013

Quality People, Challenging Content

CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors will enjoy their annual retreat January 16-18, a meeting that is a highlight of the year for many of us who attend it. The discussions each meeting focus on the magazine”s and this website”s content and appearance. What are the topics and who are the writers that must be included in coming issues?Â Which are the events and trends that our readers want to read more about? This is all very serious stuff, but in the midst of it there”s plenty of laughter, an abundance of good-natured kidding, and the brand of hilarious true stories that

December 29, 2012

Index to CHRISTIAN STANDARD for 2012

By Staff Some readers keep their printed copiesÂ of CHRISTIAN STANDARD for future use and reference. Each year we printÂ an indexÂ to assist these readers. This index allows for research based on topic, author, and columnist. Click the following to access the pdf:Â Christian Standard Index for 2012.

September 20, 2012

Older? Younger? Both Are Good!

By Mark A. Taylor Throughout my ministry at Standard Publishing, I”ve been involved in discussions about how we can reach a younger audience. So it”s no surprise that our decision to move CHRISTIAN STANDARD to a monthly publication from a weekly included our desire to attract younger readers. Our thought was that our new 68-page monthly magazine, about the size and weight of an average issue of Time magazine, would look and feel like other publications many are reading. Regular readers were committed to our 16-page weekly, but most potential readers weren”t buying anything else like it. Not all possible

July 29, 2012

Here”s What Monthly Means

By Mark A. Taylor As we announced earlier, Christian Standard, published weekly since 1866, will become a monthly publication in September. What does this change mean? Well, there are several things it does NOT mean. This change does NOT mean Christian Standard readers will get less than they received before. Instead of 16 pages 48 times a year, they”ll receive at least 64 pages (plus a four-page cover) every month. Meanwhile, Paul Williams and I will continue to write weekly””find our columns every week at ChristianStandard.com. The weekly Sunday school lesson will appear there too, along with weekly Communion meditations

July 9, 2012

Christian Standard Is Becoming a Monthly!

Nation’s longest-running Protestant weekly magazine strengthens mission, moves to monthly format CINCINNATI ““ July 6, 2012 — After 146 years, Christian Standard magazine, believed to be the nation”s oldest Protestant weekly in continuous publication, will move to a monthly schedule starting in September 2012. The Christian Standard has been continuously published since its first weekly issue rolled off printing presses on April 7, 1866.Â It has produced issues every single week for 146 years, except for two weeks in 1937 when a flood put its presses underwater. Most of the time when a publication announces a change, it shuts down

June 19, 2012

What”s Happening with Wayne?

Editor”s note:Â We asked Wayne Smith collaborator Rod Huron to give us an update on Wayne”s activities these days. During May, Wayne”s schedule included a banquet sponsored by the International Conference onÂ Missions (formerly National Missionary Convention) and speaking at a banquet to raise money for Sayre Christian Village in Lexington, Kentucky: “They started in 1972 to build a home for the elderly, and now they have 25 acres and 250 apartments, plus a medical unit. It hasn”t been easy, but look at where they”re going””a $12 million expansion.” He also spoke at a banquet sponsored by Women for Life, a group

June 14, 2012