Series: Buzz

May 26, 2015

Christian Standard

Scholars, Students Gather for SCJ Conference

Biblical scholars and students representing 36 colleges and universities from 16 states and two foreign countries assembled in Indianapolis April 10, 11 for the 14th-annual Stone-Campbell Journal (SCJ) Conference, this year sponsored by Hope International University. The conference, held at East 91 Street Christian Church, featured three plenary speakers exploring the 2015 theme, “New Testament Explorations: Septuagint, Acts and Paul,” along with parallel sessions, study groups, and a student paper competition. Nationally recognized scholars Dr. Karen Jobes, Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament at Wheaton (IL) College; Dr. Carl Holladay, Charles Howard Candler Professor of New Testament Exegesis at Emory University,

May 24, 2015

Christian Standard

Serving People Every Single Day

By Jennifer Johnson A century ago, churches were known for building hospitals, schools, universities, and community centers instead of constructing buildings only for their own use, say leaders at Crosspointe Church of Cary, NC. This month, the church is breaking ground on a new 130,000-square-foot facility that will increase its space for Sunday programming””and provide a new YMCA for the community. As the church leadership team considered the need for new facilities, they wanted to create something that would serve people in the area every day of the week. While discussing potential options, they noticed a lack of activities for

May 9, 2015

Christian Standard

Call Centered

By Jennifer Johnson Eighteen months ago it was my extreme privilege to be invited to visit the work of Central India Christian Mission. During our 10 days there, Matt and I were struck by the incredible range of ministries CICM has started. In addition to planting more than 1,100 churches, CICM has recruited sponsors for 5,000 children, published dozens of books, started Bible colleges, created a college of nursing, built hospitals and clinics, and more. Through the work of CICM”s many initiatives, a quarter-million (!) people in India have come to know Jesus””all on a yearly budget that”s one-sixth the

May 8, 2015

Christian Standard

Training, Empowering Workers in India

By Jennifer Johnson When Greg Matney talked with Ajai Lall about the biggest ministry needs at Central India Christian Mission, Lall, director and CEO of CICM, mentioned his desire for their newly trained church planters and pastors to be more financially independent. The idea struck a chord with Greg, who had previously worked with Business as Mission initiatives, and his wife Abhineeta (Ajai”s daughter), who had gone to law school in India. In 2011 they held an advocacy and empowerment conference for 500 local leaders, and in 2012 they began offering a variety of vocational training opportunities to help pastors

April 29, 2015

Christian Standard

You Can Help Nepal

By Jennifer Johnson Many mission agencies and international ministries are working to provide relief, support, and financial resources to those affected by Saturday”s devastating earthquake in Nepal. Central India Christian Mission, which has worked in Nepal the last 15 years, writes, “On a typical Saturday morning, many Nepalese churches meet for weekly worship services. On Saturday, April 25th, at 11:56 am when many Nepalese brothers and sisters in Christ were worshipping, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake occurred. It destroyed almost everything in the country. From Saturday until now, approximately 45 earthquakes have happened in the country. It has brought huge destruction.

April 16, 2015

Christian Standard

Musical Theatre Degree Added

By Jennifer Johnson Although Rochester (MI) College comes from a noninstrumental church of Christ tradition, the school has developed strong programs in music, music education, and theatre. Now the school has created a new major in music theatre””one of the only “4Cs” schools to do so. “We discovered a growing number of students in this part of the country were interested in pursuing this major, and local schools” programs were maxed out and turning people away,” says Dr. Catherine Parker, associate professor of theatre. “We had been talking about it for a few years and were only missing a dance

April 9, 2015

Christian Standard

Single Minded

By Jennifer Johnson It doesn”t surprise me that Mark Thornton is single. Not because he isn”t great””in fact, this God-loving, hard-working guy will be a catch for the right mission-minded girl. (Ladies, I have his number.) But because he”s chosen to live and work in the inner city, I guessed he was unmarried even before our phone interview confirmed it. “I”m a single guy with no kids, so I don”t mind living with sex offenders all around me,” he said during that conversation. “But I understand when people move out or don”t want to minister here.” I do, too, but

April 9, 2015

Christian Standard

Meeting at Jacob”s Well

By Jennifer Johnson When Mark Thornton gets an idea, get out of the way””or move to Lincoln, NE, and join the cause. “Seven years ago I was working at a homeless shelter here,” he says. “It was one of several places I”d served, and it just seemed like if we did this work as neighbors in the community instead of as outside agencies, it would be more effective. So I quit my job, moved downtown, and started something out of the house.” That “something” is Jacob”s Well, a multifaceted ministry that develops friendships and meets physical and spiritual needs for

March 12, 2015

Christian Standard

Connecting Churches, Transforming Indy

By Jennifer Johnson Lots of churches in Indianapolis are working to help people in poverty. City Mosaic is helping those churches work together. “We realized many churches were doing their own thing in silos, with no coordinated partnership,” says Stacia Murphy, communications director at City Mosaic. “We exist to connect those churches and help them work together to transform and empower the communities of our city.” The three-year-old organization has developed initiatives in education, housing, job creation, family transformation, and church revitalization to accomplish this goal. Volunteers serve as tutors in several of the city”s elementary schools; church partners and

March 2, 2015

Christian Standard

Building Creativity

By Jennifer Johnson According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, churches spent close to $9 billion on new construction in 2002 and $3.5 billion in 2013. (Thanks, Great Recession.) Organizations analyzing church spending report congregations that own or rent existing buildings spend 20-30 percent or more of their budgets on loan payments, maintenance, and related expenses. For most churches in the U.S., buildings are necessary for building ministry, and the process isn”t cheap. I”m not interested in the tired debate about whether a church should have a nice building that costs a lot of money when so many

March 2, 2015

Christian Standard

More than a Church

By Jennifer Johnson A few years ago, Rusty George had the opportunity to participate in a meeting with the mayor and local business leaders to discuss area needs. “A local car dealer mentioned how nice it would be if nonprofits could work together and share costs,” says George, lead pastor of Real Life Church in Valencia, CA. “We were just getting ready to open a second site, and I thought how great it would be to have a church building that didn”t sit empty during the week and, instead, housed a variety of nonprofits that could share coffee pots and

February 27, 2015

Christian Standard

Venturing into the Unknown

By Jennifer Johnson It”s common to hear of youth groups participating in short-term mission trips, both here in the United States and around the world. Usually these trips are meticulously planned with detailed itineraries, long packing lists, and organized daily activities. Calvary Christian Church in Bellevue, NE, does things a little differently. For more than a decade, teens from Calvary have participated in “Destination Unknown,” five-day trips that begin with a surprise. “The morning we”re scheduled to leave, we meet in the church parking lot and draw a distance and a direction (north, south, etc.) from a hat,” says Scott

February 19, 2015

Christian Standard

Significant Others

By Jennifer Johnson I have never liked team sports. I avoid group projects. I am a recovering perfectionist who highly values competence and who has found that the quality of an endeavor is often inversely proportional to the number of people involved. Unless I can handpick my team (and, often, be in charge of it), I usually resonate with Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, who said the key advantage of collaboration is that “you end up with something for which you will not be personally blamed.” But God designed the universe to reward teamwork, even to require

February 19, 2015

Christian Standard

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

By Jennifer Johnson Emmanuel House originally began as a simple effort to help a few Afghani refugees resettle near Aurora, IL. Rick and Hayley Meksi, in partnership with Community 4:12 and Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL, launched the organization in 2007 after realizing how difficult it was for these refugee families to “break into” the housing market. The concept expanded, and the ministry now helps families from a variety of backgrounds struggling with similar issues. “We realized there were a number of people caught in the cycle of generational poverty,” says Hayley. “A lack of stability in the family,

January 29, 2015

Christian Standard

Colleges Discussing Collaboration

“Nebraska Christian College is studying the possibility of collaborating with Hope International University to begin a Christian University system with other colleges throughout the country,” according to ncinitiative2015.wordpress.com, a blog set up to  provide updates on the discussions. The blog entry goes on to say,   John Derry, the President of Hope International University (http://www.hiu.edu) reached out to Nebraska Christian College in hopes of beginning talks of mutual collaboration. This original email exchange led to two subsequent meetings between President Derry and the Executive Team of NC to discuss ways in which this collaboration could drive mission to a greater extent. We are

January 5, 2015

Christian Standard

Going Strong

By Jennifer Johnson “I am the least likely person to lead a trip of women,” Gayla Congdon said during our interview. “I grew up with brothers and I”m not a “˜woman”s retreat” kind of person. I want to do something that matters.” Apparently she”s not alone””the Women of Strength trips she started in 2012 have had to be capped at 65 people, and dozens of ladies have attended more than one. A significant number of the participants aren”t even Christians, but find the experience more than worth the investment of money and vacation time. Actually, Congdon does think “women”s events”

January 5, 2015

Christian Standard

Showing Their Strength and Connecting as Women

By Jennifer Johnson In 2009, Gayla Congdon attended a planning meeting for the International Conference on Missions and realized she was one of only three women in the group of more than 60 people. “Our guest speaker, a man from Wycliffe Bible Translators, pointed out the discrepancy,” she says. “Then he said one of the biggest demographic groups in developed countries, and especially in the United States, is educated women age 55 and older who have discretionary income and are looking for meaningful experiences. I was reminded of the Barna study reporting that, for the first time in U.S. history,

January 4, 2015

Christian Standard

Child Sponsorship Made Easy

By Jennifer Johnson Bruce Wydick, a professor of economics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, recently reported that sponsoring a child is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty around the world. Now Christian Missionary Fellowship (Indianapolis, IN) is making it easier than ever for churches to involve their members in child sponsorship with its new Start! program. Families, individuals, and groups can all sponsor a child through CMF, and Start! is specifically created to help churches launch events to introduce the concept and connect members to children in need. CMF provides promotional videos, sermon

December 17, 2014

Christian Standard

Green Transitions to Become LCU’s 7th President

The Lincoln (IL) Christian University Board of Trustees announced today the unanimous selection of Dr. Don Green as LCU”s seventh president. Green has been serving as LCU”s transitional president since June 1. Though he has been acting with the full authority and responsibility of the office since June, his official tenure begins immediately. Green is a graduate of Lincoln Christian University (BA from the former Lincoln Christian College and MDiv from Lincoln Christian Seminary) and earned his DMin from the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School of Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL. Green has been an integral part of the Lincoln Christian community

December 6, 2014

Christian Standard

Classroom Component Added

By Jennifer Johnson The NewThing Network, a church planting movement launched by the leaders of Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL, has long been known for a focus on reproducing churches and multiplying momentum. This, of course, requires a consistent influx of new leaders who then develop new leaders. NewThing”s residency program helps identify and coach these apprentices, and the organization”s new Leadership Training Center, opening in 2015, will add a classroom component to the process. “The residency is a nine- to twelve-month program that connects future church planters with leaders who can mentor and teach them,” says Eric Metcalf,

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