Series: Columns

Church Life

Easter and the Changing Nature of Belonging

By Kent E. Fillinger “Every modern brand that inspires intense passion—from Apple to Nike to SoulCycle to WeWork—has a spiritual underpinning,” writes Nicole LaPorte in the July/August 2017 issue of Fast Company. She tells the story of shared community, social connections, and a common purpose for those who participate in Tough Mudder obstacle course competitions. Will Dean, CEO of Tough Mudder, believes their events can provide people with these same types of spiritual rituals. Dean told the magazine, [Tough Mudder races] are the pilgrimage, the big, annual festivals, like Christmas and Easter [emphasis mine], if you use Christianity as an

March 23, 2018

How to Maximize High-Attendance Weekends (and Minimize ‘One-Hit Wonders’)

By David Dummitt Easter is the best-attended weekend of church services, with Christmas being a close second. How can we strategically maximize our opportunity to connect with people during these weekends in ways that make first-time guests want to come back? The old adage says you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. But you can create environments and opportunities that sweeten the water. When planning big-attendance weekends, we must think critically and creatively about how we can create exceptional environments and opportunities to which people will want to return. ‘Surprise and Delight’ For

March 14, 2018

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

Worn-Out Boots and Real-Life Ministry

By Mel McGowan Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho, strives to meet people where they are and then walk a mile or even a lifetime alongside them. This church does not attempt to impress its community but, rather, exposes its own raw, real character to draw in “messy, ordinary people.” My company learned this firsthand when we presented a storyboard to them that included a photo of nice, new work boots, and the church leaders’ immediate pushback was that the boots wouldn’t be theirs. That’s because the shoes they walk in would be a pair of boots borrowed

March 9, 2018

What Are Your Church’s Push and Pull Factors? (Part 2)

By Kent Fillinger Last month we looked at “push” factors that cause a person to leave a church or religion. This month we look at conditions that “pull” someone into one church or faith over another. Common “Pull” Factors A LifeWay Research survey asked about 2,000 “unchurched” Americans (those who have not attended a worship service in the last six months, outside of a holiday or special occasion) what, if any, life experiences would make them more open to consider turning to the church for help. The top three life experiences (as reported in Facts & Trends, Fall 2016)

March 2, 2018

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Eldership

Mission & Evangelism

Standing Firm in the Spotlight

By Emily Drayne A missionary gets to live in a new place, explore new locales, try new foods, have cross-cultural experiences, and more. What’s not to love? They live the same life, just in a different location—right? No! A million times no. The amount of planning, prayerful consideration, financial preparation, and training that goes into becoming a full-time missionary is staggering. Missionaries undergo months of training to prepare for something that one must experience to truly understand. They need a lot of self-discipline, hard work, and faith to make that leap. The Need for Spiritual Disciplines Some people

February 28, 2018

Jim Estep

Leading Through Conflict

By Jim Estep Elders are no strangers to church fires, and by that I mean the conflicts that occur far too often in our congregations. Whether the conflicts involve leaders, staff, individuals, or groups, we often find ourselves ill-prepared to understand them and ill-equipped to respond to them. As elders, we need to understand the fires of conflict so we can ease confusion and help extinguish them when they flare up. Understanding Conflict in the Church Here are some facts about church conflict. Fires are inevitable. No church is immune to conflict, so be aware of it and alert

February 23, 2018

Jerry Harris

Christian Standard Updates News & Updates

Discipleship and the New Lookout

By Jerry Harris As the publisher of both Christian Standard and The Lookout, I have been tasked with reimagining the magazines and what they are supposed to accomplish. Christian Standard is primarily focused on ministry from a leadership perspective, so I know that leaders are primarily reading this. You are the decision makers, the ones with the sacred responsibility of caring for the flock of God. Like me, you want to have the very best tools at your disposal, and so providing you with the best tools is our goal at Christian Standard. We want to leverage the power that

February 21, 2018

Church & Ministry Church Leadership

A Road Map for Healthy Conflict Resolution

Use these 5 tips to create a church culture that handles conflict in a God-honoring way. By David Dummitt Churches are made up of broken, messy people. That statement won’t shock anyone reading this. Problems in churches are inevitable. Conflict can lead to division. Planning ahead for how to navigate through conflict is important to protecting the unity of our churches. Whether you’re planting a church or have been leading one for years, it is never too early (or late) to create a road map for dealing with conflict within your church in a way that honors God. Here

February 15, 2018

Michael C. Mack

Christian Standard Updates News & Updates

In Search of a Happy Ending

By Michael C. Mack and Jim Nieman It was intended as a feel-good story for the October 2017 issue. Managing editor Jim Nieman reported on a son turning his life around, through God’s grace, and returning to his hometown to minister to those who are “down on their luck.” It was a story with a stern warning and a storybook ending. And then everything utterly collapsed. The preacher’s son who had battled years of addiction to opiates during and immediately after high school, and then managed to turn his life around and graduate from Christian college and return to his

February 8, 2018

Family & Relationships Marriage

Finding Joy in Marriage and Ministry

By David and Rachel Dummitt For the last 22 years, my wife, Rachel, has been my partner, best friend, and comrade-in-arms. When I was asked to write about experiencing lasting joy in marriage and ministry, I immediately thought of her and how she has helped to build both our home and our church with strength, grace, and joy. So for this issue, I asked Rachel to share her insights and wisdom. When Dave and I married, neither of us could have imagined the journey God had in store for us. While both of us had grown up in the

January 31, 2018

Family & Relationships Marriage

Love, Marriage, and Missions

Four missionary couples discuss how their marriages affect their mission work, and vice versa. By Emily Drayne Some aspects of marriage are hard. It’s not easy joining together two lives, two families, two personalities, and two upbringings under one roof. Success in marriage takes work and desire. With divorce rates at about 50 percent in America and even higher in parts of Europe, I’ve often wondered how missionaries are affected by this epidemic. Not only are missionary couples working and maintaining their marriages, but they might also be serving in a cross-cultural setting. Some are also raising children. Missionaries might

January 27, 2018

David Roadcup

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Eldership

Young Ministry Staff and Elders—Connecting Together

By David Roadcup The summer of 1966 was a watershed time for me. I was 19 years old and going into my sophomore year at Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College. I had accepted my first summer youth ministry in a rural church in central Illinois. I remember my first day. I knew I had been called to this, my life’s work, but that first day was daunting. Where do I start? How is this going to go? Who are these people in my new church family? Will I be liked? Will they work with me? It was a challenging and impactful

January 26, 2018

What Are Your Church’s Push and Pull Factors? (Part 1)

By Kent Fillinger My three daughters and I went to New York City for the first time last October. Our visit to Ellis Island was a definite highlight! I was amazed to learn what more than 12 million people encountered at Ellis Island. One part of the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration had the history of migration and the peopling of America. I found one display titled “Push and Pull Factors.” The sign said, “Historians talk about the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors that influence migration. ‘Push’ refers to the reasons people leave one place to go to another. ‘Pull’

January 24, 2018

Vibrant Church Rebrands and Rebuilds

By Mel McGowan Imagine if a small church in the rolling hills of central Pennsylvania could pick up the torch from William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” through the development of a postmodern village green. Vibrant Church, previously known as Capital Area Christian Church, has offered its surrounding community a simple, relationship-centric approach to Christianity for 35 years. Vibrant serves the Susquehanna Valley, Mechanicsburg, and Harrisburg areas, where they generously and relentlessly pursue close connection with church members and the community alike. Vibrant’s mission is to be a gift to and destination for the surrounding community. In addition to an all-in-one, multifunctional

January 16, 2018

Money & Debt Stewardship & Generosity

2017 Ministers’ Salary Survey

By Kent Fillinger In a typical workplace, and in churches, workers don’t publicly discuss salaries and certain benefits they receive. But this trend is changing among millennials. Benefits consultant Mary Ann Sardone recently told the Wall Street Journal, “Pay and promotions are not secretive topics anymore. Companies are spending more time ensuring their pay decisions are fair and highlighting career paths under the assumption that the information is going to be widely shared.” Recent research showed “roughly one-third of U.S. workers ages 18-36 say they feel comfortable discussing pay with their co-workers, more than any other age group and about

January 9, 2018

Money & Debt Stewardship & Generosity

How Budget Trends Are Affecting Missions

By Emily Drayne Missionary support, as most of us know, can be subject to change without notice. Consider the missionary on the field who hears her financial support is being cut by her top supporting church or individual. Time and again, a financially assured ministry has been deflated, usually without notice, in a single conversation. What causes such changes and what impact does it have on the missionary? Is there anything a missionary can do? Finding Balance A recent trend is for churches to refocus their mission efforts on local community development. This is a viable choice, there’s no

January 7, 2018

Gary L. Johnson

Money & Debt Stewardship & Generosity

The Solution to Our Money Problem

By Gary L. Johnson With his transmission, “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” astronaut Jack Swigert rather understatedly signaled to Mission Control on April 14, 1970, that there was an emergency. An explosion onboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft threatened the lives of three astronauts and NASA’s mission to the moon. We must declare that we also have a real problem. A serious one. It involves something that affects all of us—money. Money impacts every person every day, from putting gas in the car to food on the table. Many people struggle with money-related issues. Bills can’t be paid. Budgets go unfunded.

December 31, 2017