Series: Columns

Life on the Periphery

By Jim Tune It”s no longer 1910 or the age of men. And if there once was a Christian age, it has come and gone. As recently as 1967, one might have argued that Canada was a Christian country. July 1, 1967 marked Canada”s centennial birthday celebration. Thousands gathered in Ottawa, the nation”s capital, for the festivities. The celebration began with a prayer service, which was carried on national television and was a centerpiece of the day”s events. The crowd waited expectantly as dignitaries arrived for the service, including all the main political leaders of the day: the prime minister

June 23, 2015

Miscellaneous

Decide by Walking Around

By Mark A. Taylor Here”s another reason the North American Christian Convention is such a productive gathering. At the NACC we do a lot of walking! And, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University, that”s good! A summary from Stanford News puts it this way: “Creative thinking improves while a person is walking and shortly thereafter.” That means we can generate a MOUNTAIN of creativity at the NACC. Granted, the Cincinnati convention center and downtown are more compact than what we”ve found in some cities. But even at its best, the convention requires blocks of walking between

June 17, 2015

On Dancing Well

By Jim Tune Reflecting on her years in the grip of alcohol addiction, author Glennon Doyle Melton said that when she finally got sober, she dreaded weddings. She would try to look busy, reapply lip gloss, and make numerous unnecessary trips to the ladies” room in order to avoid the dance floor. The dance floor, sober, was a terrifying place to be avoided at all costs. During her drinking days, Melton was the first and last one on the dance floor. That changed during her first years of sobriety. In a post on her popular Momastery.com blog, she comments wryly,

June 16, 2015

Church & Ministry Church Growth

Three Reasons Evangelical Churches Are Growing When Others Are Not

By Mark A. Taylor Why are Evangelicals the only growing Christian group in America? The fact of dramatic decline among mainline Protestants and Catholic churches in the U.S. is certain, documented by a Pew research report released last month. But answers have varied among those seeking to explain why Evangelicals are holding their own. I asked about that when I spoke with three ministers of growing churches in last month”s episode of our monthly online interview program, Beyond the Standard. These fellows””Brian Kruckenberg, lead pastor with New City Church in Phoenix, Arizona; Bo Chancey, senior pastor with Manchester (NH) Christian

June 10, 2015

A Righteous Crowd?

By Jim Tune My father was a wise man. He was respected in the community, known for integrity, humor, and wisdom. I had the great fortune to be raised by a deeply principled man. Among the important things my dad taught me was this jewel of counterintuitive wisdom: “Beware of running with the crowd.” It was a warning to be suspicious of the crowd, not to trust the crowd, to resist falling in line with the majority too readily. In the Gospels the word crowd is frequently used pejoratively, so much so that nearly every time we see the word,

June 9, 2015

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

Truth in Labeling

By Mark A. Taylor If you”re buying fashion, you look for the right label. But when you”re relating to people in a polarized world, labels can be as damaging as they are discouraging. I, for one, am tired of the expectation that I”ll believe and behave according to the label someone else places on me. Must I, for example, echo the rhetoric of either the blue state or red state where I live? Must I agree with every statement and every position of the presidential candidate I vote for? Must I commit to either a conservative or liberal position in

June 7, 2015

Book Reviews Reviews

A Book to Push Us Deeper

By Matt Johnson Is your church liberal or conservative? The question is a land mine, often meant to act as a test of fellowship. Christians who wish to honor God with their hearts as well as their minds see this question as a false choice. For this audience, Adam Hamilton has written Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics (Abington Press, 2008). Radical Center Hamilton divides his book into three parts. First he lays a foundation for what he calls the “radical center.” His goal is not to arrive at tepid, middle-of-the-road

June 3, 2015

Family & Relationships Parenting

Father Life

By Jim Tune I once heard a preacher tell of a tormented young woman who attended his church. He described her as being broken in ways so shattering he doubted she”d ever get all of those broken parts fixed. Her father had abandoned the family when she was a young girl. Her longing for a father grew so intense that when other dads in the neighborhood mowed their lawns, she grabbed her rag doll and walked next to them, back and forth, while they cut the grass. She remembered being hopeful every time she heard a lawn mower start because

June 2, 2015

Culture & Public Square

The Pew Report: What Should We Do?

By Mark A. Taylor In this space last week and the week before, I reported, evaluated, and shared comments about the Pew Research Center”s May 12 report on religion in America. It is a thorough and detailed study, full of implications for church leaders today. Especially interesting is the fact that Evangelicals are the only Christian group whose numbers grew between 2007 and 2014. The growth did not keep up with population growth, however, which means the influence of Evangelicals on the American scene is not growing. This is especially concerning when added to the fact that those claiming no

June 1, 2015

Church Leadership

Missed Turns

By Eddie Lowen Three college buddies and I decided to attend a conference that was 1,200 miles away. Inadequate budgets didn”t allow us to book a hotel along the way. Inadequate brains didn”t allow us to consider anything other than a 24-hour marathon drive. During the early morning hours of our journey, as three of us napped, our on-duty driver missed a turn. About an hour later, I awoke and asked, “Where are we?” The answer: 50 miles off course. That”s how missed turns are discovered. Someone wakes up and says, “Hey, this is not where we intended to be.”

May 31, 2015

Apologetics & Worldview

Advancing Apologetics at Lincoln

By Jennifer Johnson In May 2013, a representative of the Loftis Foundation contacted Lincoln (IL) Christian University with a perceived need and a solid solution. The result is Lincoln”s new “Room for Doubt” initiative. “John Loftis lost his faith when he went to college,” says Dr. Richard Knopp, professor of philosophy & Christian apologetics at Lincoln. “He returned to church as an adult but says his faith at the time was shallow. The turning point, he says, was when he came across apologetics material in his 50s and it changed his life and his commitment to Christ. He wondered if

May 30, 2015

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Ministry Training & Education

Acting My Age

By Jennifer Johnson A new thing for me is being one of the older people in situations where I used to be young and cool. Most recently I experienced this in my preaching class at Emmanuel Christian Seminary; when Dr. Aaron Wymer discussed the various generations currently alive in the church and surveyed our class, I sheepishly raised my hand as a Gen Xer. The millennials who made up most of the class peered at me with curiosity. (“Look, she can use a computer!”) I realize that at not-yet-40 (you didn”t think I”d give you my real age, did you?),

May 29, 2015

Campus Ministry Church & Ministry

Students Stoked about Pepperdine”s “˜Surf Chapel”

By Jennifer Johnson Three years ago, Grant Waggoner, an alumnus and employee of Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA), began mentoring a few students at the school. This “small group” shared a love of surfing, and one of the guys eventually invited his professor, Dr. Robert Shearer. “Grant and I began sharing leadership of the group,” Shearer, assistant professor of decision science, says. “Last year he got married and moved, but I”m at Zuma Beach, about 15 minutes north of the Pepperdine campus, every Wednesday morning at 7:30. This year we”ve been averaging 100 students each week.” There are no classes on

May 27, 2015

Silence and Socializing

By Jim Tune Susan Cain, in her best-selling book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can”t Stop Talking, says at least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who generally prefer listening to speaking, who innovate and create but dislike self-promoting, and who favor working on their own over working in teams. Cain argues that we undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. There is a certain inner work we can do only by ourselves, alone, in silence. Meister Eckhart helps us understand that when he asserts, “Nothing

May 26, 2015

Culture & Public Square

“Fewer Christians in the U.S.” Good News?

By Mark A. Taylor News outlets across the country reported the Pew Research Center”s findings that fewer Americans than ever are calling themselves Christians. Most secular reports led with the summary statistic, that only 70.6 percent of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians in 2014, compared with 78.4 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, the “nones,” those who claim no religious affiliation, increased by about 19 million. The Pew study projects that 56 million American adults, almost 23 percent of the total adult population, say they have no religion. Christian writers tried to find a positive spin in the

May 26, 2015

Conferences & Gatherings Organizations & Events

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, 11Â for the 14th-annualÂ 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 25, 2015

Book Reviews Reviews

Struggling for Balance

By LeRoy Lawson Slow Church:Â Cultivating CommunityÂ in the Patient Way of Jesus C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2014 iGods: How TechnologyÂ Shapes Our SpiritualÂ and Social Lives Craig Detweiler Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2013 Brave New World Aldous Huxley New York: Harper PerennialÂ Modern Classics;Â originally published in 1932 Chris Smith presented the argument for Slow Church to a small gathering in Erwin, Tennessee. After a season of serious drought, First Christian Church has been enjoying renewal under the steady leadership of Chris”s friend Todd Edmondson. Erwin was a fitting venue, since many of the growth techniques that have

May 24, 2015

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

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 22, 2015