Series: Columns

August 28, 2014

Christian Standard

Despots, Presidents, and a Readable Grammarian

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China Jung Chang New York: Anchor Books (Doubleday); originally published by Simon and Schuster, 1991 The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism Doris Kearns Goodwin New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013 For Who the Bell Tolls: One Man”s Quest for Grammatical Perfection David Marsh London: Guardian Books, 2013 Wild Swans sat around our house for too long. My wife, Joy, picked it up a couple of years ago while traveling with our daughter in Vietnam. In the face of other pressures, it sat on the back shelf until

August 27, 2014

Christian Standard

The Thread that Leads to God

By Jim Tune In Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Carl Jung wrote these penetrating words: “About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and the emptiness in their lives. This can be described as the general neurosis of our time.” The late philosopher and author Francis Schaeffer said, “The damnation of this generation is that it doesn’t know that it has any meaning at all.” Solomon put it this way: “Everything is meaningless. . . . I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all

August 26, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

God Is Working, God Will Work!

By Mark A. Taylor Several facts are clear as we look at reports from colleges and campus ministries posted at this site this month: “¢ These are tough times for Christian colleges. As more than one writer mentions, a perfect storm of difficult situations””sluggish economy, a smaller population of new high school graduates, higher expectations among students and parents, and greater competition, to name the most mentioned””have caused much navel-gazing and budget cutting among college administrators everywhere. Small secular colleges are facing many of the same pressures, and this is some consolation, but not enough. If the economic or cultural

August 19, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Lead On, Lead Up, Lead Now

By Mark A. Taylor No group will understand or fulfill its mission without a leader sounding the charge and setting the example. Eddie Lowen and I talked about this during my Beyond the Standard interview with him July 31. Churches need to be led, he said, and led by leaders with high integrity. We could say the same for school boards, corporations, or the government of any nation. But our experience with bad leadership in all of those environments may be one reason some are suspicious of leaders in the church. Can we find a leader more interested in his

August 13, 2014

Christian Standard

Real Hope

By Jim Tune Last spring I taught a course on apologetics. We devoted considerable attention to the resurrection. I wanted students to sink deep roots in the ground of real hope””not optimism, not wishful thinking, but hope! I remember a story about a painful time in the life of a young missionary woman. This woman had married a Rwandan pastor, a Tutsi, and they had established a home together in that country. She was visiting Kenya on a mission trip when the dreadful Rwandan tragedy erupted. Hutu militia moved in, butchering men, women, and children wherever they went. The ensuing

August 12, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Four T”s for Recruiting and Keeping Volunteers

By Mark A. Taylor In many places, the first day of the new school year is on the horizon, if it hasn”t occurred already. And the local church”s Bible-teaching program is ready to gear-up too. A new season of classes, youth groups, children”s choirs, and small groups usually brings a flurry of worker recruitment. Some churches, unfortunately and ineffectively, will post “help-wanted” ads in church newsletters or make impassioned pleas from the pulpit for nursery workers and children”s teachers. But while support from the preacher can be a vital ingredient in worker recruitment, asking everyone is never as effective as

August 6, 2014

Christian Standard

Racehorses, Plodders, and Mules

By Jim Tune The words of James Denney ring true to me: “No man can give at once the impression that he himself is clever, and that Christ is mighty to save.” You can impress people with your cleverness or you can impress them with Jesus, but you can”t do both. It”s a common practice in church planting circles to search for a particular “type” of church planter. Competence, calling, giftedness””these characteristics matter when it comes to selecting a lead planter. The organization I lead uses a thorough assessment process to screen candidates for attributes that are useful in predicting

August 5, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Ready to Heal

By Mark A. Taylor Nobody forced Atlanta”s Emory University Hospital last week to accept two patients stricken with the deadly Ebola virus. Instead, Dr. Bruce Ribner, head of the Emory unit treating the sick Americans, welcomed the chance to admit them. Emory, according to Ribner, is one of only four U.S. facilities uniquely equipped to treat such a contagious disease. He told CNN, “We are not going to miss this opportunity.” Hospital staff members congratulated him for accepting the patients, he said. When he explained his decision to his wife, she responded, “Great, that”s what you”ve been dreaming of for

August 3, 2014

Christian Standard

Gut Feelings

By Jennifer Johnson Scientists have told us for years there is a strong link between our feelings and the state of our stomach. The “enteric nervous system,” or ENS, in our digestive system has sometimes been called the “second brain,” and a 2013 study found that introducing different bacteria to the stomach can cause changes to our emotions. Chalk one more up for the ancient Greeks; long before today”s research, they”d coined the word splagna, which roughly translates to “compassion” but literally means one”s guts. They knew that when we feel empathy in our hearts, we can also feel it

August 2, 2014

Christian Standard

Planting Where Sin Abounds

By Jennifer Johnson When Vince Antonucci prepared to plant a church called Verve in Las Vegas, he thought, Of course we”ll be on the Strip. But when he began researching that area, he discovered there were no other churches there. “I wondered if that was unique to Las Vegas,” he says. “I began looking at the most “˜sinful” neighborhoods and streets in the world””places like the Red Light District in Amsterdam, Bourbon Street in New Orleans, The Sunset Strip in L.A. There are no churches there. But Jesus went to the most sinful places and the most sinful people. He

August 1, 2014

Christian Standard

Real Issues, Real Talk

By Jennifer Johnson After Real Life Christian Church (Clermont, FL) began broadcasting its weekend services on a local TV station, it started brainstorming ideas for a second show. “So much Christian TV is so lame, and we didn”t want to create something like that,” says Marc Naugler, creative video director, and Chris Gingrasso, communications pastor at Real Life. “Our church name reflects who we are””real people talking about real issues in a real way and helping people find real faith. Real Talk extends those values in a new format to a new audience.” Justin Miller, Real Life”s lead pastor, hosts

July 31, 2014

Christian Standard

Memoir of an Atheist, Biography of a Genius, Advice for Travelers

By LeRoy Lawson   Joseph Anton: A Memoir Salman Rushdie New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2013 Jim Henson: The Biography Brian Jay Jones New York: Ballantine Books, 2013 Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot- and Cold-Climate Cultures Sarah A. Lanier Hagerstown: McDougal Publishing, 2000 When Salman Rushdie published his infamous The Satanic Verses in 1988, the Muslim world went crazy. Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran”s revolution””the one that drove the Shah from the Peacock Throne and into exile””outraged by what he perceived to be Rushdie”s attack on religion in general and Islam in particular, pronounced a fatwa

July 30, 2014

Christian Standard

Celebrate Who?

By Jim Tune Most popular treatments of faith say it doesn”t matter what you believe. Just believe something“”whatever you want””and you”ll find the sheer act of believing will propel you to greatness. The parades and musical numbers at Walt Disney”s Magic Kingdom encourage visitors to believe in themselves and celebrate their dreams, whatever they are. As I left the theme park after a recent visit, the loudspeakers played a positively giddy song with the chorus, “In everything you do, celebrate you!” But life”s not an amusement park, and this endlessly narcissistic message will eat you alive if you attempt to

July 29, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Speaking the Truth, Showing the Truth

By Mark A. Taylor Today I”m remembering insights about faith-sharing in last month”s Beyond the Standard online interview. Plan to tune-in to this month”s discussion, “Ministry Today” with CHRISTIAN STANDARD columnist Eddie Lowen, this Thursday, July 31, 11 a.m. Eastern. My eye fell on a small tract, propped against the mirror on the shelf above the sink in the public restroom I was using. “Where Will You Spend Eternity?” the leaflet asked. And I remembered my own tract-distributing phase many decades ago. On one occasion, with fevered prayers, I had slipped a salvation tract into the magazine pocket behind the

July 23, 2014

Christian Standard

Hidden in a Field

By Jim Tune In 1989, the movie Field of Dreams was a blockbuster hit. Kevin Costner played Ray Kinsella, a 37-year-old man who always played it safe. He had never done a spontaneous thing in his life until hearing a voice one day that said, “If you build it, he will come.” After hearing the phrase several more times, he asked other farmers if they heard similar voices. Eventually Ray saw a vision of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson walking out of his cornfield. In the vision, Ray”s cornfield was transformed into a baseball diamond. When he actually “builds” a baseball field,

July 22, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Checklist

By Mark A. Taylor My wife and I are two of the last professionals in America to use a paper calendar. It”s not that we”re opposed to digital devices. We gladly use our smartphones. I depend on Outlook to keep appointments at work, and, increasingly at home. We”re big text messagers and Facebook users. Evenings often find us at opposite ends of the kitchen table, hunched over our respective laptops. And we”ve even Skyped with a missionary friend overseas. But I organize my week around my lists, and I need those lists on a piece of paper I can keep on

July 16, 2014

Christian Standard

The Discipline to Discipline

By Jim Tune The words church discipline can conjure up vivid imagery that seemingly affirms the world”s worst perceptions of church. Nathaniel Hawthorne”s The Scarlet Letter serves up a twisted picture of the ostracizing of an adulteress by both church and community. Is this what we mean by church discipline””visions of Hester Prynne skulking around her nightmarish New England town? A solidly biblical approach to church discipline is the only way to heal fractures, restore right relationships, and ensure the health of the church. Discipline is not simply the unhappy task of ordering troublemakers out of the church. Indeed, discipline

July 15, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Recommitted to the Mission

By Mark A. Taylor  A large convention of Jehovah”s Witnesses met last weekend in Indianapolis, on the heels of the North American Christian Convention there Tuesday through Friday. When some JW delegates began arriving on Thursday, a teenager I know said, “I wonder if they”ll go through the hotel, knocking on every door.” We all chuckled, but later I thought, Wouldn”t it be something if OUR movement were known for persistently sharing what we believe about Christ? After last week”s convention, that could happen. President Tim Harlow”s theme for the week was ReMission, a challenge to recommit to the mission

July 8, 2014

Christian Standard

My Only Hope

By Jim Tune When I read the Gospels, I encounter a Jesus who proclaims peace for the fringe dwellers. Indistinct and frequently offensive, they reached for his cloak, cried out in desperation, or fell forward to make contact with real love. Convention would treat them as nonpersons, insisting they be kept barely visible and hidden behind a veil of shame. But Jesus was unconventional. Life”s losers sense this. They crash the party and find themselves not only accepted, but favored and blessed as well. With Jesus, they get the seats of honor. For someone with as many opportunities as I”ve

July 8, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

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

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