Series: Columns

July 11, 2012

Christian Standard

A Mission, Not Just a Mission Trip

By Mark A. Taylor Maybe the best line in the panel interview article posted this week comes close to the end of it. Luke Erickson, from Mountain Christian Church, in Joppa, Maryland, shared the question the church asks anyone interested in community service projects or mission trips overseas: “How are you engaged in your own neighborhood?” It”s a question born of genius. It prods the would-be servant to get out of himself and into the church”s mission. For example, I may feel good about “sacrificing” a couple hours to work in a food pantry; I may think I”ve given a

July 10, 2012

Christian Standard

Willing to Lead

By Mark A. Taylor   Several myths about leadership were exposed at the 2012 Leadercast sponsored by Chick-fil-A, May 4. About 125,000 viewers gathered for the satellite-uplinked daylong session in key sites across the United States, including several thousand who attended the event live in Atlanta. All of them could have found at least one take-away for the leadership roles they fill at home or on the job. One of the demolished myths is “I am not a leader.” Anyone listening to Tim Tebow might think of a hundred other professional athletes with no impact or only a negative example.

July 8, 2012

Christian Standard

How a Good Team Is Getting Better

By Barton Shaw This is my sixth year serving as an elder in our church, Eastview Christian Church, Normal, Illinois, and I can honestly say it is one of the most challenging and rewarding roles I have. Over the years, I have had the pleasure to serve with 14 other men””all of them godly and devoted Christ followers whom I deeply respect. Though we are united in a common love for the church, it probably comes as no surprise that we are a collection of men from different stages of life with varied careers, temperaments, and perspectives. This is a

July 7, 2012

Christian Standard

Artists Contribute to Yearlong Bible Emphasis

By Jennifer Taylor Harbor of Hope Christian Church (North Chelmsford, MA) began “Garden to City,” a yearlong journey through the Bible, in January. The sermons at each weekend service in 2012 correspond to a weekly Bible reading plan, and a special blog reinforces the themes with articles, quotes, and videos. Harbor of Hope”s staff approached local artist Bradford Rusick with the idea of hosting an art exhibition to complement the “Garden to City” story; Rusick then connected with Amirah, a Boston nonprofit that is building a safe house to provide whole-person care to women who have come out of human

July 2, 2012

Christian Standard

Immigration: Our Position

By Mark A. Taylor What is Christian Standard”s position on immigration? Read carefully the articles, opinions, and interviews posted at our site this week before you decide the answer to that question. You”ll see that our writers don”t always agree with each other, so any one of them does not speak for all the rest””or for Christian Standard. That diversity of opinion among Bible-believing followers of Christ is one reason we”ve tackled this topic. We fear that too many Christians have come quickly to their conclusions without considering counter views from others who also love God. And some Christians haven”t

June 27, 2012

Christian Standard

Church Pounds Pavement with Positive Chalk Talk

By Jennifer Taylor Rich Gorman, pastor at the Edgewater campus of Community Christian Church (Naperville, IL), was praying for the area and wondering how to share the love of Christ with such a large population. As he watched people walk to and from the “L” trains one day, he hit on an idea: everyone is looking down, so put the message there! Rich, his wife, Dori, and a small team from CCC Edgewater now meet every other Tuesday evening to pray and then divide into teams to write the messages on sidewalks leading to and from the L stations. Team

June 26, 2012

Christian Standard

Deep Change

By Mark A. Taylor The discussion was about missions, but the topic was change. And I couldn”t stop thinking about the church”s task in a world changing faster than we may realize. Steve Moore, president of Missio Nexus (missionexus.org), was leading about 30 of us at the Cincinnati installment of Reset Tour, a 10-city event sponsored by the International Conference on Missions (ICOM). The Tour, which concluded with a West Coast swing in May, was expected to reach 250 missions-minded members and leaders of Christian churches and churches of Christ, according to David Empson, executive director of ICOM. From this

June 24, 2012

Christian Standard

What Would Bubba Do?

By Eddie Lowen I”m on the Bubba Bandwagon. This year”s Masters golf tournament concluded on Easter Sunday when a professional golfer named Bubba Watson hit an ultraremarkable winning shot from a grove of pine trees. “Bubba” is a surprising name for a Masters champion, but it”s better than being named “Boo.” Boo Weekley is a fellow pro who, ironically, hails from the same small Florida town as Bubba. Bubba and Boo””they sound like characters from the History Channel reality show Swamp People. But they have become to professional golf what the Blue Collar guys are to comedy. Trust me, their

June 22, 2012

Christian Standard

NACC Plans Live-Stream of Event This Summer

  By Jennifer Johnson The North American Christian Convention will live-stream each of its main sessions during this summer”s event scheduled for July 10-13 in Orlando, FL. The broadcasts will be free and will include music and worship as well as the sermon from each service. Viewers logging in for the broadcasts will also be able to take notes online and live chat with other viewers via Facebook and Twitter. All broadcasts will be in English, but a multilanguage electronic Bible will be available on-screen for easy reference. The complete schedule of speakers and broadcast times is below. Advertising space

June 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Conflict Is a Constant, Encouragement Is a Fuel

By Mark A. Taylor The best way to avoid conflict about worship styles is to leave things the way they are, right? Not according to a survey conducted by Faith Communities Today* (FACT). FACT has surveyed religious congregations of every kind, Jewish and Muslim and others as well as Protestants, Evangelicals, Catholics, and Orthodox. When it comes to worship, these groups, diverse as they are, have some things in common. One of these is conflict. One set of questions in the FACT surveys surrounded worship change and conflict. Most of the congregations (60 percent) that introduced “a lot of change”

June 15, 2012

Christian Standard

“˜Rooted in Love” Partners for Foster Care, Adoption

By Jennifer Taylor When Marcus and Julie McClure began to investigate foster parenting, they had no idea it would change not only their family, but their church and city as well. “The McClures became foster parents and ran out of room for more kids in their home, but felt a huge burden to do more,” says Chris Hornbrook, lead pastor at Momentum Christian Church in Chula Vista, CA. “They had a vision for encouraging and educating the people in our church””and the Christians across San Diego County””to get involved in foster care and adoption.” The McClures started Rooted in Love,

June 9, 2012

Christian Standard

Casual Conversation Grows into Citywide Event

By Jennifer Taylor Danielle Ott, a member at Traders Point Christian Church (Indianapolis, IN), began dreaming about the possibility of a citywide foster care/adoption event coordinated by several area churches. A conversation with one like-minded acquaintance grew to a small group of people from five churches meeting at Starbucks to discuss ideas. The Answer the Call Conference launched May 19. “There are so many people who feel God”s call to adopt or participate in the foster care system, but they don”t know where to start,” she says. “We wanted to encourage and equip them to move forward in a meaningful

June 8, 2012

Christian Standard

Difficult Questions

By Mark A. Taylor Steve Reeves makes an eloquent and convincing case for long ministries. But how can we reconcile positive experience like his with the result of our research showing how church growth slows as a minister”s tenure increases? That”s the question we posed to church leaders across the country, and their answers this week suggest this is an issue for all of us to consider. Perhaps the truth is not as cut-and-dried as the numbers alone suggest. Perhaps several other factors (church dynamics, community growth and culture and demographics) are in play when church growth slows in a

June 7, 2012

Christian Standard

Seven Positive Trends for Megachurches

By Brian Mavis I asked nine authors, academics, megachurch pastors, and missional church planters “What”s next for megachurches?”Â The nine shared enough opinions and insights for several articles, and I will develop those in upcoming issues. Several of the leaders I contacted mentioned some concerns, but this month let”s focus on identifying and distilling seven positive trends.   1. Deeper Discipleship Megachurches are growing less content with measuring attendance alone. David Faust, president of Cincinnati Christian University, said at a megachurch leaders conference he was . . . encouraged to hear a number of megachurch leaders talking about how their plans for the

June 3, 2012

Christian Standard

How Long Should a Sermon Be?

By Mark A. Taylor The question came to me when I discovered Peggy Noonan”s On Speaking Well at a $5 book table. The very first piece of advice from the most famous of President Ronald Reagan”s spreechwriters? “No speech should last more than 20 minutes.” I remember all the sermons I”ve heard””and delivered””that have been way longer than that. And I wonder if Noonan”s advice should apply to sermons too. Her rationale:   Reagan . . . knew twenty minutes is more than enough time to say the biggest, most important thing in the world. The Gettysburg Address went three

May 31, 2012

Michael C. Mack

Eight Vital Characteristics of a Life-Changing Small Group Leader

By Michael C. Mack One of the fundamental differences between healthy and unhealthy small groups is the spiritual vitality of the leaders. Healthy leaders have a soft heart that God can use to accomplish his will. While imperfect, they are highly committed first to God, and then to the group. Healthy leaders have the following attributes:   Healthy small group leaders have been transformed. One of your main functions as a small group leader is to build an environment where spiritual transformation is experienced. This happens best when you have first experienced transformation yourself. What happened to Peter and the other

May 30, 2012

Christian Standard

Woman Launches Mentoring Program for Teenage Girls

By Jennifer Taylor When Trinia Arellano was in high school, her four Sunday school teachers were a huge influence in her life. “They loved us, they were the type of women we wanted to be, and we always knew we had a safe place to go with people who would bring us back to God”s Word,” she says. “I have always wanted to be that to another young lady.” When she moved to Germantown, MD, in 2010, she began attending Journey”s Crossing: A Christian Church, and serving as a volunteer leader with youth group. “I was overwhelmed by the things

May 25, 2012

Christian Standard

Beautiful

By Mark A. Taylor   “How beautiful is the body of Christ,” sang the children”s choir, standing in perfect rows on risers in the Sunday-morning worship service. The Twila Paris anthem pictures Christ”s perfect hands and feet and heart and eyes””all sacrificed with pain deeper than we fully understand to take care of sin greater than we fully grasp. And then it reminds us that his beautiful body is still alive and active today, whenever “humble hearts give the fruit of pure lives so that others may live.” As the melody echoed in my mind throughout the day, I remembered

May 24, 2012

Christian Standard

Elders: A Key to Growth in the New Church

By Jim Tune In my previous article on elders and submission, I suggested that church planters may be hesitant to install elders due to a misunderstanding of biblical authority. We”ve become accustomed to thinking about abuse and power in the same sentence. We have so many poor models of leadership around us today, it is easy to cringe when words like submission, authority, and rule come up. But a new church plant can provide a unique opportunity to create a workable and biblical model unhindered by any existing and entrenched system. At Churchill Meadows we followed an intentional pathway””one embarked

May 21, 2012

Christian Standard

Central Brazil Mission Dedicates New Medical Boat

The Central Brazil Mission recently dedicated a new medical boat that will be used by short-term mission teams to provide basic medical and dental care for families who live in remote villages along the Amazon River and its tributaries. The two-story boat was custom-made for the mission and includes first-floor medical and dental offices and treatment rooms. On the second floor are crew quarters, a kitchen, dining room, and dormitory rooms for visiting mission teams. Since starting with a remodeled used wooden boat in 2000, the Amazon Boat Ministry has established more than 20 new village churches. After initial contact

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