Series: Columns

September 27, 2011

Christian Standard

Feeling the Weight

 By Mark A. Taylor To a casual observer, the North American Christian Convention president”s job may look easy and fun. He gets to make many decisions about the convention program, including the speakers and the lead musicians. In the year before the convention, he is introduced as president before audiences everywhere. Once the convention begins, he flits from one session to another, encouraging leaders and speakers and bringing words of greeting. He has the honor of preaching at the convention”s opening session. But anyone who”s worked behind the scenes at the NACC sees the burden the president takes on. For

September 24, 2011

Christian Standard

Battling Slave Trade with Nativity Wrapping Paper

By Jennifer Taylor   It may be August, but for the youth group at Martelle Christian Church (Jones, IA) it”s time to think Christmas. At summer camp in 2009, the MCC youth group learned about human trafficking, the millions of people currently enslaved, and the billions of dollars captors earn from victims. “We were shocked by the horrific practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them to work as prostitutes until they are so filled with disease they are literally thrown out,” explains Troy Titus, youth minister at the church. “I felt moved by God to do something.” The group

September 23, 2011

Christian Standard

Reconsidering Politics, Revisiting Columbine, and Rediscovering Fun

By LeRoy Lawson The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America Jim Wallis New York: HarperOne, 2008 Columbine Dave Cullen New York: Twelve (e-book), 2009 Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul Stuart Brown, MD New York: Penguin Group, 2009 I didn”t read Jim Wallis”s The Great Awakening when it came out in 2008. My “must-read” stack was pretty high then, so I opted to skip the Sojourners founder”s sequel to God”s Politics, his opinion of””and this is the book”s subtitle””Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn”t Get It.

September 23, 2011

Christian Standard

NH Church Celebrates 50th with Stadium Service

Manchester (NH) Christian Church celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sunday with a special service at the Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, home to the area”s minor league baseball team. “Preaching from home plate under blue skies, senior pastor Bo Chancey said the evangelical Christian church has become a home, family and source of hope to its members,” says a local news article. “We have a mission to change New England, to turn ordinary people into extraordinary followers of Jesus,” Chancey said. Click here to read more and to see pictures of the packed stadium!

September 20, 2011

Christian Standard

Indiana Church Shows Knack for Winning Grants

By Jennifer Taylor In the last four years, Jamestown (IN) Christian Church has received 14 grants totaling more than $110,000″”including one used to learn how to write grant applications! The congregation, located about 30 miles west of Indianapolis, began researching the process in 2003 and was awarded its first grant in 2007. JCC has received grants for a variety of uses, including beautifying its 17-acre property, building a shelter house for public use, and maintaining its food and clothing pantry. In 2010 the church received a grant of matching funds from the Indianapolis Center for Congregations to hire a design

September 19, 2011

Christian Standard

Opening His Word, Discovering His Love

By Dave Smith When I reflect on my almost 30 years of following Jesus, God”s Word has always been central. I remember my first feeble attempts at a quiet time. It was 1982, I was a new Christian, and trying to know God through Bible study and prayer felt awkward. But gradually I experienced the reality of communing with God and having his Spirit-empowered Word transform my life. In the spring of 1983, I knew God was calling me to vocational ministry. I still had more than two years left on my Army commitment. During those years, as my wife,

September 16, 2011

Christian Standard

A Stormy and Sweet Romance

By Daniel Schantz It was one of the best funeral sermons I had ever heard, and afterward I asked the preacher how he put it together. He explained, “I take the Bible that belonged to the deceased and I look through it, noting the things that were underlined and the comments written in the margins, then I build the sermon around those.” Back home, I said to my wife, “Under no circumstances are you to give my Bible to this preacher when I die.” I love the Scriptures, but I have a tendency to interact with what I read. It”s

September 9, 2011

Christian Standard

Beauty from Ashes

By Mark A. Taylor Time and again we see and feel God”s presence most clearly in the midst of human tragedy. It”s as if we need to strip away all our pretense of self-sufficiency before we can fully submit to God, who was the only one in control all along. Consider the ongoing reports of Christians at work in the aftermath of the terrible Joplin tornado. What besides such a crisis would have stimulated the outpouring of service and generosity that Joplin residents have received at the hands of Christians from across the continent? What else could have brought the

September 8, 2011

Christian Standard

Battling Hunger with Art

This past weekend, Todd Clark, lead pastor at Discovery Church in Simi Valley, CA, launched Eat Art, a nonprofit organization that “artfully ends hunger” by selling photographs, paintings, postcards, and apparel and using the proceeds to feed hungry children in 10 countries. Sixty percent of every Eat Art purchase sends rice meal packets overseas and 40 percent goes to print and ship the art to buyers. Eat Art will send 100,000 meals to 100,000 children for the first 100,000 people who follow them on Twitter or “like” them on Facebook. Click the links to make a difference for hungry kids!

September 8, 2011

Christian Standard

Church Partners with Distillery to Help Haiti Mission

A few weeks ago we shared West Towne Christian Church“s (Knoxville, TN) partnership with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission (Zionsville, IN) to frame three buildings for Haitian churches. This week, West Towne is partnering with a less conventional organization””the Ole Smoky Mountain Moonshine distillery in Gatlinburg, TN. Church member Stephen Chen came up with the idea during the church building project when NWHCM shared the need for five-gallon buckets with handles. Chen”s son works at the distillery, which gets more than 100 of these buckets each week to ship moonshine-soaked cherries. “So far, West Towne has made three trips to Gatlinburg,”

September 7, 2011

Christian Standard

A Future Filled with Joy?

By Mark A. Taylor Not everything on Facebook is true, but I want to believe the picture posted there several weeks ago is real. It depicts an announcement board in a church hallway, with white plastic letters pushed into a black background. At the top we read: Evenings at 7 in the Parish Hall. Then this menu follows: Monday: Alcoholics Anonymous Tuesday: Abused Spouses Wednesday: Eating Disorders Thursday: Say No to Drugs Friday: Teen Suicide Watch Saturday: Soup Kitchen And then, below all this: Sunday Sermon 9 a.m. “America”s Joyous Future.” The irony made me laugh out loud, but lately

September 4, 2011

Christian Standard

Some Churches Might Qualify for Tax Refunds

By Jennifer Taylor Tom Burbrink believes tens of thousands of dollars in tax refunds are available to churches””maybe even yours! Burbrink, a tax professional specializing in service to churches and ministers, has researched the issue in light of changes made by the Affordable Care Act. The act provides federal tax refunds to small employers, and many churches and church organizations are eligible even though they pay no income taxes. To qualify for the refund, a church must have a group medical insurance plan, must pay at least 50 percent of the premium, and must offer the plan to all full-time

September 3, 2011

Christian Standard

Four Special Verses

By Sam E. Stone Out of a lifetime of Bible study, four verses have become especially significant to me over the years. Let me tell you why each is so special.   James 4:15 About halfway through my freshman year at Ozark Bible College, I became very ill. My parents sent a telegram that they would come to Joplin to help, but the message was a puzzle. It concluded with an unusual abbreviation. “Will arrive tomorrow about 6:00 p.m., TLW.” Several student and faculty friends tried to figure it out. Could TLW be short for Trailways Bus? Could it mean

August 31, 2011

Christian Standard

Church Cancels Services, Urges Members to Help Neighbors

In anticipation of this past weekend”s East Coast hurricane, Mountain Christian Church senior pastor Ben Cachiaras asked the congregation to be the church instead of going to church. MCC, located in Joppa, MD, cancelled its weekend services and urged members to participate in “Operation Irene” by helping neighbors with storm cleanup, groceries, child care, and other needs. “Let’s DELUGE our community with acts of love and service during this event,” Cachiaras wrote. “I want to urge you as strongly as I can to think hard about how you can be a light and a friend and a help to others””and

August 31, 2011

Christian Standard

Nettle Selected President of Stadia

On Aug. 29, Provision Ministry Group announced the selection of Greg Nettle as the new president of Stadia, Provision”s church planting organization. “Greg is an international church planter as well as the vision caster and senior pastor of a church planting megachurch in northern Ohio,” wrote Provision CEO Larry Winger. “Instead of plucking Greg out of that context to lead Stadia, we are leaving him right where he is to keep on practicing and perfecting.” Nettle is senior pastor with RiverTree Christian Church (Massillon, OH) and also one of the creators of Kingdom Synergy Partners, a church planting group formed

August 31, 2011

Christian Standard

Church Uses Flags to Commemorate 9/11

On Sunday, Aug. 28, volunteers at Eastside Christian Church (Fullerton, CA) planted more than 3,100 small white flags in a dirt plot outside the church building. Each of the flags represents an individual who died on Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the plane crash in Shanksville, PA. Floodlights shine on the crosses at night and a sign at the site invites people to attend Eastside”s community memorial services on Sept. 10 and 11.

August 30, 2011

Christian Standard

A Perfect Place for Disciple-Making

By Mark A. Taylor As parents of 3 million college freshmen send them off to school this year, it seems they have plenty to worry about. How will we pay for it? College costs are increasing by almost 8 percent per year, more than 6 times the rate of inflation. Many of today”s graduates are facing the job market deep in debt (an average of $26,100 for the 65 percent of grads from nonprofit private colleges last year who had student loans). Will it be worth it? The New York Times reported this spring that only half the jobs taken

August 26, 2011

Christian Standard

God Has Been Teaching Me about Giants

By Dinelle Frankland Several weeks ago, the sermon series at my church brought us to the account of Moses sending 12 spies into Canaan (Numbers 13, 14). Despite the bright promise of overflowing milk and honey, not to mention the flawless history of God”s provision for his people, the majority of this party chose to dwell on the negative: there were giants in the land. Two weeks later I was seated on an airplane next to a friendly gentleman. I discovered he was a dentist and a member of a Methodist church. We talked about the changes we both have

August 25, 2011

Christian Standard

Tutorials Help Kids Drum Up Better Grades

By Jennifer Taylor   As the school year ended, Wendy Bennett“s fourth-grade daughter, Lily, began feeling nervous about her final math tests. Bennett, pastor of family life ministry and community connections at Everyday Christian Church (New York, NY), asked Chris Travis for help. “Chris is not only our lead pastor, but has also worked as a math teacher in Harlem the last two years,” Bennett says. “Lily”s best friend soon wanted to join the sessions; then more students expressed interest. Eventually we asked the school if we could organize group tutoring.” The team worked with the administration to coordinate the

August 21, 2011

Christian Standard

A Clear Choice in a Coarse Culture

By Mark A. Taylor How do God”s people live in an ungodly world? The answer we”ve repeated most often usually includes the formula, “In the world, but not of the world.” Not as often have we enunciated specific guidelines for how to know whether the church is influencing culture more than culture is influencing the church. Perhaps there was a day when the issue wasn”t as critical as now. Some of us remember a time when the messages of our culture seemed to reflect biblical values. People didn”t swear or shack up on television. Unwed mothers and gay activists weren”t

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