Series: Columns

July 14, 2010

Christian Standard

Letting Go: The First Step Beyond

By Mark A. Taylor God is here. God is in control. I am not in control. And I don”t want to be. That simple testimony, offered by a middle-aged woman in a church service I visited this summer, has stayed with me through all the weeks since. She spoke of how God washed away her fears about her health and her family. She found peace when she finally decided to quit worrying and just submit her anxieties to him. “The last sentence is the biggest challenge,” someone in my group remarked afterwards. Almost everyone will say that God, or a

July 11, 2010

Christian Standard

Making a Difference at the Coffee Center

Although many people have heard the term “fair-trade” coffee, they often don”t understand the term”s meaning or the issues involved in growing and selling coffee beans. Every church has a pot of coffee going on Sunday morning; here are two groups making an international difference with every cup. Trading Up “The fair-trade designation is available only to small cooperative farming ventures, and guarantees the growers and workers receive a fair wage,” says Troy Jackson, senior minister at University Christian Church (Cincinnati, Ohio). “It also requires reinvestment of some of the profits back into the community. Many of the large plantations

July 7, 2010

Christian Standard

Hot Days, Fresh Thoughts

By Mark A. Taylor It”s summer, when days are long and nights are hot and every instinct says, “Slow down.” Some of us follow that lead, interrupting the grind of weekly production by taking breaks from school-year routines. It”s not that we stop thinking in summertime. In fact we may come across deeper insights when freed from the taskmaster of our assignment-laden, appointment-filled Day-Timers. Sipping iced-tea in the shade with our feet propped up and a good book or the Good Book on our lap, we decide afresh where to go and what God wants us to do. What should a magazine

June 30, 2010

Christian Standard

Our Gift to You, Your Gift to Us

By Mark A. Taylor I have a friend who can”t wait till Christmas to give his wife her gift. He”s so excited about his “perfect find,” he wants her to see it immediately. His anticipation for her pleasure is greater than hers! We feel the same way about the “gift” we”re offering you this week. You”re holding it in your hands, a newly redesigned version of CHRISTIAN STANDARD. Our goal was to introduce our new look with the July 18 issue we”ll distribute at the North American Christian Convention. But the design was finished ahead of schedule, and we decided, “Why

June 23, 2010

Christian Standard

Loving Sinners Outside Church-as-We”˜ve-Known-It

By Mark A. Taylor In this, our second week of “Eats with Sinners” features, we”re reminded again that we may not always be comfortable getting close to folks untouched by the gospel. When we venture outside the predictability of safe relationships inside the church, we”ll probably bump into people whose lives are messy, whose choices have been bad, and whose language or appearance or habits make us ill at ease. That”s what happened when Rick Bundschuh took seriously the mandate from a church that hired him as youth minister. “Reach unreached teenagers,” they said. But they didn”t count on “unreached”

June 9, 2010

Christian Standard

Never More Movement, Never More Questions

By Mark A. Taylor I don”t remember the author of the essay or the year it appeared in CHRISTIAN STANDARD. I know it was decades ago, probably in the late “60s or early “70s. And I remember the question the writer raised: “When will the Restoration Movement start moving again?” The essay was a plea for our churches and leaders and institutions to step out of their lethargy and isolation and to actually make something happen in our world for Christ”s sake. Maybe someone listened, because no one in Christian churches and churches of Christ today is pleading for something to move.

June 6, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Three Reads to Make You Squirm

By LeRoy Lawson Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (Carol Stream: BarnaBooks, 2008). Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversations About Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians (Carol Stream: BarnaBooks, 2007); also available on Kindle. Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009). This column isn”t going to be easy reading. Well-intentioned friends recommended all three books. Maybe they felt I needed to squirm, undoubtedly thinking I”m a little too much at ease in Zion, too comfortable in my suburban church life. Well, I read and I

June 2, 2010

Christian Standard

The Best Kind of Sermon

By Mark A. Taylor What sermons do you remember? I remember a sermon preached by Wayne Smith at a Talent Rally at Lincoln Christian College when I was just a teenager. God used that sermon to prod me toward vocational Christian service. I remember a sermon by Paul Jones preached at Cincinnati Bible College chapel that moved me and most who heard him to express appreciation to our parents. Another time in that same chapel building John Wilson preached about his daily prayer routine. And I”m still challenged to pray like he described. I”ve listened to sermons that have helped

May 26, 2010

Christian Standard

Campus Ministries”“A Strategy for Spiritual Growth

By Mark A. Taylor As we have for several years now, this week we”re publishing a directory of all the campus ministries supported by Christian churches and churches of Christ across the United States and around the world. Although these congregations pour millions of dollars into Christian colleges and universities, we do well also to remember the ministry on secular campuses indicated by the listings in this directory. Our support of campus ministries will include financial gifts, of course, but that”s only a beginning. Many of them eagerly look for involvement by local churches. Contact the campus minister close to you and

May 19, 2010

Christian Standard

The Case for Staying Connected

By Mark A. Taylor After hearing Scot McKnight speak at the Stone-Campbell Journal Conference in Cincinnati this spring, I was pleased to see what he wrote about the Restoration Movement at his popular blog (http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/)*. McKnight is a sought-after speaker and writer who teaches atNorth Park University in Chicago. His winsome and incisive commentary in Cincinnati on spirituality in our postmodern age showed why so many follow what he has to say. What he said in his blog post is especially encouraging: I contend that the Restoration Movement, or the Stone-Campbell movement, made up of the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ, is American

May 12, 2010

Christian Standard

A New Reason to Register

By Mark A. Taylor Why register for the North American Christian Convention? Well, for all the same reasons you ought to attend the North American Christian Convention, July 6-9 in Indianapolis. This year”s program promises encouragement, information, new experiences, and the chance to be challenged by nationally known church leaders. And the registration fees are a fraction of the costs you”d pay to attend other similar conferences. Of course, you could say there”s nothing else quite like the NACC. Nowhere else will you find as many friends and influencers from other Christian churches and churches of Christ all together in one place.

May 9, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Will You Lead? Will You Serve?

By LeRoy Lawson Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do? (New York: HarperCollins, 2009). Gary Hamel with Bill Breen, The Future of Management (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2007). Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (New York: Penguin Group, 2008). Does WWGD? look familiar, like maybe WWJD? If so, then Jeff Jarvis has made his point. As Christians ask what Jesus would do, Jarvis argues that organizations wanting to prosper in today”s brave new world need to ask what super-Internet-searcher Google would do, because Google does it right. No company in history has grown like it. Jarvis has “reverse engineered”

May 5, 2010

Christian Standard

Why Do Sons of Elders Become Elders Too?

By Mark A. Taylor How does a young person growing up in the home of a Christian leader decide also to become a leader? This week we suggest answers to that question as we let church leaders and the children of church leaders tell about their experiences with each other. Earlier this year, in our weekly e-newsletter* we asked elders whose sons or fathers are elders to add their insight to the mix. Their responses point up both the simplicity and the mystery of a process that may take a lifetime to complete. “I think my being asked to serve

April 28, 2010

Christian Standard

Pondering the Demands on My Abundance

By Mark A. Taylor This March I accompanied a small group of ministers as they saw firsthand the work of Christian Missionary Fellowship in Kenya. When we walked through slums in the capital city, Nairobi, all of us experienced squalor and poverty that none of us will ever forget. But as I write this, after one week home from the visit, I”m still deciding what to do with what I discovered there. Accompanied by CMF-employed social workers, Doug Priest and I visited one of the slum homes. Jane, a single mother, lives there with her mother and her two children.

April 21, 2010

Christian Standard

Tools to Help You Use the Arts

Seldom will we win a person to Christ without telling him truths of the gospel. But talking alone often is not the best first approach. This week”s writers remind us of a whole world of creativity that can engage doubters as well as disciples with the goodness of God. And I”m proud to add that Standard Publishing is getting ready to release a library of tools to help local churches use the arts in evangelism and Bible teaching. Watch for each of the following, available this June. “¢Â Stage It Right is a handbook for anyone doing drama or setting the stage

April 11, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Focusing on Grace

By LeRoy Lawson Murray Hollis, Preacher, You”ve Got Friends (Joplin: Christian Friends Connexion, 2009). Jack Cottrell, Set Free! What the Bible Says About Grace (Joplin: College Press, 2009). Michael C. Mack, Burnout-free Small Group Leadership (Houston: Touch Publications, 2009). Roger Parrott, The Longview: Lasting Strategies for Rising Leaders (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2009). Murray Hollis has done Christian church ministers a real favor. His Preacher, You”ve Got Friends compiles 25 stories by “battle-tested Christian leaders” whose personal experiences “will fortify your faith and build your determination to face your next trial or challenge.” I know most of the writers; I even knew some of

April 7, 2010

Christian Standard

It”s About More Than Just Size

By Mark A. Taylor Early in the first of his megachurch articles, Kent Fillinger gives perspective for churches of every size. The churches in this year”s list grew by an average of 4.7 percent, he reports, and points out that a church of 150 would need to add only seven to grow by the same percentage. Later, in his encouraging article about the explosion of baptisms in these churches, he calculates their 2009 baptism ratio (i.e., the number of baptisms per 100 attendees) at 7.6. To meet this standard a church of 150 would need to baptize 11 or 12 people annually.

March 31, 2010

Christian Standard

This, too, Shall Pass

By Mark A. Taylor After one of the roughest winters in memory for many Christian Standard readers, Easter and the promise of spring couldn”t have come too soon. Even as we finish preparing this issue the first week of March, the lawns of our city are still half-covered with snow. Huge hills of the stuff””dirtied by car exhaust and gravel””still tower on the edges of many parking lots. It”s difficult for us to imagine little girls in pastel dresses posing in front of daffodils and Easter lilies as we hurry about our business still trying to shrug off the cold. But we

March 24, 2010

Christian Standard

Restoration Revolution: Goals to Challenge All of Us

By Mark A. Taylor “What”s not to like when you see the values expressed in Restoration Revolution?” Ben Cachiaras asked the rhetorical question in a February presentation to Cincinnati ministers. Most rhetorical questions go unanswered, but this one deserves a response. My reaction is twofold. First: All of us can agree with the lofty visions cast by those promoting Restoration Revolution, a 10-year project that kicks off at this year”s National Missionary Convention in Lexington, Kentucky, November 18-21. The goals are contained in an easily remembered acrostic: Almighty is an invitation to prayer. Restoration Revolution challenges Christian churches around the world to

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