Solving the Church Leadership Crisis
A New Collaboration with NationsUniversity to Develop Leaders Where They Are Already Planted and Working
Series: Featured
May 1, 2022
Military Chaplaincy (It May Not Be What You Think)
By Lt. Jamin M. Bailey “What the [blank] is this?” The sergeant exploded into the barracks room, crossed it with long strides, and cornered two Marines against a wall. The young Marines, their thin frames fresh from the Crucible of boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, snapped to attention, fear in their eyes. The angry sergeant unleashed a steady stream of loud profanity as two terrified female Marines came out of the “head” (restroom) and the four young people were hustled outside. On the concrete outside the barracks, three more sergeants joined the fray and the tension skyrocketed. Knife
March 1, 2022
Authentic Leadership
By Michael C. Mack What is authentic Christian leadership? It may be best to begin with how it’s different from secular leadership. Authentic Christian leadership is a lifelong process. I’ve seen secular self-help books and blogs that provide simple steps to leadership, but becoming a leader after God’s own heart takes constant, everyday, deep-rooted transformation of the mind and heart as led by the Holy Spirit. Christian leadership happens first in loving, abiding communion with God, and second, in the environment of loving community with others. It’s rare to hear secular leadership described using the word love, but Christian leadership
March 1, 2022
Authentic Worship in the Modern Era
By Corbin Marshall I stand on a stage professionally illuminated by theatrical lighting. Several expertly trained camera operators aim high-definition cameras in my direction. My likeness and voice are amplified throughout a large auditorium as well as broadcast across multiple online platforms. I’m holding a guitar. A wireless in-ear pack is fastened to my belt and I’m wearing headphones. A click track provides a constant tempo to our band. At any point, a producer can discretely inform me whether our teaching pastor has made it back from our other church campus. I chose this set list of songs several weeks
March 1, 2022
Authentic Influence
By Kyle Idleman A word you hear a lot these days, a word that drives a lot of social media ambitions and daily decisions, is influencer . . . and underneath that word is a deep desire we all have. Nobody grows up dreaming of waking up, going to work, heading home, watching Netflix, scrolling through social media, and then doing it all over again the next day until their last breath. We all want to be used to change the world. We don’t want to spend our lives being time-wasters, or space-takers, or binge-watchers, or game-players, or even book-readers.
March 1, 2022
Finding Authenticity in the Middle
By Renee Little Recently I couch shopped for an entire weekend. My two young boys “test drove” every couch by bouncing from one to another. (It’s a good thing couches cannot experience fear.) I was more careful during this search than on a previous couch-shopping expedition. This time, before I would even sit on one to try it out, I read the tags to verify the couch was made from genuine leather. You see, I once made the mistake of buying a “pleather” couch; it was nice at first, but soon cracks and chips appeared. I was not making that
March 1, 2022
Authentic Community
By Rick Lowry God created every person with a “community gene.” We all have a natural longing to be with other human beings. From an early age, we have known the value of being a member of a group. Everyone grew up in some version of a family, a place where we belonged, living with significant others who helped shape us. We are in community, in groups, every day: the staff team at work, the board or committee on which we serve, the Thursday night Bunko ladies group, the guys who gather to watch NFL games—all small groups that satisfy,
March 1, 2022
Authentic Jesus
By Tim Harlow To me, the best way to understand Jesus is found in one story in John 4 where the text tells us he “had to go through Samaria.” That single statement may sum up his entire ministry. Most Jewish people traveling from Judea up to Galilee did not go through Samaria—even though it was the shortest route. The Jews had disdain for the Samaritans, who were largely descendants of the Israelites but whom the Jews viewed as political and religious rivals, so they usually would go out of their way to avoid passing through that region. Yet Jesus
March 1, 2022
Authentic Disciple-Making: 5 Essentials
By Bobby Harrington Fifteen years ago, I started waking up every day focused on disciple-making. In my roles as a pastor, trainer of church planters, network leader, and coach, it became my obsession. I did this because I came to believe disciple-making is the core mission of the church. Just as importantly: I came to believe disciple-making is the key to Christian faithfulness in this cultural moment. Disciple-making has become such a passion that I have now published over 10 books on the topic, initiated and led multiple national conferences on the topic, and cofounded three national networks for church
March 1, 2022
Authentic Statistics
By Kim Harris The years 1981 and 1997 don’t have a lot in common. Both years followed presidential elections, but 1981 inaugurated a new president while 1997 welcomed back the leader from the previous term. Both years saw advancement in space exploration with 1981 witnessing the first space shuttle flight, while the Mars Pathfinder landed in 1997. However, it seems the differences between those two years far outweigh similarities. The cultural environment across sports, entertainment, pop culture, economics, and politics shifted significantly during that 16-year span. One thing that didn’t change in that time, though, was the most common baby
March 1, 2022
The Search for Authentic Church Membership
What Leaders Were Saying About This Topic 90–150 Years Ago, from the Christian Standard Archives
March 1, 2022
Authentic Church: What Baseball Can Teach Us
By Tony Burgarello “Let’s play two”—it’s one of the greatest baseball quotes of all time. It came from Ernie Banks, a Baseball Hall of Famer and Chicago Cubs legend. For nonbaseball fans, Ernie played professionally from 1953 to 1971, served in the military, was an All-Star on the field, and set countless records. On top of all that, he was an ordained minister who made a tremendous impact in the community his entire life. He was a difference maker! He received nearly every award you could imagine for his achievements on and off the field. Ernie, who died in 2015,
March 1, 2022
Authentic Gospel
By Mark E. Moore Words get tossed about recklessly. We use love for a sweater and a spouse. Few things are actually awesome. And like has been functionally reduced to a comma in common vernacular. Most of the time this loose language matters little. But when it comes to the bedrock of our faith, we might want to be a little more faithful to the meaning of our words. So, let’s start with this question: What precisely is “the gospel”? THE GOSPELS OF THE GREEKS AND THE ROMANS The term gospel, which literally means “good news,” was not originally a
Authentic Preaching
By Chris Philbeck In a scene from Walk the Line, a 2005 biographical movie on the life of Johnny Cash, Johnny and his band are in a studio with music executive Sam Phillips. The musicians are auditioning a gospel tune, but they are performing with little emotion or conviction. Finally, Phillips interrupts: “Hold on. Hold on. . . . Do you guys got something else?” After some interesting dialogue where the angry singer says Phillips is accusing him of not believing in God, Cash finally protests, “Well, you didn’t let us bring it home.” “Bring it home?” Phillips asks in
The Ministry Pipeline
Restoration Movement colleges struggle to produce enough ministry graduates to meet the growing need for pastors. College presidents explain why.
Recruitment: How Do Restoration Movement Churches Find Talented Leaders to Fuel Growth?
By Kevin Stone Since the beginning of our church in Pennsylvania, staffing has been among our biggest challenges. There is a continuous, ever-increasing need for people to lead stuff! As we all know, without a constant flow of good people, it’s very difficult to grow. Hiring from the Outside Your church has a leadership need, so you go to an outside recruiting firm for help. You know the process—you write a position description and start the search. I wish it were that simple. Our desire to prevent theological drift requires that we recruit from within the tribe, so to speak. And finding
The Alternatives: Nontraditional Forms of Christian Education
In a world where traditional Bible colleges and universities face many challenges, what options (and opportunities) are emerging for theological and ministry training . . . and how do they stack up?
January 1, 2022
Building a Leadership Pipeline
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13). As 2020 started, the church in America was already coping with issues ranging from racial tensions to gay marriage, all while competing with sports for a family’s attention on Sunday mornings. Then COVID-19 arrived in full
January 1, 2022
Where Do Church Planters Come From?
What do a lawyer, a football player, and a youth pastor have in common? It might sound like the setup to a bad joke, but it isn’t. All three are examples of professionals who recently left their jobs to plant independent Christian churches in the United States. Many of today’s church leaders are asking where tomorrow’s church leaders will come from. That’s a critical concern among church planters as well. In fact, Stadia president Greg Nettle says, “The number one challenge we face right now is our leadership pipeline of church planters.” Nettle and other church-planting leaders estimate it will
Pastors Are Quitting; What We Can Do to Help
Pastors in Restoration Movement churches quit at an alarming rate. According to research from the Christian Church Leadership Network, 70 percent of Bible college graduates in the Restoration Movement leave pastoral ministry within the first 10 years.* That means 7 out of 10 current Bible college students called to pastoral ministry in this movement probably will not last a decade. How might we better develop and grow healthy leaders? In what ways might we support the leaders we already have so they last a lifetime in ministry? The future of our movement and the health of our churches is at
