Series: Featured

Devotionals

Abiding Peace in Troubled Times

By Jessie Wells Clark It was the Christmas season in 1940, but there was no peace. England was at war, and Nazi bombers were raining death and destruction from the air. Yet, in London’s underground shelters, the people sang, seemingly oblivious of the pandemonium above: O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by;Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light.The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. What a picture that must have brought to the minds of those singers! Perhaps

November 22, 2020

Doug Crozier

Christian Living

My Road to Peace

—This content is sponsored by The Solomon Foundation— As the pandemic unfolded in March, I quickly became concerned . . . about catching the virus, about our economy, and about churches. On March 9, during my last airline flight (from Detroit to Denver) before most everything shut down, it became obvious to me I was not the only one concerned. Before that week ended, our country was in total lockdown. I could feel the tension rising within me, and I could sense the tension in others. As with many others, my wife and I spent a great deal of time

October 24, 2020

Ministries & Nonprofits Organizations & Events

‘UNPRECEDENTED’: How CMFI Has Endured the Pandemic’s Challenges . . . and Their Plans for the Future

By Kip Lines People use the term “unprecedented” to describe the COVID-19 global pandemic. But in the grand story of God’s mission in the world, we are not living in unprecedented times. There have been pandemics before. There have been times God’s people could not gather, and yet the church has persevered and grown. Even during the last 100 years, the Restoration Movement has dealt with uncertainty and challenges. In fact, after the first few North American Christian Conventions were held from 1927 to 1929, the Great Depression and World War II dictated that the gathering would happen only seven

October 24, 2020

Job 1 Is Still Job 1

A global pandemic brought many changes to how we carry out our international ministry, but it hasn’t changed our mission. By Jeff Metzger The international mission sending agency I lead had lots of crisis plans. We prepared for many emergencies. We had a plan for hurricanes. We had a plan for kidnappings and political unrest. We had a plan for emergency evacuation. We had a plan for sudden illness or death. But we didn’t have a plan for a global pandemic or its ongoing consequences. Now we do! Our plan continues to grow and evolve. By God’s grace, we are

October 24, 2020

The Mission that Became a Movement

One mission launched by J. Russell and Gertrude Morse nearly 100 years ago produced several global movements that have impacted millions. Today, third- and fourth-generation members continue to serve as missionaries. Here’s the story—in words and pictures—of those involved through the years. By Ziden L. Nutt The last trunk had been lowered into the hold of the ship. The gangplank was withdrawn. The engines throbbed and quivered. The Empress of Japan seemed to shudder as it swung away from the pier on August 13, 1921. Among those on board were Dr. and Mrs. Albert Shelton and J. Russell and Gertrude

October 24, 2020

Apologetics & Worldview

Remembering Ravi Zacharias (1946–2020)

Zacharias began a movement that helped thinkers to believe while also challenging believers to think. By Brett A. Seybold For many people, Ravi Zacharias’s use of lofty words and concepts could cause blisters on the brain. After all, how many Christians have actually delved into such disciplines as literature, philosophy, world religions, theology, and the history of human thought, let alone incorporated them into their messages and daily walk in such palpable ways as he did? Still, for others, his academic accolades were not prestigious enough. Some faulted his credentials, pointing out that honorary doctorates do not equate to actual

October 24, 2020

The Future of Missions in a Post-Pandemic World

By Ben Simms What impact will COVID-19 have on the future of missions? This is an important question to ponder, no matter your church role. The pandemic will impact how we allocate church resources. It already has affected the deployment of church members for mission activities. It no doubt will alter mission programming for years to come. What will stay the same and what will need to change? What has already changed? We all are grappling with the impact of COVID-19 on the future of the Great Commission. As we wrestle with these questions, I would propose three key reflections:

October 24, 2020

Raising the Bar on Kingdom Impact

How the Pandemic Helped Our Church Find Clarity and Conviction for Global Involvement By Dave Stewart Unexpected. Unpredictable. Unsettling. There are a lot of uns we could use to describe this past year. Unproductive is not one of them. At Compassion Christian Church in Savannah, Georgia, God showed up in a very Romans 8:28 way, but it certainly wasn’t in a form we expected or predicted. Yes, we scrambled like most to get some of our workers home, to equip others who remained on the field, and to resource our partnerships in areas hardest hit by the pandemic. And we

October 24, 2020

Doug Crozier

We Must Not Forget the Mission Field

—This content is sponsored by The Solomon Foundation— A pastor recently shared with me that he never had a Bible college class that focused on ministering during a pandemic. I told him I never had a class in business school about how to cope with a pandemic, either. We are living in extraordinary times. When crises arise, Americans usually get to work to find solutions. This is certainly true with our church leaders; I have seen them rise to the occasion many times. Churches across our nation have been affected differently by the coronavirus. Some church buildings still are closed,

October 24, 2020

Sharing the Bread of Life with a Used Table

How Our Church Is Making a World of Difference with International Students By Tom Ellsworth The bursts rang out on that sultry, July 4 Sunday morning in 1999. They weren’t firecrackers, but gunshots . . . fired at attendees gathered in front of the Korean United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Indiana. Won-Joon Yoon, a Korean student at Indiana University, was gunned down on his way into worship. The cowardly white supremacist had fired randomly into the crowd and taken an innocent life. The city was stunned. At the time, my dear friend Carthell Everett—part of the Sherwood Oaks Christian Church

October 24, 2020

The Pandemic’s Impact on International Missions (and What We All Can Learn from It)

By David Empson The church in America could learn much from how foreign missionaries persevered during the coronavirus while continuing to advance the cause of Christ. In early April, I received an email update from sisters Megan and Michelle Moss, missionaries serving in Tanzania. At the time, most Americans were still homebound and wrestling with internet issues, virtual meetings, and restaurant withdrawal. Mostly, we were wondering how long this pandemic would last. The Mosses wrote: ________ Many times, as missionaries, we really need you to be there for us. But right now, we’re seeing how God has equipped us in

October 24, 2020

Short-Term Shutdown

When the pandemic suspended their short-term mission trips indefinitely, churches responded at home and abroad. Here are three alternatives they’ve discovered. By Justin Horey Just weeks into the new year, Riley Weaver sensed that 2020 might be an unprecedented year for his ministry. He didn’t have a premonition about the pandemic—quite the contrary. Early in the year, Weaver thought 2020 could be the first year on record that he didn’t have to cancel, postpone, or reschedule a single short-term mission trip. It was an exciting thought for Weaver, the global and local impact minister at Plainfield (Indiana) Christian Church. Plainfield

September 22, 2020

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

Creswell Cares

By Crystal Kupper The word grandma used to be very scary for Jayme Walker Hill’s foster daughter. “Any time I would talk about my grandma,” said Hill, her foster daughter would share from her own life experience, saying, ‘My grandma was mean.’” “We would try to avoid that word, but she would still cry and be very fearful around older women.” Hill and her husband soon learned that their new foster daughter had been abused by her former adoptive parents, an older couple. The girl, now 19, operates at about the mental level of an 8-year-old. But this isn’t a

September 22, 2020

Different Environments, Different Approaches (Ministering in the Midst of COVID-19)

Urban, Suburban, and Rural Church Leaders Share Their Experiences of Leading Through a Pandemic By Chris Moon No two churches are the same, even in how they have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, the virus has left a mark on Restoration Movement congregations and pastors across the country. For some churches and pastors, especially in rural, conservative areas of the country, the pandemic seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. The major difficulty was figuring out how to get the internet to cooperate during a brief closure. “There’s a lot of things you face like that

September 22, 2020

Kent E. Fillinger

Four Opportunities for Every Church in the New Reality

By Dave Ferguson On March 12, 2020, I made two different versions of a video, knowing only one of them would be sent to our entire church. In the first video, I said we would stick to our normal schedule with 26 services at 11 locations across Chicagoland. In the second video, I introduced a new reality by telling everyone our church facilities were closing and we were moving everything online. After I finished recording the videos, my wife and I headed to O’Hare International Airport to fly to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We were planning to see our youngest son,

September 22, 2020

Kent E. Fillinger

The Financial Impact of COVID-19 on Christian Churches

By Kent E. Fillinger As I write this in late June, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to morph daily as it impacts the world, economy, and church in innumerable ways. During the week of June 7, I conducted a COVID-19 Church Impact Survey to take a “snapshot” of how churches fared during the initial three months of quarantine (March to May) and what they anticipated would be happening over the next three months (June to August) as many started to regather for in-person worship services. A total of 334 church leaders from 39 states responded, providing a balanced cross-section of all-sized

September 22, 2020