Series: Mark A. Taylor

November 18, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

A Challenge for the Stay-at-Homes

By Mark A. Taylor Success stories about cross-cultural evangelism may make us want to reach unreached people in faraway places. We read articles like those posted at our site this month and decide to give more to missions, attend the International Conference on Missions, or answer our church”s call to take a short-term missions trip. Any of these responses might be good, better for sure than those of a few who may quickly skim these posts and move on because (a) they”re bored by stories about church work overseas, or (b) they”re ashamed because they feel they should be a

November 11, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Prayer Made a Difference at ReChurch

By Mark A. Taylor The big man with broad shoulders and a wide grin greeted me as I headed toward my display table. I was about finished setting up for the annual leadership conference, “ReChurch,” sponsored by Indian Creek Christian Church in Indianapolis. Better known as “The Creek,” the church hosted the event last Thursday and Friday, November 6 and 7. He greeted me with a firm handshake and introduced himself as Kevin Hart, executive minister for operations at the megachurch. I told him my name, and he asked me, “Can I pray for you?” With others passing in both

November 4, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Electing a Balanced View

By Mark A. Taylor In the face of nonstop media coverage leading up to Election Day, many in the United States are tired, cynical, or bored by it all. But that”s not me. On Election Day, I will not give in to the naysayers. Yes, I”m appalled by the millions and millions of dollars spent, often with little effect, to woo voters toward one candidate or position. Yes, I”m weary of the half-truths and media spin. I”m suspicious that what we see in political ads, Internet posts, and major interviews is a thin façade hiding unsavory truths and off-the-record deal

October 28, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

How to Succeed at Influencing Culture

By Mark A. Taylor How do you measure the success of your ministry? Joe Boyd and Rich Gorman and I talked about that for almost an hour last week in Christian Standard”s monthly Beyond the Standard online interview program, all while trying to address our assigned topic, “Church and Culture.” “The hardest thing about vocational ministry,” Boyd said, “is you never really know if you”ve done a good job or not.” Boyd doesn”t believe numbers alone can tell the story. He spoke about the ministry of Jesus who preached to the thousands but soon had only a dozen followers. And

October 21, 2014

Christian Standard

Diverse, Dynamic, and Difficult to Summarize

By Mark A. Taylor Suppose you were asked to summarize the current condition of Christian churches and churches of Christ to an interested but largely uninformed audience. That was my assignment at the Sunday-evening worship service sponsored by the Stone-Campbell Dialogue in Austin, Texas, October 5. As I reported in this space last week, I was one of three speakers, each with a similar assignment; the others spoke, respectively, about the a cappella churches of Christ and the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. Realizing that no one in our group can represent the whole group and no one can know everything

October 14, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Sowing Seeds of Unity

By Mark A. Taylor Two weekends ago (October 5, 6, 2014) I attended the 19th annual gathering of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue, this year in Abilene, Texas. It was a wonderful gathering! I had the privilege of preaching at the Minter Lane Church of Christ before the Dialogue convened, and I enjoyed rich fellowship with members and leaders of all three “streams” of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. The goal of the Dialogue is to foster understanding, trust, and partnership among these “streams”: the Christian churches/churches of Christ (my group); the traditionally a cappella churches of Christ; and the Christian Church (Disciples

October 7, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Creating, Not Attacking, the Culture

By Mark A. Taylor We were visiting the beautiful Cloisters museum and gardens in New York City and browsing through its remarkable displays of 5,000 works of medieval art. Most of the paintings, sculpture, and stained-glass windows depicted Christian images, and I found myself wondering, “Centuries from now what great art from the West will the world find as a Christian witness?” Several writers at our site this month are trying to answer that question. And all of our “Christians and culture” articles appearing here present a challenge to positive culture-shaping initiatives, some of them in ways far removed from the arts.

September 30, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Six Things I”ve Learned about Leadership

By Mark A. Taylor What would you preach if your sermon assignment was leadership? What could possibly be fresh or helpful to say about a topic that has already been the subject of a thousand books, articles, and workshop sessions? What would you add””or subtract””from this outline for the sermon I plan to preach this weekend? Godly leaders . . . “¢ are servants, not stars. Consider the ridicule and stress Noah must have felt, obeying a strange command and anticipating a horrible outcome. Think about Moses, saddled with the whining, self-centered, shallow, and headstrong Jews on a journey to

September 23, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Stopping the City Slide

By Mark A. Taylor Of all the helpful “change” pieces at our site this month, perhaps the most challenging is Glen Elliott”s account of Christians banding together to help change a city in trouble. Tucson, Arizona, according to Elliott”s report, is a decidedly un-Christian place, listed as the 12th-most post-Christian city of 100 metro areas in the U.S. And its spiritual poverty is matched by its economic and educational deficiencies. Tucson is the sixth-poorest metro area in the nation, filled with underperforming schools with terrible reputations. What kind of change could Christians make happen in a place like that? The

September 16, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

A Choice, Not a Prayer Request

By Mark A. Taylor I”ve written before about a friend in ministry who was dealing with some difficult people. “Why don”t you show them why they need to approach this problem in a different way?” I asked her. “Because people don”t change,” she said. “My telling them another way is better won”t make any difference. They”re going to do this the way they want to do it, not the way I say they should.” If she”s right, how do we ever see change happen? At least a part of the answer comes in the excellent essays by Casey Tygrett  and

September 9, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Our Focus: on the Cross?

By Mark A. Taylor “I don”t get to a Christian church very often. I don”t get to take Communion every Sunday. And when I do, I want to hear a word about the cross.” I still remember that comment spoken to me years ago by a graduate of Cincinnati Bible Seminary (now Cincinnati Christian University) who had long before quit attending a Christian church/church of Christ. Evidently, because he now belonged to a congregation that does not observe the Lord”s Supper every week, he missed it. And obviously, from years-ago training and decades of experience, he knew what was supposed

September 2, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

This Week”s Decisions about How I”ll Use the Internet

By Mark A. Taylor Among the many (too many!) Internet posts I”ve skimmed in the last week, a few have led me to some decisions about my own behavior on the worried World Wide Web. The Internet is good for much; I”m not saying we should learn to live without it. But I”m concerned about the way we Christians sometimes decide to use it. What I”ve decided: 1. We can”t relate to each other via the Internet alone. If my opinion about another Christian isn”t based on an out-of-web relationship, then I”ll think twice about discussing him or her on

August 26, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

God Is Working, God Will Work!

By Mark A. Taylor Several facts are clear as we look at reports from colleges and campus ministries posted at this site this month: “¢ These are tough times for Christian colleges. As more than one writer mentions, a perfect storm of difficult situations””sluggish economy, a smaller population of new high school graduates, higher expectations among students and parents, and greater competition, to name the most mentioned””have caused much navel-gazing and budget cutting among college administrators everywhere. Small secular colleges are facing many of the same pressures, and this is some consolation, but not enough. If the economic or cultural

August 19, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Lead On, Lead Up, Lead Now

By Mark A. Taylor No group will understand or fulfill its mission without a leader sounding the charge and setting the example. Eddie Lowen and I talked about this during my Beyond the Standard interview with him July 31. Churches need to be led, he said, and led by leaders with high integrity. We could say the same for school boards, corporations, or the government of any nation. But our experience with bad leadership in all of those environments may be one reason some are suspicious of leaders in the church. Can we find a leader more interested in his

August 12, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Four T”s for Recruiting and Keeping Volunteers

By Mark A. Taylor In many places, the first day of the new school year is on the horizon, if it hasn”t occurred already. And the local church”s Bible-teaching program is ready to gear-up too. A new season of classes, youth groups, children”s choirs, and small groups usually brings a flurry of worker recruitment. Some churches, unfortunately and ineffectively, will post “help-wanted” ads in church newsletters or make impassioned pleas from the pulpit for nursery workers and children”s teachers. But while support from the preacher can be a vital ingredient in worker recruitment, asking everyone is never as effective as

August 5, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Ready to Heal

By Mark A. Taylor Nobody forced Atlanta”s Emory University Hospital last week to accept two patients stricken with the deadly Ebola virus. Instead, Dr. Bruce Ribner, head of the Emory unit treating the sick Americans, welcomed the chance to admit them. Emory, according to Ribner, is one of only four U.S. facilities uniquely equipped to treat such a contagious disease. He told CNN, “We are not going to miss this opportunity.” Hospital staff members congratulated him for accepting the patients, he said. When he explained his decision to his wife, she responded, “Great, that”s what you”ve been dreaming of for

July 29, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Speaking the Truth, Showing the Truth

By Mark A. Taylor Today I”m remembering insights about faith-sharing in last month”s Beyond the Standard online interview. Plan to tune-in to this month”s discussion, “Ministry Today” with CHRISTIAN STANDARD columnist Eddie Lowen, this Thursday, July 31, 11 a.m. Eastern. My eye fell on a small tract, propped against the mirror on the shelf above the sink in the public restroom I was using. “Where Will You Spend Eternity?” the leaflet asked. And I remembered my own tract-distributing phase many decades ago. On one occasion, with fevered prayers, I had slipped a salvation tract into the magazine pocket behind the

July 22, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Checklist

By Mark A. Taylor My wife and I are two of the last professionals in America to use a paper calendar. It”s not that we”re opposed to digital devices. We gladly use our smartphones. I depend on Outlook to keep appointments at work, and, increasingly at home. We”re big text messagers and Facebook users. Evenings often find us at opposite ends of the kitchen table, hunched over our respective laptops. And we”ve even Skyped with a missionary friend overseas. But I organize my week around my lists, and I need those lists on a piece of paper I can keep on

July 15, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Recommitted to the Mission

By Mark A. Taylor  A large convention of Jehovah”s Witnesses met last weekend in Indianapolis, on the heels of the North American Christian Convention there Tuesday through Friday. When some JW delegates began arriving on Thursday, a teenager I know said, “I wonder if they”ll go through the hotel, knocking on every door.” We all chuckled, but later I thought, Wouldn”t it be something if OUR movement were known for persistently sharing what we believe about Christ? After last week”s convention, that could happen. President Tim Harlow”s theme for the week was ReMission, a challenge to recommit to the mission

July 8, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Their Advice””and Ours

By Mark A. Taylor Some of the best advice I ever received was from Roy Lawson, longtime member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee, and one of this magazine”s original contributing editors. “Emphasize people,” he told me when I asked for ways to make CHRISTIAN STANDARD more effective. “Highlight what people are doing. Promote their ministries and their accomplishments.” Through the years I”ve followed that advice in more ways than one, including a series of special posts you”ll be seeing at this site starting today, all of them from our July print edition”s central feature, “The Best (or Worst!) Advice I

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