Series: Mark A. Taylor

July 1, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

God”s Work””and Ours

By Mark A. Taylor Several facts are clear as we look at reports from colleges and campus ministries in this issue: “¢ These are tough times for Christian colleges. As more than one writer mentions, a perfect storm of difficult situations has 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 climate is jeopardizing the future of public colleges, why should we believe it won”t threaten “ours” as well? “¢ But despite the threats, God is

July 1, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

My Advice

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, none of them more engaging than the major feature of this month”s issue. I love our “Best (or Worst!) Advice” pieces for several reasons. First, of course, is the advice

July 1, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Download Our New Free App Today!

By Mark A. Taylor When CHRISTIANS STANDARD”s print edition converted from weekly to monthly distribution almost two years ago, some potential subscribers said, “I”d read every issue””on my iPad.” Well, now they can. The new, free CHRISTIANS STANDARD app is available today for every smartphone and tablet, and we think you should download it today. (Search for “Christian Standard” at the Apple Newsstand, Google Play, or Amazon apps.) When you try the app, you”ll discover: “¢ A wealth of free content. The whole July issue is there! Plus a valuable compilation of “Ministry Today” columns by regular columnists Tim Harlow

June 24, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Size May Not Matter

By Mark A. Taylor We”ve been chronicling megachurch success for more than three decades at CHRISTIAN STANDARD. But in spite of encouraging growth, both in size and number of megachurches, an underbelly of suspicion toward them remains. Our Beyond the Standard conversation May 15 with Jud Wilhite, Dave Stone, and Don Wilson, showed this. These ministers with the three largest megachurches among the independent Christian churches shared practical ideas and thoughtful strategies””always with a spirit of humility. But too many questions from listeners contained veiled accusations of compromise to achieve numbers. So when I came across a report from Leadership

June 17, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Really Something!

By Mark A. Taylor Joe Boyd says the Bible came alive to him when he was just 8 years old. The Sunday school lesson of the day was about Jacob and Esau and how Esau, famished from a day in “the open country,” gave up his birthright for a bowl of Jacob”s stew (Genesis 25:29-34). “Our teacher told us that story,” Boyd remembers, “and then she pulled out a thermos, unscrewed the cap, and poured each of us a serving of lentil stew in a paper cup. “I”d never tasked lentil stew before, and it was good! It dawned on

June 10, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

A Permanent Solution

By Mark A. Taylor “The temporary becomes permanent.” Dale McCann, senior minister at the first church I served full-time, repeated the proverb whenever I was tempted to slap something together till we could “do it right” later. He was observing a tendency of human nature and long experience working with the local church: A cardboard sign announcing a room number might never be replaced with one professionally made. A haphazard approach to ushering or serving Communion will continue for years because no one tackles the task of organizing something more efficient. When the temporary becomes permanent at home, we see

June 3, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

A Question of Legacy

By Mark A. Taylor As I grow older I become more nostalgic, which is why I wasn”t surprised to get a bit misty-eyed at a memorial service I attended last month. The occasion was to remember retired Cincinnati Christian University professor Tom Friskney who had died January 29. But my tears were not for his faithful remaining family or for a personal sense of loss. Instead, a flood of memories washed over me when the congregation sang Friskney”s favorite hymn, “I Know Whom I Have Believed.” When we got to each chorus, I was transported back to my childhood. It

May 27, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

The Christian”s Ritual of Remembrance

By Mark A. Taylor Last Saturday, The Wall Street Journal posted a headline above a picture of a grade-school boy decorating a soldier”s grave in Virginia: “With Memorial Day Approaching, Rituals of Remembrance Begin.” But the American Automobile Association estimated more than 36 million Americans would be traveling over the holiday weekend. A spokesman suggested this year”s unrelenting winter created a pent-up longing to experience warm temperatures in wide-open spaces. And I”m wondering how many of these sun-starved campers, fliers, and interstate sojourners took time for a “ritual of remembrance.” Only a minority, most likely, but I”ll not bore you

May 25, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Clear Desks and Clean Hearts

By Mark A. Taylor No one has ever accused me of being neat. Every year for Christmas, my college roommate (everyone knew he was neat) gave me some new device for organizing my desk or dresser. It always included compartments, cubbyholes, or drawers designed to contain the clutter that filled most of the flat spaces in my room. Later, when I moved a step or two out of young adult self-absorption, I realized how patient he had been. Pilers have no trouble living with filers. My roommate”s ordered desk and organized closet never bothered me! But the well-put-together among us

May 20, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Internal Security

By Mark A. Taylor Everyone serving the Lord struggles sometimes with tension between external actions and internal motives. Am I singing or preaching or teaching because I love to be in front of people, or because I love to communicate God”s Word? Do I give out of guilt or out of gratitude? Do I approach Bible study, prayer, or weekly worship solely out of duty, or are they a delight to me? And when it comes to ministers who lead growing churches, the tensions multiply. Am I seeking church growth to build the kingdom or to build my ego? Am

May 13, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Proud, but Not Satisfied

By Mark A. Taylor Don”t count CHRISTIAN STANDARD among today”s crop of church bashers. Even when we don”t headline our cover with “I love the church,” we make a point of encouraging the local church and its leaders. But posts at our site this month give special reasons to feel positive. For example, we couldn”t agree more with Bob Russell”s local-church cheerleading. Think of all the dysfunction and distress our world would face without the healing and help the church has extended through the centuries. Then there”s Kent Fillinger”s annual update on the state of megachurches and other churches among

May 6, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Four Ways to Enrich Your Prayer Times

By Mark A. Taylor Most Christians, especially mature Christians, tend to pray the way they”ve always prayed, worship the way they”ve worshipped for years, “do devotions” the same way week after week, pursue the spiritual disciplines””or ignore them””according to their longtime habits. Maybe that”s OK, but if you have a hunch that your prayer times could be richer, that your relationship with God could be closer, that your own spiritual growth could continue, then here are some tips from David Butts and Ken Read. “¢ Pray the Psalms. Butts tells what happened when he first decided to spend more prayer

April 29, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Maybe the Answers Are Simple

By Mark A. Taylor “We make Christianity so much more complicated than it needs to be, especially when it comes to talking about millennials.” Rachel Held Evans, author of The Year of Biblical Womanhood, had 18 minutes to answer “How will millennials contribute to the future of the church?” Hers was one of 30 questions, each assigned to a different speaker at the Q Conference last week in Nashville. No one gave answers clearer than hers. “Millennials are tired of the culture wars,” Held said. “Time and again church leaders believe a few style changes are the key. But millennials

April 22, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

How Would Jesus Use a Smartphone?

By Mark A. Taylor Scene One: We sit in a restaurant and look across the aisle at a young woman and her husband, out for dinner together. He”s playing with the digital ordering device at the table (it includes games), and she”s intent on her smartphone screen. They”re eating in the same booth, but they”re really not together. Scene Two: We”re at a beautiful time-share at the beginning of a weeklong vacation with Christian friends. After dinner we settle into comfortable chairs and the sofa in the living room, each of us with a laptop or tablet computer in our

April 16, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

A Brand-New Life

By Mark A. Taylor I bumped into our backyard neighbor at the grocery store, and the conversation went from the price of groceries to the weather to “How are your kids?” And then she told me, “We”ve been going to church.” She had visited our church once, several years ago, but she had never come back. And I always felt she was embarrassed by that. But  now she was smiling. “The girls love it, and the first Sunday my 13-year-old daughter asked if she could go back that night to youth group.” Then her expression became more earnest. “It”s really

April 15, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

The Reason for This Season, Too

By Mark A. Taylor On the day before Easter in 2012 I snapped this picture in my local grocery store. The imposing, inflated bunny surrounded by candy eggs seemed a good symbol of the secular holiday and retailers” efforts to cash in on it. Not that I”m criticizing. I eat my share of chocolate eggs every year around this time. And every spring our house is decorated with Easter baskets and jellybeans””and a few of our own stuffed bunnies. But Easter, like Christmas, can get lost in the trappings if we don”t pause to meditate on the profound reasons for

April 1, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Hearing God”s Call

By Mark A. Taylor Most Thursdays I attend, and usually lead, a men”s small-group Bible study. These are good men, men committed to Christ, churchgoing men, and I couldn”t help thinking about them when I came across a newsletter from the Barna Group earlier this year. According to Barna”s research, 75 percent of American adults say they are looking for ways to live a more meaningful life. But “only 40 percent of practicing Christians say they have a clear sense of God”s calling on their lives.” I”m wondering how the guys in my group feel a sense of calling at

March 25, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Just Enough Scaffolding

By Mark A. Taylor “We all seemed to be on the same page,” Bob Russell wrote me after last week”s Beyond the Standard BlogTalkRadio program. “Maybe that made for boring listening, but it makes for a stronger brotherhood!” His comment sowed a new thought for me. Should I be looking for opposing points of view among the guests who appear on these monthly programs? For this episode, could I have found Christian leaders to disagree with “We”re not the only Christians, but we are Christians only”? Maybe. At least one comment about CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s March issue, devoted to that centuries-old

March 18, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Extending a Hand and Standing Firm

By Mark A. Taylor The cover headline on Christian Standard”s July 2, 2006 edition was “We Are NOT the Only Christians.” The lead article was from a book written by Rick Atchley and Bob Russell, a small volume about Christian unity titled Together Again*. The book”s publication coincided with the historic 2006 North American Christian Convention, whose theme and goal was to repair wounds and open doors between a cappella churches of Christ and independent, instrumental Christian churches and churches of Christ. But the book talked about more than that division. It also offered a challenge for how we view

March 11, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Staying Connected”“It”s to Our Benefit!

By Mark A. Taylor The following column first appeared at this site in 2008, but it strikes me, with a couple of tweaks,  as remarkably current still today. So while I’m on vacation this week, let me offer it for your consideration. I’m guessing many readers have forgotten it or missed it when it first appeared! Christ followers outside our movement are often intrigued when they get to know us better. They”re impressed first with the accomplishments of Christian churches and churches of Christ: “¢ Dynamic missions work “¢ World-class church planting initiatives “¢ Creative leadership of new approaches like

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