Series: What’s Next?

October 26, 2013

Christian Standard

Rare Doctors, Rare Diseases, and the Church

By Brian Mavis Robert was born a perfectly healthy boy. But as his first birthday approached, his mom noticed he wasn”t progressing in his development like he had before. In fact, she was afraid he was regressing. Robert”s parents took him to see several doctors, but none of them knew what was happening to Robert. After a few more months, Robert had become completely limp, even to the point of not showing facial expressions. He became entirely unresponsive. Over the past 10 years, Robert”s parents have taken him to dozens of specialists at the best hospitals in the country. They

September 20, 2013

Christian Standard

Rebranding the Pro-Life Movement

By Brian Mavis Three groups, one mission, a new day for efforts to lift up the message of life. Joe Baker was visiting his local Apple Store when a woman grabbed him, spun him around, and passionately pleaded, “Who is killing the storks?” “What?” Baker asked, still gathering his thoughts. “Your shirt.” This woman noticed Baker”s graphic T-shirt with an image of the mythological baby-carrying stork and the corresponding message, “Save the Storks.” “Oh, yeah. It”s a big problem,” Baker said, leading her on. “Especially in North Dakota right now. Guys just go and shoot them right out of the

August 29, 2013

Christian Standard

The Orphan Care Movement Gets Deep and Wide

By Brian Mavis In 2004, 39 people gathered in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the first Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit. This year more than 2,500 people drove and flew from 49 states (what”s up, Vermont?) and more than 20 countries to Brentwood, Tennessee, to attend the annual summit. In just nine years, the orphan care ministry has widened, deepened, and become a legitimate movement.   Getting Wider The foster/adoption/orphan problem is huge and complex; there are more than 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system. Of those, adoption is an available option for 120,000. Every year about 40,000 foster

July 27, 2013

Christian Standard

¡Evangélicos Explosion!

By Brian Mavis “I really liked today”s Mass, Father.” If you are a preaching minister, you”ve probably been greeted like that after church. It”s not news that in the United States many former Catholics are attending and converting to Protestant churches. What is news, though, is that many of those Catholics aren”t from Irish or Italian decent””rather, they are Latinos.1 Latin America has been experiencing Latino conversions from Catholicism to Protestantism much longer than the U.S.: “¢ From 1900 to 2000 the number of Latin American Protestants swelled from 50,000 to 64 million! “¢ In 1930, Protestants amounted to 1

May 31, 2013

Christian Standard

What”s Next for the Missional Church?

By Brian Mavis Alan Hirsch is the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network. He also coleads Future Travelers, an innovative learning program helping megachurches become missional movements. Hirsch is known for his innovative approach to mission, and is considered to be a thought leader and key mission strategist for churches across the Western world. He is not only gifted in understanding the origin of movements, he is able to envision how to create new movements within Christianity.  Hirsch is the author of The Forgotten Ways, and is coauthor of The Shaping of Things to Come, ReJesus, and The Faith

May 6, 2013

Christian Standard

How to Take Your Ministries to the Next Level

By Brian Mavis The church has a problem. The things that matter the most””spiritual growth, changed lives, ministry impact””are the toughest to measure. How are you supposed to measure things like peace, patience, kindness, a transformed heart, and kingdom impact? As the saying goes, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Our mission is to go and make disciples of Jesus; not merely decisions for Jesus (though that is a start), but disciples. Yet it seems to me there is a disconnect between our mission and what we measure. It is not

April 21, 2013

Christian Standard

Women Preaching

By Brian Mavis Colleges are training them. Churches are using them. And Christ is being exalted. Here”s what we learned when we talked to women who preach and the professors who have taught them. Jodi Hickerson”s journey of becoming a preaching/teaching pastor began at 19 when she joined the teaching team for the high school ministry at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. A few years later she was part of the programming team at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and then at 26 became one of the teaching pastors at Heartland Community Church, Rockford, Illinois. Today she is

March 23, 2013

Christian Standard

Neighboring Churches

By Brian Mavis “From the city”s perspective, there is not a lot of difference between the way Christians neighbor and non-Christians neighbor.” The assistant city manager of Arvada, Colorado, made that statement to a group of church leaders. It left them embarrassed and convicted. But it wasn”t the first time they had heard something like that from a city leader. A month earlier a group of church leaders was meeting with Bob Frie, the mayor of Arvada. He explained that even though Arvada (population 106,000) is a great city, it has many problems typical of a city its size””delinquency, elderly

February 22, 2013

Christian Standard

Want a Better Church? Ask Better Questions

“You are a Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in . . . so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.” “”Henri Nouwen By Brian Mavis If your spouse calls and says, “I”ve just been in a car accident,” the first question out of your mouth will show what you really care about (and it will also have a direct bearing on your marital relationship). Asking, “Are you OK?” reveals love for your spouse and results in compassion and healing.

January 18, 2013

Christian Standard

Deeper Hunger for God”s Story

By Brian Mavis Eighty-five percent of American households have at least two Bibles. Eighty-five percent of Americans say they want to read their Bibles more.1 There”s an old saying, “Figures don”t lie, but liars figure.” Even so, the stats look promising, and it seems to me that Americans have the necessary ingredients””Bibles and motivation””to know God”s story better. Maybe having a deeper hunger for God”s Word isn”t “what”s next”; maybe it”s just what I wish was next. But if we listen to what people are saying, I do think it can be what”s next. In its REVEAL study, Willow Creek”s

December 30, 2012

Christian Standard

Great Open Doors

By Brian Mavis Where do you think God is asking us to join him? What great doors of effective work has God opened in the United States? It”s a question based on a biblical concept. In John 5, Jesus said the Father is always at work, and he, Jesus, looks to see where God is working and joins him in that work. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul said he would stay longer at Ephesus because a great door of effective work had opened up (16:9). In Jesus” instructions to the church in Philadelphia, he said he had

November 30, 2012

Christian Standard

The “˜New” Revelation

By Brian Mavis In celebration of the Mayan calendar ending, I dedicate this installment of “What”s Next” to eschatology. Specifically, we”ll look at a “new” interpretation of Revelation that is trending up. Let me frame the argument by mentioning the four main schools of interpreting Revelation. Preterism This view teaches that the events described in Revelation were fulfilled in AD 70 with the destruction of the temple and the fall of Jerusalem (or with the fall of the Roman Empire). Most preterists believe chapters 20-22 point to future events.   Historicism This view teaches that the prophetic symbols are the

October 26, 2012

Christian Standard

A Mormon President”” a Good Thing

By Brian Mavis Barack Obama is a professing Christian. Mitt Romney is a professing Mormon. Most of the Christian leaders I know are voting for the Mormon. The rise of Mormonism from animosity to acceptance to prominence is remarkable. In 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs gave an extermination order against the Mormons””an officially sanctioned desired holocaust. Next month, a Mormon may be our president. From death row to the Oval Office””not bad.   Mormonism Is Going Mainstream Mormonism (aka, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has achieved acceptance and status, in part, by saying they are like us.

September 22, 2012

Christian Standard

The Culture of Celebrity Pastors

By Brian Mavis Joel Osteen, Rob Bell, Francis Chan, John Piper, T.D. Jakes, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Billy Graham, Dwight L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, George Whitefield, John Wesley, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Augustine, Origen, Polycarp. Celebrity pastors are nothing new. So what”s new and what”s next? Putting ourselves first is as old as day one (I mean, day six). The difference today is that the ability to reach the fruit, feed that temptation, and be applauded for it has never been easier. Just consider these low-hanging branches: YouTube, MySpace, iTunes, iMac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone. “I, me, mine . .

July 15, 2012

Christian Standard

Megachurches: Storm Clouds Ahead?

By Brian Maris It”s not all smooth sailing for the megachurches. Church leaders I interviewed foresee some storms on the horizon. In my previous column (May 27), I shared seven positive trends megachurches are experiencing. These were gleaned from interviewing nine authors, academics, megachurch pastors, and missional church planters. These nine were overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of megachurches. But not everything they see is positive. Today, we”ll look at three concerns that were mentioned in those interviews.   1. Overfishing in Other Churches” Ponds “There are two kinds of megachurches,” states Eddie Gibbs, senior professor of church growth at

June 7, 2012

Christian Standard

Seven Positive Trends for Megachurches

By Brian Mavis I asked nine authors, academics, megachurch pastors, and missional church planters “What”s next for megachurches?”Â The nine shared enough opinions and insights for several articles, and I will develop those in upcoming issues. Several of the leaders I contacted mentioned some concerns, but this month let”s focus on identifying and distilling seven positive trends.   1. Deeper Discipleship Megachurches are growing less content with measuring attendance alone. David Faust, president of Cincinnati Christian University, said at a megachurch leaders conference he was . . . encouraged to hear a number of megachurch leaders talking about how their plans for the

April 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Trends, Turns, and Trailblazing

By Brian Mavis CHRISTIAN STANDARD asked me to write a column about “what”s next,” and I said, “OK.” When will I learn? I”m not a futurologist. I don”t know anything about horoscopes. I brewed my tea leaves, and my Magic 8 Ball is stuck on “Reply hazy, try again.” When I look into the future, the only thing I see are people confronting me with, “Hey Mavis! Where are those flying cars with onboard waffle makers you said we would have by now?” Let me clarify the purpose of this column. It”s not about predictions or prophecies; it”s about looking

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