Articles for tag: Alexander Campbell

February 20, 2014

Christian Standard

The Big Little Book

By Daniel Schantz   This compact Bible commentary from Standard Publishing has been helping teachers since the days of President Eisenhower. I had no idea how big Sunday school was until I read Robert Lynn”s book, The Big Little School. Turns out, some very big names were once Sunday school teachers, including Francis Scott Key and General Robert E. Lee. Several U.S. presidents were Sunday school teachers: James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter. Numerous business tycoons were teachers, including John D. Rocke- feller (Standard Oil), William Colgate (toothpaste), James Kraft (cheese), and H.J. Heinz (ketchup).

October 14, 2013

Christian Standard

New Signs of Hope in Eastern Canada

By Jim Tune Eastern Canada (Ontario and the Maritime provinces) was the seedbed for what finally became known as the Restoration Movement in Canada. Long before the thoughts of Barton Stone were circulated north of the 49th parallel, and several decades before Alexander Campbell visited the Canadian churches, a simple movement””similar, but not identical to that in the United States””took root in Canada. It was an appeal to model the church according to the simple doctrine and polity of the New Testament, to pursue unity, and to discard denominational labels and creeds. Scottish “restorationists” arrived upon the shores of New

December 10, 2012

Jerry Harris

Rediscovering the Sacred Stones

A church”s new multisite campus. A town steeped in history. The grave of a Restoration Movement pioneer”s wife. A reflection on what this frontier preacher stood for, and the message we still proclaim today.  By Jerry Harris There she was. Her stone lying on its back, broken and weathered among scores of neglected reminders of lives long since past. The inscription was hard to read because of a combination of age, moss, and dirt, but careful examination gave witness to the precious soul long forgotten to so many.   Celia W. Wife of Elder B.W. Stone Died Apr. 23, 1857

October 22, 2012

Christian Standard

Africa and Afghanistan, Ethics and Unity

By LeRoy Lawson Say You”re One of Them Uwem Akpan New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008 The Places in Between Rory Stewart Orlando: Harvest Original/Harcourt, 2004 Just Ministry: Professional Ethics for Pastoral Ministers Richard M. Gula Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2010 The History of the Open Forum on the Mission of the Church 1983″“2009 John Mills Middleburg Heights: Open Forum/Southwest Christian Church, 2011 Oprah”s Book Club is not my usual source to find a good read. Not that good books aren”t there. It”s just that my interests and her recommendations haven”t often jibed. That is, until now. Or until 2009,

October 13, 2012

Christian Standard

Reading for Enrichment: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 9)

By Marshall Hayden   It”s great advice! “Read broadly” we have been told. It will enrich your life, your thinking, and your preaching. It”s true. But until retirement came, the stack of interesting books””purchased but unread””just kept getting taller. Now there is the fine advantage of carrying a little electronic thingamajig, rather than a bag or briefcase full of books. Maybe you will start taking that good advice earlier than I did. You may be like our remarkable friend, Roy Lawson, whose reviews you read on the pages of Christian Standard. He is not yet retired. Well, twice retired, but

March 16, 2012

Christian Standard

The Table

By William Baker The original Supper of the Lord took place at a table (Luke 22:21, 30; John 13:28; 1 Corinthians 10:21). Friends gathered together in a large second-story banquet room to share a meal. But they did more than eat; they talked and sang and celebrated. This was a Passover meal, a festival meal reliving God”s rescue of the Jewish people from slavery and infant genocide. They ate greens and bitter herbs dipped in a spicy sauce, along with flat, unleavened bread. They drank wine, sharing sips out of at least three passed cups. They ate meat, one of

February 6, 2012

Christian Standard

More Than a Memorial

By Tom Lawson The language we use when talking about Communion has a great deal to do with our history. A quick review of any English Bible will demonstrate words like memorial or emblematic or symbolic are not found in any of the passages about Communion. So, where do they come from and why do we hear them so often? The flip side of that question might be: Why are there a number of biblical phrases and teachings about the Lord”s Supper we rarely hear? To understand why we hear what we hear, it is important we take a brief

November 23, 2011

Christian Standard

Biblical Interpretation in the Restoration Movement

By Mark Weedman The history of the Restoration Movement is diverse and complex, and summarizing it is necessarily difficult. But some general patterns do emerge, and we can use those patterns to gain an overview of how followers of the Restoration Movement have approached biblical interpretation. Three moments in that history stand out as especially important in shaping how Thomas and Alexander Campbell and their followers would interpret the Bible. The first was the appearance of Thomas Campbell”s Declaration and Address, a seminal document that established the movement”s governing plea. The second moment was a debate between Isaac Errett and

November 22, 2011

Christian Standard

Reading the Text on Its Own Terms

By Mark Scott “Good Bible interpretation is letting the text have its own voice.” “True interpretation is what the author intended to say.” “Always strive for the AIM (author”s intended meaning).” “A text cannot mean what it never meant.” “Meaning is singular; significance is plural.”   I heard and/or read all of the above statements in my Bible college days. Each one made sense to me. I trusted their sources. I embraced them. They served me well. I was good to go on interpreting the Scriptures. But something happened along the way. The supposed plain talk of interpreting the Bible

July 20, 2011

Christian Standard

The Holy Spirit in the Early Restoration Movement

By Jim North The understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit has often caused energetic discussion within the ranks of the Christian churches/churches of Christ. This is the case today, just as it was in the early days of our movement 200 years ago. As a result, it might do us well to look at the thinking of some of our early leaders about this much-debated topic. For simplicity, we will look particularly at the thinking of Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell. Stone and Campbell were two of the most important leaders of this frontier movement. They agreed

June 13, 2011

Christian Standard

What About Christian Churches?

We asked former contributing editor Robert Wetzel to get answers from scholars to a question we have considered in several different ways in recent months: What is the future of our movement of churches? By C. Robert Wetzel ________ The future always grows out of the past, of course, so this week we decided to put the question before three historians: Paul Blowers, Dean E. Walker professor of church history at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee. Doug Foster, professor of church history; director, Center for Restoration Studies, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas. Newell Williams, president and professor of modern

May 29, 2011

Christian Standard

The Brush Run Church

By Calvin Warpula In 1809 when Thomas Campbell wrote the Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington [Pennsylvania], he had no plan to start a separate church. He strongly opposed sectarianism and all human creeds and promoted unity among all believers in Christ on the basis of the Scriptures only. His son, Alexander, who arrived from Ireland later that year, agreed with and supported his father”s views. On Saturday, May 4, 1811, at its semiannual meeting, the Christian Association decided to transform itself into a local church because its calls for unity based on Scripture had been rejected

March 12, 2011

Christian Standard

Interview with Douglas Foster

By Brad Dupray Douglas Foster is director of The Center for Restoration Studies at Abilene (Texas) Christian University, where he also serves as professor of church history. ACU is primarily affiliated with the a cappella churches of Christ, but Foster brings a broad knowledge of the Restoration Movement as a co-editor of The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement and of the forthcoming World History of the Stone-Campbell Movement (due from Chalice Press in 2012). He completed an undergraduate degree at David Lipscomb University and earned a PhD in church history at Vanderbilt University, both in Nashville, Tennessee. Foster has taught

August 11, 2010

Terry OCasey

New Testament church

Myth Busting

Terry O’Casey challenges churches to move beyond narrow claims about being “New Testament” and recover a fuller biblical vision of discipleship, worship, baptism, leadership, discipline, and unity.

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