Articles for tag: America

June 28, 2015

Michael C. Mack

Best Practices for Elders Discipling Younger Men

By Michael C. Mack QUESTION: We, as elders, are looking at discipling some of the younger men. Can you suggest some of the best programs or curriculum?  ANSWERS: “Start an authentic personal relationship with them. If this doesn”t happen, nothing else will. I work in corporate America, in addition to my roles in the church. I have seen in both entities efforts to “˜assign” mentors, and this just doesn”t work. You have to have a relationship with someone before you can mentor them.” “”Michael Fountain, elder, Minerva (Ohio) First Christian Church “My most fruitful times of discipleship have been very

January 27, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

It”s Not Just a Woman”s Issue

By Mark A. Taylor It”s time to broaden our discussion about women”s roles in the church. And before you click to the next article, let me assure you I”m not interested here in debating whether to ordain a woman staff member, add a woman to the preaching team, or name a woman as deacon (or elder). You”ve likely already decided about those questions, and I”m not going to change your mind with 600 more words. Instead, I think we need to back up and look at a bigger picture. While debating and discussing specifics like those above, maybe we”ve been

December 31, 2014

Christian Standard

The War on Sleep

By Jim Tune Have you ever heard people brag about how little sleep they require? An article in The Spectator magazine highlighted this problem in modern America: Our war on sleep is hard to miss. TV interviewers ask today”s hard driving achievers how long they sleep. . . . When the guest leaves, the interviewers bat the question around with each other, boasting about pulling “all nighters” or claiming “I”m OK with five,” revelling in a festival of one-down manship. If the standard recommendation of eight hours a night gets mentioned, it is treated with genial contempt. Napoleon, Florence Nightingale,

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

September 1, 2013

Christian Standard

Taking Christ to Patrons of Local Clubs and Bars

By Jennifer Johnson It took a trip to Bosnia for Daron Earlewine to launch a new ministry in America. “The coffee shops become pubs in the evening,” he says. “At midnight they close and all the adults go to dance clubs. It dawned on me the same thing happens in every town in America””adults are gathering at bars and clubs. And if we could find a way to “˜own” those rooms, we could impact thousands of people.” Earlewine, then on staff at East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, also played drums in a rock band. He suggested they try

April 16, 2013

Christian Standard

Better Than Leaving

By Mark A. Taylor Last week I came across a quote by a famous poet (although I hadn”t heard of him), and it resonated with an issue I”ve been pondering awhile. Rod Padgett, writing in How to Be Perfect, said this: “Forgive your country every once in a while. If that is not possible, go to another one.” At first we might call the advice absurd. “I can”t go to another country. My family is here. My work is here. I was born here, and things should change so I can be happier here! After all, I”m right about what”s

September 3, 2012

Christian Standard

A Call to 40 Days of Prayer

By Staff Dave Butts, founder of Harvest Prayer Ministries (Terre Haute, IN) and chairman of America”s National Prayer Committee, has set up www.40daysofprayer.net to provide information, prayer guides, and links to ministries sponsoring prayer efforts for the 40 days leading up to this year”s elections. The ministry writes, “The challenge is not to pray for a specific candidate, but simply to have 24/7 prayer for our nation during that time. We are beyond political solutions for our nation, but we are desperate for God”s intervention. We are challenging people to pray God”s purposes for our nation, revival in the church, and

August 21, 2011

Christian Standard

A Clear Choice in a Coarse Culture

By Mark A. Taylor How do God”s people live in an ungodly world? The answer we”ve repeated most often usually includes the formula, “In the world, but not of the world.” Not as often have we enunciated specific guidelines for how to know whether the church is influencing culture more than culture is influencing the church. Perhaps there was a day when the issue wasn”t as critical as now. Some of us remember a time when the messages of our culture seemed to reflect biblical values. People didn”t swear or shack up on television. Unwed mothers and gay activists weren”t

July 3, 2011

Christian Standard

“˜And God Bless America”

By Doug Priest Perhaps I am not the only one who has a visceral reaction when politicians (and I do not mean only the presidents) end their speeches with the phrase, “And God bless America.” I cringe every time I hear that, and it is not just because it seems highly hypocritical when so many of the politicians who use the phrase are later caught up in ethical scandals or involved in illicit liaisons. Nor is it because the slogan is pandering, politically tacked on the end of a message to score points with others, but used by many who

July 2, 2011

Christian Standard

“˜God Bless America”

By Mark A. Taylor More than a decade ago, my congregation hosted a patriotic pageant each year called “Sea to Shining Sea.” We had a huge adult choir, a children”s choir, a live orchestra, actors, and dancers. We welcomed color guards from all the armed services. We sang every patriotic song you know, including one that invited veterans from every branch of the service to stand and receive the cheers of the crowd. Fireworks accompanied the songs, and after the last note, everyone sat with necks craned to the sky and enjoyed 20 minutes of the rockets” red glare. Our

June 29, 2011

Christian Standard

Behind Closed Doors

By Mark A. Taylor   He is an Arab Christian with a ministry in the Middle East. And to start he says he could not speak freely with me in his home country. There our conversation would not continue, he said, until he had removed the battery from his cell phone. “Why?” I ask. “Surveillance.” “They would bug your cell phone to listen to your conversations?” I said to him in disbelief. “It happens,” he said calmly. “If I were to openly speak with a Muslim about becoming a Christian, life would become very difficult for me and for him,”

February 10, 2011

Christian Standard

He”s Taken Up Residence

By Dave Butts I”ll never forget that Thursday night in April 1983. I had been struggling for months to understand what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That night at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee, I heard Argentinean evangelist Juan Carlos Ortiz speak these simple words, “To be filled with the Spirit is to be continually conscious of Christ in you.” From that point on, I had a life verse that has shaped my life and ministry: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Before that time, I certainly had understood biblically, theologically, and intellectually

September 23, 2009

Christian Standard

What We Do, Why It Matters

By Mark A. Taylor Actually what we do at the North American Christian Convention is not dramatic. We talk. We eat. We laugh. We sing. We pray. We listen to sermons, some of them excellent. Some of us go to meetings. Often we encounter people with names we recognize, but we”ve never actually met them before. How could we, when we live across the country from each other and they”re busy with their ministries while we”re occupied with our own? This is how it has been through the decades. The beauty of the NACC is its simplicity, its predictability, its

July 5, 2009

Christian Standard

A Test of Our Times

  By Rod Roberts The opening sentence of Charles Dickens”s A Tale of Two Cities describes the era of the French Revolution: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” That well-known literary line underscores why leaders need to discern the times in which they live. Had Louis XVI understood this crucial leadership principle, he may have avoided the distinction of being the only king of France to be executed. Do you ever consider how important the times today may be to the flow of human history? Even Scripture underscores the importance of understanding the times

March 18, 2009

Christian Standard

Our Money Can Point People to Jesus

By Mark A. Taylor In a day when physical needs are multiplying and some non-Christians ridicule or distrust the church, extravagant giving by Christians is sure to get attention. So it”s no surprise that Waterfront Community Church in Schaumburg, Illinois, has received national coverage. The church gives away each week”s offering! (See this week’s “Buzz.”) But the church didn”t begin the practice to get publicity. According to “servant of pastoral care” Jim Semradek, Waterfront”s strategy is simply to point people to Jesus. In an interview on K-LOVE radio, he said, “Money is a tremendous vehicle to help people consider God.”

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