Articles for tag: C.S. Lewis

April 25, 2010

Christian Standard

Literature as a Tool for Spiritual Growth

By Marvin D. Hinten I was led to Christ by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Most people are led to Christ by someone they know””a friend or relative””not an individual who”s been dead for a hundred years. And, for obvious reasons, most people are led to Christ by a Christian. But I became a Christian through reading a poem by Emerson in a high school English class. So I have experienced firsthand the power of literature to connect readers with God. Most Christian leaders, when thinking of books they “ought to read,” think of nonfiction. One should read theology and church management

September 6, 2009

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us

By LeRoy Lawson Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008). Frank Schaeffer, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2007). If it hadn”t been for Francis and Frank Schaeffer, the car wouldn”t have hit me and I wouldn”t have gone to the hospital. If the elder Schaeffer hadn”t been such a prominent Christian leader in the 1970s, I wouldn”t have been crossing the street in front of the Indianapolis

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

The Celebration of Congregationalism

by C. Robert Wetzel As a young man I spent too much time thinking about what was wrong with the church without reflecting enough on how much I was blessed in being a part of it. And when I thought of church, it was both the local congregation and broader expressions of church. There was, of course, an idealized version of what the pure, New Testament church was supposed to be, but if the ideal existed, it must be in another town, another state, or another country. Thankfully, the older I grew the more I began to see what is

July 12, 2009

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us

By LeRoy Lawson A. J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man”s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007). Robert Jewett, in collaboration with Ole Wangerin, Mission and Menace: Four Centuries of American Religious Zeal (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008). “O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!” So wrote the Scottish poet Robert Burns in his little poem, “To a Louse.” Who hasn”t at one time or another wished the same””for other pesky people in our lives whose reformation we most dearly desire?

April 5, 2009

Christian Standard

Keep Reading!

  By Derek Duncan I have a theory. If you stop reading, you die. Maybe I should expand on that just a little. If you stop reading, you stop growing, you stop learning, and then you die. Our advanced and technologically driven culture is causing people to read less and less. Sometimes I wonder if the innovative media we have created (radio, television, movies, Internet, cell phones) actually are contributing to illiteracy. We are satisfied with looking at things passively instead of poring over a written text that forces us to think. Mortimer Adler, in his classic How to Read

January 14, 2009

Christian Standard

Interview with LeRoy Lawson

By Brad Dupray As the author of 29 published books, Roy Lawson knows a thing or two about what should go on the printed page. His monthly column “From My Bookshelf” in Christian Standard chronicles some of his latest reading material and serves as a guide to church leaders for tools they can use to sharpen their edge. Roy”s storied biography ranges from Christian college professor and president, to board member of several ministries within the Christian church, to president of the North American Christian Convention (1982), to church planter, to senior pastor of fast-growing churches, to his current role

December 21, 2008

Christian Standard

The Birth That Changed the World

By Victor Knowles   In Frank Capra”s acclaimed and heartwarming 1946 film, It”s a Wonderful Life, God sends an angel named Clarence to earth to show George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) what life would be like if he had never been born. The moral of the movie (this is when movies had morals!) is that each person”s life has value and carries with it the potential of influencing many other lives for good.  In one sense, everyone”s birth somewhat changes the world in which he lives. But in a spiritual and eternal realm, only one birth has truly changed

December 14, 2008

Christian Standard

Reflections from a Bartender”s Son

By Chuck Sackett I”ve recently become deeply concerned over what appears to be a trend toward drinking among young church leaders.1 I hear about young leaders who have repented of the “sin of abstinence”2 and headed off to the pub. I”m concerned for the church, their congregations, and their families.3 I”m told one of the most frequently asked questions in interviews is, “Is it OK to have a beer?” As some young leaders seek potential staff members, they ask, “How do you feel about going to the pub?” The right answer used to be the wrong answer.   Early Influences

November 30, 2008

Christian Standard

The Difference Advent Makes

By Robert Hull It is 7:00 a.m. on a Thursday in mid-December. A dozen people are sitting quietly, watching the morning come up outside the church windows. Dark clouds are scudding over Buffalo Mountain, backlit now by a rising, rosy glow. Two candles burn on the Advent wreath.  The leader intones, “Our King and Savior now draws near. Come, let us adore him.” Advent prayers have begun. During the 15 minutes before we all hustle off to work or school, we will confess our sins, hear a Psalm, a text from the prophets, and a Gospel reading; we will say

August 10, 2008

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Defending Our Faith, Holding Our Attention

By LeRoy Lawson C. S. Lewis left some big shoes to fill. When I was a young man struggling to define my faith, Lewis”s rational, commonsensical explanations of Christian doctrine gave me tools I have used ever since. Like so many others, I am his debtor. To this day Surprised by Joy, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, The Abolition of Man, A Grief Observed, Miracles, The Four Loves, and of course Mere Christianity (to say nothing of his classic children”s works) resonate with thinking Christians everywhere. As a child of the Christian church, I especially appreciated and benefited

December 23, 2007

Christian Standard

“˜Carols” for any Season of Suffering

By Matt Proctor Max Lucado tells of Mrs. Smith, an elderly widow who loved her parakeet Chippy. His songs brightened her lonely days. One day while vacuuming, Mrs. Smith noticed Chippy”s cage was dirty. Opening the little door, she inserted her vacuum hose . . . when the phone rang. As she turned to pick up the phone, the hose shifted slightly and””slurp!””sucked poor Chippy down into the sweeper”s bowels. Horrified, Mrs. Smith dropped the phone, tore open the sweeper bag, and dug through the dirt until she found the now-brown little feathered lump. Chippy wasn”t breathing, so she did

December 18, 2005

Christian Standard

A Labyrinth Leading to God

By Naomi Kouns On the last leg of a flight from Ethiopia to the United States last year, the airline confused a seat assignment and 7-year-old Addison Fehl was seated not with his parents, but next to a stranger. During the boarding activities Addison read aloud from his book, while the man sitting next to him looked on, smiling. You can imagine the man”s surprise when the plane began to taxi and Addison closed his book, clasped the man”s hand and said, “It”s time to pray.” Addison is right, it is time to pray. Not corporately or as a church,

December 4, 2005

Christian Standard

Listen to the Flip Side

By Cora Alley When I was a “groovy” teen in the 1960s, I used to save up every cent I could beg, borrow, or earn to buy the latest singles that came out on those saucer-sized 45 rpm records. I would gingerly lift the ebony disc out of its protective paper sleeve and place it on the turntable on my record player that looked like a square hatbox with a handle. After listening to my treasured song over and over until cries of protest came from every corner of the house, I would pick the record up and carefully reinsert

September 4, 2005

Lee Snyder

postmodern world

Ambushed by an Open Door

A professor’s classroom story becomes a warning and a guide: cultural change has made communication harder, and church technique shifts can carry hidden trade-offs. Hold tight to what endures while evaluating change with wisdom.

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