Articles for tag: Capital Campaign

September 11, 2010

Christian Standard

LARGE-SIZED CHURCHES: A Church Planting Hick from French Lick

A Church Planting Hick from French Lick By Kent E. Fillinger Jasper, Indiana, is not likely on your bucket list of places to visit. If you are like me, you need the help of MapQuest to even find it. And Jasper also isn”t the type of town a typical church planter or church planting organization would pinpoint for a new church. But Darrel Land is not your typical church planter. At age 26, he was confident God was calling him to plant a church in this small, rural community of 14,000 people in southern Indiana. Land grew up about 30 minutes

September 9, 2010

Christian Standard

LARGE-SIZED CHURCHES: More to Discovery

By Kent E. Fillinger Shining a spotlight on challenges and successes at three churches . . . More to Discovery Did you grow up going to church? I did. Therefore, I don”t know what it feels like to walk into church for the first time as an adult with no church background. Toney Salva, senior minister at Discovery Christian Church, Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, on the other hand has used his personal experience of not growing up in a church to design a church that targets people who do not like church, or who have no church background. Through some internal

June 27, 2010

Christian Standard

Great and Mighty Things

By Chuck Booher What is the best way to conduct a financial campaign when 14 percent of your county is unemployed and your offerings are barely making budget every week? Any sane person would probably say the best answer is, “You don”t!” You just don”t do a financial campaign in a down economy. Several months back, however, I found myself wrestling through this predicament. Truth was, not having a campaign was NOT an option. I had become senior pastor of Crossroads Christian Church three years prior and inherited several obstacles that had been worked through. The last hurdle to jump

April 11, 2010

Christian Standard

Megachurches: Navigating at Compass

By Kent Fillinger Bedford Christian Church began in 1966 with 12 couples and has evolved into a church-planting church. In 1994, Bedford relocated and changed its name to reflect its new location. The church adopted the name of the adjoining subdivision and became Highland Meadows Christian Church. The church grew from 500 to a peak attendance of 1,500 in 2000. By the time current senior minister Drew Sherman arrived in 2002, however, attendance had been declining slightly for two years. Sherman realized many people in the church were hurting, so he gradually embarked on casting the vision for loving people

March 30, 2008

Christian Standard

A Simple Prayer

By Jim Herbst A few years ago it was the beginning of what I now call “the human hunting season” in our neighborhood. As temperatures rise in the spring, criminal activity and turf battles also heat up. The warm spring nights are pierced with gunfire. I lay in bed during this annual cycle with tears at our church”s inability to make much of a difference. I learned a simple and often repeated prayer: “Help!” I”ve prayed that prayer in bed, in daily devotions, with fasting, on my knees, flat on my face, driving, on the church”s balcony, on the church”s

November 25, 2007

Christian Standard

He Makes Me Lie Down

By Charlie Curran He makes me lie down. . . .” Those are words I have read aloud at dozens of funerals. The 23rd Psalm seems perfect for those occasions. I never knew those words would come to mean so much to me. On a busy Monday in April 2006, I found myself placed under the weight of those words. It had been a busy day at the office. Meetings, phone calls, the usual “Monday stuff” for a preacher. I had noticed during the day I was a bit agitated. So did my secretary. But I pressed on. That”s what

March 11, 2007

Christian Standard

Losing Sheep

By Tim Harlow I don”t think I fully understood shepherding until I took my family to visit a little Dutch theme park in Holland, Michigan. It was a petting zoo\cheese-making\candle-dipping experience. On this particular day, one of the sheep in the petting zoo had executed a clever escape and was wandering through the outlet mall next door. Up to this point, he had done no harm (although he was glaring at the sweater store). His escape had been through a little pond at one end of the zoo. He must have been desperate, because, as the nice Dutch lady told

June 7, 2006

Christian Standard

Interview with Bob Russell

By Brad Dupray Bob Russell says he “anticipated staying four or five years” when he came to Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1966. “I saw myself going back to Pennsylvania, preaching somewhere near my hometown.” God had other plans. In 40 years of ministry at Southeast Bob has led the church to weekend attendance of 19,000. The church has become a force for evangelism, a help to those in need, and the conscience in its community. The word on the street is Bob Russell is retiring. How would you define this transition in your life? I think it’s

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