Articles for tag: Christian Churches

May 7, 2013

Christian Standard

By the Numbers (Buy the Numbers!)

By Mark A. Taylor CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s annual megachurch report has taken many forms since it was first introduced in 1997. Since 2008 Kent Fillinger has served us by presiding over the megatask of getting reports from more than 100 megachurches. Our issues have offered more information about this growing group of congregations than any other single source. In 2009 we began reporting numbers from more than just the largest churches in the fellowship of Christian churches and churches of Christ. That year we published statistics from 66 churches whose worship attendance averaged 500″“999 in 2008. In 2010 we expanded the

January 3, 2013

Christian Standard

Focusing on Under-40 Leaders

By Mark A. Taylor This summer CHRISTIAN STANDARD wants to profile leaders in the Christian churches and churches of Christ who are 40 years old or younger. We”re focusing especially on church leaders””paid or volunteer, working for local churches, on the mission field, in a Christian college, or some other parachurch ministry. Maybe this leader is a local church minister, or the president or dean or teacher at a college, or the head of a missions agency, or a writer or missionary or musician. Whatever their calling, the younger leaders we”ll feature all will have this in common: These influencers

November 22, 2012

Christian Standard

A People to Be Thankful for

By Mark A. Taylor For several years now the National Missionary Convention, recently renamed International Conference on Missions (ICOM), has met the weekend before Thanksgiving. This morning I”m struck by how good it is for the convention and the holiday to be so close together. ICOM reminds us how thankful we can be for our fellowship of Christian churches. Our movement (variously called the Restoration Movement, Stone-Campbell Movement, and more recently the Christian Church Movement) is thriving and well. The throngs of teenagers and young adults crowding the Indianapolis Convention Center November 15-18 bear testimony to that. And so do

August 11, 2012

Christian Standard

Thousands Meet in Brazil for World Convention

Almost 4,000 Christians from around the world met in Goiania, Brazil, for fellowship, worship, preaching, and learning at the 18th Global Gathering of the World Convention, July 25-28. Plenary speakers from Brazil, the United States, Australia, Ghana, and Portugal gave challenging lessons focused on the theme of “Sharing the Love that Unites.” Ken Young, along with singers and musicians from the United States and Brazil, led heartfelt praise to God in song. Teachers from eight countries led workshops on the Bible, Christian history, and worldwide ministries. This was the first gathering to be held in what is called the Global

July 26, 2012

Christian Standard

What Our Websites Say about Baptism

By Daniel Overdorf I baptized my younger son on New Year”s Day. On a day of new beginnings, we celebrated his new birth. My voice cracked when I asked him to confess what he believes about Jesus. He responded, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” These words rang sweeter in my ears than the first words he spoke as a toddler. My tears mixed with the baptismal water when I lowered him into the burial of his old self, and raised him as a new creation in Jesus. I experienced the same joy

June 26, 2012

Christian Standard

Deep Change

By Mark A. Taylor The discussion was about missions, but the topic was change. And I couldn”t stop thinking about the church”s task in a world changing faster than we may realize. Steve Moore, president of Missio Nexus (missionexus.org), was leading about 30 of us at the Cincinnati installment of Reset Tour, a 10-city event sponsored by the International Conference on Missions (ICOM). The Tour, which concluded with a West Coast swing in May, was expected to reach 250 missions-minded members and leaders of Christian churches and churches of Christ, according to David Empson, executive director of ICOM. From this

March 27, 2012

Christian Standard

Considering the Question of “˜Them” and “˜Us” and “˜Ours”

By Mark A. Taylor The spirit of the day was one of inclusiveness. “Denominationalism is dead.” “Sectarianism is to be shunned.” “People today are more interested in Jesus than any human hierarchy or divisions.” Hear, hear for the plea to be “Christians only.” But this discussion was not just about whom to treat as Christians, but also about whom to include in one of “our” meetings. And here opinions were not as uniform. If the meeting is by and for “us,” some wondered, shouldn”t those credentialed by the meeting planners be from among “us”? Their question of “them” and “us”

July 21, 2011

Christian Standard

Interview with Rick Atchley

By Brad Dupray As minister of the Word at The Hills Church of Christ, Rick Atchley leads a congregation that has expanded to three campuses in the Greater Fort Worth, Texas, area and ministers to 5,000 people each weekend. The Hills has a background as an a cappella church of Christ, but has transitioned over the past few years to include instrumental worship in most services. Since graduating from Abilene (Texas) Christian University, Atchley has been in the preaching ministry for 33 years and has served The Hills for the past 22 years. He has written several books, including Together

July 14, 2011

Christian Standard

Solomon Foundation Offering Church Loans

By Jennifer Taylor The Solomon Foundation, a new church extension fund for the Christian churches and churches of Christ, launched several months ago with headquarters in Englewood, CO. Doug Crozier, formerly president of Church Development Fund (Irvine, CA), serves as chief executive officer of the new organization. Crossroads Christian Church (Grand Prairie, TX) and Christ”s Church of the Valley (Peoria, AZ) worked with Crozier and his team to fund the development and launch of the foundation. Leaders from Mount Pleasant Christian Church (Greenwood, IN), Real Life Ministries (Post Falls, ID), The Crossing (Quincy, IL), and Churchill Meadows Christian Church (Toronto,

June 9, 2011

Christian Standard

Our Decision, Our Opportunity

By Mark A. Taylor Some in Christian churches and churches of Christ are worried about the future of our movement. Others aren”t thinking about our movement much at all””its past or its future. But regardless of whether we”re fretting or forgetting about our future, it is still before us, and we ignore it at our peril. “The future doesn”t care if you believe in it,” says marketing guru and entrepreneur Seth Godin. Godin tells his audiences they can invent their own future. Part of that process involves looking carefully at what”s happening now. Some trends to consider: Denominationalism is dead.

May 8, 2011

Christian Standard

Women”s Ministry: Changing Views

By Darrel Rowland When Patricia Rohach surveyed Christian church women across the country as part of her doctoral dissertation on women”s ministry, she got an earful. One person she interviewed said, “Not all pastors in the different Christian churches I have attended have been positive toward women, and there have been many instances of devaluation of women through attitude and lack of addressing teaching about women. It isn”t as much a negative approach as it is an ignoring of women, by not acknowledging their existence, joking about them publicly, and treating them as the “˜little ladies.”” Another responded, “Until the

April 7, 2011

Christian Standard

Megachurches: The 2010 List

Our annual megachurch chart is one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s most popular features. This year there are more than 100 churches listed as megachurches (those with 2,000 or more in weekly attendance) or emerging megachurches (those with average attendance of 1,000 to 1,999). Click here to look at the chart of the 2010 Megachurches and Emerging Megachuches.

March 22, 2011

Christian Standard

Another Statement About What”s at Stake

By Mark A. Taylor A longtime reader of CHRISTIAN STANDARD paid us a wonderful compliment earlier this year. “Thank you for giving us a magazine that makes us think,” he said. This likely would have seemed a small achievement just a generation or two ago. There was a day when many in the Christian churches and churches of Christ spent more energy defining orthodoxy than questioning tradition. But fresh winds are blowing today””new churches, growing congregations, multisites and multimedia and external focus””all of it energized by a crop of younger leaders sold out to finding new ways to evangelize. “It”s

December 6, 2010

Christian Standard

Stone-Campbell Dialogue Continues Progress Toward Unity

The Stone-Campbell Dialogue met Nov. 7, 8 in Johnson City, TN, to continue discussions about unity among three “streams” of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. Twenty-three church leaders participated in the discussions. The group was composed of ministers and other leaders from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian churches and churches of Christ, and the a cappella churches of Christ. The group began its time together with a worship service Sunday evening in the chapel of Emmanuel School of Religion, the host site for the whole meeting. Discussions Monday centered on issues that have divided these three groups in past

November 19, 2010

Christian Standard

A New Way to Train Workers

By Ron Holland As demographics and strategies for the mission of God change and shift, we find that old methods and ideas need to be rethought. The globalization and urbanization of the world”s populations present major challenges and opportunities in the church”s efforts to participate in the mission of God. Meanwhile, Christians today are realizing anew that God wants the church to be an instrument of social justice in the world. This sends us back to the drawing board in most of our endeavors. LivingStone International University (LIU), a joint project of Christian churches and churches of Christ, in Mbale,

September 28, 2010

Christian Standard

Christian Churches, Large Churches, Growing Churches

Mark A. Taylor Congratulations to Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, the fifth largest church and the 27th fastest growing church in America. Southeast was one of 17 congregations in the fellowship of Christian churches included in the two lists, published by Outreach magazine in September. The lists were based on self-reported February and March attendance weekend attendance averages in a research project involving more than 8,000 churches, according to Outreach. LifeWay Research conducted the study. Ten of the 100 largest churches in America are among the Christian churches, including two in the top 10. (The numbers here and in the

September 1, 2010

Christian Standard

Downloadable Resources You May Not Know About

By Mark A. Taylor Communication is always a challenging goal. So I guess I shouldn”t have been too surprised when Christian Standard”s contributing editors suggested we offer something we”ve had available for several months. I”m speaking of the downloadable digital version of our popular booklet, What Kind of Church Is This? This eight-page “minimagazine” has existed in a couple of different versions for many years. Churches have bought hundreds of thousands of copies to use with visitors and new members. It explains to them the unique place of Christian churches and churches of Christ in the religious world. It gives

June 30, 2010

Christian Standard

Our Gift to You, Your Gift to Us

By Mark A. Taylor I have a friend who can”t wait till Christmas to give his wife her gift. He”s so excited about his “perfect find,” he wants her to see it immediately. His anticipation for her pleasure is greater than hers! We feel the same way about the “gift” we”re offering you this week. You”re holding it in your hands, a newly redesigned version of CHRISTIAN STANDARD. Our goal was to introduce our new look with the July 18 issue we”ll distribute at the North American Christian Convention. But the design was finished ahead of schedule, and we decided, “Why

June 13, 2010

Christian Standard

Responses to Lawson and Alexander’s Articles

By Our Readers These letters are in reaction to two articles that appear in the June 13, 2010, issue of CHRISTIAN STANDARD: “Two Views About the Future of the Restoration Movement: Let”s Keep Moving!” by LeRoy Lawson “Two Views About the Future of the Restoration Movement: Dissolve or Thrive?” by Dick Alexander Of Principles and Principals The principles of the Restoration Movement have remained firm and strong, but many of the principals of the Restoration Movement have not. A quote from Carl Ketcherside of some 30 years ago: “The Restoration Movement has become the Restoration Monument.” Why was/is that? We have pursued the leadings

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