December 16, 2025
God’s Resort: A Unique Ministry of Transitional Housing
God's Resort is a transitional ministry that equips people to move from semi-stability to full recovery through relational encounters.
Articles for tag: Christian Community
July 11, 2022
July 17 | Be Alert for Christ’s Return
This section on the return of Christ (beginning in 1 Thessalonians 4:13) is one of the longest in the New Testament. Evidently some of the believers felt as if those who had died before the return of Jesus would miss out on his second coming. Paul was writing to correct that fallacious thinking.
March 1, 2022
Authentic Community
By Rick Lowry God created every person with a “community gene.” We all have a natural longing to be with other human beings. From an early age, we have known the value of being a member of a group. Everyone grew up in some version of a family, a place where we belonged, living with significant others who helped shape us. We are in community, in groups, every day: the staff team at work, the board or committee on which we serve, the Thursday night Bunko ladies group, the guys who gather to watch NFL games—all small groups that satisfy,
November 1, 2021
The Story Behind Our Crumbling Christian Communities
By Tyler McKenzie Every minister frustrated with their congregation, every person leaving their church, and every millennial who is deconstructing needs to read the opening chapter on community in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’sLife Together. It might save your ministry, your membership, or even your faith. Our communities feel irreparably broken right now. The last 18 months have been relationally traumatic. Most of us have “had it out”—at least once—with someone we love. Maybe it was on the family text thread, over dinner one night, or in the comments section of social media. Or maybe you didn’t have it out. Maybe their outrageous
February 1, 2021
10 Foundation Stones of the Church No. 10: Praise
A few weeks before the pandemic’s arrival in early 2020, my wife and I drove to Grand Island, Nebraska, to speak to a conference of rural churches from across the state. We had the privilege of encouraging 125 leaders. That was a pretty long trip, even in a hybrid vehicle, so we needed to stop every so often to fill up with gas. If we were to run out of gas, it would be pretty silly to get mad at the car. It’s our responsibility to fuel up when needed. In a similar way, we need regular fuel stops to
September 22, 2020
5 Lessons from a Flea
By Megan Rawlings The Black Death was caused by bacterium and was initially spread by fleas. Starting in Asia (most likely), it spread to Eurasia and North Africa in the mid-1300s, and eventually the plague killed up to one-quarter of the world’s population in about four years. At least 100 million people died. And to think, it was spread by a pest barely visible to the eye. I will spare you the details, but the symptoms of this virus were devastating, and death usually occurred only weeks, sometimes days, after the first symptoms. It was not uncommon for the ill
January 23, 2020
We May Forget, But God Does Not
German psychologist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first case of “presenile dementia”later called Alzheimer’s diseasein 1906. The 1970s and 1980s brought increasing awareness about Alzheimer’s disease in America. This personal reflection about a person with the disease was written by a Kentucky Christian College professor in 1990. _ _ _ A Parable of Meaning By Charles R. GreshamJanuary 21, 1990; p. 12 . . . One reads of what occurs when Alzheimer’s disease affects a person; one may even watch a television movie that presents Alzheimer’s effects in dramatic fashion; but it only “hits home” when
April 16, 2014
A Brand-New Life
By Mark A. Taylor I bumped into our backyard neighbor at the grocery store, and the conversation went from the price of groceries to the weather to “How are your kids?” And then she told me, “We”ve been going to church.” She had visited our church once, several years ago, but she had never come back. And I always felt she was embarrassed by that. But now she was smiling. “The girls love it, and the first Sunday my 13-year-old daughter asked if she could go back that night to youth group.” Then her expression became more earnest. “It”s really
October 13, 2012
The Vitality of Christian Community: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 10)
By Michael C. Mack The Relational Way: From Small Group Structures to Holistic Life Connections M. Scott Boren Houston: TOUCH Publications, 2007 The model of the church today stands in stark contrast to the church of the New Testament. In this book, Scott Boren calls for a new restoration””a restoration of the “relational way” that is at the very heart of God and his design for his church. The ideas Boren proposes are revolutionary within our culture; indeed, they are counter-cultural, which is exactly what he intends and proposes in this book. If you are not directly involved in small groups,
October 30, 2011
You Must Read This . . . Beyond a Job Description
By Teresa Welch The Pastor: A Memoir Eugene H. Peterson New York: HarperOne, 2011 For those of you who have read Eugene Peterson”s other works, you will anticipate his memoir to be a collection of well- crafted stories about this author/professor/pastor who has already shared so much through his writings. What he provides in his newest work, The Pastor: A Memoir, exceeds those expectations. Interwoven into Peterson”s memories about his childhood, vocational discernment and formation, planting a new congregation, and responding to the needs of his community are words of exhortation and hope for the church and for those who
November 21, 2010
Interview with Cynthia Rodda
By Brad Dupray Mountain Mission School was founded in 1921 by Sam and Jane Hurley. After welcoming to their home nine children in addition to their own seven children, Sam felt convicted to fund a home where children could be cared for. He was a successful entrepreneur in Appalachian Virginia who became wealthy but used his wealth to reach out to children who reminded him of his own impoverished childhood. Now, nearly 90 years later, Sam”s great-granddaughter, Cynthia Rodda, serves as president of Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Virginia, where the objective remains the same, to care for “the least
June 17, 2007
Meeting Jesus in Baggage Claim
By Jeff Walling Any baggage?” It seems an innocent question, but it”s one that has turned my life upside down over the last year. You hear it every time you fly. A gracious lady at the airline counter asks it with a smile, and there are few things better than being able to give a self-assured, “no way!” to that one. Flying with baggage is asking for a disaster. Take it from a guy who spent his first four days in Europe with two pairs of underwear. (As my kids say, “Too much information, Dad!”) I know the airlines do
