October 30, 2024
Forty-four years ago, as a young missionary ministering in Kenya, Doug Priest wrote an article about "Missions in the Eighties." Now he looks at the past, present, and future of missions in the Restoration Movement.
October 6, 2022
Christian individuals and ministries are working together with the goal of raising the necessary funds to install 10 mini-pitch turf soccer fields in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. The first two fields were installed by a joint team of U.S. and Kenyan workers this spring.
February 22, 2022
After 53 years of vocational ministry that included service in church, college, and mission settings, Bill Weber says, "No matter how diverse the ministry activities or the people one works with, the focus must always be on Jesus."
December 22, 2019
Send obituary information for **@********************ia.com. James Clapsaddle Smith, 91, a Christian church preacher and general director of Christian Missionary Fellowship (now CMFI) for 20 years, died Oct. 23, 2019. He was born April 7, 1928, in Centerville, Kan., the son of Kathleen May Clapsaddle Smith and Dewey Bryan Smith. After his father died in an accident in 1934, he and his seven siblings grew up in a single-parent home. He attended Northwest Christian College (now Northwest Christian University) in Eugene, Ore., which is where he met Joyce Couch of Seattle. They married on July 1, 1949, then continued to complete
October 18, 2019
By Jerry Harris Some might argue it’s a fine point to draw a line between the “n” and the “s” in the word missions, but I have always felt it there. Having graduated from a Bible college that emphasized the need of going “to the uttermost part of the earth,” I felt my commitment to Christ was measured by the space between where I started and where I went. There were mission requirements for my degree, and I remember asking the head of the missions department whether he valued foreign mission work over domestic ministry. I chose a domestic path
May 19, 2019
Compiled by Mark A. Taylor _ _ _ Alan Ahlgrim Retired: Founding pastor with Rocky Mountain Christian Church, Niwot, Colorado, March 2013 What are you doing now? Continues to encourage and mentor church leaders. Director of Covenant Groups with the Center for Church Leadership. Thoughts on retirement: âThe best is yet to be for every kingdom leader. I jokingly say if I had known this season would be so fulfilling, I would have started with this first and stuck with it! Iâ™ve traded unrelenting responsibility for a soul-enriching opportunity.â _ _ _ Dick Alexander Retired: Senior minister, LifeSpring Christian Church,
December 15, 2018
By Dick Alexander Why would you bother to watch this movie? There are no motorcycle chases. No buildings blow up. Nobody dies or gets killed. There’s only one minor car accident, and that with no injuries. Everyone is fully dressed. The plot is straightforward—it’s clear who are the good guys and bad guys, and nobody switches sides. Yet, in spite of what at face value is an old-school, out-of-date movie, year after year we watch It’s a Wonderful Life. Maybe we’re hopeful the title will come true. And maybe part of the allure is a nostalgic longing for the simpler
June 19, 2017
By Stephen Bond Here”s what I learned from our group climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the roof of Africa. January 4, 2017, is a day I will never forget. At 8:00 that morning, I stood on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Looming 19,341 feet above sea level, Kilimanjaro is called “the roof of Africa.” The views are breathtaking. Reaching the summit was an over-the-top, bucket-list experience, made even sweeter because I was part of a trekking team that raised more than $140,000 to build classrooms for impoverished children in Kenya. The vision to climb Kilimanjaro exploded into my
April 3, 2016
By Justin Horey “If you have no churches, and you have no Scripture, you have no hope.” With those sobering words, Greg Pruett explains why he has made Bible translation his life”s work””to bring hope to those who have none. Pruett, president of Pioneer Bible Translators, says there are still about 1,775 languages worldwide without a written copy of the Bible. Pioneer Bible is one of many organizations committed to reducing that number to zero by translating the Bible into every language on Earth. Pioneer Bible”s passion for cross-cultural evangelism is shared by several missions organizations with roots in the
November 10, 2015
By Mark A. Taylor Every missions leader and missionary watcher will tell you missions is different these days. A generation or two ago, missionaries departed for a foreign field with the intent to spend their lives there. Now “long-term missionaries” stay for maybe two or three years. Those days, and in the generations before, missionaries went from the West to the rest of the world, and most American church members assumed “we” had the solution to the problems suffered by “them.” Now missionaries from Asia, Africa, and South America are going all over the world with the gospel. And some
November 9, 2015
By Erin Moore I”ve been reading about “third culture kids” lately. The term refers to children who are from one culture but are living in a completely different one. It”s not a topic I”ve researched in depth, but lately it has greater meaning for me as my kids are getting a little older. I was reading some essays by an American woman who grew up in Pakistan. She recalls her earliest memories as a child of about 4. I looked at my own third culture kids in awe. I realize as the mother of these three children, I can understand
September 20, 2015
By Jennifer Johnson Christian Missionary Fellowship plants international churches, trains national leaders, coordinates a child sponsorship program, develops campus ministries in key cities around the world, teaches Community Health Evangelism, drills wells for clean water, manages a microloan program, and more. But much of this work depends on consistently recruiting new people to serve””as interns, exchange students, and short- and long-term missionaries. Recently CMF developed a new “Is Missions for Me?” seminar designed to discover more potential recruits for its programs while resourcing and supporting local church efforts. The event is hosted by a church (although several churches can partner
April 29, 2015
By Jennifer Johnson Many mission agencies and international ministries are working to provide relief, support, and financial resources to those affected by Saturday”s devastating earthquake in Nepal. Central India Christian Mission, which has worked in Nepal the last 15 years, writes, “On a typical Saturday morning, many Nepalese churches meet for weekly worship services. On Saturday, April 25th, at 11:56 am when many Nepalese brothers and sisters in Christ were worshipping, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake occurred. It destroyed almost everything in the country. From Saturday until now, approximately 45 earthquakes have happened in the country. It has brought huge destruction.
March 30, 2015
By LeRoy Lawson Life on Mission: God”s People Finding God”s Heart for the World Tim Harlow Pastors.com, 2014 Timeless: Devotions Based on the Sermons of Floyd Strater Kim Hamilton Self published, 2014 (available at amazon.com & lulu.com) No More Dragons: Get Free from Broken Dreams, Lost Hope, Bad Religion, and Other Monsters Jim Burgen Nashville: Nelson Books, 2014 The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Future of Christianity Trilogy) Philip Jenkins New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 The 2014 North American Christian Convention was a profitable one for me. In addition to Ian DiOrio”s Trivial Pursuits, which I reviewed in last month”s column,
January 4, 2015
By Jennifer Johnson Bruce Wydick, a professor of economics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, recently reported that sponsoring a child is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty around the world. Now Christian Missionary Fellowship (Indianapolis, IN) is making it easier than ever for churches to involve their members in child sponsorship with its new Start! program. Families, individuals, and groups can all sponsor a child through CMF, and Start! is specifically created to help churches launch events to introduce the concept and connect members to children in need. CMF provides promotional videos, sermon
October 6, 2014
By Doug Priest Dan Crum and Joe Cluff, along with their families, have served for many years as missionaries among the Maasai people of Kenya. They were interviewed by CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor Doug Priest. When did each of you arrive in Kenya and what has been your ministry through the years. DAN CRUM: We arrived in Kenya in 1988, and lived in rural Maasailand for 10 years in the ministry of evangelism, church planting, and leadership training. The next three years were focused on producing written materials in the Maasai language, followed by seven years as team leader.
September 5, 2014
By Jennifer Johnson A British man living in Dubai rode his bike across the Alps this summer to raise funds for a Missions of Hope International school, part of Christian Missionary Fellowship”s ministry in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Tim Hooker, his American wife, Fiona Petrocelli, and their son, Quinlan, became acquainted with the work of MOHI when they were planning a luxurious safari holiday in the Masaai Mara in 2011. Fiona wanted to add a different perspective to the trip by spending a day doing some type of service for local people. “Some friends of ours put us
August 25, 2014
By Matt Proctor Several years ago, two of my nephews accompanied their mom on a visit to a friend”s house. Ben was 8. Brian was 6. Their mother”s friend was a very neat lady, to the point of being obsessive-compulsive. (I have a friend who says, “I have OCD, only I like to call it CDO because then it”s in alphabetical order.”) This woman had a place for everything and everything in its place. Though childless, she did have a few toys and handed Ben and Brian a bucket of Lego bricks: “Here boys, you can play with these.” What”s
July 28, 2014
Meet Our Contributing Editors: In this final interview of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors, we talk with the writer who interviewed all the others. This worker and watcher of the church talks about small churches, megachurches, and the failings and future possibilities of our movement. Tell us who you are””not a recitation of your résumé, but what makes you tick. My parents like to tell the story of coming to pick me up from the toddler”s room at church one Sunday morning and discovering me hiding under a crib, calmly looking out at everybody. That kind of sums it up””I”m an
July 17, 2014
By Mary Kamau (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) It is very easy for me to pick the worst advice I ever received. The heart behind the advice was pure, but the thinking behind it was opposite of the direction God was leading. The advice came from a trusted board member of our organization. He felt we were growing too fast. Somehow we needed to slow the growth and take more control. He wanted us to stop the growth until all aspects of the ministry were “pretty.” This advice was offered in 2008, when we
April 7, 2026
John B. Penrose Jr
April 7, 2026
David Faust
March 27, 2026
Rick Cherok