Articles for tag: Church Planting

June 1, 2013

Christian Standard

Missional Revolution

By Darrel Rowland RiverTree Christian Church in Massillon, Ohio, has not tried to become just a little more missional. Led by visionary minister Greg Nettle, more than three years ago the church made a revolutionary commitment to a missional strategy for all its ministry. The result is breeding influence and disciple-building in a way Nettle believes is vital for the very survival of the church in America. Just a few minutes after Greg Nettle”s message and the closing song, a man with an idea pulls him aside in the hallway. “You know what? I know all these remodelers,” the contractor

May 31, 2013

Christian Standard

What”s Next for the Missional Church?

By Brian Mavis Alan Hirsch is the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network. He also coleads Future Travelers, an innovative learning program helping megachurches become missional movements. Hirsch is known for his innovative approach to mission, and is considered to be a thought leader and key mission strategist for churches across the Western world. He is not only gifted in understanding the origin of movements, he is able to envision how to create new movements within Christianity.  Hirsch is the author of The Forgotten Ways, and is coauthor of The Shaping of Things to Come, ReJesus, and The Faith

May 30, 2013

Christian Standard

Where Missional Is Moving

By Matt Smay Missionaries””they were the devout adventurers who traveled the world helping people from other cultures learn about God. As a boy I admired their pictures posted on the bulletin board of our church lobby, and followed the strings that connected their faces to pins on a map that identified their mission fields. I was impressed. I grew up in church. It was a small, traditional, suburban congregation in Southern California started in the 1940s that ministered to a sprawling city. Like many in the postwar industrial boom, my paternal grandparents relocated with their four young kids from middle

May 16, 2013

Christian Standard

Growing in the Cape

By Kent E. Fillinger A mother church and a legacy church provided a great foundation for the birth of Crosspoint Christian Church in Cape Coral, Florida, in January 2006. Jeff Swearingen, lead pastor at Crosspoint, was on staff at First Christian Church in Fort Myers when discussions about a church plant started. He initially resisted the idea of planting a church, but God eventually changed his mind. About 150 people from First Christian committed to help birth Crosspoint. The church also benefited financially from a local Christian church that closed, sold its property, and then invested a significant amount into

May 11, 2013

Christian Standard

One Life at a Time

By Kent E. Fillinger Ralph Mehrens served as senior minister at Calvary Christian Church in Bellevue, Nebraska, for 25 years. Mehrens wanted to transition well, so he planned a 15-month succession process and laid a strong foundation to help the congregation follow the next minister. Scott Beckenhauer transitioned from an eight-year youth ministry with the church to the lead minister position in 2008. “I knew the church family and they knew me, so the trust was already built,” said Beckenhauer, who became only the third lead minister in Calvary”s 42-year history. Attendance declined slightly as Beckenhauer gained his footing the

April 14, 2013

Christian Standard

The Chemistry Quotient

By Carl Kuhl Have you heard about The Three Ingredient Cookbook? True to its name, every recipe has only three ingredients. One of my friends got it as a wedding present when she was inexperienced in the kitchen, the idea being that even she would be capable of these recipes. But here”s the thing about The Three Ingredient Cookbook: if you leave out one of the ingredients, it doesn”t work! Some more complicated recipes call for a dozen or more ingredients, and if you are out of one particular spice, you usually can omit it with no problem. But when

April 5, 2013

Christian Standard

2|42 Brightens Region by Offering Arts, Sports, and Children”s Programming

By Jennifer Johnson On February 17, 2|42 Community Church (Brighton, MI) opened its new community building, a renovated athletic club which includes space for children”s programming, new soccer fields and basketball courts, a café, and more. On February 18, the church launched its School for the Arts. “We added one large studio and three smaller spaces for music, drama, and art classes,” says Rachel Dummitt, director of the school. “We started with private guitar, piano, drum, flute, cello, violin, and voice lessons, drama classes for kids, and visual art classes in portrait drawing and pastels.” Dummitt says about half of the

March 14, 2013

Mark E. Moore

Interview with Mark Moore

By Paul Boatman Mark Moore is teaching pastor of Christ”s Church of the Valley (CCV) in Peoria, Arizona, a congregation with weekly attendance of about 19,000. He left a 22-year professorship at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri, to lead a creative ministry-equipping program through this congregation. You left a respected professorship after two decades. Why? Influence. I loved teaching in Bible college. I also love preaching. When pastor Don Wilson opened the door at Christ”s Church of the Valley, I realized I could pursue both loves. It gives poetic balance to my career: The first half in academia and

March 11, 2013

Christian Standard

Semester in Ministry””a Unique Partnership

By Ethan Magness What is required to train the next generation of leaders for the church? How can you make a difference? Whom will you disciple for leadership? These are questions that drive the Semester in Ministry program partnership between Tennessee”s Milligan College and Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland. Here is what we have seen: “¢ A college sophomore preaches for the very first time to 100 squirming middle school students. She is nervous but she is ready. She has practiced a half-dozen times on her own and twice in front of a team of staff who gave her

March 9, 2013

Christian Standard

Class in the City

By Dave Smith For almost six years, students from Ozark Christian College have attended class in New York City. They have overcome their fear of urban areas, learned from diverse church leaders, and begun to discover their fit in this globalized world. This journey from Joplin, Missouri, to New York City traveled by way of California. In 2000, Ken Idleman, Ozark Christian College”s president at the time, took a one-year sabbatical to help his son, Kyle, plant a church in Southern California. President Idleman experienced firsthand how God uses new churches to reach people far from God. He returned to

March 7, 2013

Christian Standard

Institute a Chance to Match “˜Passion and Gift Mix”

By Jennifer Johnson For more than 35 years, Pioneer Bible Translators has offered opportunities for people from the Christian churches and churches of Christ to gain an in-depth understanding of taking God”s Word into new contexts through translation, church planting, and community development. The Pioneer Mission Institute began on the campus of Lincoln (IL) Christian College (now Lincoln Christian University) and is now held at the International Linguistics Center near Pioneer Bible”s main stateside office in Dallas, TX. This year”s weeklong event is scheduled June 9-14. In addition to the discovery program that introduces people to the ministries of Pioneer

January 19, 2013

Christian Standard

Interview with Danny Schaffner

By Paul Boatman Danny Schaffner Jr. is the preaching and teaching minister at Common Ground Christian Church in the urban corridor of Tampa, Florida. He has lived with his wife and three boys in this community since 2007. His church”s website is www.commongroundtampa.com.   What makes your ministry distinctive? Common Ground is a restart of a church that was closed for a year and a half. Our zip code, 33603, is where much of America will be in another generation: predominantly Hispanic-American, then African-American, and then Caucasian American. It feels like the mission field, where most of the people look,

January 4, 2013

Christian Standard

Ages 50 to 75: The Minister”s Sweet Spot

By Brian Jones I believe pastors don”t hit their ministry “sweet spot” until they”re in their mid-50s. And if they stay engaged and growing, that sweet spot will last into their mid- to late-70s. Anyone who has ever led a church, or been led by a pastor in a church, knows this. Put another way, I believe a pastor”s personal ministry effectiveness, as defined both biblically and experientially, doesn”t reach its full potential until a pastor has grandkids and starts to get AARP letters in his mailbox. You can understand my great disappointment, then, when I read my friend Kent

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

December 21, 2012

Christian Standard

Examples of Collaboration, Sacrifice

By Jennifer Johnson Earlier this year, as part of a project with Kairos Legacy Partners, I researched stories of dying churches that merged with another congregation or recycled their resources and energy into a new church. Many, like Central Christian Church in Tampa, FL, were once-thriving churches that had declined due to aging members and changing neighborhoods. Others, like Capital City Christian Church in Raleigh, NC, knew major change was needed to reach a young, growing community. In each case, the story was worth telling because the church wanted to be part of something bigger than slowly dwindling while hanging

December 9, 2012

Christian Standard

The Passion of Barton Stone

By Jim Tune Barton Warren Stone was one of the foremost leaders for religious freedom on the western frontier during the first half of the 19th century. He led a movement with goals many—including me—are still pursuing today. Barton Stone was born in Maryland in 1772 and as a boy decided to become a preacher. At age 19 he was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian church. In 1801, Stone moved to Cane Ridge, Kentucky. As he took up his preaching ministry, he discovered that some of the things he read in his Bible seemed inconsistent with the strong Calvinist

November 23, 2012

Christian Standard

Reporting on Restoration Revolution

By David Empson In November 2010, Restoration Revolution was started at the former National Missionary Convention””now the International Conference On Missions (ICOM)””in Lexington, Kentucky. For almost 18 months prior to its launch, more than 100 leaders representing all kinds of ministries among Christian churches and churches of Christ had been meeting to consider what could be done for the kingdom of God over the next 10 years. Here is a report on progress with these goals so far. Restoration Revolution”s vision statement calls it “a 10-year collaboration that desires to share Jesus with all people.” The four points of Restoration

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

November 8, 2012

Christian Standard

Very Good Indeed

By Mark A. Taylor Not every missionary expert posting at this site this month agrees with every other posting here. Readers need not find this discouraging. The point is that more missions work is happening among Christian churches and churches of Christ than ever before, and that”s good. New churches are being planted cross-culturally. Independent congregations in areas once served only by U.S.-supported missionaries are starting new churches that then send out their own missionaries. Thousands of children are receiving nourishment of body and soul because members of Christian churches are sponsoring them with monthly donations. All this is good.

October 23, 2012

Christian Standard

Interview with Kyle Idleman

By Paul Boatman Kyle Idleman, as teaching pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote Not a Fan (Zondervan, 2011), a book that has gained wide circulation among Evangelical Christians.   Kyle, what possessed you to write a book? It came out of my personal journey. In Not a Fan, I detail a personal transformation moment when I sat in our sanctuary before Easter, thinking about how to have a message that would be attractive to the thousands who will fill the room like a big stadium. A conviction came over me: All too easily the church could be a

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