Articles for tag: Churches of Christ

March 18, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Extending a Hand and Standing Firm

By Mark A. Taylor The cover headline on Christian Standard”s July 2, 2006 edition was “We Are NOT the Only Christians.” The lead article was from a book written by Rick Atchley and Bob Russell, a small volume about Christian unity titled Together Again*. The book”s publication coincided with the historic 2006 North American Christian Convention, whose theme and goal was to repair wounds and open doors between a cappella churches of Christ and independent, instrumental Christian churches and churches of Christ. But the book talked about more than that division. It also offered a challenge for how we view

March 11, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Staying Connected”“It”s to Our Benefit!

By Mark A. Taylor The following column first appeared at this site in 2008, but it strikes me, with a couple of tweaks,  as remarkably current still today. So while I’m on vacation this week, let me offer it for your consideration. I’m guessing many readers have forgotten it or missed it when it first appeared! Christ followers outside our movement are often intrigued when they get to know us better. They”re impressed first with the accomplishments of Christian churches and churches of Christ: “¢ Dynamic missions work “¢ World-class church planting initiatives “¢ Creative leadership of new approaches like

December 12, 2013

Christian Standard

Church Development Fund Announces Presidential Transition

IRVINE, California ““ Provision Ministry Group CEO Larry Winger, along with the PMG and Church Development Fund boards, announced today a transition in the presidency of CDF from Brad Dupray to Dusty Rubeck. The news follows several months of reassessment related to the ministry”s current status and needs, which resulted in the identification of a directional shift in the essential leadership qualities needed for future growth. “Brad Dupray stepped in at a critical moment in the history of CDF to assume the role of president and provide much-needed stability during the worst economic recession we have experienced in years,” said

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

November 17, 2012

Christian Standard

Urban Ministry: Not Just an Academic Concern

By Kendi Howells Douglas In January 2012, an academic society was formed and met for the first time in Bangkok, Thailand. The International Society of Urban Mission is a gathering of like-minded Christians, teachers, missionaries, and urban practitioners from around the world. Its members focus on the issues of urban life, specifically serving those who live in poverty-stricken conditions in the growing slums around the world. Officially, “The International Society For Urban Mission exists, therefore, to be a fellowship of urban missiologists committed to seeking God”s Shalom in cities, especially majority world cities, through active reflection, solidarity and leadership development.”1

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 22, 2012

Christian Standard

Africa and Afghanistan, Ethics and Unity

By LeRoy Lawson Say You”re One of Them Uwem Akpan New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008 The Places in Between Rory Stewart Orlando: Harvest Original/Harcourt, 2004 Just Ministry: Professional Ethics for Pastoral Ministers Richard M. Gula Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2010 The History of the Open Forum on the Mission of the Church 1983″“2009 John Mills Middleburg Heights: Open Forum/Southwest Christian Church, 2011 Oprah”s Book Club is not my usual source to find a good read. Not that good books aren”t there. It”s just that my interests and her recommendations haven”t often jibed. That is, until now. Or until 2009,

August 21, 2012

Christian Standard

Ten Ways You Can Strengthen Campus Ministry

By Mark A. Taylor Every year we publish a directory of campus ministries like the one in this issue. Every year we include stories of dynamic, life-changing influence provided by these ministries. And every year I learn something new about outreach to young people forgotten or ignored by too many local churches. Obviously, many Christian churches and churches of Christ care about taking Christ to college students. Could we do more? Look at my list, and decide for yourself. 1. Choose a ministry. From our directory, find a campus ministry either (a) close to your local church, (b) on the

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

July 24, 2012

Christian Standard

An Important Step Forward

By Mark A. Taylor This is one for the history books! After being published weekly since April 7, 1866, Christian Standard will become a monthly magazine in September this year. It will be in the mail mid-August, 68 pages of information, encouragement, news, and commentary””all of it by, for, and about our dynamic fellowship of Christian churches and churches of Christ. We”re looking forward to the change! Here”s why. The new monthly will be more appealing. Each month”s edition will provide several articles around important themes, and longer, more substantive articles when the subject warrants it. You”ll read and keep

July 9, 2012

Christian Standard

Christian Standard Is Becoming a Monthly!

Nation’s longest-running Protestant weekly magazine strengthens mission, moves to monthly format CINCINNATI ““ July 6, 2012 — After 146 years, Christian Standard magazine, believed to be the nation”s oldest Protestant weekly in continuous publication, will move to a monthly schedule starting in September 2012. The Christian Standard has been continuously published since its first weekly issue rolled off printing presses on April 7, 1866.  It has produced issues every single week for 146 years, except for two weeks in 1937 when a flood put its presses underwater. Most of the time when a publication announces a change, it shuts down

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

May 14, 2012

Christian Standard

Obituaries from 2011

ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF OBITUARIES Connie Lynn Bolinger, 58, of Nashville, TN, died May 22, 2011, after an extended illness. She was born Feb. 12, 1953, in Gary, IN, the daughter of Elwood and Bonnie (Starks) Bolinger. She grew up in the First Christian Church of Hessville, Hammond, IN. A graduate of Morton High School in Hammond, she attended Indiana University and Saint Brieuc in Brittany, France. After moving to Nashville, TN, in 1990 she became staff assistant at First Christian Church, later Aspen Grove Christian Church, of Franklin, TN, a position she held for 21 years. She was a gifted

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”

March 26, 2012

Christian Standard

We’re Not Alone

By Darrel Rowland Colleges in the a cappella stream of our movement are also experiencing greater religious diversity in their student bodies. Abilene Christian University crossed a historic threshold in 2008. For the first time since the Texas college was founded 102 years earlier, a majority of its freshman class was not part of a (noninstrumental) church of Christ. Just 10 years before, about two-thirds of its students belonged. The decline at Abilene Christian shows that the a cappella branch of the Restoration Movement is experiencing the same, if not a greater, decrease in the proportion of fellowship students making up its

March 25, 2012

Christian Standard

Christian Church Colleges?

By Darrel Rowland More students from non-Restoration Movement churches are attending colleges and universities associated with independent Christian churches and churches of Christ. Is that good news or bad? To find out, CHRISTIAN STANDARD contacted leaders of the movement”s institutions of higher learning. Those from 15 responded, together representing about 85 percent of total enrollment. The “good news” camp points to the benefits of exposure to faithful biblical teaching, which in several cases has led to baptisms””sometimes in college swimming pools. “We view having non-Restoration Movement students as a blessed opportunity to share our message with those who might never

Help Keep Christian Standard Free & Accessible with a Tax Deductible Donation

We can do more together!

Every gift makes a difference!

No, thank you.
100% secure transactions - receipts provided.
Does Your Church Want to Support Christian Standard?

Would your church consider including support for Christian Standard in its annual missions budget? Your support would help us not only continue the 160-year legacy of this unifying ministry, but also expand the free resources, cooperative opportunities, and practical guidance we provide to strengthen churches in the U.S. and around the world.

We can do more together!

Every gift makes a difference!

No, thank you.
100% secure transactions - receipts provided.
Secret Link