November 19, 2024
Each moment spend crafting is a chance to share God's love with others, to offer something that came from our hearts and hands as a way to bless those around us.
November 1, 2021
By Kent E. Fillinger Some churches create “holy huddles” that are internally focused and address only the needs of their own members. Their mantra could be, “Us four, no more, close the door!” Other churches are more externally focused and spend time, energy, and resources serving their local communities and meeting practical needs. Church leaders should periodically ask, “If our church were to close today, would our community realize it and miss us?” Answering that question will help a church assess where they fall on the internally focused versus externally focused spectrum. Local Community Involvement Our annual church survey for
May 1, 2021
How your church can build on your pandemic compassion with both spiritual justice and social justice.
May 1, 2021
Making an Impact Through Service Service is a way of life at Discovery Church in Bristol, Tennessee. The church was founded on a culture of service that has endured throughout the congregation’s 10-year history. Discovery’s current lead pastor, Matt Korell, served as a missionary in Taiwan before accepting the call to lead the church, and his experience overseas impressed upon him the importance of service. “This church has a spirit of serving,” Korell said, and that spirit is part of what attracted him to Discovery. One tradition at the church is “Sent to Serve” Sunday; these take place typically four
May 13, 2020
By Chris Moon As coronavirus-related social-distancing rules are eased and churches crack open the doors to their buildings, they do so knowing many things will be different—some for the worse, but possibly some for the better. Churches will need to figure out how to make the most of the challenges and opportunities. SAME STORM, DIFFERENT BOATS“We’re all in the same storm, but we’re not all in the same boat,” said Rick Rusaw, chief executive officer of the Spire Network and former pastor of LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colo. Spire has been surveying pastors and church members about their attitudes
November 22, 2016
New Year”s Eve””January 1: Contact a New Year”s Eve party venue and arrange to offer free rides home. The venue can call or text you when someone needs a ride. (Be sure to take someone with you. Do not go alone.) January 16″”Martin Luther King Day: Plan a day of service in the community to help meet pressing needs. For more information, go to www.nationalservice.gov/mlkday. “”Outreach Magazine, www.outreachmagazine.com
September 10, 2016
How one church is facilitating the priesthood of all believers””inside and outside the church walls By Justin Horey Is a Little League coach a children”s ministry worker? Is a backyard barbecue a discipleship group? Is living out your faith as a public school teacher as important as serving in student ministries? At Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, the answer is yes. Lead pastor Ben Cachiaras says Mountain Christian Church encourages ministry both inside and outside the church walls, because it”s essential to do both. “We legitimize ministry even if it”s not within the four walls of the church,” Cachiaras
June 28, 2016
By Mark A. Taylor The below piece, first posted here five years ago, still resonates with me as we approach the Sunday before the Fourth of July. As one commenter said when it first appeared, “Our patriotism is for our freedom and way of life in a free country; our worship is reserved only for our Creator God.” More than a decade ago, my congregation hosted a patriotic pageant each year called “Sea to Shining Sea.” We had a huge adult choir, a children”s choir, a live orchestra, actors, and dancers. We welcomed color guards from all the armed services.
May 21, 2016
By Michael C. Mack Studies point to a steep decline in senior adult ministries in churches. “As the large baby boomer generation moves into their older years,” says Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay, “they will resist any suggestion that they are senior adults, no matter how senior they may be.” Churches must be prepared to adapt to this new reality. If they continue to minister to senior adults as they always have, says Rainer, they are headed for failure. In February we asked Best Practices readers, both in print and in our Facebook group (www.facebook.com/BestMinistryPractices), “What are you
March 3, 2016
By Michael C. Mack Ideas for your church, group, class, or team: Spruce Up the Community. Contact a local parks department, senior living centers, or cemeteries, for instance, or ask members to provide names of neighbors who could use yard help this spring. Ask how your volunteers can do a postwinter spruce-up. Gather all the volunteers and gear you can and love your community through these acts of service. March Forth and Do Something. March 4 is “March Forth and Do Something Day.” Try planning a day of service in your community, perhaps in conjunction with the first idea. Let
August 7, 2014
By Michael C. Mack In May, Northeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, canceled weekend church services, opting instead to serve an urban community of the city where the church has a campus. Nearly 2,000 church members rode buses to Clifton, where they were mobilized for more than 4,000 hours of service. How does a church plan a serving event of this scale? Randy Gordon, “Go and Do” minister at Northeast, suggested that church leaders “establish points of contact in the community to identify the legitimate needs.” Northeast staff and volunteers visited schools, businesses, government leaders, community ministries, and a bar owner
June 20, 2014
By Jonathan Williams “I don”t need your God to make me good.” I was having lunch with Tom, a close friend and devout atheist. I ordered the Reuben. He went light with the salad. The topic was heavy. “Then what”s your foundation for goodness and morality?” I asked him. “What stops you from being a compulsive liar or a career con artist?” “Morality and goodness are biological,” Tom replied, “they”ve been with us from the beginning. That”s how our species not only survives, but also thrives.” I brought up the late Jeffrey Dahmer, a convicted murderer and sex offender, who,
August 6, 2013
By Mark A. Taylor One of the questions late in our June BlogTalkRadio* program was, “How can a Christian leader get started with a missional approach to ministry?” All three of those interviewed””Jon Ferguson, Greg Nettle, and Jon Weece””agreed with the same principle: “Start by being a model of missional ministry with your own class and your own family.” Weece, especially, took up the family theme. “We”ve reoriented our whole life around serving other people,” he said. “It”s very normal, for example, for our kids to understand this is what we”re going to do on Tuesday nights; we”re going to
By Jennifer Johnson “There”s a lot of discussion about the cost of investing in a college education,” says Dave Miller, vice president of advancement at Nebraska Christian College. “We want to talk about what the college is investing in the student.” At NCC in Papillion, NE, part of the investment is The Institute, a new program that rolled out in January and launches officially this fall. “The Institute is like an honors program, but focused on leadership potential and community service,” Miller says. Students must maintain at least a 3.0 grade point average to participate, but academic aptitude is just
January 24, 2013
By Mark A. Taylor Ben Cachiaras, senior pastor with Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, is one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s 12 contributing editors. Like all of them, he has great insight into human nature, great passion for the gospel”s potential to change lives, and great ideas for the church channeling God”s blessings to our troubled world. He met with us in our annual contributing editors retreat last week and wrote about it in his blog this week: At dinner one night we passed through a buffet line and when it was my turn at the meat counter the guy cutting
September 30, 2012
By Jennifer Johnson For several years, Journey Christian Church (Greeley, CO) has helped meet a number of needs at nearby John Evans Middle School, from volunteering at sports events and feeding needy families to providing school supplies and coordinating an annual Christmas party for students. After studying the book of Nehemiah, lead minister Arron Chambers and the church began praying about a “great work” (Nehemiah 6:3) they could begin this past July. Just a few weeks later, when the John Evans principal asked Chambers if church members could paint the school”s hallways and cafeteria, he knew the church had found
July 14, 2012
By Randall R. Childress A recent movement among churches is “Don”t go to church””Be the church.” The idea is that instead of gathering for worship, the church should be out in the community doing good in the name of Christ. But sometimes well-meaning Christians focus on “doing good” and forget the “in the name of Christ.” The church is not a humanitarian society so much as an evangelistic one. I thought about the church meeting needs and saving souls when I read a comment by Drew Dyck, managing editor of Leadership Journal, in the Winter 2012 issue. “My church is big
By Mark A. Taylor Maybe the best line in the panel interview article posted this week comes close to the end of it. Luke Erickson, from Mountain Christian Church, in Joppa, Maryland, shared the question the church asks anyone interested in community service projects or mission trips overseas: “How are you engaged in your own neighborhood?” It”s a question born of genius. It prods the would-be servant to get out of himself and into the church”s mission. For example, I may feel good about “sacrificing” a couple hours to work in a food pantry; I may think I”ve given a
April 25, 2012
By Mark A. Taylor This week we have offered readers a picture of four dynamic Christian churches. Maybe you, like me, will decide you”d be pleased to be a member of any of them. Each is committed to Scripture and preaching the gospel. Each is seeking to develop new believers into mature disciples. Each is looking beyond the walls of its building and to the needs and hurts and opportunities to serve all around them. And each of the four has a different take on the current debate about whether a church should be attractional or missional. Paul Williams commented
March 1, 2012
By Jennifer Taylor This past December, 6,000 people gathered at 12 packing stations for five days to pack more than 1 million meals for the people of Haiti. Participants packed a specially formulated, fast-cooking, rice-based combination of vitamins, soy, dehydrated vegetables, and other nutrients that provide, in one serving, about 75 percent of a child”s daily requirement for a healthy diet. Lifeline Christian Mission (Westerville, OH) worked with Southland Christian Church (Lexington, KY) to coordinate the event. Lifeline”s ABC (All Because of Christ) food packaging events are opportunities for churches and organizations to meaningfully address issues of world hunger in
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