June 12, 2023
Rob Raynor of Lakepoint Community Church in Eatonton, Gal., is retiring this summer after nearly 50 years in ministry. His start in ministry was unlikely, and his time in ministry has been innovative. . . .
September 19, 2018
By Kent E. Fillinger Nonmetropolitan or “rural” counties make up 72 percent of the land area in the United States and are home to 14 percent of the nation’s population. The landscape of small towns and rural America is changing in distinct ways. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Brookings Institution researcher William H. Frey reported, “Not only has the nonmetropolitan population remained much whiter than the rest of the nation, it is also getting older faster and shrinking in size” (www.brookings.edu). Almost three-fourths of these rural counties are at least 70 percent white, according to Census Bureau data. The age
August 11, 2018
By Kent E. Fillinger Worship music is a key part of a church’s overall worship experience, and a church’s style of worship remains a key differentiator, even as the “worship wars” of the 1980s and 1990s have subsided. Research shows that worship or music isn’t a priority for people in choosing to attend a church or in deciding whether to remain at a church (see my article “What Are Your Church’s Push and Pull Factors? Part 2” from March). Still, music remains one of the most talked about elements of a worship service. I wanted to learn more about worship
July 27, 2018
By Jerry Harris I remember the way youth ministry used to be. (Yes, I’m one of those guys.) It was a time when adults wanted to create a space for young people so they wouldn’t be bored in the adult service. Back then, church services didn’t connect to students. The deacons, wearing suits and ties, marched in and sat in the front row while the preacher took his place behind the pulpit. The organ would drone an instrumental call to worship until the song leader instructed the congregation to stand, then he would beat out 3/4 or 4/4 time with
June 16, 2018
By Jerry Harris What is faithfulness? Where does it come from? What builds and strengthens it? What sustains it over time? While all church leaders would like to be described as faithful, for many it’s an elusive target. That’s why it’s important to know the story of Thomas Campbell Huxford—or just Cam—and his wife, Sarah. Their life and ministry together have been an incredible living illustration of faithfulness. Faithfulness Begets Faithfulness Cam grew up in a small Christian church in a town of less than 500 in coastal South Carolina. His father, also named Thomas Campbell Huxford as was his
September 23, 2017
By Bob Hightchew How do you change an unhealthy church culture without any pain? How do you make necessary biblical changes without upsetting people? You can”t. If we are to serve the kingdom, we will have to fight some battles. The battle is worth it, though, if the process helps move a church to better health. I”ve learned this firsthand over the course of the last 20-plus years. South Fork Christian Church in Verona, Kentucky, has been an easy congregation for me to love. Our pews are filled with kind, generous, and loving individuals. However, when I arrived, the church
December 8, 2015
By Mark A. Taylor How should we worship? Maybe we can take some comfort in the fact that throughout church history, Christians have answered that question in wildly differing ways. As both Paul Blowers and Tom Lawson point out this month, lavish artistic expressions of worship centuries ago eventually gave way to abandonment and even destruction of them by Protestant reformers. The motivation for each approach was the desire to please and praise God. Across Christendom today, we find everything from formal liturgy in classic settings to simple, quiet contemplative gatherings in smaller groups to exuberant, loud, guitar-driven, drum-syncopated megachurch
June 20, 2015
By Karl Schad After months of seeking God in prayer, we prepared to launch three worship services designed to better reach all the generations in our community. We would offer blended traditional, contemporary, and modern services on Sunday mornings, each designed with a specific demographic in mind. Every service would include elements handpicked to engage the generational diversity of our community as we identified the distinct needs of the different age groups and planned to meet them. Three service styles would allow our community to express their worship to God in the way that best connected them to the Lord.
January 13, 2014
By T.R. Robertson Shortly after our arrival at the prison chapel, the two-way radios crackle with the announcement: “Release Christian Campus House to the chapel.” Within minutes a few dozen offenders, as we”re told to call them, come walking across the central prison yard. We actually call them by their first names. We make a point to learn and remember their names, since no one else here offers them that courtesy. The courts have mandated the prisoners” freedom to practice their chosen religion. The weekly chapel schedule is filled with a wide variety of offerings in 10 different “fully accommodated”
August 2, 2012
By Randy Gariss Within the American church, few topics have brought out more absurdity, immaturity, and blind passion than the discussion of “what shall the music in our worship services be like?” Of course, there are exceptions, but if one listens to the discussion in blogs, small groups, church hallways, and around Christian family dinner tables, let”s just say our finest behavior is seldom on display when we are discussing worship music. Why has the style of music in a worship service been such a lightning rod for disagreement? What has caused this issue to tower over the landscape of
May 29, 2012
By Kent E. Fillinger Eric Keller grew up in Enid, Oklahoma, and attended Oakwood Christian Church. He returned to his home church for two summer internships during Bible college, and in 2003 he became the church”s student minister. Then, in 2008, Keller became senior minister at Oakwood. Some would say you can”t go back home to serve a church you attended as a child. They would point to the experience of Jesus. When he returned to his hometown to teach, some of the locals took offense, and Jesus responded, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town
November 25, 2011
By Jeffrey Miller Late in 2008, Todd Carmichael staggered to the South Pole after covering 700 uphill miles in 39 days. He arrived with damaged gear, frostbit lungs, extreme exhaustion””and a world record! His discipline and determination, endurance and exhaustion, are truly amazing. Equally amazing, however, is whom he beat. Her name is Hannah McKeand, and Carmichael bested her record by 104 minutes””a margin comparable to winning a marathon by less than 4 minutes.1 Whether these adventurers are Christians, I don”t know. Their exploits, however, turn my mind to a frequent accusation commonly called “the feminization of the church.” As
September 12, 2011
By Brad Dupray Jim Phegley was sitting in the barber”s chair when he heard that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers in New York City. With half-shorn hair, he saw another airliner strike the second tower and went right to work doing what he does best, ministering to people in his church. Jim has been senior minister of Glen Cove (New York) Christian Church for 27 years. The church on Long Island became a place of solace on the evening of September 11, 2001, and continued as a place of ministry outreach after that. Jim”s heart
September 20, 2009
 by Karen J. Diefendorf As our congregation worked through the book of Hebrews recently, I listened anew to Hebrews 8:1-5: The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he
September 14, 2008
By Shockley Flick When I transitioned from teaching college to serving in church ministry, I asked a fellow music minister who had traveled that path before me what I should expect. He said, “Well, it will seem like Sunday comes every three days.” Most of us who plan worship services would agree. The demand of weekly planning is a taskmaster that never lets up. And with everyone a “worship expert” these days (that”s someone who wants you to plan services meaningful to him), it”s sometimes hard to know when you”ve put together a God-honoring, church-edifying service. The framework for my
October 14, 2007
By Greg Allen Jesus had traveled half the distance between Judea and Galilee, and was resting in Samaria beside a very famous well. A Samaritan woman arrived at the same well. We do not know her name, but I call her Sam. Jesus and Sam had a short conversation about water, which gave Jesus the opportunity to tell Sam something that could change her life. He told her if she continued to drink only well water, she would continue to be thirsty. But if Sam would drink from the living water Jesus gives, her thirst would be quenched . .
July 1, 2007
By Tom Claibourne Robert, did you enjoy the month you spent with your cousins?” “Yeah, Mom, it was pretty cool. We got on each other”s nerves a few times, but otherwise it was great.” “What was their church like?” “Pretty much like ours, only a little smaller. The teen class was interesting. Their worship band was good, but all four Sundays were basically the same.” “What do you mean?” “Well, Mom, by the third Sunday I figured out the basic pattern and what to expect. There was a new message each Sunday, and mostly new songs, but otherwise it was
October 22, 2006
By Doug Priest I grew up in Ethiopia where my parents served as missionaries. They planted churches among the Oromo people, in an area that had not had any previous Christian witness save for the minimal presence of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. We encouraged the new believers to write songs to be used for worship. We did not feel it was right to import a Western hymnody or utilize Western instruments for churches in rural Ethiopia. Our prayer was that the church would remain long after we were gone, and that it would be a church that used indigenous forms
July 2, 2006
By Becky Ahlberg For 35 years now, I”ve watched the worship wars being waged, and if it were not for the tragic “loss of life” and the permanently wounded, it would actually be humorous. We are so fickle. When I started out, if you showed up at the doors of a church with guitars and drums, they wouldn”t let you in””those were the devil”s tools. Then came a time when if you didn”t use guitars and drums and rearview projection, you were old-fashioned, out-of-step, and irrelevant. Now we”ve got to get out the incense and find the mystery, embrace symbolism,
March 19, 2006
By Phil LeMaster The familiar title of the 1964 Bob Dylan song come to mind as I look back over more than 35 years in the located ministry. Beyond the obvious clich̩ that the years have flown by, the most pervasive truth as I reminisce is the many transformations I have seen in the local church in the past generation. The times are indeed changing! Some of these changes are innocuous enough to be ignored, but many are weightier and significantly alter the job description of the 21st-century preacher. Consider some of the more evident ones with me Ң The
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