November 5, 2025
As those who have been charged with carrying out the Great Commission to go to all the world making disciples, let's remember that baptizing and teaching is not complete if obedience is not also taught and modeled by those who claim to follow Jesus.
November 1, 2021
By Don Wilson In more than 50 years of ministry, I’m not sure I have ever gone to a conference where speakers shared their greatest leadership failures and mistakes. I have, however, been to many conferences where pastors and leaders shared their greatest ministry success stories. If we are not careful, we unknowingly can discourage pastors who feel like failures because they don’t experience similar successes. I want to share four of my mistakes in ministry—and what I have learned from them—in the hope it will encourage others. Mistake No. 1: Believing All Church Leaders Want Their Church to Grow
September 1, 2021
As I look back over 50 years in ministry, my wife and I have been blessed in so many ways. We have had the opportunity to serve in churches of all sizes with staff members and elders who love God. We’ve had some difficult situations and struggles, but most of our experiences have been positive. Watching lives change as people accept Jesus has been a great joy. By far, my greatest reward in ministry has been seeing all of my children and grandchildren become Christ followers. All three of my children are in full-time ministry and several of my grandchildren
May 1, 2021
Here are the top three things I looked for when hiring staff.
January 8, 2020
By Don Wilson Churches in America are concerned about the loss of future generations. Some say our youth programs do not adequately prepare students to defend their faith as they encounter secular professors in universities. Others say young people cannot relate to the church’s outdated methods. And beyond that, organized sports are competing for our children’s attention on Sundays and throughout the week. While these and other issues are concerning, I believe there is a more significant and fundamental problem that is often overlooked. I’m referring to the influence fathers and men can have on the decisions their children make
May 22, 2019
Vested in Our Leaders: Accelerate Group By Don and Sue Wilson Accelerate Group was born out of a desire to encourage and support ministry couples. Many times, over our years in ministry, we went to conferences that offered resources and encouragement to pastors about how to be more effective in ministry, but rarely did a conference encourage us together as a couple. With Accelerate Group, we wanted to offer couples a way to see what ministry looks like from their spouse’s perspective, while providing an opportunity for each mate and couple to voice their needs—not only in ministry, but in
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,
May 18, 2019
Advice from 14 ministers on finding fulfillment in retirement By Mark A. Taylor We asked Mark Taylor, retired editor of Christian Standard, to contact retired ministers in our movement to ask what they are doing now and share their advice. âRetire to, not from.â Itâ™s a popular recommendation, and more than half of the retired megachurch ministers we interviewed for this piece repeated it. As our summary shows [click here], all of them have followed the advice in one way or another. Their accomplishments and activities include filling guest speaker slots, serving in their local congregation, representing a parachurch ministry,
April 29, 2018
The consistency of challenging their congregation to be bold in furthering the kingdom over the years paid off throughout 2017. By Natalee Jones Change isn’t easy but it’s necessary for growth. That’s what Don Wilson kept in mind as he was deciding to retire as senior pastor of Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV) in Phoenix, Arizona, a church he helped launch. Wilson and his wife were meeting with three other couples in the Wilsons’ living room just over 35 years ago when they felt God calling them to start a church in the Phoenix area. CCV’s first service
December 6, 2017
How We”ve Created Memories and Provided Opportunities to Talk About What”s Truly Important By Don and Sue Wilson The first time we consciously thought about the importance of blessing our children and grandchildren was probably when we realized our children had grown up, become parents, and we were now grandparents, which meant we must be old. All at once it was apparent our days were numbered and if we wanted to be a blessing to the adorable little children who were cascading into our lives at a rapid pace, we needed to focus on making memories instead of money. Over
September 9, 2017
By Rick Lowry Samson Dunn serves as lead pastor with Catalyst Church in Phoenix, Arizona, a culturally diverse church committed exclusively to reaching the inner city. Over the past 10 years, Catalyst has grown from a small urban work to two campuses that touch thousands of people weekly. Samson”s personal journey and the church”s journey have followed a nontraditional path. Their story will expand the vision of any church leader who takes the gospel of Christ seriously. QUESTION: Your upbringing didn”t prepare you for ministry in the traditional way. SAMSON DUNN: I”m from southern Kentucky, Monroe County. My parents
April 30, 2017
By Jerry Harris What”s going on with the CHRISTIAN STANDARD and The Lookout? As a pastor of a church and a founding board member of The Solomon Foundation, I was interested in the answer to that question. Both magazines have been staples of the Restoration Movement from early on, and I, like many, had assumed they would always be there. When I heard in our board meeting the CHRISTIAN STANDARD and The Lookout could be shut down because their owners had found no buyers for them, I was deeply troubled. The chairman of the Publishing Committee had informed Doug Crozier,
May 3, 2015
By Mont Mitchell I turned my numbers in to CHRISTIAN STANDARD for the attendance list today. For the last bunch of years we have been on the emerging megachurch list . . . you know, churches with an average attendance more than 1,000 (but less than 2,000). However, for the last several years, our church has been going through some challenges and changes and transitions. (I”ll get to that in a bit.) The result: We”re bumped from the list. Westbrook Christian Church, Bolingbrook, Illinois, used to be an emerging megachurch. Today, we are just a large church. Now, don”t get
July 16, 2014
By Don Wilson (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) The best advice I ever received in ministry was from my father. We would talk on the phone every Saturday morning, and the last thing he would say to me was, “Love your wife and preach the Word.” Those words have helped me remain faithful to my wife for over 45 years and preach at the same church for more than 32 years. Don Wilson serves as pastor of Christ”s Church of the Valley, Peoria, Arizona.
June 24, 2014
By Mark A. Taylor We”ve been chronicling megachurch success for more than three decades at CHRISTIAN STANDARD. But in spite of encouraging growth, both in size and number of megachurches, an underbelly of suspicion toward them remains. Our Beyond the Standard conversation May 15 with Jud Wilhite, Dave Stone, and Don Wilson, showed this. These ministers with the three largest megachurches among the independent Christian churches shared practical ideas and thoughtful strategies””always with a spirit of humility. But too many questions from listeners contained veiled accusations of compromise to achieve numbers. So when I came across a report from Leadership
May 20, 2014
By Mark A. Taylor Everyone serving the Lord struggles sometimes with tension between external actions and internal motives. Am I singing or preaching or teaching because I love to be in front of people, or because I love to communicate God”s Word? Do I give out of guilt or out of gratitude? Do I approach Bible study, prayer, or weekly worship solely out of duty, or are they a delight to me? And when it comes to ministers who lead growing churches, the tensions multiply. Am I seeking church growth to build the kingdom or to build my ego? Am
March 14, 2013
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
May 18, 2012
By Kent E. Fillinger Multisites are being created and church mergers are happening everywhere. Are they a certain path to church growth? Can they help a church evangelize better than it could from a single campus? What must a church do to successfully launch a second site? Multisites now outnumber megachurches, and the number of multisite churches is growing faster than the number of megachurches, according to a Leadership Network survey.1 One factor driving the increase is church mergers. The same Leadership Network survey found that one in three multisite campuses is the result of a church merger. One notable
June 12, 2011
By Jennifer Taylor What if thousands of people drove past one another on the highway to worship at churches that weren”t located too far apart? What if both churches coordinated hundreds of small groups in their communities””groups studying different material and never working together to reach the city? When Christ”s Church of the Valley (Peoria, AZ) and Parkway Christian Church (Surprise, AZ) saw this scenario playing out in their shared mission field, they made a surprising decision””to merge both churches and do more together than they could apart. The two churches, both located in suburbs of Phoenix, officially merged in
By Jennifer Taylor “Neighborhood Ministry has become our nerve center,” says Ashley Wooldridge, executive pastor at Christ”s Church of the Valley (Peoria, AZ). “It is the reason our church is growing.” CCV senior pastor Don Wilson created Neighborhood Ministry three years ago to more effectively accomplish the church”s mission of winning people to Christ, training them to become disciples, and sending disciples to impact the world. Each person at CCV is encouraged to join a neighborhood group””a weekly gathering of people who live in the same neighborhood or subdivision. The groups meet each week in a study based on the
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