Articles for tag: Early Church

August 4, 2017

Christian Standard

To Be Restored: “˜Not the Only Christians”

By Trevor DeVage Messy . . . that is part of what I love about the early church. It was full of messy and unlikely people who were chosen to usher in Christ”s message to the world. Open the book of Acts and you”ll notice that these church pioneers shared in all things, cared for one another, added to their number daily, broke bread regularly, and carried the message of hope continually. They were all ordinary and messy men and women just like you and me. And out of this mess, Christ reached the world with his message. I love

April 2, 2017

Christian Standard

Holy Risk

By Jeff Faull It”s difficult to find a follower of God in Scripture who did not take big risks. Look at those who brought Jesus into the world. Look at the first church and the ministry of the apostles. How can our ministries and personal lives follow their example? Famous psychologist Abraham Maslow is best known for his hierarchy of needs pyramid. According to Maslow, the most primal needs we have involve our bodily activities, like breathing, eating, or drinking. Second only to those needs is the basic human desire for security and safety. We are driven by the desire

August 24, 2016

Christian Standard

Come to the Table

By Jim Tune Claudia and I enjoy our annual trek to Cape Breton Island for summer vacation. Our cabin is at least six hours away from the nearest independent Christian church. There are very few churches in this remote part of Nova Scotia, and the few that can be found are all part of mainline denominations. At best these churches offer Communion quarterly, making it very easy to miss Communion entirely if the date for it doesn”t fall during our stay. I find myself keenly aware of its absence during our visits to the local Anglican church. I”m grateful to

April 15, 2016

Christian Standard

Why We Meet

By Mark Krause Why did the early church celebrate the Lord”s Supper every week? The answer to this is very simple, but for some Christians it requires a different way of thinking. Most believers are well acquainted with the church tradition and expectation of meeting together on the first day of the week. This weekly gathering is reflected in a term we sometimes use for a particular, local church, the congregation. This word literally means “those who gather together.” Churches are made up of members who assemble, who come together. But why? If you were to ask believers why they

September 7, 2015

Christian Standard

Lesson for September 13, 2015: Sharing with Sincerity (Acts 4:34″”5:10)

Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri, and has held preaching ministries in Missouri, Illinois, and Colorado. This lesson treatment is published in the September 6 issue of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Mark Scott  In Luke”s summaries of the earliest church, we see it at its best (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37). The gospel was being preached, people were being saved, a congregation was being planted, Communion was being celebrated, and giving was off the charts. Who would not want to

August 31, 2015

Christian Standard

Lesson for September 6, 2015: Praying for Boldness (Acts 4:23-31)

This treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson is written by Dr. Mark Scott, who teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. Scott has also held preaching ministries in Missouri, Illinois, and Colorado. This treatment is published in the August 30 issue of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Mark Scott  Lots of things qualify as “acts” in the Book of Acts””miracles, speeches, encounters, persecutions, and even prayers. Prayer is an act. Persecution against the earliest church made prayer a red-hot act. This is the second prayer in Acts in which we are told the

July 16, 2015

Christian Standard

Philip D. Kenneson’s Thought Leaders

We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Philip D. Kenneson, professor of theology and philosophy at Milligan College, Tennessee. ________ Over the years, I have been consistently challenged, convicted, and unsettled by the work of Stanley Hauerwas, Miroslav Volf, and Rowan Williams, three of the leading theologians of our day. All three not only ground their theology unapologetically in a Trinitarian understanding of God, but each deeply loves

May 15, 2015

Christian Standard

Passover Parallels (Matthew 26:17-19)

By Neal Windham Jesus” last supper was almost surely some sort of Passover meal. It was eaten at night while in Jerusalem, as custom would have it. Our Lord likely explained the meal”s key features, much as Jewish fathers would have done for their own children, though in Jesus” case the symbolism was developed in new and astonishing ways. “This is my body,” he said, “my blood.” More than this, Jesus ended the meal with a hymn, as was also customary at Passover, and celebrated it with his new “family,” the disciples, a Passover tradition dating to the time of

October 24, 2014

Christian Standard

Books for Bible Students: The Book of Acts . . . the Stories and the Issues

By David A. Fiensy The book of Acts is a richly nuanced story of the spread of the Christian faith from Jerusalem to Rome. Along the way, the preachers of the gospel cross several cultures and subcultures. The fascinating part is viewing through Luke”s camera the way the proclaimers of the faith adapted the timeless message to different situations and ethnic groups. What the reader needs, then, is a guide through these cultures in order to understand both the events of the early church and how Luke presents those events to the reader. The book I have selected that does

August 8, 2014

Christian Standard

Why Celebrate Every Week?

By Mark S. Krause Some in the church world today ask, “Why celebrate the Lord”s Supper every week?” In the Christian churches/churches of Christ, we celebrate the Lord”s Supper each Sunday because we find that pattern reflected in the early church described in the New Testament. While it is inevitable that the church has changed over the centuries, we believe there are basic patterns worth preserving, and this is one of them. But this leads to a more basic question: “Why did the early church celebrate the Lord”s Supper every week?” The answer is very simple, but it requires a

August 1, 2014

Christian Standard

The Blessing of Memory

By Mike Shannon One of the things we fear most is the loss of our memory. We get frustrated over even small memory lapses. It is such a devastating problem that much time, money, and effort go into solving the serious medical issues that contribute to loss of memory. But what if it is not a medical problem? What if we deliberately forget or we forget out of benign neglect? It is vital to Christians to always remember the meaning of the cross. How can we ever forget what Jesus did for us there? The early church was concerned about

April 4, 2014

Christian Standard

Still We Meet on the Lord”s Day

By Jeff Faull “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus. . . . On the Lord”s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet” (Revelation 1:9, 10, author emphasis). Today is the Lord”s Day, but it doesn”t quite seem the same. John was being punished. We are not. John was suffering. We are not. John was alone. We”re not. John was an apostle. We”re not. John was an eyewitness. We”re not But we are trying to listen to God,

December 2, 2011

Christian Standard

The Lord”s Supper as Abstraction

By Jason Bembry I want you to imagine our world in the year 2111, 100 years from now. Imagine it”s a few days before Thanksgiving. The fastest-selling grocery item is “Thanksgiving on the Go,” a package containing a little cube of pressed turkey meat, a congealed cube of stuffing, and a tube of cranberry sauce. People in the 2100s are busy folks. Traveling to see loved ones for the holiday has become too hectic; many have deemed it psychologically stressful. Most people opt to work on the fourth Thursday in November, carrying with them the handy “Thanksgiving on the Go.”

July 27, 2011

Christian Standard

Innumerable! (Part 2: Jesus Is in Us and for People)

By Greg Nettle If Jesus is now in us, then it follows that, like Jesus, we must be for people. But unless people see our lives reflecting the fact that God is for them, they will continue to believe that God is against them. They”ll continue to be afraid of God. For us to restore the church to the mission of Jesus, we must communicate to people in every way possible that Jesus is for them and, therefore, that we as followers of Jesus are for them.   Letting Others Know We Are for Them How should this Christology be

June 20, 2011

Christian Standard

How We Got THIS Bible (Part 1)

By Jon Weatherly Where did the Bible come from? Was it delivered by angels to King James I in a leather binding with gilt-edged pages? Was it the product of church councils seeking to squelch dissent? Was it immediately and universally recognized as God”s Word until the recent rise of secular humanism? Today the Bible is the world”s most widely read and widely debated book. We Christians revere it as God”s Word, the full and final authority for what the church believes and does. But the Bible is not necessarily what people expect in God”s Word. It has many sections

April 2, 2011

Christian Standard

Travel Light

By Neal Windham “We must learn to travel light if we hope to keep pace with Christ,” remarked Neville Ward, and who could argue the point? When times are good, it seems the church can afford “reasonable” debt and a growing staff, but when the economy turns sour, then what? In the best of all worlds the church and her mission should not be hampered in any way by a smoldering economy. In fact, the reverse is true. It is precisely the tough times that test our claim to be the loving people of Christ. For example, the early church”s

March 6, 2011

Christian Standard

Smaller Churches Need Small Groups Too!

By Eric Bingaman As I studied the faces of my small group family, I began to reflect on the makeup of our group. These were not new Christians finding community for the first time. This was a small group of ordained ministers, elders, and deacons who had spent most of their life in the church””the smaller church””and for the first time were beginning to catch a glimpse of the community God has called his church to live in. As our small group was wrapping up for the evening, we held hands and prepared to pray for one another. That is

February 18, 2011

Christian Standard

The Dynamic NACC Message in a Challenging New Book

By Dudley Rutherford When you read in the Bible about the powerful ministry of Jesus or the revolutionary witness of the first-century church, does a longing well up inside you to capture that same strength and vigor in your personal effectiveness for the kingdom of God? The church in the New Testament impacted the world. It changed culture from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The early disciples turned the world upside down with their message, their lives, their commitment, and their passion. Can you imagine today”s church having the same influence in our

July 18, 2010

Christian Standard

Solid “˜Rock”

By Jennifer Taylor “Story” is a big idea right now. In 2009, author Donald Miller released A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, a memoir of the lessons he learned about “living a good story” while developing a movie script based on his life. Ben Arment”s STORY conference includes not only traditional big-name personalities like Chuck Swindoll but also David McFadzean (creator of the TV show Home Improvement), Richard Walter (screenwriter and UCLA film professor), and novelist Andrew Klavan. The International Storytelling Center draws thousands to its annual festival and works with the Library of Congress to collect information on

November 29, 2009

Christian Standard

Best Mission Practices in the 21st Century

  by Robert Reese “¢ As Americans, we must view non-Western Christians as our equals. The attitude of looking down on people because they are not as “developed” as we are comes from the period of Christendom when the West ruled the world. In the early church, the apostle Paul did not look down on people of other nationalities, but saw them as new creatures in Christ and heirs to all God”s promises (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:19). This allowed him to accept such people as coworkers. “¢ The rank and file of global Christians must be equipped to share

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