December 20, 2025
Who’s That Guy?
Chad Broaddus tells us about reading the Christmas story with his family and how Quirinius reminds him of the authenticity of Jesus' birth.
Articles for tag: Family Worship
November 22, 2017
The Night Before Christmas
By Kelly Carr “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through church houses, every creature was stirring, all the staff and some spouses. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, but peek inside the church building””you”ll find everyone there. While others are restful, sugar-plums in their heads, on Christmas Eve church leaders are busy instead. Ministers across the country confirm what you already know: Christmas Eve is one of the best attended services of the year. Large and small congregations, suburban, rural, and city locations all welcome folks who rarely darken the doorway of a church building other
July 14, 2013
Introducing Prisoners to Christ
By Jennifer Johnson God Behind Bars is a nonprofit organization that holds video campuses inside several women”s prisons. Today, the ministry is pursuing a multifaceted strategy to not only introduce inmates to Christ, but to walk with them as Christ followers. To that end, God Behind Bars partners with Central Christian Church (Henderson, NV) and several others church to launch ministries inside prisons. GBB still holds video services, and the first step is for a prisoner to attend. Because 90 percent of inmates have struggled with addiction at some point, step two is participating in a small group or Celebrate Recovery. “After a
January 15, 2013
Developing the Youngest Disciples
By Teresa Welch Discipleship””following after Christ””is an expectation for every believer. But sometimes we forget that discipleship can””and often should””begin during childhood. I recently enjoyed spending time with “my kids,” who were part of the children”s ministry I led prior to joining the faculty at Emmanuel Christian Seminary. As with all of my former kids, I was curious to find out about their lives, as I felt responsibility for their continued spiritual formation. During my visit with them, it became apparent what I see in their lives now is directly connected to the time I was with them and their
March 2, 2012
Sitting Pretty
By Daniel Schantz The wooden pew is a kind of symbol of the church in the past century. For a preacher”s son who grew up in the 1950s, the church pew provided me with stability, discipline, and plenty of fuel for a child”s imagination. Stability Almost everything in those old churches was made of wood. Wood was warm, smooth, pretty, and as stable as an anvil. Children sat with their parents during worship in those days before graded worship, a practice that many churches are reviving today. The first thing a child learned in church is that God is forgiving. The second
August 19, 2011
A Call for All-age Worship
By Verna Weber I can read your mind. The objections that fill the air at the title of this piece probably are not new to me. Let me guess at a few. Children won”t get anything out of the church”s main worship service. Children are distracting. They need an age-appropriate setting. We need them to be somewhere else. This is my time (usually uttered by tired parents). Ultimately, the responses boil down to one point””the greatest barrier to bringing the whole church together for worship is children. It used to be that children were to be seen and not heard.
February 28, 2007
Interview with Kerry Allen
Kerry Allen describes the people, preaching, and behind-the-scenes work of Hillsboro Family Camp in southwestern Ohio. From volunteer support to nonstop sessions, he explains why families gather each summer to worship, grow in Christ, and keep the faith.
