Articles for tag: Gun Violence

Elder Killed in Canadian Church Shooting

A shooting during morning worship in British Columbia, Canada, left a church elder dead and another person injured. Church members wrestled the rifle-wielding suspect to the floor and held him until police arrived. Dead is Salmon Arm Church of Christ elder Gordon Parmenter, 78, who was apparently targeted in the shooting. The suspect, 25, is a man Parmenter had helped in the past, said Dave Parmenter, the victim’s son. Gordon Parmenter died at the scene. One person who tried to intervene was shot in the leg and was airlifted to a hospital. He is in stable condition. According to the

We Do Not Suffer Alone

By Mark A. Taylor Death intrudes into thousands of lives every day. But to each individual losing someone close, death seems like a singular experience. I remember the comment of a good friend whose dad died decades ago. He returned to his job after several days grieving with his family and found everything there decidedly unchanged. “Everyone”s just doing what they usually do, working on their own tasks as if nothing has happened,” he said. Here he was, trying to cope with his life that had been upended. But everyone around him, it seemed, was getting along just fine. This

Calm in the Chaos

By Mark A. Taylor How shall we react in times that seem to become more unsettled every week? In a society besieged by gun violence, in a culture increasingly fragmented by political division, in a world where peace seems impossible and conflict far away breeds pain and destruction close to home, what should be the Christian”s outlook? When the media celebrates and the government certifies rights we believe God forbids, and when Christian leaders struggle to find middle ground between the extremes of permissiveness and legalism, where will we take our stand? In blog posts and coffee shop conversations all

How to Succeed at Influencing Culture

By Mark A. Taylor How do you measure the success of your ministry? Joe Boyd and Rich Gorman and I talked about that for almost an hour last week in Christian Standard”s monthly Beyond the Standard online interview program, all while trying to address our assigned topic, “Church and Culture.” “The hardest thing about vocational ministry,” Boyd said, “is you never really know if you”ve done a good job or not.” Boyd doesn”t believe numbers alone can tell the story. He spoke about the ministry of Jesus who preached to the thousands but soon had only a dozen followers. And

Better Than Leaving

By Mark A. Taylor Last week I came across a quote by a famous poet (although I hadn”t heard of him), and it resonated with an issue I”ve been pondering awhile. Rod Padgett, writing in How to Be Perfect, said this: “Forgive your country every once in a while. If that is not possible, go to another one.” At first we might call the advice absurd. “I can”t go to another country. My family is here. My work is here. I was born here, and things should change so I can be happier here! After all, I”m right about what”s

A Simple Prayer

By Jim Herbst A few years ago it was the beginning of what I now call “the human hunting season” in our neighborhood. As temperatures rise in the spring, criminal activity and turf battles also heat up. The warm spring nights are pierced with gunfire. I lay in bed during this annual cycle with tears at our church”s inability to make much of a difference. I learned a simple and often repeated prayer: “Help!” I”ve prayed that prayer in bed, in daily devotions, with fasting, on my knees, flat on my face, driving, on the church”s balcony, on the church”s

September 4, 2005

Jim Herbst

senior saints

God and Little Old Ladies

Senior saints carry long stories of prayer, hospitality, and perseverance. Jim Herbst reflects on how overlooked faithfulness in Pittsburgh strengthened his ministry and reminded him that God’s slow work is relentless.

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