Articles for tag: Homeless

December 16, 2018

Christian Standard

‘The Gospel Comes with a House Key’

What the Holy Family Teaches Us about Hospitality   By Matt Proctor My wife, Katie, has the gift of hospitality. With six kids, our house isn’t always clean, but it’s always open. Katie’s smile, fun red chairs, and paper plates have welcomed hundreds of people. Me? I’m not so good at it. I’m a professional extrovert but a personal introvert. I interact happily with lots of people in my work, but at the end of the day, I want to pull in my driveway, pull up the drawbridge, and enjoy some alone time. Also: I’m not always good at welcoming

August 29, 2018

Christian Standard

5 Keys (and 3 Crucial Attitudes) for a Successful Food Ministry

By Troy M. Borst A food ministry can be an effective way for an urban church to engage the congregation, serve its neighbors, and share Christ’s love. But such a ministry isn’t without challenges. New Beginnings Christian Church in Tampa, Florida (www.newbeginningscctampa.org), operates a successful food pantry that serves 80 to 90 people on a regular basis as a means of reaching out to South Tampa. For more than a decade, we have provided food staples for the homeless, poor, and working poor in Tampa. It is an essential part of how we love our immediate neighbors. Matthew 25:34-46 guides

August 11, 2018

Jerry Harris

Reaching Out to the Homeless and Hurting in Hollywood, Florida

God pulled a neighborhood kid with a rough upbringing out of that life into a new one at Hope Church of Christ By Jerry Harris “Jehovah-jireh means, ‘in the mountain it shall be seen.’ You have to climb the mountain first,” says Alvin Daniels, senior minister of Hope Church of Christ in Hollywood, Florida. “It will take power, effort, and strength to get to the top. But once you’re up there, God will provide the vision for which you had to go up there in the first place. You can’t see it from the foot of the mountain.” Daniels wasn’t

December 2, 2017

Christian Standard

‘I Showed Up’

Mandy Harvey”s journey from hearing loss to the finals of AGT, and the family who wouldn”t give up on her. By Joe Harvey As I write this article, my wife, Val, and I are sitting in a hotel room in Los Angeles busying ourselves with work as we await the contestants” final performances on America”s Got Talent for 2017. Tonight, our daughter Mandy Harvey will sing another original song and play her ukulele. Val and I will sit in the lower balcony, stage left, and watch in wonder, sometimes literally holding our breath, as the grand finale unfolds before us.

August 25, 2017

Christian Standard

Headlines: September 2017

Singer Overcomes Major Obstacle, Wins Over Harshest of Critics Mandy Harvey, 29, a singer-songwriter (who happens to be deaf) from St. Cloud, Fla., won over the judges””including notorious critic Simon Cowell””when she auditioned on NBC”s America”s Got Talent on June 6. Mandy”s father, Joe Harvey, an associate professor of ministry with Johnson University Florida in Kissimmee, wrote about his daughter in “Mandy”s Story” in the April 2015 issue of Christian Standard. Mandy became deaf during her first (and only) year studying music education at Colorado State University. Joe Harvey accompanied Mandy to the AGT performance and was interviewed as part

May 11, 2017

Christian Standard

Grandparenting Ministry

Secret weapon. Unrealized potential. By Michael Crosley A secret weapon””does your church have one? Recently Jeff Faull, our senior minister at Mt. Gilead Church in Mooresville, Indiana, said in a sermon, “We are unleashing a secret weapon . . . grandparents.” He was inviting all grandparents to attend a seminar on the biblical mandate to teach God”s Word “to your children and to their children after them” (Deuteronomy 4:9). We were astounded by the response. Four weeks later, more than 90 grandparents of 325 grandchildren participated in a Saturday morning vision-casting seminar that launched a grandparenting ministry at Mt. Gilead. The

March 21, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

Immigration: My Final Word

By Mark A. Taylor It”s true for every web post, published article, or magazine cover theme: Some agree. Some object. And many ignore what has been written. That”s been the pattern for the immigration posts appearing at christianstandard.com this month (all of them lifted from the March issue of the print magazine), and your editor is tempted to reply to each response. I”ll resist, but I am motivated to give 500 or so more words to the subject. First: the positive comments, Facebook reposts, and retweets of links to the articles are gratifying. But I”ll admit that some of this

January 21, 2017

Christian Standard

Our Link in the Chain

By Andy Daniell How a small, struggling local church found new vitality by simply meeting the need across the street. Almost all church growth and leadership models are built around these main factors: “¢ being true to your church”s DNA and finding your role in the kingdom; “¢ being willing to test and employ various approaches related to the vision that fulfills that role; “¢ being willing to change and/or shut down ministries and initiatives based on the first two factors; “¢ allowing room for God to bless the activities and use them in ways that are beyond what”s humanly

December 25, 2016

Christian Standard

Jesus and the Powers

By Joe Boyd We”ve all seen much attention this year given to power and those who possess it. But the church”s attitude toward power is different. Christmas, at its core, is about power. Who holds real power? Where does it come from? How do we get it? All the answers are in the Christmas story, buried under the sentimentality and tradition. The Christmas story shows us true power comes to earth in the humility of a dependent infant. Power comes in the form of an impoverished peasant child. A desperate refugee. A homeless wanderer. Power comes in weakness. This is

November 15, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

Tell and Show

By Mark A. Taylor It”s one thing to talk about justice; it”s another to work for it. It”s one thing to study justice; it”s another to seek it. But talking and studying are important, of course, especially at first. So in posts at this site this month we”re talking about the justice God seeks for those beaten down by society and circumstances. Three writers look at Scripture to see God”s compassion and the gospel”s concern for those ill served by the systems and situations trapping them in poverty, homelessness, or despair. Look again at the prophecy of Amos, the experience

July 11, 2016

Christian Standard

Bad News or Good News?

By T.R. Robertson The narrative of bad news dominates our culture, a culture that increasingly sees religion as a major purveyor of bad news. “We”re living in a day and age that the news media is a drug-pusher. And negative news is their drug,” says Dr. Peter H. Diamandis. “And on every device that we get””our cell phones, our smart phones, our laptops, our newspapers, our radios””we are fed negative news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, over and over and over again.” Diamandis, speaking in 2013 at a conference called “Global Future 2045: Towards a New Strategy for

May 26, 2016

Christian Standard

Want Millennials Back in the Pews? Stop Trying to Make Church Cool

By Rachel Held Evans EDITOR”S NOTE: Obviously, this essay, adapted from one that first appeared in the Washington Post on April 30, 2015, does not represent the position of CHRISTIAN STANDARD on every issue. But it provides a prod to our thinking and practice that can stimulate some healthy discussion. We invite our readers to react. Add a comment below or send us an e-mail. Bass reverberates through the auditorium floor as a heavily bearded worship leader pauses to invite the congregation, bathed in the light of two giant screens, to tweet using #JesusLives. The scent of freshly brewed coffee

June 12, 2015

Christian Standard

Communion, Our Constant

By Mandy Smith The old Sunday school song goes, “Since Jesus came within and cleansed my soul from sin, I”m inright, outright, upright, downright happy all the time.” But very few Christians could honestly say they feel happy all the time. While we may retain an undisturbed, deep joy, it”s normal for any Christian to have moments of spiritual high and spiritual low, to feel close to God and far from God at various times, to have times of great faith and times of great doubt. One helpful practice that allows us to survive the darker times is to overlook

April 20, 2015

Christian Standard

What We Don’t Know

By Fred Liggin When I first met Frank, I didn”t know anything about him other than he was poor and homeless. I didn”t know his story. I didn”t know how he got into such a mess. Did he drink himself homeless? Did he waste his money? Was he just lazy or did he refuse to work? Did something traumatic happen to him that caused him to spiral out of control? But it didn”t matter. We were Jesus” followers and we had to help him. So we did. As we began walking with Frank, we learned how he got into this

March 26, 2015

Christian Standard

Foster Care and the Church

By T. R. Robertson Last Christmas our home was filled with the same sort of holiday laughter and sharing that most families experience. We had a houseful of grown sons, now young men in their upper 20s. Along with them came a wife, a girlfriend, and little kids. All of them call us Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. Not one of them shares a drop of our blood or a strand of our DNA. The only one of our foster sons not there was Jeremy, whom we haven”t seen since he left our custody just before he turned 2,

March 19, 2015

Christian Standard

Feet to Faith

By Peggy Park Brad Johnson and his sons, Matthew, 19, and Niklas, 15, of Tates Creek Christian Church, Lexington, Kentucky, are living out James 2:17: “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” They put feet to their faith for three-plus hours every Sunday afternoon. About two years ago the three started volunteering with Church Under the Bridge, which began its Lexington ministry in May 2003. The church was started by four people from four Lexington churches that had a vision and passion for the needs of street people. The church for indigent/homeless individuals has now

March 15, 2015

Christian Standard

Balm in Gilead

By Jay Engelbrecht There is balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole; There”s power enough in heaven, To cure a sin-sick soul. The opening line of an old African-American spiritual answers Jeremiah”s rhetorical question, “Is there no balm in Gilead[?]” (Jeremiah 8:22, King James Version*). In Marilynne Robinson”s novel Gilead, I discovered balm for my soul. The novel”s narrator, a fictional Iowa preacher named John Ames, is dying. He uses his remaining days to write an account of his life for his young son. Three sentences in Gilead changed the way I view 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, which reads: Listen,

February 11, 2015

Christian Standard

A Matter of Love

By Jim Tune I love the local church. At times I”ve been one of its harshest critics, but these days I”m coming to peace with “church.” The church can be an easy target, and it”s tempting sometimes to just blast away. It”s harder””and a lot more character forming””to live in it day after day, bearing with one another and serving faithfully (and sometimes thanklessly). The disgruntled “church stinks” crowd needs to be careful lest their disillusionment becomes an idol that defines their identity. Some have said, “The church is kind of like sausage””it”s better just to enjoy the thing and

December 30, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

New Steps and a New Gift

By Mark A. Taylor Every year at Christmastime I look for a way to give something to someone who can”t or won”t give me anything in return. Usually this means an extra offering to a favorite mission, a check written to a local shelter, or gifts purchased for our church”s project to “provide Christmas” for needy children. I do this because it”s always seemed to me that exchanged gifts are trades, not really gifts. They”re fun, and they can be a good part of office or family celebrations. But true generosity doesn”t happen with rules about dollar limits or gift

December 15, 2014

Christian Standard

Friendship & Poverty

By Stephen Lawson From a certain perspective, my neighborhood looks like a disaster area. Many buildings are vacant and appear to have been bombed out. There are collapsed roofs and precariously leaning walls on many houses. Whole blocks seem to be completely lifeless and abandoned. Nearly every corner has a church, or a school, or a store that is boarded up and closed for good. The streets are littered with broken glass, used tires, and trash. “Urban blight” is what city planners call this””neighborhoods that look like war zones. A better term for it might simply be “visible poverty.” Poverty.

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