Articles for tag: Jim Tune

40 Under 40: Kurt Kuykendall

KURT KUYKENDALL Pastor, Westcoast Christian Church, Surrey, British Columbia Determined, diligent, and faithful are words that come to mind as I consider the ministry of Kurt Kuykendall””and he”s just getting started! Kurt grew up in a small town in northern Alberta but felt called to serve in the “big city” of Toronto. In his first full-time ministry, Kurt served with me as a youth minister and then felt called to serve on the launch staff of a new church plant I was undertaking in Greater Toronto. This was quite a project and a huge step of faith for this young,

Grassroots Group Works to “˜Feed the Street”

By Jennifer Johnson It started slowly. Seven years ago, Jeff Wedge, a member at Churchill Meadows Christian Church in Ontario, Canada, wanted to recruit a team to deliver food and other necessities to the homeless. He approached CMCC senior minister Jim Tune about developing the outreach as a ministry of the church. Tune said no. “Hey, we”re totally supportive of feeding hungry people,” Tune says with a smile. “We encouraged Jeff to start his ministry, but as a church we focus on a few major community projects around the holidays.” Today “Feed the Street” reaches hundreds of homeless people throughout

Quality People, Challenging Content

CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors will enjoy their annual retreat January 16-18, a meeting that is a highlight of the year for many of us who attend it. The discussions each meeting focus on the magazine”s and this website”s content and appearance. What are the topics and who are the writers that must be included in coming issues?  Which are the events and trends that our readers want to read more about? This is all very serious stuff, but in the midst of it there”s plenty of laughter, an abundance of good-natured kidding, and the brand of hilarious true stories that

The Passion of Barton Stone

By Jim Tune Barton Warren Stone was one of the foremost leaders for religious freedom on the western frontier during the first half of the 19th century. He led a movement with goals many—including me—are still pursuing today. Barton Stone was born in Maryland in 1772 and as a boy decided to become a preacher. At age 19 he was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian church. In 1801, Stone moved to Cane Ridge, Kentucky. As he took up his preaching ministry, he discovered that some of the things he read in his Bible seemed inconsistent with the strong Calvinist

Hope, Despair in India: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 13)

By Jim Tune   A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry St. Louis: Turtleback, 2001 I have given copies of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry to more of my reading friends than possibly any other book I have read. All the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism of India is startlingly captured and made real to the reader. Set in 1975 in an unnamed city by the sea in India, this eye-opening novel looks at the lives of four strangers who have fallen, almost instantly, from a middle-class lifestyle to the ranks of the poor due to sudden economic upheaval. These

Elders: A Key to Growth in the New Church

By Jim Tune In my previous article on elders and submission, I suggested that church planters may be hesitant to install elders due to a misunderstanding of biblical authority. We”ve become accustomed to thinking about abuse and power in the same sentence. We have so many poor models of leadership around us today, it is easy to cringe when words like submission, authority, and rule come up. But a new church plant can provide a unique opportunity to create a workable and biblical model unhindered by any existing and entrenched system. At Churchill Meadows we followed an intentional pathway””one embarked

Elders, Submission, and the Rebel in Me!

By Jim Tune With so many poor models of leadership around us today, we may cringe when words like submission, authority, and rule come up. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” With that line in the final chapter of Animal Farm, George Orwell delivered his critique of Karl Marx and the government of the Soviet Union. We know the story: animals rise up, a barnyard revolt is launched, and the animals displace the human owners of the farm and begin to run the farm for their own benefit. It was a paradise run by

I Have a Family

By Jim Tune My father died just a few months ago. It hasn”t been easy, and I feel the loss keenly. His death has prompted a desire to know more about my dad, his extended family, and his heritage. As a godly father and a devoted worker for Christ, he has also marked me with a legacy””one I intend to celebrate, embrace, and pass on. No one would expect any less.   The Family I Chose From a faith perspective, I also have a family. I didn”t join it as the result of a father”s will or by accident. I

A Church Planting Milestone in Canada

By Jennifer Taylor   According to Jim Tune, senior minister with Churchill Meadows Christian Church and director of Impact Ministry Group (both Ontario, Canada), the area is home to only six other Christian churches””and their combined attendance is less than 500. So CMCC”s new building””and the more than 1,200 people who attended the opening services in March””is a milestone for Canadian church planting. “Churches are closing faster in Canada than any other area, including Western Europe,” Tune says. “Church just isn”t on the radar. In fact, people assumed our building was an industrial complex or school because they don”t have

A Biblical Response to the Gospel

By Jim Tune Whenever someone is ready to begin a life of faith and discipleship, he or she rightly asks, “What must I do now?” While salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus, most believers in Christ would agree that something must be done. Many modern-day evangelists would encourage the new believer to “come forward” at an “altar call.” Others might encourage the spiritual seeker to say the “sinner”s prayer.” That prayer might go something like this: “Father, I am sorry for my sins and want to turn away from my sinful life. I believe your Son Jesus died

New Building for Churchill Meadows

This past Sunday, Churchill Meadows Christian Church (Mississauga, Ontario) celebrated the grand opening of their new building. Senior minister Jim Tune and his wife, Claudia, planted CMCC in 2001 and the church broke ground on the building in June 2008. The project””Church Development Fund“s first international loan””will provide the first permanent facility for Churchill Meadows, which has grown to be the largest independent Christian church in Canada.

We Have Met the Enemy

By Mark A. Taylor Jim Tune says in “Stake” that the NACC is better, but less necessary, than ever. His rationale resonates with that of Gary Weedman who contributed one of several “viewpoints” on the NACC for our September 21, 2008, issue. The NACC was created in 1927 as a reaction to what was seen as encroachment of liberal theology and of “open membership” practiced by missionaries. . . . The majority of the leaders of the International Convention . . . were seen to be supportive, or at least tolerant, of the theological liberalism and practice of open membership.

Canadian Church Hosts Celtic Christmas

Churchill Meadows Christian Church (Ontario, Canada) held its annual Celtic Christmas celebration this past weekend. The event features fiddlers, bagpipe music, authentic step-dancing, and other ancient elements. Popular Celtic songs and traditional Christmas carols are performed and CMCC minister Jim Tune shares a Christmas message.  Read more about this and other ways churches are celebrating Christmas in this week”s Buzz!

Churches Celebrate Our Savior”s Birth

By Jennifer Taylor So many churches, so many different ways to celebrate the birth of our Savior! Each December for the last three years, My Safe Harbor (Anaheim, California)“”a nonprofit organization providing education and support for low-income single moms and their children””has coordinated a Christmas brunch for teachers at four local elementary schools. From homemade treats and decorations to music and gifts, the MSH team provides a special time of appreciation for these hard-working teachers. Members at Anaheim First Christian Church, which helped launch My Safe Harbor, sign thank-you cards and donate money for presents (including refills for the Keurig

Growing Like Jesus (Intro)

Mention growth to a Christian audience, and their thinking quickly goes to the spiritual. Yet “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:51, 52). He showed us that growing close to God is connected with every other kind of growth, too. The intellectual, physical, and social dimensions of life all connect to the spiritual. And growth in any of these areas is most successful when accompanied by growth in the other three. This week we asked eight friends, Christian Standard contributing editors or members of our Publishing Committee, “What has helped you grow?”

Growing Like Jesus: The Bad Bounce

By Jim Tune (Jim Tune was among eight Christian leaders asked to share what helps them mature just as Jesus did. Tune is executive director of Impact Canada, a church-planting ministry based outside Toronto, Canada (www.impactcanada.org), and a contributing editor for CHRISTIAN STANDARD.) __________________ Soccer”s World Cup is a big deal in the multicultural city of Toronto. Who knew one of the most controversial components of the tournament would be the ball itself? The ball is the Adidas Jubulani and it had goalkeepers and strikers worrying and complaining from the start of the contest. The manufacturer claims it is the most

Meeting the Needs by Providing the Wants

By Mark A. Taylor What people need and what they want are not necessarily the same. For example, children need their vegetables, but they don”t always want to eat them. Creative moms find ways to combine good food in dishes that taste good too. Church leaders do this too. People want practical help for everyday problems. They need instruction from God”s Word and the advice of experienced Christians. One way to provide both is by giving them CHRISTIAN STANDARD and our sister publication, The Lookout. For example, we saw the Sunday-morning bulletin from a small Christian church in Tennessee. The

The Lord”s Supper: Unpretty and Unavoidable

  By Jim Tune   This article is no longer available online, but articles about the Lord’s Supper that appeared in the July 12/19, 2009, and June 10, 2007, issues of CHRISTIAN STANDARD–plus more–are available for purchase as a single, redisigned, easy-to-read and easy-to-use downloadable resource/pdf (a fuller explanation is below).       The Lord’s Supper: A Memory and More Item D021535209  “¢Â  $2.99     If you keep doing something often enough, long enough, it will change you. Take, for example, the Lord”s Supper.  If we practice the Lord”s Supper in a meaningful way, week after week, it will change us

Remembering, Renewal, and Celebration

By Mark A. Taylor Once in awhile an article actually brings us to tears while we”re preparing it for print. Not often, mind you. But it does happen. It happened this week as one of our staff was formatting Ethan Magness”s articles about the Lord”s Supper. His insights are among several powerful pieces in this issue to help readers think afresh about Communion. He challenges us to lift our weekly observance above thoughtless routine. “The danger posed by meaningless ritual is no reason to stop the ritual,” he says. And he suggests how to keep our Communion celebrations alive. Another

Establishing the Work of Our Hands

By Mark A. Taylor The picture (which accompanied the article “It’s Simple” by Luke Erickson and Tom Moen in this week’s print edition) reminds us of the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31: “She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy” (v. 20). She is typical of men and women described in our series ongoing through 2009. The theme (borrowed from last year”s National Missionary Convention) “Get Your Hands Dirty” connects their stories. We”ve included in their number not only those whose hands are literally soiled by digging wells, collecting trash, remodeling mission outposts, or

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