December 9, 2020
News Briefs for Dec. 9
Items from Timber Lake Christian Church (Moberly, Mo.), Choateville Christian Church (Frankfort, Ky.), Johnson University, and more.
Articles for tag: Johnson University
November 22, 2020
Drinking Tea, Sharing Meals, and Making Disciples
Musa* lives in a Muslim country in the Middle East. Since he grew up hearing stories about the great prophet Jesus, he thought he knew all about him. That changed when he became roommates with Yosef*. Yosef shared his faith in Christ as the Messiah with Musa, and they began studying the Bible together. Before long, Musa accepted Jesus and wanted to be baptized. Christians in his country usually baptize new believers in a river, but because of the pandemic occurring at the time, public beaches were all closed. Musa’s baptism would have to wait. As time passed, Musa became
October 21, 2020
Weekly Spire Huddles Cover Range of Topics (Plus News Briefs)
Compiled by Jim Nieman Spire Huddles—taking place each Wednesday—offer an online, interactive, conversational, and free way to connect with other church leaders and discuss important topics presented by expert speakers. There is a different huddle focus and host/presenter each week until February. The huddles begin at 1 p.m. Wednesdays (Eastern time) and last roughly 90 minutes. An additional 30 minutes are allotted for final questions at the end of the main presentation. More than half of the time is spent in small groups. By the time you complete a Huddle, according to Spire, “you will hear from an expert, connect
October 19, 2020
Johnson Receives $1 Million Lilly Grant to Help Launch Three Rivers Collaboration
Johnson University has received a $1 million grant from the Lilly Foundation to help establish the Three Rivers Collaboration to guide congregations in the Knoxville, Tenn., area in a process of refining their God-given mission within a changing cultural context. Mark Nelson, a 1987 Johnson graduate who has served as lead pastor of The Crossings in downtown Knoxville, which he planted in 2007, will join Johnson’s staff as executive director of TRC. Nelson’s experience also includes serving 10 years of campus ministry at Purdue University. His wife, Dr. Monica Nelson, leads the pre-nursing program at Johnson. The TRC is funded
Christian College Presidents Share Enrollment Numbers, Describe Challenges
By Jim Nieman Christian colleges and universities were already under significant stress even before the COVID-19 tsunami came crashing over our nation. In fact, two of them—Cincinnati Christian University and Nebraska Christian College—have closed during the past year. We decided to take the temperature of institutions across the United States by asking college presidents to share their year-over-year attendance figures and to describe the challenges they are facing. It might surprise some to learn that a handful of the 16 colleges and universities that shared their data with us actually saw their enrollment increase from fall 2019 to fall 2020.
September 2, 2020
Johnson Opens New Center for Minority, International Students
Johnson University has opened a Multicultural Student Affairs center on its Knoxville, Tenn., campus to serve as a gathering space for minority and international students, as well as provide office and/or meeting space for the Urban Alliance, Future of Hope, and Students Promoting Social Unity. “We’re trying to create space for students on campus to feel comfortable and to be able to pursue God, and pursue their calling, and pursue their ministry, and to do it while fully being themselves,” Matthew Best said via Facebook during a video tour of the new center at 7903 Brown Drive. Best is director
August 19, 2020
Professor Seeks to Provide ‘Ministry to Ministers’
By Jim Nieman Jody Owens says senior ministers are feeling “under the gun” because of the stress of leading during the coronavirus pandemic. The ministers are working hard to conduct ministry in a form and fashion for which they were not trained and are not accustomed, says Owens, professor of Bible and pastoral ministries with Johnson University. These ministers are making hard decisions and are dealing with other stressors, and—due to circumstances—they are “not getting the feedback and the positive comments they are used to receiving.” INTENSIVE LEARNING RETREATSOwens gleaned some of this information from ministers and church leaders—about 20
July 29, 2020
Bailey’s Dream of Military Chaplaincy Has Covered 16 Years
By Chris Moon Sometimes, a vision doesn’t immediately come to fruition. It can take years to develop. Such has been the case for Jamin Bailey. Sixteen years ago, while he was a preaching student at Johnson University in Knoxville, Tenn., he visited his brother at a military base. While there, he saw a couple of Marines getting “dressed down” by a sergeant for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. “In the midst of this uproar came a chaplain,” Bailey told Christian Standard. “I do not know who he was or how he knew to be there that
July 15, 2020
Remembering Marshall Leggett
We asked several Christian leaders to share their memories of Marshall Leggett, a Christian minister and college administrator who served as president of Milligan College in Tennessee from 1982 to 1997. He died March 2 at the age of 90. _ _ _ In 1965 the elders of Southeast Christian approached Marshall about becoming the preacher of their new church in Louisville. They had narrowed their preference down to two men: Bob Shannon and Marshall Leggett, the two best young preachers in our brotherhood. Both men saw the potential in the new church but at the last minute both decided
July 15, 2020
News Briefs for July 15
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon IDES will host a free webinar at noon July 22 for church leaders dealing with the reopening of their churches in the middle of this pandemic. The webinar will feature executive director Rick Jett along with IDES’s counseling experts, Drs. Paul Boatman, Tom Ewald, and Dawn Zywiec. The participants will share tools to help church leaders deal with the complexities related to reopening. Click here to learn more and to register for the one-hour event. _ _ _ Alums of Boise Bible College continue to share stories of their life experiences before, during,
July 14, 2020
INTERVIEW: Two Ministers Discuss How COVID-19 Diagnoses Have Affected Their Ministries
By Jim Nieman The coronavirus has proven to be a complex issue for churches and church leaders. And it can be further complicated—and even turn emotional—when there are COVID-19 diagnoses in leadership. Johnson University professor Jody Owens recently interviewed two senior ministers, Matthew Sink and Greg Taylor, who have been personally affected by COVID-19 diagnoses. Sink, senior minister with Pinedale Christian Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., is doing well after he and his three children, along with his parents—who live next door—contracted the disease. He has completed a two-week quarantine. Taylor, lead minister with Second Church of Christ in Danville, Ill., didn’t
Christian Colleges Prep for Fall Amid COVID-19
By Chris Moon Restoration Movement colleges are putting plans in place for reopening their campuses this fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While most are planning a return to in-person instruction, in many cases the “normal” classroom experience is being modified. Johnson University in Knoxville, Tenn., recently created a planning guide for its fall semester. The school will have students meet regularly in the classroom, but it also is bolstering its online content so that classroom time can be more limited and focused on discussion and skill development. More theoretical content will be taught online. “We’re going to be highly flexible
Emmanuel Adds New Concentration to MDIV Program (Plus News Briefs)
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan will offer a new concentration in Christian Spiritual Formation as part of its Master of Divinity program starting this fall. The concentration will provide a professional course of study focusing on the processes and traditions of practice that support a transformative, flourishing, and joyful life of Christian discipleship. “Spiritual formation is at the core of what we do at Emmanuel,” said Dr. Gary Selby, professor of ministerial formation. “As we prepare the next generation . . . , we aim to strengthen spiritual formation in a way that
June 3, 2020
Churches, Colleges Respond to George Floyd’s Death, National Discord
Christian churches and colleges across the country have called for prayer, dialogue, and reconciliation in response to outrage and demonstrations over George Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25. Among the many examples: • Dudley Rutherford, pastor of Shepherd Church, Porter Ranch, Calif., had a conversation with several leaders in the black community, most of whom attend Shepherd regularly, about topics that included Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the current state of our country. (View it at the church’s Facebook page.) • A dozen staff members of Crossroads Christian Church, Corona, Calif., spent about
May 27, 2020
News Briefs for May 27
Compiled by Chris Moon and Jim Nieman Third City Christian Church in Grand Island, Neb., organized a large food-distribution effort to coincide with Memorial Day weekend. The church, along with a local food charity, gathered enough food to put two bags of groceries in 861 cars on Saturday. The idea was to give each family a picnic meal to go, according to the Grand Island Independent. Nick Schonlau, small groups and care minister with the church, told Fox Nebraska the church was able to raise more than $15,000 to help its community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The money made the
April 29, 2020
Ministers Sharing Knowledge Amid COVID-19 Outbreak (Plus News Briefs)
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon The Intentional Churches website is a good source of helpful information on various strategies and initiatives churches are employing during the COVID-19 crisis. Video discussions featuring ministers from across the country are being posted about every week at the IC website. Here’s a sampling of thoughts from the April 17 conference: “We’re taking our . . . folks who worked in the lobby as greeters . . . and inviting them to be online greeters. . . . Not giving them a lot of moderating responsibilities, but really just looking to reengage them
Christian Universities Switch to Online Instruction
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused our Christian colleges and universities to switch from in-person learning to various forms of Internet instruction or distance delivery. Here is a listing of the colleges with very brief explanations of what each has done and links for more information: Alberta Bible College (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)Campus is closed until further notice. Classes are running on their normal schedule, but now remotely, via Zoom. More information Boise Bible College (Boise, Idaho)Boise Bible College has scaled back to critical services only. All students were to move out of residential housing by Saturday, March 28. Classes will
February 12, 2020
Longtime Kentucky Pastor Makes Leap to Greater NYC Church
By Chris Moon From Keavy, Ky., to Long Island, N.Y. The change in environment and culture—at least within the United States—probably doesn’t get more drastic than that. And that’s exactly the jump that Tommy Lanham made. The longtime Kentucky pastor is now in his fifth month as co-pastor of Glen Cove (N.Y.) Christian Church, a small congregation on Long Island, about 15 miles northeast of Queens. Lanham says the culture shock wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. “We always had heard that New Yorkers are rude,” he told Christian Standard. “That has not been our experience at
January 2, 2020
River of Life
By Laura McKillip Wood “When I was 14 years old, I traveled with my father to a little town in the middle of nowhere to teach one man. This man was planting a church in his house. My dad went there every month to teach him, and when I saw this, it really touched my heart. He left the city where we lived, a classroom full of students, and a big church where he ministered to go to just one person in a small town.” Jeff Fife watched his father on that trip. He saw his father’s care for that
November 13, 2019
Joneses to Step Down from Leadership Roles at Stadia (Plus News Briefs)
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon Tom and Debbie Jones plan to step down from their leadership roles with Stadia Church Planting and Bloom, respectively, on Jan. 1, they announced via Facebook. However, both will remain with Stadia as special assistants to the president. Tom Jones has served as executive director of Stadia since its founding in 2003. Debbie Jones founded and serves as senior director of Stadia’s Bloom, which empowers women to maximize their role in starting churches. Both of the Joneses will turn 65 in 2020. “Our focus will turn from executive leadership and operations to work
