Joy in Generations: The Story of Racine Christian Church, Racine, Missouri
Racine Christian Church has grown to become a significant force drawing people to the Lord in their community and beyond
Articles for tag: Life Groups
January 24, 2023
Merger of Two Idaho Churches Fuels Kingdom Growth
COVID-19 impacted churches everywhere in 2020, but two churches in Boise, Idaho, saw their futures forever altered through a merger that has spurred two years of growth and almost 50 baptisms during 2022.
March 1, 2022
Authentic Community
By Rick Lowry God created every person with a “community gene.” We all have a natural longing to be with other human beings. From an early age, we have known the value of being a member of a group. Everyone grew up in some version of a family, a place where we belonged, living with significant others who helped shape us. We are in community, in groups, every day: the staff team at work, the board or committee on which we serve, the Thursday night Bunko ladies group, the guys who gather to watch NFL games—all small groups that satisfy,
SPOTLIGHT: Eagle Christian Church, Idaho
After 25 Years, Church Ministry Is Soaring By Rick Chromey Nestled in the heart of southwestern Idaho is a church that’s spent a quarter century serving Treasure Valley communities, from Meridian to Emmett and Boise to Caldwell. The aptly named Eagle Christian Church has spread its wings in recent years, expanding in 2019 to three campuses in Surprise Valley (east Boise), central valley (Eagle), and west valley (Nampa/Caldwell). The church also built a new administration building last year to better accommodate staff offices and leadership meetings. Founded in 1995 in Dr. Steve Crane’s living room, Eagle Christian Church started small
March 25, 2020
Southeast Assists Smaller Churches with Their Online Worship Services (Plus Other "Wins")
By Jim Nieman When Southeast Christian Church in Parker, Colo., learned that a nearby church was making its technical and production equipment and expertise available to some churches displaced because of COVID-19 outbreak, they realized they should do the same. In fact, “We were embarrassed we didn’t think of it first,” said Tom Fitzgerald, executive pastor with Southeast. Staff at Southeast were aware of a couple of churches meeting in school buildings that have been closed because of the outbreak. Those churches weren’t able to gather to worship or to effectively produce their worship services to share via the Internet.
May 21, 2016
How Will You Adapt to the Decline in Senior Adult Ministries?
By Michael C. Mack Studies point to a steep decline in senior adult ministries in churches. “As the large baby boomer generation moves into their older years,” says Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay, “they will resist any suggestion that they are senior adults, no matter how senior they may be.” Churches must be prepared to adapt to this new reality. If they continue to minister to senior adults as they always have, says Rainer, they are headed for failure. In February we asked Best Practices readers, both in print and in our Facebook group (www.facebook.com/BestMinistryPractices), “What are you
June 20, 2015
Fail Safe
By Karl Schad After months of seeking God in prayer, we prepared to launch three worship services designed to better reach all the generations in our community. We would offer blended traditional, contemporary, and modern services on Sunday mornings, each designed with a specific demographic in mind. Every service would include elements handpicked to engage the generational diversity of our community as we identified the distinct needs of the different age groups and planned to meet them. Three service styles would allow our community to express their worship to God in the way that best connected them to the Lord.
November 14, 2014
Church on Mission: Church at the Mission
By Jennifer Johnson “I”ve done church planting, I”ve done megachurch, and I”ve done microchurch,” says Blake Ryan. “I think this is the only thing God could call me to that would fulfill my heart in ministry.” “This” is Church at the Mission Corona, a new congregation that launched in January at the Corona/Norco (CA) Rescue Mission. Ryan serves as lead pastor of the church and director of the mission as well as managing principal at PlainJoe Studios, a design and media company also based in Corona. “We were part of Church at the Mission”s first location in Tustin, CA, and
August 11, 2010
Interview with Bart Stone
By Brad Dupray After graduating from Cincinnati (Ohio) Christian University, Bart Stone spent 13 years on staff at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Sensing a call to risk something greater for the gospel, Bart and his wife, Jodi, left the comfort of ministry at Northeast to heed the call of starting a new church in a community south of Atlanta, Georgia. Momentum Christian Church held its first service in January 2007, and has not looked back. The church is now running more than 400 in attendance in a warehouse. Bart and Jodi have two children, 9-year-old Keaton and 4-year-old
June 1, 2008
You Can Cope with Change
By John Derry Recently my wife and I visited three different congregations, each occupying beautiful historic buildings. The stained-glass windows were breathtaking; each sanctuary would be a perfect setting for a formal wedding. The pipe organs were magnificent and filled the room with majestic music in praise of God. The high ceilings and ornate symbolic architecture created a sense of awe and an atmosphere conducive to worship. On a very small scale, standing in such buildings offered a hint of what it might have been like to enter Solomon”s temple. At one time hundreds of church members filled these buildings,
December 9, 2007
Creating Environments (Southland Christian Church, Lexington, KY)
A book review by Myron Williams When Jon Weece became senior minister of Southland Christian Church, Lexington, Kentucky, he convened the leadership team to help determine Southland”s future direction. The mission, “Love God, love people,” was in place, but the strategy to accomplish these mandates was nonexistent. Over a two-year period the team developed six core values. This article tells the story of value four: “Life happens best in community.” A strategy grew out of many discussions and much prayer about how to create environments for moving “weekend-only” adults into smaller community settings where they could know and be known
