Articles for tag: Lord&#8217;s Supper

Miscellaneous

NACC 2012: Interview with the President

By Brian Mavis Rick Rusaw has served as the lead pastor at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado, since 1991. He is the cofounder of Externally Focused Network, and coauthor of Externally Focused Church, Externally Focused Life, and Externally Focused Quest. Here he answers questions from people like you about this summer”s North American Christian Convention. I contacted 15 different church leaders from around the country and asked them to send me one question they would like to ask you about this year”s convention. Several asked, “How would attending the NACC help me grow as a minister?” RUSAW: The theme

February 11, 2012

Ethics & Moral Issues Gender

His Church & Her Church

By Daniel Schantz When my wife and I attend church together, we do not have the same experience at all. When we get back home and start comparing notes, I sometimes wonder if we were even in the same building. The Arrival She: We arrive at the church 30 minutes early. Any later would be unthinkable to my wife, Sharon, who is magnetically drawn to people and needs time to visit with them. Like a hummingbird foraging flowers, she moves from friend to friend, gathering newsy nectar and sharing the supernatural achievements of her grandchildren. At the same time,

February 7, 2012

The Lodge and the Lord”s Supper

By Mark A. Taylor I”m not sure now why I attended the monthly meeting of the local lodge. I had been invited by someone, maybe to pray or see him installed into some office. I don”t recall who he was or any specifics about the evening. I only remember my reaction to being there. The whole service was meaningless to me, in spite of the sober demeanor of the lodge members who participated in it. They somberly went through the motions, careful to complete the program “decently and in order.” But none of it communicated anything to me. Many of

February 6, 2012

More Than a Memorial

By Tom Lawson The language we use when talking about Communion has a great deal to do with our history. A quick review of any English Bible will demonstrate words like memorial or emblematic or symbolic are not found in any of the passages about Communion. So, where do they come from and why do we hear them so often? The flip side of that question might be: Why are there a number of biblical phrases and teachings about the Lord”s Supper we rarely hear? To understand why we hear what we hear, it is important we take a brief

February 5, 2012

Meeting and Meaning at the Lord’s Supper

By Lee Magness Gathering is central to our identity. Worship is central to our gathering. And breaking bread is central to our worship. Luke describes how, “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread” with the early Christians of Troas (Acts 20:7). So many centuries later, their practice is still instructive. The Lord’s people gathered for the Lord’s worship on the Lord’s Day to share the Lord’s Supper. The church may gather for any number of reasons—for service, for prayer, for study. But there is no better reason for Christians to gather

January 7, 2012

Church & Ministry Church Growth

In Just One Year: Tell Me It’s Not Just a Dream!

Nothing challenges us to think about changing times more than the transition from one year to the next. On this first day of 2012, we asked six Christian leaders to think about the church a year from now and to draw a picture of our progress””and our problems””then.Â * * * By Eleanor Daniel It is so vivid””identifiable people and places, actions, colors, and sounds. The year is somewhere beyond 2012. I see a church that intrigues me. The people include those of all colors, ethnic backgrounds, and languages. Names like Gomez and Vegas, Wong and Hasmani, as well as

December 2, 2011

The Lord”s Supper as Abstraction

By Jason Bembry I want you to imagine our world in the year 2111, 100 years from now. Imagine it”s a few days before Thanksgiving. The fastest-selling grocery item is “Thanksgiving on the Go,” a package containing a little cube of pressed turkey meat, a congealed cube of stuffing, and a tube of cranberry sauce. People in the 2100s are busy folks. Traveling to see loved ones for the holiday has become too hectic; many have deemed it psychologically stressful. Most people opt to work on the fourth Thursday in November, carrying with them the handy “Thanksgiving on the Go.”

August 27, 2011

Let All of Us Examine Ourselves

By David L. Eubanks The major focus of Communion is the Lord Jesus Christ. When he inaugurated it, he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The Lord”s Supper is not primarily about us but about him, what he did for us, and the life he gives us when we feed on him. At the same time, there is a definite element of introspection that goes with this feast. That was true of the meal at which Jesus instituted it. When Jesus told his apostles that one of them would betray him, they immediately began to ask, “Surely you don”t

August 22, 2011

A Memorial

By Ben Merold I walked up Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to get a view of the path of the first flights made by the Wright brothers. They gave proof to the world that a heavier-than-air flying machine could lift off under its own power, fly, and make a safe landing. This was the place of first flight, and a large monument marks the site. I found myself thinking that the entire area is, in one sense, a memorial. However, everything seems to focus on four large stones that mark the distance of their first flights. On

August 16, 2011

Church & Ministry Youth & Children's Ministry

Who”s the Hero?

By Teresa Welch During my 15-year tenure as a children”s minister, I was proud of how much Bible content the children learned. But now I wonder if that was enough. Whether it was through Sunday school, kids worship, youth groups, or summer programs like church camp and Vacation Bible School, I knew children were learning the Word of God. However, as I reflected on those years, I saw a problem. Sometimes our efforts to make sure children were learning the Word of God didn”t lead them to learn about God. Certainly we taught about the number of stones David collected

August 4, 2011

Church & Ministry

Inexpensive Downloads to Help Your Ministry

By Mark A. Taylor Here”s a reminder about a whole host of inexpensive, downloadable resources available for your church now. As you anticipate the after-summer ramp-up of activities and ministries, which of the following would help your ministry most? For new members and nonmembers””Our most popular “What Kind of Church Is This?” gives you 8 full-color pages that explain the unique and beautiful nondenominational position of Christian churches and churches of Christ. “Simply Christians,” which originally appeared in The Lookout, is a 12-page overview to accomplish the same purpose. One user called “Simply Christians” “the best short-form overview of the

July 2, 2011

“˜God Bless America”

By Mark A. Taylor More than a decade ago, my congregation hosted a patriotic pageant each year called “Sea to Shining Sea.” We had a huge adult choir, a children”s choir, a live orchestra, actors, and dancers. We welcomed color guards from all the armed services. We sang every patriotic song you know, including one that invited veterans from every branch of the service to stand and receive the cheers of the crowd. Fireworks accompanied the songs, and after the last note, everyone sat with necks craned to the sky and enjoyed 20 minutes of the rockets” red glare. Our

April 3, 2011

A Fitting Memorial

By Bob Hostetler At 6:55 on a cold March evening, 12-year-old Valerie Webb, who lost her father in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York”s World Trade Center towers, threw a switch that sent twin towers of light into the sky. The bright beacons, a tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost at that site, seemed a fitting memorial for the horrible acts that left a gaping hole in New York”s skyline . . . and in America”s heart. When something of that magnitude happens, it”s only natural””and right””to want to mark it and remember it. On the

March 29, 2011

Church Life

In Praise of Congregational Participation

By Becky Ahlberg Contrary to what you might think, “worship wars” have been going on for centuries. I”ll not slip back into my music history professor role and bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say that, from early church days, how we worship has been the topic of a lively, ongoing debate. As is the norm for humans, we tend to swing the pendulum from one extreme to another, rarely finding that center of balance. I suppose if we carry through with that analogy, though, the good news is that it is the swinging pendulum that

January 10, 2011

Apologetics & Worldview

The Cure for Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

By Jon Weatherly Nothing alarms church folk quite so much as problems with the young folk. So it was about five years ago with Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton”s book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Smith and Denton”s research produced the phrase “moralistic therapeutic deism” to describe the typical American teen”s view of God. It”s “deism” because the god of the typical teen is mostly distant and uninvolved. It”s “therapeutic” because that distant god still wants everyone to have a happy life and occasionally is willing to get involved when a person has an

December 31, 2010

Better Than a Party

By Rick Chromey Every New Year”s Eve our culture gathers together to toast and celebrate another year”s passing. New opportunities. New friendships. New dreams. Of course, for some, too much imbibing, indiscretion, and insolence sully the festive occasion. Nevertheless, many choose to drown their sorrows in drink or ease their anxiety through gluttony. After all, humans desperately seek to numb our pain and bury the past. Alcohol, food, sex, and entertainment are simply cultural solutions to crisis and conflict. Like Band-Aids on a gaping wound, many try to mask, manipulate, or minimize the bleeding but ultimately fail miserably to find

November 14, 2010

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation Spiritual Disciplines

Self-Examination, Not Self-Recrimination

By Daniel Schantz “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread . . . “ (Acts 20:7, King James Version). Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Catholic Jesuits, started life as a fiery, Spanish romantic””womanizer, gambler, warrior. When he was wounded in a battle against the French at Pampeluna, he was carried off to a castle hospital. While recovering, he was given a copy of The Imitations of Christ, by Thomas Ã Kempis, and he was so moved by it that he resolved to give up his wild living and become a saint.

August 11, 2010

Restoration Movement History

Myth Busting

By Terry O”Casey I have a pedigree. It”s not quite as good as our yellow Lab”s. Still, it”s a great starting point for this article prior to my stoning. My greatest mentor, my father, John Casey, was mentored in the 1940s by Cincinnati (Ohio) Bible Seminary”s R.C. Foster, who was mentored by Robert Milligan, who was mentored by Alexander Campbell. Therefore, I am “AKC-certified” with near apostolic succession. (Of course, Paul had something to say about my boasting in 2 Corinthians 11:17.) Near my home sits a congregation and her forlorn building beside a bustling interstate. The church advertises its

August 8, 2010