April 22, 2026
NCAA data helps parents face the long odds of playing beyond high school and resist the youth-sports profit engine. Youth sports can still shape faith and character—if your “why” is bigger than scholarships or going pro.
March 13, 2026
Terrence Turman argues friendship is a neglected spiritual discipline for many pastors and ministry leaders. Citing research on loneliness, he offers practical nudges for living as a Christian first, building community, and keeping friendships alive.
March 13, 2026
Juan Casa del Valle contrasts open-door immigrant community life with modern isolation. He shares three marks of strong, God-honoring friendships across cultures: being present, being honest, and being consistent—modeled perfectly by Jesus.
March 7, 2026
Team Expansion Prayer Weekend: Shake the Nations! is a focused, in-person weekend of prayer, worship, and Scripture-centered teaching designed to help believers grow deeper in prayer and engage God’s heart for the unreached. Held at Emerald Hills in Louisville, Kentucky, the event emphasizes practicing prayer together through guided prayer times, worship, biblical teaching, and interactive prayer experiences across the campus. Featured speaker John Franklin will lead teaching and workshops, with Ryan and Faith Stapleton leading worship and Ron Friesen guiding an interactive prayer experience.
February 23, 2026
Tyler McKenzie weighs the promises and pitfalls of social media activism, arguing it often fuels rage, harms mental health, and encourages slacktivism. He urges sparing, strategic use—and a stronger focus on local, relationship-based church action.
December 24, 2023
In today's penultimate Christmas memory, Team Expansion president Doug Lucas describes a scene during a bus ride that opened his eyes in a new way to the great need for Christ around the world. . . .
September 13, 2023
A few hundred people gathered Saturday morning at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., for Christian Standard editor Michael C. Mack’s funeral service. Mike died of a blood clot on Aug. 24 while mountain biking in Colorado. . . . Plus briefs from Mid-Atlantic Christian University, IDES, and more.
September 1, 2023
By Jacob Stewart We have seen the data. We have heard the news. We get it. Gen Z is the worst. At least that is what I am accustomed to hearing. Generation Z (comprised of people born from 1997 to 2012) may go down in history as the most analyzed, picked on, studied, and bashed generation in the world . . . right next to Millennials (those born 1981–96). Have you seen the memes? It’s brutal out there. As a youth pastor for 10 years, I have worked closely with Gen Z. I agree with my current high school ministry
August 26, 2023
Christian Standard editor Michael C. Mack, who died Thursday, wasn’t afraid to step out in faith. He switched from Catholicism to New Testament Christianity in his early 20s, gave up his business career to enter seminary, left his full-time job to launch a Christ-centered website, and became editor of a magazine for Christian leaders after two decades focused on small-group ministry. . . .
May 30, 2023
In the fall of 2020, as COVID restrictions were being eased, my wife and I were church “free agents.” I suggested we try an a cappella congregation I knew in Louisville, Ky. We jumped in, and two years later I joined the staff as involvement minister—a lifelong Christian Church guy now teaching, discipling, and worshipping in four-part harmony. Here are five observations from my experiences serving in an a cappella church. . . .
By Chris Philbeck In the 1990s, while serving a church in Oklahoma, I took all my elders to the Leadership Conference at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. During the opening session, our church was awarded a yearlong subscription to SECC’s weekly tape ministry for being the church that came the farthest with their entire board of elders. So, over the next year, I had the opportunity to listen to weekend messages delivered by Bob Russell and Dave Stone. I still remember many of those messages, including one from Dave about the urgency of reaching lost people. To illustrate the
Southeast Christian Church's 215 Residency program—which gives residents firsthand ministry experience along with a deep dive into biblical study and spiritual formation—has recovered and grown since COVID-19.
August 10, 2022
Doug Crozier of The Solomon Foundation announced recently that the church extension fund has achieved $1 billion in assets on its way to helping more than 500 churches with facilities in just over 11 years. Also briefs from Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, and New Jersey.
March 1, 2022
By Corbin Marshall I stand on a stage professionally illuminated by theatrical lighting. Several expertly trained camera operators aim high-definition cameras in my direction. My likeness and voice are amplified throughout a large auditorium as well as broadcast across multiple online platforms. I’m holding a guitar. A wireless in-ear pack is fastened to my belt and I’m wearing headphones. A click track provides a constant tempo to our band. At any point, a producer can discretely inform me whether our teaching pastor has made it back from our other church campus. I chose this set list of songs several weeks
January 26, 2022
Not long after Charlie and Faith Russell celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, and only days before the birth of their first child, Charlie came down with COVID-19. That was in late July 2021. Charlie was hospitalized for weeks; he calls his recovery "a miracle."
December 13, 2021
Tornadoes roared through six states over the weekend, destroying a Disciples of Christ church in Mayfield, Ky., among numerous other structures. (This article includes updates from IDES and Northeast Christian Church in Louisville.)
December 1, 2021
Over the past several months, Mattoon (Ill.) Christian Church moved because of an arson fire and Compass Christian Church (Council Bluffs, Iowa) moved when two key developments occurred within 24 hours. Also briefs from ICOM and Milligan University.
August 4, 2021
in her book, Jenny Smith shares the struggles and victories since a cheerleading accident left her a quadriplegic in 1989. A key church objective should be to include people with disabilities, she says.
June 24, 2021
"Before he became blind he had traveled all over this and the surrounding communities, . . . and this knowledge enabled him to go, unattended, to his preaching appointments . . . frequently to towns ten and twelve miles from where he resided."
May 1, 2021
An All-Nations Kind of Church Hikes Point Christian Church is a 22-year-old congregation on the southeastern edge of Louisville. The church meets in a building that originally was home to Southeast Christian Church. Located just outside of downtown Louisville, the Hikes Point neighborhood has changed significantly since Southeast Christian built its first home there decades ago. Today, a growing number of residents in the immediate vicinity are Latino or Hispanic. Many of them speak only Spanish. Ten years ago, Hikes Point began offering a free back-to-school clinic that provided basic medical care, haircuts, certain other services, and academic supplies. Every
Sponsored
Sponsored
Sponsored
April 28, 2026
Rick Cherok
April 28, 2026
David Faust
April 28, 2026
Rick Cherok