Articles for tag: Matt Johnson

August 22, 2019

Christian Standard

THE BIG CHALLENGE FACING SMALL CHURCHES (6): Elders Wanted

By Matt Johnson If many people with leadership gifts and experience attend your church, then your pool of potential leaders is deep. If your church is comprised of people who have little leadership experience or skill, you’re facing a completely different situation. You may have great workers with great hearts, but you may not have competent leaders. It is possible this dynamic contributes to the size of the church. How can the small church cope with a dearth of potential leaders? My response is mostly anecdotal. The church I served until recently, Levittown Christian Church, is in a lower-middle-class, blue-collar

May 21, 2017

Christian Standard

Dads Are Single Too

By Matt Johnson “Please raise your hand if you can name three single moms in your congregation,” I said while coleading a workshop at the 2015 North American Christian Convention. Many hands proudly shot up. Most of us can easily rattle off the names of three or four single mothers. Many can list 10 or more. These are women we respect. They faithfully wake up early on Sundays to get three wiggly children to worship. They are frazzled with life and still carve out time to volunteer at the Welcome Center. They often do the work of two parents while

September 4, 2016

Christian Standard

Work as Worship (Book Review)

Work as Worship: How the CEOs of Interstate Batteries, Hobby Lobby, PepsiCo, Tyson Foods and More Bring Meaning to Their Work Mark L. Russell, author and editor Boise: Elevate Faith, 2012 A book review by Matt Johnson Worship is not just a Sunday event; it is a lifestyle. Decades of worship wars often focused on worship as what happens only on Sunday mornings, but an examination of our practices and the Scriptures has expanded our definition of worship to include both nonmusical and non-Sunday events. With the proliferation of books on leadership, it was only a matter of time before an interdisciplinary entrepreneur like

February 27, 2016

Christian Standard

Finding the Right Answers

By Matt Johnson Everyday Theology, as its subtitle promises, tells us How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends.  How does your faith speak to human rights, pop music, or designer funerals? Is there any benefit to buying a ticket for the latest Hollywood blockbuster? When should we embrace the hurry of modern American culture, and when should we slow down? What does the proliferation of the blogosphere mean to our culture and the church? Complicated questions have complicated answers, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something less than the gospel. So I appreciated Everyday Theology (Grand Rapids:

June 7, 2015

Christian Standard

A Book to Push Us Deeper

By Matt Johnson Is your church liberal or conservative? The question is a land mine, often meant to act as a test of fellowship. Christians who wish to honor God with their hearts as well as their minds see this question as a false choice. For this audience, Adam Hamilton has written Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics (Abington Press, 2008). Radical Center Hamilton divides his book into three parts. First he lays a foundation for what he calls the “radical center.” His goal is not to arrive at tepid, middle-of-the-road

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