Articles for tag: Ministry Leadership

Family & Relationships Marriage

Love, Marriage, and Missions

Four missionary couples discuss how their marriages affect their mission work, and vice versa. By Emily Drayne Some aspects of marriage are hard. It’s not easy joining together two lives, two families, two personalities, and two upbringings under one roof. Success in marriage takes work and desire. With divorce rates at about 50 percent in America and even higher in parts of Europe, I’ve often wondered how missionaries are affected by this epidemic. Not only are missionary couples working and maintaining their marriages, but they might also be serving in a cross-cultural setting. Some are also raising children. Missionaries might

June 13, 2017

Jerry Harris

Christian Standard Updates News & Updates

What to Expect from CHRISTIAN STANDARD

By Jerry Harris Why is the survival of CHRISTIAN STANDARDÂ so important and what does it offerÂ that other magazines don”t?Â Other magazines like Relevant, Outreach, and Christianity Today offer lots of good commentary and resourcing for churches and leaders in general, but they represent no actual tribe. CHRISTIAN STANDARD is critical to the Restoration Movement because it serves a vital role unique to us. We are comprised of about 5,300 churches, all autonomous, without any denominational support to hold us together. It”s one of our greatest strengths, but without something connecting us regularly, we can lose much of the potential of

May 30, 2017

Family & Relationships Parenting

Your New Chapter””Don”t Be Afraid to Turn the Page

By Mark A. Taylor New parents sometimes feel trapped. Infants need constant attention, and Mom and Dad may grieve the diminished freedom, increased expenses, and unending on-call status that come with this new addition to their family. But after only 18 years or so, that son or daughter, now looking ahead at a life of independence, leaves home. He gets a job, and she establishes a household of her own. And some parents discover a new reason to grieve: without that child who was once such a challenge, now the house seems empty and lonely. Whether pressed by our current

May 8, 2017

5 Questions about New Ideas

By Joe Boyd Springtime always stimulates new ideas for me. But I”ve learned I should pursue only some of them.Â There is something about springtime that makes all things new. Winter can be a cold and gray marathon to endure, especially for those of us on the East Coast and in the Midwest. But then comes life. Every April and May I find myself full of new ideas. And I should say that I love new ideas. They are like catnip for my soul. As a movie producer, I have no shortage of people pitching story ideas to me. Some

May 2, 2017

Restoration Movement History

Our Future: What Kind of Influence?

By Mark A. Taylor Will the Restoration Movement* stay strong if its institutions continue to struggle? The question is more than academic in a time when more than one influential ministry has disappeared or is laboring to survive. And in an era characterized by massive change on every front””technology, education, media, transportation, and economic and political norms””we are no longer shocked when one of our institutions closes its doors. Change is the order of the day. Furthermore, many of our ministries still serving could not continue with support from our fellowship alone. For example, our two national conferences, while still

March 7, 2017

News & Updates

Her Final Lesson

By Mark A. Taylor What should we note about the life of Eleanor Daniel? Thousands of her former colleagues and students are telling what they remember about her now, after her death March 2 and her memorial service yesterday, March 6. They speak of her skill and passion as a Christian teacher. The remember her encouragement in their own teaching ministries. They recite her faithfulness in Christian service. They note the impact she made on three seminaries among the Christian churches and churches of Christ. (Some are quoting from Bruce Parmenter”™s tribute, published last December, in which he describes her

October 24, 2016

The Sisterhood

By Jennifer Johnson A few years ago I planned a special event for women in ministry, open to any lady on staff at a church or parachurch organization. A few guys I know found it hard to understand. “So it”s a women”s ministry event?” “Not exactly. It”s for women who are in ministry.” “Oh, you mean like women married to pastors?” No. I don”t have anything against celebrating women or pastor”s wives (I happen to be both) but that”s not the audience I”m most interested in. Those groups enjoy plenty of conferences, blogs, and books developed especially for them. However,

September 22, 2016

Michael C. Mack

10 Business Books Every Ministry Leader Should Read

By Michael C. Mack We asked ministry leaders to tell us what book written primarily for business leaders they”™ve found helpful in their ministry leadership. “¢ The Contrarian”™s Guide to Leadership, by Steven B. Sample. “It helped me think past the clichÃ©s of leadership to practices that reflect what I think is a leader”™s honest self-evaluation before God.” “”Jon Weatherly, professor of New Testament, dean of the School of Bible and Theology at Johnson University, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Kissimmee, Florida “¢ The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni. “So much good stuff about why

July 15, 2016

Miscellaneous

An Interview with Melissa Sandel and Rob Kastens

Melissa Sandel and Rob Kastens, two megachurch executive pastors, talkÂ about the unique challenges of the role and what they wish someone hadÂ told them before they took it on. Exclusive interview from the 2016 NorthÂ American Christian Convention with CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editorÂ Jennifer Johnson, here.

April 7, 2016

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation

WHAT’S NEXT?: Get Rid of Three Spiritual Diseases

We asked several Christian leaders,Â “What should churches served byÂ CHRISTIAN STANDARD strive to be orÂ do or look like in the next decades?” ____ By Dusty Rubeck I would like to see our churches focus on eradicating three crippling spiritual diseases in the next 20 years. 1. Biblical Illiteracy I”ve been involved in ministry leadership since 1983. Over that time I have seen a steady decline in basic biblical knowledge. While it is most pronounced in our youth, it is evident at all age levels. This must change. We must move from biblical relevance to biblical revelation and transformation. Active study and

September 12, 2015

How to Lose Your Best People

By Melissa Sandel Without the proper attention, it”s easy to see volunteers drift away from your church”s ministries. Here are proven strategies to keep that from happening. At the center of a local park near my home stands a giant sandbox filled with dozens of well-used toys. From a nearby park bench, I recently observed an industrious toddler filling a plastic bucket with sand and lugging it to his construction site. Back and forth across the sandbox he traveled many times, hauling sand in his tattered bucket. Yet little progress was being made on his sand castle. Why? The kid

August 29, 2015

Michael C. Mack

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence

By Michael C. Mack “Pete, I”m leaving the church.” “I sat still, too stunned to respond,” says Pete Scazzero, founder of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, New York, and author of several books, including The Emotionally Healthy Church. “When a church member says, “˜I”m leaving the church,”” Scazzero continues, “most pastors don”t feel very good. But when your wife of nine years says it, your world is turned upside down.” Scazzero says while he was a successful senior minister by external measures, he was emotionally immature, “a workaholic for God and failing at home as a husband and father.”

July 21, 2015

Church Leadership

The Leaders We Follow

By Mark A. Taylor Where would you be without the leaders in your life? How would you have faltered or failed? Where would you have wandered? What do you know and value that wouldn”t be in your heart and mind without the ones who have influenced you most? Without those leaders, there would have been others. Someone influences each of us. None of us blazes his path alone without some sort of guide showing the way. And none of us makes a turn in the path””a life-altering decision for good or bad””without some stimulus outside ourselves. Testimonies from 35 leaders

February 20, 2015

Miscellaneous

PROPEL (Previewing the 2015 NACC)

By Caleb Kaltenbach Maybe you”ve gone to many leadership ministry conferences, and maybe many of them seem like the same conference experience over and over again. You walk away with a lot of good information, but wish there had been the opportunity to ask questions, get feedback, or discuss a speaker”s point a little deeper. What if you could have a more personal experience with seasoned ministry leaders? Now”s your chance! The 2015 NACC”s preconference event, “PROPEL,” will be unlike any such event you have ever attended. “PROPEL” is a one-day conference from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, June

February 17, 2015

Ethics & Moral Issues Gender

Your Church: a Boys Club?

By Mark A. Taylor Many, many years ago I bumped into the president of a parachurch ministry who was considering a woman for an executive role with his organization. “You know,” he said to me, as if he couldn”t quite believe the statement he was about to make. “She”s really sharp.” She would be the first woman to serve (with distinction, I might add) with such authority at his institution. That incident reminds me of a Christian college teacher who wrote on a student”s paper, “You write really well for a woman.” Admittedly, both these incidents occurred decades ago. But

September 22, 2014

Church Leadership

Knowing When to Leave

By Mike Shannon One of our greatest problems in life is trying to make godly and wise decisions. We are so desperate to do the right thing that we often lapse into an almost superstitious view of trying to discern the will of God.Â I don”t know about you, but I have often had to make decisions when I was not certain what God wanted me to do. Sometimes I thought I was certain, but later had to reconsider. Nowhere is this tension felt more acutely than when we are trying to decide whether or not to stay at a

July 25, 2014

Christian Living

Right Here, Right Now

By Rick Rusaw (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I”ve Ever Received.”) I had moved to Fort Myers, Florida, to begin my first ministry in a local church. I was a young man, and I was filled with aspirations, not only for this opportunity, but for other places with other opportunities. It wasn”t that I considered this church to be merely a stepping stone, something to endure until a better situation arose. No, it was a wonderful place with plenty of opportunity. But I also knew that those who do their ministries well are usually offered leadership positions

July 19, 2014