Articles for tag: Outreach Magazine

November/December Ministry Ideas: Giving Tuesday

By Michael C. Mack You know about Thanksgiving and the special shopping days that have become associated with it, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now you can add another special day the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (November 29, 2016), a global day dedicated to giving back called Giving Tuesday. “It”™s a simple idea,” says the holiday”™s official website, www.givingtuesday.org. “Whether you come together with your family, your community, your company or your organization, find a way to give back.” Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 by 92nd Street Y (www.92y.org) in partnership with the United Nations Foundation and has engaged more

May Ministry Ideas

By Michael C. Mack National Day of Prayer””May 5: Consider visiting local businesses and government officials to ask how you may pray for them. Gather people on that day to ask God”™s blessings on your community. The National Day of Prayer, observed annually on the first Thursday of May in the United States, invites people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. Mother”™s Day””May 8: Churches typically focus their Mother”™s Day observance on moms and their families who attend

Four Post-Resurrection Sunday Ideas

By Michael C. Mack Resurrection Sunday has been a big deal all over the world ever since the first one! But it”s what happens after Resurrection Sunday that can make the most impact. Here are four tips from Outreach magazine that you can use to keep the momentum going. 1. Celebrate. Capture all the stories and all the “wins” from Easter Sunday and celebrate them. Share the stories and successes with staff, volunteers, and the congregation on subsequent Sundays. Publicly champion all the people who stepped up to serve. Brag on all the behind-the-scenes people who rarely get much attention.

Want to Grow? Decide to Reach the Lost.

Tim Harlow, senior minister at Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park, Illinois (which ranked No. 52 on Outreach magazine”s fastest-growing church list in 2013, and which now ranks as the 66th largest church in America), talked about the turning points for the church, which averaged 150 per weekend when he arrived in 1990 and now averages 7,510. “Since 1998 we have grown an average of 21 percent a year,” he told Outreach. “I firmly believe that the reason Parkview is on any of these lists is because God looked down on a group of dedicated leaders who made one single

Diverse, Dynamic, and Difficult to Summarize

By Mark A. Taylor Suppose you were asked to summarize the current condition of Christian churches and churches of Christ to an interested but largely uninformed audience. That was my assignment at the Sunday-evening worship service sponsored by the Stone-Campbell Dialogue in Austin, Texas, October 5. As I reported in this space last week, I was one of three speakers, each with a similar assignment; the others spoke, respectively, about the a cappella churches of Christ and the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. Realizing that no one in our group can represent the whole group and no one can know everything

Interview with Tim Harlow

By Paul Boatman Tim Harlow, the senior pastor of Parkview Christian Church, Orland Park, Illinois, is president of the 2014 North American Christian Convention.   Tell us about your work with the North American Christian Convention. My mother carried me in her womb to my first NACC. In the 52 years since then, I have attended 46 of the conventions. It really has always been a part of my life. In 1990, when I began a difficult ministry with this church, the convention was a lifeline for me. I got the empowering messages, the pats on the back, the “juice”

Christian churches

“Nondenominational” Wins the Day!

Christian Churches and the Growth of Nondenominational Congregations This article reflects on Marshall Leggett’s comments at the Congress of Elders about the strengths of independent Christian churches. It also notes the growing number of large and fast-growing churches identifying as nondenominational, including many congregations connected with the Christian churches. Marshall Leggett described Christian churches as “radically congregationally governed.” Outreach magazine’s lists showed many large and fast-growing churches identifying as nondenominational. The article argues that Christian churches may be well positioned for growth amid declining denominational loyalty. The north entrance of Savannah (Georgia) Christian Church By Mark A. Taylor “We in

reasons to celebrate

Let’s Celebrate

Bob Russell highlights reasons the Restoration Movement should celebrate, pointing to renewed evangelistic focus, church growth, and effective church planting across the country—even in places once considered hard soil.

Losing Sheep

By Tim Harlow I don”t think I fully understood shepherding until I took my family to visit a little Dutch theme park in Holland, Michigan. It was a petting zoo\cheese-making\candle-dipping experience. On this particular day, one of the sheep in the petting zoo had executed a clever escape and was wandering through the outlet mall next door. Up to this point, he had done no harm (although he was glaring at the sweater store). His escape had been through a little pond at one end of the zoo. He must have been desperate, because, as the nice Dutch lady told

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