Articles for tag: Outreach Magazine

November 3, 2016

Michael C. Mack

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 1, 2016

Michael C. Mack

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

March 1, 2015

Christian Standard

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.

January 22, 2015

Michael C. Mack

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

October 21, 2014

Christian Standard

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

July 4, 2014

Christian Standard

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”

March 3, 2011

Christian Standard

Magazine Recommends “˜Eats with Sinners”

Eats with Sinners: Reaching Hungry People Like Jesus Did by CHRISTIAN STANDARD blogger and contributing editor Arron Chambers was named one of Outreach magazine”s recommended resources of the year in its new issue out this week. “Chambers offers a pragmatic and concrete approach to evangelism hospitality,” the magazine writes. “Excellent for use in local churches and groups.” Eats with Sinners is published by Standard Publishing. To learn more about the book and to order it, click here.

December 12, 2010

Christian Standard

Blind Copies

By Mark A. Taylor Maybe you”ve noticed, as I have, the remarkable sameness greeting travelers at each stop along United States Interstates. Parachute a blindfolded visitor before the assortment of franchised restaurants assembled at any random exit, and ask him whether he”s landed in Kansas or Kentucky. He probably won”t be able to tell you. With a few regional exceptions, the same stuff is on the menu just about everywhere. And it”s true in churches too. Every October churches large and small, from California through the Bible Belt, promote Trunk “n” Treat as a Halloween alternative. Soon Christian Standard will

October 5, 2010

Christian Standard

“Nondenominational” Wins the Day!

By Mark A. Taylor “We in the Christian churches are radicals,” Marshall Leggett told a group gathered for the daylong Congress of Elders hosted at Central Christian Church, Carmel, Indiana, October 2. “We are radically congregationally governed.” In his closing session message, he expounded on a long list of answers to the question, “What”s RIGHT with us?” The freedom enjoyed by independent congregations in our nondenominational family was one of them. Leggett said, “I don”t know anyone who wants to change that.” Indeed, it would seem that churches from many different backgrounds are walking away from denominational labels, if not

September 28, 2010

Christian Standard

Christian Churches, Large Churches, Growing Churches

Mark A. Taylor Congratulations to Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, the fifth largest church and the 27th fastest growing church in America. Southeast was one of 17 congregations in the fellowship of Christian churches included in the two lists, published by Outreach magazine in September. The lists were based on self-reported February and March attendance weekend attendance averages in a research project involving more than 8,000 churches, according to Outreach. LifeWay Research conducted the study. Ten of the 100 largest churches in America are among the Christian churches, including two in the top 10. (The numbers here and in the

October 28, 2007

Bob Russell

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.

March 11, 2007

Christian Standard

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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