Articles for tag: Restoration Movement

June 19, 2017

Jerry Harris

A Plea for the Restoration Movement

By Jerry Harris It”s foolish to want all Christians to be in unity if we can”t be unified in our own brotherhood. We need to fight for relationship in all the issues that could potentially divide us. Otherwise, no one should take this Restoration Movement seriously. The first-century church had more difficult challenges that threatened deeper divisions than we do now. We must learn the same lessons of living out the fruit of the Spirit that they did. We can”t allow ourselves the prideful position of proving ourselves right over the greater need of loving each other. If we can

June 18, 2017

Christian Standard

The July Issue Is Now Available Via Our App

The July issue of Christian Standard“”completely redesigned, updated, and refocused””should be arriving in our print subscribers’ mailboxes very soon and is available for download right now via our app. There is a new leadership team, featuring Publisher Jerry Harris and Editor Michael C. Mack, a new designer, and a firm commitment to (as Jerry writes this month) “capture the power that comes from our unity.” Christian Standard”s ownership has also changed in recent months. A new not-for-profit, Restoration Movement Media, now owns both Christian Standard and her sister publication, The Lookout. It is the first time in 62 years that

June 13, 2017

Jerry Harris

What to Expect from CHRISTIAN STANDARD

By Jerry Harris Why is the survival of CHRISTIAN STANDARD so important and what does it offer that other magazines don”t?  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

June 9, 2017

Christian Standard

Church Building the New Testament Way

By Doug Lucas Suppose the Restoration Movement churches (Christian churches and churches of Christ) want to restore the New Testament practice of constructing or buying church buildings. What would it look like? Easy answer. To my knowledge, throughout all the New Testament, there”s not a single example of constructing or buying a building. The book of Acts records exponential church growth without buildings. And, according to Matthew 28:19, 20, our core mandate is to make disciples who will make disciples””not build buildings. Making disciples always needs to be at the center of everything we do, whether it be going, baptizing,

June 8, 2017

Christian Standard

Residency Catered to Individual

By Jennifer Johnson Several of the Restoration Movement”s largest churches have created internship programs, some that involve entire cohorts of students and work with colleges and universities for academic credit. “Those are wonderful opportunities for students, and we love what those churches are doing,” says Becki Kern. “But we decided our niche would be a more customized program that works one-on-one with each individual. With that goal in mind, we launched the Reveal Residency in 2014.” Kern, who serves as campus launch pastor and director of Reveal at Pantano Christian Church, Tucson, AZ, designed the program to work with people

May 9, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

Our Future: with Unity?

By Mark A. Taylor If you led a workshop on the future of the Restoration Movement, you”d likely mention many positive signs about our tribe. Here are some I included when I was asked to speak on that topic: “¢ Our churches are doing dynamic ministry, trying new approaches, and succeeding with new strategies. We”re a creative bunch. “¢ Closely related to the above, our lack of hierarchy leaves our leaders free to try new ideas without needing permission from anyone. And new ideas abound among us. We”re an entrepreneurial bunch. “¢ Leaders from our group are publishing widely, with

May 2, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

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

April 30, 2017

Jerry Harris

Securing a Future

By Jerry Harris What”s going on with the CHRISTIAN STANDARD and The Lookout? As a pastor of a church and a founding board member of The Solomon Foundation, I was interested in the answer to that question. Both magazines have been staples of the Restoration Movement from early on, and I, like many, had assumed they would always be there. When I heard in our board meeting the CHRISTIAN STANDARD and The Lookout could be shut down because their owners had found no buyers for them, I was deeply troubled. The chairman of the Publishing Committee had informed Doug Crozier,

April 25, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

Our Future: as Evangelicals?

By Mark A. Taylor Are members of Christian churches and churches of Christ properly categorized as Evangelicals? We addressed this topic in the first year I served as editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD*, and now as I close my tenure, I wonder if anyone is still asking the question. The two who answered in 2003 wrote passionately and convincingly and came to completely opposite conclusions. William R. Baker described James DeForest Murch”s decision to boldly identify himself with the growing Evangelical movement in the 1940s and afterwards. “Not since Isaac Errett, founding editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD, had anyone from the Restoration

March 23, 2017

Christian Standard

Focusing on Discipleship

By Jennifer Johnson You may know Exponential as the premier conference for church planting, but you may not know that a similar event exists for leaders focused on discipleship””and that some of the same people are behind both. Todd Wilson, founder and director of Exponential, and Bobby Harrington, lead pastor at Harpeth Christian Church in Franklin, TN, launched the National Disciple Making Forum in 2014 at Saddleback Church in Southern California as a way for disciple-making leaders around the country to learn, pray, worship, and grow together. “I wasn”t sure if I wanted to take this on, honestly,” Harrington says.

February 17, 2017

Christian Standard

The Church of Mirrors

By T.R. Robertson Not everyone needs to look just like me. In fact, not everyone should. Gary grew up in the church but has rarely been inside a church building for the past decade. I asked him why he and many of his millennial friends are reluctant to give church another try. “We”re fairly sure if we show up at church, we won”t fit in,” he told me. “We aren”t “˜church-people” anymore. They”d make a big fuss if I showed up, but if I stayed, they”d be uncomfortable around me because I”m not like them. And I”d be uncomfortable around

February 6, 2017

Christian Standard

NACC Helps One Young Pastor to Bridge the “˜Gap”

By Chris Moon Mitch Chitwood grew up in the Restoration Movement. He spent his childhood attending independent Christian churches in Arizona and Nebraska. His father has served for decades as a Christian church pastor. And Chitwood today works as the operations and multisite pastor for StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska. Needless to say, the 27-year-old is very familiar with the movement of Christian churches and churches of Christ that spans the United States. But for his first several years in ministry, Chitwood never fully felt part of that movement. “I always had that one-step barrier,” he says. Chitwood attributes

January 19, 2017

Christian Standard

Out of Network

By Tim Harlow My best advice for your ministry: share the Spirit. So Moses . . . brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. . . . However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. . . . Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and

January 12, 2017

Christian Standard

Candlestick Framework

By Jeff Faull One of the most beautiful and reassuring scenes in Scripture is found in the opening pages of Revelation. It focuses on the all-holy, all-seeing, all-powerful Jesus walking among the seven candlesticks or lampstands. And with unmistakable clarity John declares, “the seven lampstands are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:20).  Incredible! In all of his love, majesty, and insight, Christ has the church as his overriding concern and passion! He moves among the candlesticks. As church members and church leaders, we frequent this place of beauty””immersed in, obsessed by, and saturated with visions of the church in Scripture. Some

January 7, 2017

Christian Standard

I Love the Church . . . Because the Church Loved Me, and Still Loves Others

By Rick Chromey I love the church. I love going to church. I love hanging around church people. I love experiencing church stuff””from camps to conferences to cantatas. I love that I grew up in church within earshot of the saints and under the watchful eyes of the “brethren,” many of them little old ladies with blue hair, quaint dresses, and perfect attendance pins. I love the smell of a hardwood pew, the taste of church coffee, and the sound of steeple bells. I can still sing the first and last stanza of many hymns, including favorites like “Revive Us

December 24, 2016

Christian Standard

Mexico Ministry Making Difference for Deaf, Families

By Jennifer Johnson Jesus often told the people listening to his teaching, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” In the United States we understand that for the deaf, “hearing” must happen with eyes and teaching must happen with hands using American Sign Language. But what about those in other countries who can”t hear and have no signs to see? Michelle Zuñiga, an Ozark Christian College graduate, learned both Spanish and sign language to bring the gospel to the deaf in Matamoros, Mexico. Zuñiga approached Workers for Mexico Mission with the idea of reaching the deaf in Mexico in

December 15, 2016

Christian Standard

Training the Next Generation of Women in Ministry: An Interview with Anne Menear

By T.R. Robertson The back of Anne Menear”s office door is covered with dozens of photographs of smiling young people, mostly women. “Those are all my kids,” she says, with a proud smile. “The ones over there,” she adds, pointing to more photographs arranged on a world map, “are all in missions. They”re all the girls that I”ve had contact with that are working in places like Germany, Japan, and Mexico. “It was great to have seen them graduate and now they”re grown-up adults, and to see them as such””it”s cool.” As director of the Christian Education department and dean

November 29, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

We Can Do Better

By Mark A. Taylor Bob Russell spoke, as he has before, about his love for our “tribe,” the Christian churches in the Restoration Movement. He was speaking at the November 18 launch of the Center for Church Leadership during the International Conference on Missions, and he told how his commitment to the Restoration Movement grew and deepened during the years of his ministry at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. It was an apt challenge, because the Cincinnati-based Center has embarked on an ambitious, multifaceted program to develop leaders and strengthen Christian churches. I appreciated the testimony, but it was

October 1, 2016

Christian Standard

Helping Churches Help Refugees

By Jennifer Johnson The plight of refugees around the world captured our attention and our sympathy this past year. But even before that, Mike Schrage was working to create real solutions within the Restoration Movement. Schrage, executive director at Good News Productions, International (Joplin, MO), is also president of the 2016 International Conference on Missions, and he began brainstorming several years ago about a unique initiative for this year”s event. With help from friends and ministry leaders, he”s developed The RISE Project, an initiative to raise $250,000 in grant money for churches that want to minister to international students and

September 12, 2016

Christian Standard

Mission, Calling, Gifts, and Roles: How the Church Gets Things Done

By Jon Weatherly Human beings are social animals. We don”t simply enjoy being together. We need to be together to survive, let alone thrive. For as long as we”ve existed, we”ve lived together””working, serving, sharing, and trading.  We have divided our labors for efficiency and followed leaders for effectiveness. Family, neighborhood, school, business, city, nation””all are humans in community, getting things done. “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Christ”s church is no less a human community. It is deliberately interactive and communal. It has always divided labor and followed leaders. It has surely succeeded

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