Articles for tag: Restoration Movement

March 9, 2015

Christian Standard

Worship Worship & Prayer

A New Ancient Rhythm

By Jason Yeatts “Yes, we do have one, and it starts at 7 p.m. in the south worship center.” Our receptionist must have repeated that statement 20 times that day. The calls started early and went through the afternoon. The weekend before, Gary Johnson, our senior minister, had announced that The Creek would observe the season of Lent, starting with a worship service on Ash Wednesday. The announcement spread quickly, and on that first day of Lent we received a barrage of calls from people wanting to confirm that we, indeed, were having an Ash Wednesday service. The idea to

March 8, 2015

Christian Standard

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation Spiritual Disciplines

Redeeming Lent

By T.R. Robertson Some ignore it. SomeÂ condemn it. But others have found waysÂ to redeem this 40-dayÂ observance withÂ values both biblicalÂ and missional. I didn”t grow up with Lent as part of my life. My church, as well as most other congregations in the Restoration Movement of the 1960s and “70s, didn”t observe Lent at all. It was considered a nonbiblical invention of the Catholic Church. We not only looked down on Lent, we mostly ignored it. I don”t remember Lent ever being mentioned in Sunday school or in sermons. My first exposure to Lent came when I was a safety patrol guard

January 22, 2015

Christian Standard

Church Leadership

What I Learned When I Asked about Healthy Churches

By Brad Walden A longtime friend reportedÂ on the latest developments inÂ the church where he hadÂ invested years of service. He seemed excited, but also concerned about the changes. So I asked, “Do you think your church is healthy?” He answered, “Oh, yes. We are healthy. We have the largest bank balance in our history.” So that”s it? A healthy church has a healthy cash reserve?Â That got me to thinking. How would I define a healthy church? Is your church healthy? Can you invite new neighbors to attend your church with total confidence they will find a healthy environment? Will involvement

January 18, 2015

Christian Standard

I Still Need the Church

By T.R. Robertson This past February, Donald Miller, best known as the author of the book Blue Like Jazz, confessed on his Storyline blog that he doesn”t go to church very often.1 I”m not sure why this surprised anyone who has read his books, but his comments kicked off a hurricane of commentary in the blogosphere and on social media. Among the reactions were a blog entry titled, “Donald Miller”s prescription for spiritual suicide” (dennyburk.com2), and this tweet, “I”m scared for the next gen of young people who will read @DonaldMiller & think they don”t even need to go to

January 15, 2015

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

A Healthy Church Has a Robust Missions Program

By Rob Maupin My wife and I entered the local sub shop and began to order. The young man serving us noticed our tired, but happy faces and asked what we had been doing. We told him our church had packed 500,000 meals for hungry kids in Haiti, and it took us (and more than 1,000 volunteers) well over 11 hours of really hard work. We explained that even though it was tiring, we had a truly wonderful experience. “Why did your church do that?” he asked quietly. As we conversed, he said, “I”d like to be a part of

November 7, 2014

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Missions Ministries that Work: First Christian Church

By Jim Book At First Christian Church, we support missions directly connected with churches of Christ and Christian churches that also value the Restoration Movement plea. The money designated for missions is allocated in three specific areas of ministry. One portion goes directly to Timothys sent from this church who are still directly connected to this church family. We are blessed to have Timothys in South Sudan and Japan, as well as a team preparing to minister in Jordan. A second portion goes to missions directly involved in church planting, discipleship making, and local church leadership training. The third portion

November 1, 2014

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Growth

3 Funds Committed to Growth

By Darrel Rowland We like to tell people that our brotherhood is among the fastest growing in America and contains far more than its share of megachurches. But there”s a unique factor in how God has blessed the Christian churches/churches of Christ that often gets overlooked: a trio of loan funds that now have a combined $1 billion-plus in assets. “I think it”s just a testament to our movement that it has three strong, vibrant funds,” said Doug Crozier, CEO of the Solomon Foundation and former head of the Church Development Fund (CDF). “As far as I know, there”s not

October 21, 2014

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

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

October 14, 2014

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

Sowing Seeds of Unity

By Mark A. Taylor Two weekends ago (October 5, 6, 2014) I attended the 19th annual gathering of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue, this year in Abilene, Texas. It was a wonderful gathering! I had the privilege of preaching at the Minter Lane Church of Christ before the Dialogue convened, and I enjoyed rich fellowship with members and leaders of all three “streams” of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. The goal of the Dialogue is to foster understanding, trust, and partnership among these “streams”: the Christian churches/churches of Christ (my group); the traditionally a cappella churches of Christ; and the Christian Church (Disciples

October 13, 2014

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square

Can We Let Artists Be Artists?

By Dan Drage The Christian church doesn”t inspire me. Unless one counts reaction against something to be inspiration. No, overall I find the Christian church quite dull and unimaginative.Â If you”re reading this far, I trust you”ll respect me enough to hear me out. I”m an artist. Perhaps that says it all right there. And this is precisely what I”d like to talk about. Being an artist may account for my distaste with the Christian church. I am a part of the Restoration Movement. I have been for 33 years, since I was 3 years old. One could argue that

September 14, 2014

Christian Standard

Church Leadership

The Brave New World of Church Ministry

By Dick Alexander When I graduated from seminary in the late 1960s, I had answers. Today I have questions. Back then, I thought I knew what a church should look like. There were some variations on a theme, but there was essentially one “model.” But today? Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Everything else is up for grabs. Back in the day, the world was different. When the neighborhood ruffians on our block were playing in the yard and wanted a drink of water, we drank out of a garden hose””none of this sissified bottled water. And there

September 6, 2014

Christian Standard

Why Would You Be the President of the NACC?

By Tim Harlow I made a joke the final day of the North American Christian Convention when I appointed my friend Mike Baker as next year”s president. I knighted him with a sword (because Mike and I are weird that way), and then I said, “But I”m keeping the sword””because you might be tempted to fall on it sometime this year.” In case you are wondering, there is no pay involved in being the president. Actually it”s the opposite; your church or organization will likely have to spend money on it, and it will cost you in many ways. Is

August 25, 2014

Christian Standard

Colleges & Seminaries Organizations & Events

The Lego Principle

By Matt Proctor Several years ago, two of my nephews accompanied their mom on a visit to a friend”s house. Ben was 8. Brian was 6. Their mother”s friend was a very neat lady, to the point of being obsessive-compulsive. (I have a friend who says, “I have OCD, only I like to call it CDO because then it”s in alphabetical order.”) This woman had a place for everything and everything in its place. Though childless, she did have a few toys and handed Ben and Brian a bucket of Lego bricks: “Here boys, you can play with these.” What”s

August 21, 2014

Christian Standard

Colleges & Seminaries Organizations & Events

Six Stepped Down

By Greg Swinney Collectively, they have nearly 70 years of faithful service to Christian higher education, six bachelor”s degrees, six master”s degrees, and four doctorates. They oversaw total combined annual budgets of $43 million. And they all have recently stepped down from presidencies of Christian colleges. We asked them to roll up their sleeves, sit back, and share their stories with us. In alphabetical order, they are: “¢ David Faust, Cincinnati (Ohio) Christian University (president, 2002″“14) “¢ Richard Milliken, Nebraska Christian College, Papillion, Nebraska (1999″“2014) “¢ Ronald Oakes, Central Christian College of the Bible, Moberly, Missouri (2005″“13) “¢ Keith Ray,

June 19, 2014

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Finding a Point of Contact with Anyone

By John Castelein What does it mean that Jesus wants his disciples to be “in the world . . . not of the world” (John 17:13-19)? “In the world” involves more than merely being involved with the world or being aware of the culture. I believe it means being able to connect with people who have not committed to God”s kingdom. “Not of the world” means living out kingdom values and commitments that differ from those of worldly people. Unfortunately, as many Christians become more and more “not of the world,” they have less involvement and connection with people “in

May 11, 2014

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Megachurches and Missions

By Chris DeWelt Suspicious of missions? Uninterested in missionaries? Disengaged from foreign fields? Not the megachurches I interviewed for my doctoral thesis and this report. Actually, I found just the opposite. The American megachurch is interested in missions! The advent of the megachurch is a phenomenon unique in church history. The fact that the megachurch is here is hardly a news item, but the growth and influence of megachurches is a significant part of our current story.1 Just 53 years ago there were only 16 Protestant megachurches2 in America. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research lists about 1,500 megachurches.3 Currently,

March 25, 2014

Just Enough Scaffolding

By Mark A. Taylor “We all seemed to be on the same page,” Bob Russell wrote me after last week”s Beyond the Standard BlogTalkRadio program. “Maybe that made for boring listening, but it makes for a stronger brotherhood!” His comment sowed a new thought for me. Should I be looking for opposing points of view among the guests who appear on these monthly programs? For this episode, could I have found Christian leaders to disagree with “We”re not the only Christians, but we are Christians only”? Maybe. At least one comment about CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s March issue, devoted to that centuries-old

March 23, 2014

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

Not the Only Christians on Campus

By T.R. Robertson Believers””and nonbelievers””from a wide range of backgrounds gather under the influence of campus Christian ministries. How do they experience and express the reality of this motto? James was raised in a Christian family, part of a rural Missouri church that brought him up to know and follow the teachings of the Restoration Movement. Gary was the product of a church that does not share the legacy of the Restoration Movement. Both James and Gary attended the University of Missouri when they left home, and both became involved with the Mizzou Christian Campus House, a Christian church/church of

March 22, 2014

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

Witness and Cooperation

By C. Robert Wetzel I can think of several examples where cooperation with other groups enhanced Christian witness. And my relationship with Lesslie Newbigin taught me principles that can guide all of us. Members of Christian churches and churches of Christ are heirs to a movement that attempted to hold in balance two ideals that could sometimes seem contradictory. On the one hand, there was a commitment to restore New Testament Christianity. Restoration would, in turn, be the means upon which Christians could unite. Hence, we wanted to be “Christians only.” But on the other hand, there was a desire

March 15, 2014

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

Collaboration Without Compromise

By Rick Grover The congregation I serve has a long tradition of cooperation in our city. We intend to continue on this path without compromising what we hold dear. John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39, 40)1. Sectarianism is as