Articles for tag: Restoration Movement

January 8, 2011

Christian Standard

Choosing What You Remember

By Brian Giese It has been said, “Education is everything you have learned minus all you have forgotten.” How can you be certain you remember the most important stuff? One way is by memorizing the information and regularly reviewing it. I was motivated to do just that when I was told I probably was going to become legally blind. I asked myself, What do I want to have in my head if I get to the point where I can no longer read? That was 24 years ago, and my experience in memorization has proven to be a real blessing.

January 2, 2011

Christian Standard

What Should We Believe About Hell?

By Glen Elliott People of the Restoration Movement know the declaration well. These days I hear it quoted by many in the church worldwide. I use it when I introduce our doctrinal position to the new members at our welcome event. Most attribute the statement to St. Augustine. This 1,500-year-old declaration remains powerful in its simplicity: “In essentials, unity. In opinions, liberty. In all things, love.” Nothing has the potential to divide us so much as differences over doctrine and theology. We take different stands regarding the end times and the “rapture.” We still have debates over speaking in tongues.

December 31, 2010

Christian Standard

The Lasting Influence of a Small Church

By Gordon R. Clymer Recently six Timothys of Indiana”s Black Oak Church of Christ returned to say thank-you to the church where each was baptized. Located between Hammond and Gary, the community has become more inner-city than metropolitan. Fewer than 100 people now meet to worship with this congregation. In years past it was never a large church, but it had a vision of outreach. These six men sent out to preach the gospel include James North, professor of church history at Cincinnati (Ohio) Christian University; Ziden Nutt, executive director of Good News Productions, International (Joplin, Missouri); Gordon Clymer, professor

December 5, 2010

Christian Standard

A Story to Challenge All of Us

By Mark A. Taylor This week we”ve posted several encouraging accounts of new church plants in Greater Salt Lake City. But the bigger story tells how Christian leaders worked together and depended on God to see these happen. It”s a story about cooperation and collaboration. “The churches of the Restoration Movement had never attempted something like this,” says Steve Edwards. The collaboration began more than 15 years ago when the Salt Lake City church planting organization asked the Intermountain Church Planters Association based in Boise, Idaho, if they could work together under one name. Edwards became executive director of ICPA

November 19, 2010

Christian Standard

A New Way to Train Workers

By Ron Holland As demographics and strategies for the mission of God change and shift, we find that old methods and ideas need to be rethought. The globalization and urbanization of the world”s populations present major challenges and opportunities in the church”s efforts to participate in the mission of God. Meanwhile, Christians today are realizing anew that God wants the church to be an instrument of social justice in the world. This sends us back to the drawing board in most of our endeavors. LivingStone International University (LIU), a joint project of Christian churches and churches of Christ, in Mbale,

October 20, 2010

Christian Standard

The Just One Challenge

        By Kevin Ingram and Matt Proctor Bob Russell believes the Restoration Movement has a problem. The retired senior minister of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, sees a declining number of students interested in ministry. “As I talk with our Bible college presidents, I”m seeing a real drop in students who want to preach the gospel,” says Bob Russell. Why? “Various factors may contribute,” he answers. “The secularization of society, the postmodern mind-set that denigrates anything authoritative, the declining number of teens in Christian service camps, and the passive involvement of ministers in the lives of teens.”

October 1, 2010

Christian Standard

We Have a Dream

By Dudley C. Rutherford At the midway point of Martin Luther King”s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, he mentioned the white people in attendance that day. Most are not aware there were many white people who participated in that momentous march on Washington, D.C., and others are even less aware that King addressed that segment of the crowd in his memorable monologue. In the midst of this poetic oration he says, “For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize

September 29, 2010

Christian Standard

White as Snow? Guilty as Sin?

By Darrel Rowland Some 50 years ago Martin Luther King Jr. pierced the church”s soul by pointing out that the most segregated hour in America was 11:00 Sunday morning. Things sure have changed in the five decades since, haven”t they? I mean, we gather at all sorts of hours other than 11 am Sunday these days. But about that other part . . . Let”s just ask ourselves a brutally honest question: Why are Christian churches and churches of Christ among the last bastions of society to remain predominantly white? Once we answer that one, we must tackle an even

September 11, 2010

Christian Standard

LARGE-SIZED CHURCHES: A Church Planting Hick from French Lick

A Church Planting Hick from French Lick By Kent E. Fillinger Jasper, Indiana, is not likely on your bucket list of places to visit. If you are like me, you need the help of MapQuest to even find it. And Jasper also isn”t the type of town a typical church planter or church planting organization would pinpoint for a new church. But Darrel Land is not your typical church planter. At age 26, he was confident God was calling him to plant a church in this small, rural community of 14,000 people in southern Indiana. Land grew up about 30 minutes

September 3, 2010

Christian Standard

Letters to the Editor (archived)

We always appreciate hearing from our readers. In the future, we would like to encourage readers to respond in the comment boxes after the articles. We are looking forward to reading your comments! ‘I Find His Comment Offensive’ (posted 8-31-10) I really appreciated the August 1 edition of your magazine, but a big red flag did pop up when I read Ryan Connor”s article (“Burnout in Ministry”). He said, “Ministers often enter the ministry with a need to compensate for personal hang-ups” (p. 5). Thankfully, the ministers I have known over the years chose ministry because they wanted to serve and

September 1, 2010

Christian Standard

Downloadable Resources You May Not Know About

By Mark A. Taylor Communication is always a challenging goal. So I guess I shouldn”t have been too surprised when Christian Standard”s contributing editors suggested we offer something we”ve had available for several months. I”m speaking of the downloadable digital version of our popular booklet, What Kind of Church Is This? This eight-page “minimagazine” has existed in a couple of different versions for many years. Churches have bought hundreds of thousands of copies to use with visitors and new members. It explains to them the unique place of Christian churches and churches of Christ in the religious world. It gives

August 8, 2010

Christian Standard

Safe, to Lost, to Saved?

Read Jeff Faull’s response to this article _______________ By John Mark Hicks What is the relationship of our children to the kingdom of God? Within the Restoration Movement we have historically held that children are safe (without sin) until they reach the “age of accountability,” at which time they own their sin and become sinners (guilty). At that point, as I generally understand the theology, children are not only unsafe but also outside the grace of God. They do not belong to the kingdom. Consequently, children (ranging from ages 9-13 generally) are instructed about baptism, their sin, and their need

August 8, 2010

Christian Standard

Children and Baptism: In Search of a New Model (Part 1)

By Teresa D. Welch Susan and Kevin approached me after church and asked a series of questions I had heard before. “Could you talk to our son, Nathan, for us? He told us he wants to be baptized, and we don”t know if he is ready. What do you think?” Hearing questions about children and baptism was not uncommon in my role as a children”s minister, I regularly was asked by parents of elementary-aged children about matters of their child”s faith and readiness for baptism. However, the longer I served as a children”s minister, the more these questions concerned me.

July 11, 2010

Christian Standard

The Boy with the Odd-Shaped Head

By C. Robert Wetzel Crew cuts were popular among boys in the late 1940s. What distinguished them from today”s short haircuts was that the closely cropped hair of the crew cut had to stand straight up. This necessitated at least two occasions of special care. It took a bit of thick hair gel to achieve vertical status, and a weekly trip to the barber to ensure the perfect shape. Hence all through high school, I made my Saturday visit to Charlie”s Barber Shop in Hugoton, Kansas, to nurture this dubious bit of fashion. I think I must have been about

June 13, 2010

LeRoy Lawson

Restoration Movement

Two Views About the Future of the Restoration Movement: Let’s Keep Moving!

Why the Restoration Movement Still Matters LeRoy Lawson reflects on whether the Restoration Movement should continue as a distinct movement or dissolve into the broader church. He argues that the movement still has a vital role to play through nondenominational connectedness, unity, New Testament authority, spiritual gifts, and shared mission. The article asks whether the Restoration Movement still needs to exist. Lawson argues that institutions do not define the movement; the church’s mission does. He identifies 10 values the Restoration Movement can still offer to the larger Christian enterprise. By Leroy Lawson This January, Standard Publishing’s Publishing Committee, CHRISTIAN STANDARD’s

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