February 16, 2023
“Brief word pictures [by evangelist J. Vincent Coombs] of a few of the men [John T. Johnson, ‘Raccoon’ John Smith, J. M. Canfield, L. C. Warren] who have typified the character of our evangelism at various stages of the history of the Restoration Movement. May every preacher be an evangelist.”
October 10, 2019
Buried toward the back of the Oct. 12, 1889, issue was a column by an unknown preacher who shared short recollections of his inadequacies and failings as a young evangelist. This column is several things: raw, uneven, humorous, painful, perceptive, and poignant. _ _ _ Reminiscences from a Young Preacher’s Experience By Y. P.Oct. 12, 1889; p. 11 Yes, I remember quite a number of the firstlies in my ministry. My first sermon was in a new, unfinished, country meetinghouse, painted without, but rough within; the studding, joist and rafters were bare. The benches were slabs from the saw-mill, supported
October 9, 2019
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Mich., will celebrate its 70th anniversary Oct. 18 and 19. A Restoration Appreciation Week Chapel will be at 11 a.m. Friday with Keith Keeran speaking. The 70th Celebration Service will be at 6:30 that night at the Doty Center. A reception for GLCC alumni and friends will follow at 8. An alumni brunch/reunion is set for 9 a.m. Saturday, with “family fun” and lunch from 10:30 a.m. until noon. Weekend anniversary events conclude with a soccer game at 1 p.m. Weekend festivities will also honor Larry Carter
December 8, 2015
By Mark A. Taylor How should we worship? Maybe we can take some comfort in the fact that throughout church history, Christians have answered that question in wildly differing ways. As both Paul Blowers and Tom Lawson point out this month, lavish artistic expressions of worship centuries ago eventually gave way to abandonment and even destruction of them by Protestant reformers. The motivation for each approach was the desire to please and praise God. Across Christendom today, we find everything from formal liturgy in classic settings to simple, quiet contemplative gatherings in smaller groups to exuberant, loud, guitar-driven, drum-syncopated megachurch
By Jack Cottrell (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I’ve Ever Received.”) As early as junior high school I had decided I wanted to be a preacher, but well-meaning high school teachers pressured me in other directions. I grew up on a farm and was active in vocational agriculture during high school, and was awarded a nice scholarship by our county farm bureau. Thus, by the time I was a senior, I had changed my mind and decided to enroll in the University of Kentucky to study agriculture. Either in the summer of 1954 or 1955, during senior
March 2, 2012
By Daniel Schantz The wooden pew is a kind of symbol of the church in the past century. For a preacher”s son who grew up in the 1950s, the church pew provided me with stability, discipline, and plenty of fuel for a child”s imagination. Stability Almost everything in those old churches was made of wood. Wood was warm, smooth, pretty, and as stable as an anvil. Children sat with their parents during worship in those days before graded worship, a practice that many churches are reviving today. The first thing a child learned in church is that God is forgiving. The second
October 10, 2007
By Mark A. Taylor Barney Wells was speaking to leaders of smaller churches about the difference between “average” and “common.” His inspiration was twofold. First, he quoted baseball great Satchel Paige whose words captioned a poster hanging in his room when he was a teenager: “Ain”t no man can avoid being born average,” Paige said, “but there ain”t no man got to be common.” Second, he reminded those attending the Energizing Smaller Churches Network (ESCN) conference in Lincoln, Illinois, of the uncommon accomplishment by the evangelist Philip in an unremarkable setting with an audience of just one (Acts 8:26-40). Wells
August 29, 2007
By Brad Dupray Christian churches in 38 states have enjoyed the ministry of “The Singing Mitchells” over the past 58 years. Pete and Pat Mitchell have lived through every phase of marriage while singing at churches and revivals, running a family business, and raising four children (and now six grandchildren). From their home in Robinson, Illinois, they commuted back and forth, often daily, to conduct evangelistic meetings in support of the local church. The Singing Mitchells have recorded nine albums and are charter members of the Highland Church of Christ in Robinson. If you”ve been singing together for 58 years
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