Articles for tag: Richard Foster

A Conversation with Ben Cachiaras

Interview by Jennifer Johnson Meet Our Contributing Editors: The senior pastor of Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, shares his passion about Christian witness in a post-Christian culture, especially how we relate to gays and lesbians. From an ongoing series of interviews with CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors. At our recent meeting of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors, you described the 21st-century American church as an exilic community. What did you mean by that? There was a time when Israel was large and in charge, enjoying prominence in the promised land. But the tide turned significantly. Eventually they were chased out of town and

Read a Book!

By Matt Proctor I love books. As a kid, I read everything””westerns, science fiction, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Most kids think Disneyland is “the happiest place on earth,” but for me it was the public library. I was such a bookworm that, when I got in trouble at home, my parents would ground me . . . from reading! It wasn”t until I enrolled at Ozark Christian College that I discovered reading books could actually be a spiritual discipline. Growing up, books were entertainment””a way to feed my imagination, but I had never considered that the right books

NACC “˜Beyond”: Beyond the Misguided Spiritual Disciplines

By Brian Jones Whenever people talk about moving beyond facilitating conversions to making disciples, someone will inevitably say that teaching and practicing the spiritual disciplines will be vital to making this happen. I couldn”t disagree more. Years ago Richard Foster released a perennially best-selling book called Celebration of Discipline. In it he outlined 12 disciplines Christians have engaged in over the last 2,000 years to help them live more spiritually abundant lives””meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. The church should be profoundly grateful for that book, and profoundly ticked off. Someone said a person”s greatest

Interview with John Caldwell

By Brad Dupray Now in his 36th year at Kingsway Christian Church (Avon, Indiana), John Caldwell has baptized hundreds, married couples and then later married their children, buried more than his fair share of faithful church members, and preached hundreds of sermons strategically designed to manage the growth of the Christians who make up Kingsway. John was president of the 1996 North American Christian Convention and will serve as president of the 2012 National Missionary Convention after his retirement from Kingsway. John and his wife, Jan, have been married 44 years and have two children and two grandchildren. Has it

Spiritual Formation as Leadership Development

By Bill Weber Bible colleges and seminaries are charged with preparing leaders for the church in an increasingly sophisticated and complex world. An institution”s value is determined by the success or failure of its graduates. A school”s visibility may be enhanced by special programs or presentations, new buildings, faculty publications, or successful sports teams, but the effectiveness of the graduates indicates whether or not a school is fulfilling its mission. These schools are expected to serve the educational and developmental needs of students. The first goal is to provide a knowledge base in important areas: Scripture, theological concepts, leadership theories,

What the Monks Can Teach Us

By J.K. Jones I acknowledge the title of this article is strange, perhaps even offensive to some. Our Christian church and church of Christ ears are not accustomed to such unusual language.  I also admit that the title sounds very Catholic. Of course, this may cause some to react negatively and stop reading. I hope not. I am a Christian whose heritage is found in and among Restoration churches. I am an immersed believer who holds no creed but Christ and has no book but the Bible. I don”t claim to be the only Christian, but I simply seek to

An Unfinished Restoration Acknowledged

By Gary Weedman I am a fifth-generation member of the Stone-Campbell fellowship of churches. My maternal grandfather”s grandfather was a founding member of a “Campbellite” church in southern Illinois. My maternal grandmother”s grandfather was a founding member of a “Stonite” church nearby. I grew up drinking deeply of the history and aims of this movement. By the time I graduated from high school, I had read much of Campbell”s seven-volume Christian Baptist, which was in our church library (my friends think this explains my lack of social life in high school!). In seminary I took every course offered by Enos

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