July 27, 2021
Before COVID-19, minister Matt Dabbs might have spent his Sunday mornings before church straightening chairs and vacuuming the carpet. Today, he gets out his leaf blower to dry the dew off the grass in his backyard—because that’s where the church meets.
July 6, 2021
From July 26 to 29, Ohio-based Person 2 Person Ministries will host its 50th Hillsboro Family Camp, bringing together Christians for fellowship, worship, and learning after a difficult year of social distancing.
The presidents of Lincoln Christian University, Hope International University, Kentucky Christian University, and Boise Bible College share their reflections of the most unusual school year that is just ending.
Christian camps are gearing up for a much more active summer season this year, hoping the waning state of the COVID-19 pandemic will allow more kids to come together for summer fun.
May 1, 2021
There's an incredible connection between in-person church attendance and spiritual, mental, and physical health.
May 1, 2021
Making an Impact Through Service Service is a way of life at Discovery Church in Bristol, Tennessee. The church was founded on a culture of service that has endured throughout the congregation’s 10-year history. Discovery’s current lead pastor, Matt Korell, served as a missionary in Taiwan before accepting the call to lead the church, and his experience overseas impressed upon him the importance of service. “This church has a spirit of serving,” Korell said, and that spirit is part of what attracted him to Discovery. One tradition at the church is “Sent to Serve” Sunday; these take place typically four
December 16, 2020
By Chris Moon Churches are making a variety of changes to their Christmas Eve traditions to accommodate social distancing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. And pastors are doing so while wondering when life finally will return to normal. “It’s been crazy,” said Ross Frisbie, senior minister at Tonganoxie Christian Church in Kansas. “I never thought by December we still would be dealing with this, and even more so now with cases going up. It’s crazy. I’m looking forward to normal.” Frisbie said his church will have three Christmas Eve services while offering churchgoers three options by which they can attend
November 22, 2020
Three Timely Truths We Desperately Need Today I love Hallmark Christmas movies. I can imagine that, this year, Hallmark might air A Very COVID Christmas, where a newly single woman—who used to live in the big city and work for a huge company—moves back to her small hometown to sell the house she grew up in after the recent death of her mother . . . and then the pandemic hits! While quarantined in her childhood home, she has meals delivered from her favorite local diner by a food delivery service. The delivery guy—a recently widowed and now single father
September 22, 2020
By Megan Rawlings The Black Death was caused by bacterium and was initially spread by fleas. Starting in Asia (most likely), it spread to Eurasia and North Africa in the mid-1300s, and eventually the plague killed up to one-quarter of the world’s population in about four years. At least 100 million people died. And to think, it was spread by a pest barely visible to the eye. I will spare you the details, but the symptoms of this virus were devastating, and death usually occurred only weeks, sometimes days, after the first symptoms. It was not uncommon for the ill
September 22, 2020
By Justin Horey Trying to summarize how churches are resuming in-person worship after the 2020 quarantine feels a bit like a tribute to Dr. Seuss: Some are meeting, some are not. Some are indoors, some are out. But while reopening plans vary across a wide spectrum, churches that have decided to postpone in-person worship, even as local municipalities began to lift restrictions, have much in common. Most of them are large, with attendance of 1,000 or more. Many of them minister in cities with left-leaning political ideologies. And all churches—regardless of their reopening plans—are eager to minister face-to-face again. Despite
September 21, 2020
Ozark Christian College has lifted a weeklong “self-quarantine” order that had asked students to remain in their dorm rooms as much as possible. In-person classes resumed today after a full-week of remote learning. In-person chapel also is slated to resume. “Our numbers of isolations and quarantines have improved,” Damien Spikereit, executive vice president of administration, wrote on OCC’s website late last week. “This is an answer to many prayers, and I’m proud of the self-discipline and wisdom you’ve shown this week.” Ozark’s “COVID Dashboard” as of noon Monday listed 6 students in isolation, meaning they are either symptomatic or have
September 15, 2020
Ozark Christian College has instituted a one-week, campuswide self-quarantine of students because of a high number of COVID-19 cases. The self-quarantine runs through this Saturday. Additionally, all fall sports have been suspended for the semester. Last Wednesday, the Joplin, Mo., school reported that 10 percent of its residential student population was in quarantine or isolation. As of this 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, Ozark had 12 total active cases—11 students and 1 employee—of people who are either symptomatic or had tested positive for COVID-19 (that was down from 21 active cases—18 students and 3 employees—on Monday morning.) The students are in isolation
August 26, 2020
By Chris Moon These are not easy days to be a police officer—or a police chaplain. The effects of COVID-19 and the racial tensions that have swept the country have made the jobs of those who try to keep the peace and those who minister to them difficult. “It has affected us quite a bit,” said Bob Heath, a chaplain with the Joplin (Mo.) Police Department. Heath has served as a police chaplain for 28 years. He also is the bookstore manager and purchasing agent at Ozark Christian College and the pastor of Diamond Grove Christian Church. He also serves
August 15, 2020
A Lesson from Stephen About Doing Church in a Time of Chaos By Caleb Kaltenbach UFOs . . . Harry and Meghan stepping away from the royal family . . . Carole Baskin . . . murder hornets . . . the Golden Gate Bridge making music . . . Zoom-using 95-year-olds . . . America, the land of homeschooling. . . . If you had asked me a year ago what all of these things would have in common, I never—in a million years—would have guessed 2020. Until this year, you probably didn’t say “in-person gatherings,” “flatten the curve,”
August 15, 2020
5 Strategic Ministry Shifts During the Pandemic Changed Our Perspective By Matt Summerswith Janice Summers Just as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness wondering when they might go back to Egypt, we have found ourselves wondering when we might go back to the way things were just a few months ago. Our wilderness is Joliet, Illinois, in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic. Joliet is the third-largest city in Illinois, home to 150,000 residents. Some think Joliet is a suburb of Chicago, nestled just outside the sprawling metropolis, but she is her own community. Both cities were founded in
August 12, 2020
By Jim Nieman Two staff members of Dallas Christian College embarked on a 2,511-mile road trip in July to connect with as many current and future students as possible. “We were all in quarantine,” said director of student services Karla Kuhl, “and I was seeing stories of [public school] teachers who were going out and seeing their students. And I thought, Well, I have students. I could do that.” Because Dallas Christian College had switched to an online-only format in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, there hadn’t been many “connections” between students and staff for several months . .
July 15, 2020
Is online church really church? That question has bounced around church circles for years as more of American life takes place over the internet. Churches and pastors have been all over the spectrum—from all-in to logged out. The conversation persisted right up to the COVID-19 pandemic. A couple of Christian magazine covers from March 2020 help tell the story. The central theme of Christian Standard’s March print edition featured a robust discussion about the benefits of online church. The cover featured Rusty George of Real Life Church in Valencia, California, who said, “Church is engagement . . . with the
July 15, 2020
Two Biblical Principles We Must Make Every Effort to Follow During This Season of Regathering By Ken Idleman “To be or not to be? That is the question.” Most of us will recognize this quotation from Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare’s famous plays. Hamlet, who spoke these words, was contemplating suicide . . . trying to decide whether it was better for him to live or to die. It’s pretty heavy stuff. (Shakespeare sometimes managed to encapsulate in a very few words ideas that take the rest of us many paragraphs to articulate.) We are currently living through a
By Chris Moon Restoration Movement colleges are putting plans in place for reopening their campuses this fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While most are planning a return to in-person instruction, in many cases the “normal” classroom experience is being modified. Johnson University in Knoxville, Tenn., recently created a planning guide for its fall semester. The school will have students meet regularly in the classroom, but it also is bolstering its online content so that classroom time can be more limited and focused on discussion and skill development. More theoretical content will be taught online. “We’re going to be highly flexible
June 3, 2020
By Chris Moon Louisville’s Northeast Christian Church seized the opportunity. With Kentucky loosening pandemic restrictions slightly, the church quickly organized more than 200 “watch parties”—some would call them 200 new “campuses”—to tune into the church’s worship services this past Sunday. Church members gathered groups of no more than 10 people in homes to worship, pray, and listen to the Sunday sermon. And it certainly was a fitting occasion, since Sunday was Pentecost. “We were just trying to help people look at weekend services a little differently given the state we were in,” said David McKinley, director of marketing and communications
April 7, 2026
John B. Penrose Jr
April 7, 2026
David Faust
March 27, 2026
Rick Cherok