Articles for tag: Standard Publishing

February 18, 2011

Christian Standard

The Dynamic NACC Message in a Challenging New Book

By Dudley Rutherford When you read in the Bible about the powerful ministry of Jesus or the revolutionary witness of the first-century church, does a longing well up inside you to capture that same strength and vigor in your personal effectiveness for the kingdom of God? The church in the New Testament impacted the world. It changed culture from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The early disciples turned the world upside down with their message, their lives, their commitment, and their passion. Can you imagine today”s church having the same influence in our

February 17, 2011

Christian Standard

“˜Inside Out & Upside Down” VBS Ranked No. 1

Standard Publishing”s 2011 Vacation Bible School curriculum, “Inside Out & Upside Down on Main Street,” was ranked this year’s No. 1 VBS by About the Children’s Department, a popular blog with authoritative reviews of children”s curriculum based on standardized criteria. “Standard Publishing is known for providing quality VBS resources that teach God’s Word in every station and activity; this year they have done a tremendous job!” said the blog”s editor, Lynda Freeman. Standard Publishing is the original publisher of Vacation Bible School and has served Christian churches in America for 145 years. Every summer, more than 1.3 million kids and volunteers are touched

January 15, 2011

Christian Standard

Whatever Happened to the Invitation?

By Mark Atteberry The elders at my church very graciously gave me seven weeks off, a kind of mini-sabbatical. It was during the summer and my wife and I had a trip planned anyway, so we laid out a plan to visit a different church every weekend. We chose a mixture of large and small churches, city and rural churches, and Restoration Movement and denominational churches from Florida to the mountain west. Overall, it was a positive experience. We heard some fine sermons, met some nice people, and picked up a few good ideas. There was, however, one big surprise

January 14, 2011

Christian Standard

What College Didn”t Teach Me About Children”s Ministry

An Interview with Ryan Frank Ryan Frank, creator of KidzMatter Inc. (www.kidzmatter.com), is the publisher of The Kitchen children”s church curriculum and K!Magazine. He is a children”s minister in Indiana. His latest book, 9 Things They Didn”t Teach Me in College about Children”s Ministry, has just been released by Standard Publishing. We asked Ryan a few questions about his experience in children”s ministry and his advice for children”s ministers today. How did you get interested in children”s ministry? I was only 16 years old. My minister approached me and said, “We need someone to teach Junior Church. Will you try

January 12, 2011

Christian Standard

Making a Difference

By Joni Sullivan Baker Christmas decorations are down, second semester is underway, and snow is on the ground. It”s January. For those involved in children”s ministry that means only one thing””it”s time to start planning Vacation Bible School. Every summer, Standard Publishing puts its brand-new, unpublished VBS curriculum to the test by asking a local church to actually try it. Christ”s Church at Mason (Ohio) tested the new VBS last June. VBS 2011 is called “Inside Out & Upside Down on Main Street: Where Jesus Makes a Difference Every Day!” The children in the field test learned about five of

January 9, 2011

Christian Standard

Interview with Jim Eichenberger

Having taught junior high and high school and served as a school principal, Jim Eichenberger has a passion for education. He holds a master”s degree in educational administration from the University of Illinois at Springfield and an undergraduate degree in Christian education from Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College. As a Christian educator, Jim has been a contributor to Standard Publishing since the 1970s and has been employed by Standard full-time since 1995. Thirteen years ago Jim began developing the concept of a chronological treatment of the Bible that would have broad appeal to Christians of all maturity levels. That concept has

January 7, 2011

Christian Standard

God”s Word””the Life Shaper

(This essay is the first in a series called “The Bible, My Guide” that will appear throughout 2011. In it, Christian leaders will present testimonies about how the Bible has changed them. This essay, and all subsequent ones in this series, may be accessed by clicking on “The Bible, My Guide” in the drop down menu under “Features” on the home page.) By Marshall Hayden I didn”t understand the TV commercial the first time or two. But now every time I see it I get a warm feeling the advertiser no doubt wanted to plant in my subconscious. When we

January 6, 2011

Christian Standard

What to Call Our Year of the Bible?

By Mark A. Taylor What better time than 2011 to focus on the Bible? This year marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible, and in Christian Standard we”ll be lifting up the Bible all year long. This week”s special articles are the first of many about everything from how we got the Bible to how we teach it. Friends and advisers””our contributing editors as well as colleagues here at Standard Publishing””gave us dozens of ideas for the year. But even with all their excellent input, we couldn”t agree on what to call our year of

December 8, 2010

Christian Standard

“˜Making a Mess” Book a Finalist for Cover Design Award

Standard Publishing’s new book, Making a Mess and Meeting God, is one of three finalists for the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association 2010 Book Covers Award in the small publishers category. The book, written by Mandy Smith, helps readers discover new and deeper ways ordinary activities and daily life can teach us about God. Winners will be announced in a free webinar next Tuesday, Dec. 14, at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

November 4, 2010

Christian Standard

Seven Hallmarks of a Healthy Small Group

By Michael Mack What makes a small group healthy? At Northeast Christian Church, we define small group health by seven biblical values and evaluate all groups annually to see how they are doing. Note that the first four deal with how a group is focused and organized, and the last three deal with what they do. 1. Christ-centered: Jesus is the real group leader. Groups meet in his presence and power and for his purposes. (Matthew 18:20) 2. Healthy, growing leaders: The small group leader is growing in his or her faith by being involved in daily disciplines such as Bible

November 2, 2010

Christian Standard

Interview with Velvet Lozada

By Brad Dupray Standard Publishing has developed a simple book fair for churches, offering a new way for churches to interact with families and provide true-to-the-Bible resources for all ages. Velvet Lozada, a regional sales manager for Standard Publishing, helps churches arrange book fairs. Velvet joined Standard as a consultant in 1987 after serving as director of education in the local church setting. She and her husband, Gil, moved to New York in 1969 to work with Go Ye Chapel Mission (now the Orchard Group) and have attended South Nassau Christian Church since 1972. What is “Kids Reading for Lifeâ„¢“?

November 1, 2010

Christian Standard

Fun and Games

By Jennifer Taylor Sherwood Oaks Christian Church (Bloomington, Indiana) doesn”t usually offer midweek programming during the summer, but this year it tried something new””and discovered a program adaptable to any church at any time of the year. SOCC developed the approach around Tom Ellsworth”s new It”s Your Move books, which connect the fun of popular board games to Bible study and real-life application. Ellsworth, senior minister at the church, wrote the books for small group use but found the material translated well to a larger gathering. “We spent the first half hour or so playing the game together around tables;

October 29, 2010

Christian Standard

A Resource for Readers of Books

By Mark A. Taylor “Do you publish books?” It”s a fair question for Standard Publishing, because our company is known for so much more than books: Sunday school courses for every age, a best-selling and award-winning VBS, classroom supplies, youth material, electives for children and teenagers and adults, small group resources, teacher-training materials, and much more. But amid all these Bible-teaching resources is a growing library of books that many adults have come to savor and share. Some of them are best-sellers, too. All of them inspire and entertain and teach. You”ll find many good reads among the books we”ve

October 19, 2010

Christian Standard

As We Publish Our Hiring Articles

By Mark A. Taylor A few thoughts occur to me as we post our articles about hiring a minister. The first of them is spurred by an e-mail that came in response to an article that appeared this summer. I”ll paraphrase in order to protect the identity of the letter writer: I am a new minister fresh out of seminary in 2009. I took on a small church in my first pastorate, and in a little more than a year I was asked to leave. . . . Now my family and I are trying to find our next ministry

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 1, 2010

Christian Standard

Growing Like Jesus: Wisdom You Can Touch

By Eddie Lowen (Eddie Lowen was among eight Christian leaders asked to share what helps them mature just as Jesus did. Lowen, a member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee, is senior minister with West Side Christian Church, Springfield, Illinois.) ___________________ A television commercial for cars.com depicted a fictional young genius named David Abernathy during several phases of his life. In the first scene, as a newborn, David shocked the obstetrician who de- livered him by reaching up to shake hands with him! As a preschooler, David amazed his parents by using graphs and PowerPoint slides to successfully negotiate a later bedtime.

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

September 1, 2010

Christian Standard

Answering the Challenge for Bible Materials in Spanish

By Jennifer Taylor Good Books When Jon and Kathy Underwood visited Colombian Christian Mission in 2005, missionary Dale Meade asked the couple to outline a course of study for general and graduate-level Bible training. Jon created a sequence including Bible surveys, history, and theology””and received another request from Dale. “The team really wanted more challenging materials and asked us to consider translating and publishing books into Spanish,” Kathy says. “We were concerned about a conflict of interest, since Jon works at Standard Publishing. But we explained the project and received their blessing to move forward.” In 2006 the Underwoods created

July 18, 2010

Christian Standard

They Trust Me, They Trust Me Not

By Dave Ping Richard had been on the staff of a rapidly growing church for six months, and things were going great. “Some of the small groups I”d started were thriving and some were just getting off the ground when suddenly we discovered that our perfect church wasn”t as perfect as we thought. Our senior pastor, a dynamic preacher who”d befriended me and mentored me in ministry, was caught having an affair with a female staff member. “Suddenly the church I loved was engulfed in a storm of hurt, betrayal, and distrust. And I was just as grieved and stunned

June 20, 2010

Christian Standard

Some of My Best Friends Are Lost

By Arron Chambers This is an excerpt from the book “Eats With Sinners” by Arron Chambers. To some, Lost is a highly addictive TV show about the survivors of a plane wreck who find themselves on a deserted island””in the middle of the ocean””where nothing makes sense and they are not alone. Lost might be a zone where single socks, class rings, your favorite hat, sunglasses, my brother”s car keys, the Watergate tapes, and my six-toed cat (Sasquatch) dwell while waiting to be found . . . or not. Lost is how I feel listening to my daughter as she tries to

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