Articles for tag: Stone-Campbell Movement

September 13, 2013

Christian Standard

God Gave Us a Heart for Pittsburgh

By Tom Fodi Toward the end of the school year in 1994, my fifth-grade teacher offered my classmates and me the opportunity to freely express our memories of the school year and dreams of the future in a self-published yearbook. She invited us to reflect on the year by answering short survey questions such as, “What is your favorite memory of this school year?” and “What are your plans for summer vacation?” Reading the thoughts of those 11-year-olds today is an entertaining trip down memory lane. But that yearbook composed almost two decades ago gives clues to the dramatic changes

April 19, 2013

Christian Standard

Interview with Jon Keck

By Paul Boatman   Jon Keck is a staff pastor with First Christian Church, Decatur, Illinois, a once-dwindling traditional church affiliated with the Disciples of Christ that has turned around to become a thriving Evangelical congregation.   Introduce us to First Christian Church of Decatur. This is a growing church that gathers 1,000 Christians each weekend to worship Jesus. We date back to 1833 and have been historically affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. As changes evolved in the Disciples of Christ, we became an autonomous Christian church affiliated with the Disciple Heritage Fellowship. We are growing at the rate

November 22, 2012

Christian Standard

A People to Be Thankful for

By Mark A. Taylor For several years now the National Missionary Convention, recently renamed International Conference on Missions (ICOM), has met the weekend before Thanksgiving. This morning I”m struck by how good it is for the convention and the holiday to be so close together. ICOM reminds us how thankful we can be for our fellowship of Christian churches. Our movement (variously called the Restoration Movement, Stone-Campbell Movement, and more recently the Christian Church Movement) is thriving and well. The throngs of teenagers and young adults crowding the Indianapolis Convention Center November 15-18 bear testimony to that. And so do

August 27, 2012

Christian Standard

Do We Believe What We Sing?

By Tom Lawson Calvinism, largely through the influence of the Church of Scotland between 1600 and 1900, has become the dominant position of the majority of English-speaking Evangelical Protestants. The Stone-Campbell Movement, along with groups such as the Cumberland Presbyterians and Freewill Baptists, represent non-Calvinistic groups that have emerged within this broader majority. Since the hymns and songs used in Christian worship are widely shared across denominational lines, it is not surprising that many popular Christian songs come from dedicated Calvinists. In many cases the doctrinal distinctives of Calvinism do not emerge in the lyrics of a song, even if the

August 11, 2012

Christian Standard

Thousands Meet in Brazil for World Convention

Almost 4,000 Christians from around the world met in Goiania, Brazil, for fellowship, worship, preaching, and learning at the 18th Global Gathering of the World Convention, July 25-28. Plenary speakers from Brazil, the United States, Australia, Ghana, and Portugal gave challenging lessons focused on the theme of “Sharing the Love that Unites.” Ken Young, along with singers and musicians from the United States and Brazil, led heartfelt praise to God in song. Teachers from eight countries led workshops on the Bible, Christian history, and worldwide ministries. This was the first gathering to be held in what is called the Global

July 19, 2012

Christian Standard

Preaching, Prevailing, and Seeking

By LeRoy Lawson The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock Fred B. Craddock Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2011 When You Come Home: The True Love Story of a Soldier”s Heroism and His Wife”s Sacrifice Nancy Cavin Pitts Kingsport: Christian Devotions Ministry, 2011 The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West . . . AGAIN (10th Anniversary Edition) George C. Hunter III Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2010 I”ve known of Fred Craddock almost as long as I”ve been preaching, but I”ve never met him. When I was a guest preacher at the Christian Church in Newport, Tennessee, his ghost filled the church. He wasn”t dead,

February 6, 2012

Christian Standard

More Than a Memorial

By Tom Lawson The language we use when talking about Communion has a great deal to do with our history. A quick review of any English Bible will demonstrate words like memorial or emblematic or symbolic are not found in any of the passages about Communion. So, where do they come from and why do we hear them so often? The flip side of that question might be: Why are there a number of biblical phrases and teachings about the Lord”s Supper we rarely hear? To understand why we hear what we hear, it is important we take a brief

December 27, 2011

Christian Standard

Why New Testament Christians Should Study the Old Testament

By Steve Hooks The Stone-Campbell Movement has served Christendom well through its invitation of all believers to practice “New Testament Christianity.” An unintended and unfortunate consequence of this plea, however, has been the historical neglect of the Old Testament in the preaching and teaching of many Restoration churches. Regarding the New Testament as the “only rule of faith and practice,” some in our fellowship have come to view the Old Testament as no longer relevant for the believer. The Old Testament, it is argued, was for the Jews. Having brought us to Christ it has now served its intended purpose

December 13, 2011

Christian Standard

A New World for Missions

By Mark A. Taylor “Missionaries are no longer Americans who come to show slides of “˜foreign” countries, but are those who bring the gospel from all over the world,” wrote Gary Holloway, executive director of World Convention, after attending the second Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia October 3-7. His summary reminds us of new opportunities and strategy for missions today. Consider: South Korea sent out 22,000 missionaries to 176 countries last year. Nigeria plans to send 50,000 workers to other nations by 2015. Han Chinese plan to send out 100,000 missionaries to other countries in the next few years.

October 20, 2011

Christian Standard

My Opinion about Opinions

By Karen J. Diefendorf I have an opinion about opinions! In the Army we use the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). One of the steps is to separate facts from assumptions. It isn”t always as easy to differentiate the two as one might imagine. But the reason it is critical to identify assumptions is because of the great risks hidden within them. We put it this way: “The greater the assumption, the greater the risk.” Leaders have to determine how much risk they are willing to assume with any action. It seems to me that opinions in the life of

July 20, 2011

Christian Standard

The Holy Spirit in the Early Restoration Movement

By Jim North The understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit has often caused energetic discussion within the ranks of the Christian churches/churches of Christ. This is the case today, just as it was in the early days of our movement 200 years ago. As a result, it might do us well to look at the thinking of some of our early leaders about this much-debated topic. For simplicity, we will look particularly at the thinking of Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell. Stone and Campbell were two of the most important leaders of this frontier movement. They agreed

June 13, 2011

Christian Standard

What About Christian Churches?

We asked former contributing editor Robert Wetzel to get answers from scholars to a question we have considered in several different ways in recent months: What is the future of our movement of churches? By C. Robert Wetzel ________ The future always grows out of the past, of course, so this week we decided to put the question before three historians: Paul Blowers, Dean E. Walker professor of church history at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee. Doug Foster, professor of church history; director, Center for Restoration Studies, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas. Newell Williams, president and professor of modern

March 12, 2011

Christian Standard

Interview with Douglas Foster

By Brad Dupray Douglas Foster is director of The Center for Restoration Studies at Abilene (Texas) Christian University, where he also serves as professor of church history. ACU is primarily affiliated with the a cappella churches of Christ, but Foster brings a broad knowledge of the Restoration Movement as a co-editor of The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement and of the forthcoming World History of the Stone-Campbell Movement (due from Chalice Press in 2012). He completed an undergraduate degree at David Lipscomb University and earned a PhD in church history at Vanderbilt University, both in Nashville, Tennessee. Foster has taught

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

Christian Standard

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

By Leroy Lawson This January, Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee, CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors, and a few other key leaders met in a retreat to discuss the future. Key questions included, “Why does the Restoration Movement exist? What do we contribute? What is our vision for what Christian churches and churches of Christ should be and accomplish in the next decades? What do we want to look like 50 years from now . . . and what can we do today to begin painting that picture?” Although much time was given to freewheeling dialogue, two speakers set the tone with their

May 19, 2010

Christian Standard

The Case for Staying Connected

By Mark A. Taylor After hearing Scot McKnight speak at the Stone-Campbell Journal Conference in Cincinnati this spring, I was pleased to see what he wrote about the Restoration Movement at his popular blog (http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/)*. McKnight is a sought-after speaker and writer who teaches atNorth Park University in Chicago. His winsome and incisive commentary in Cincinnati on spirituality in our postmodern age showed why so many follow what he has to say. What he said in his blog post is especially encouraging: I contend that the Restoration Movement, or the Stone-Campbell movement, made up of the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ, is American

January 24, 2010

Christian Standard

Holloway Named Executive Director of World Convention

By Staff Gary Holloway has been appointed executive director of World Convention, President B. J. Mpofu announced. Holloway succeeds Jeff Weston, who returned to Australia in 2009 after serving as executive director since 2004, and Bill McDonald, who has served on an interim basis for several months. Holloway currently is Ijams Professor of Spirituality at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, and ministers with Natchez Trace Church of Christ in Nashville. He was a member of the planning committee for the 17th World Convention, conducted in Nashville, July 30 through Aug. 3, 2008. The World Convention is a quadrennial global gathering

January 10, 2010

Christian Standard

Stone-Campbell Dialogue Launches New Phase

By Staff Marking a decade of discussion, prayer, and fellowship centering on Christian unity, the Stone-Campbell Dialogue agreed at its recent meeting to shift its emphasis to a new phase of cultivating unity through mission and service among the three religious streams that trace their origins back to Barton W. Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell. The 21-person dialogue team met November 1-3 in Lexington, Kentucky. Among topics discussed were: the Great Communion Celebration of October 4, 2009; the possibility and potential of common mission/service projects as a focus for the next phase of conversation and engagement; getting youth and

November 29, 2009

Christian Standard

Fifty Years of Missiology: 1960″“2010

  by Doug Priest While missions began in biblical times, the academic discipline of missiology goes back only to the early 1800s. The definition of missiology we learned in college in the 1970s was, “the scientific study of missions.” I recall my missionary father cringing upon hearing this definition, fearing that others would assume the spiritual component in mission was being left out.  In seminary I learned a more technical definition: “The academic discipline or science which researches, records, and applies data relating to the biblical origin, the history, the anthropological principles and techniques and the theological basis of Christian

October 4, 2009

Christian Standard

A Document for Today

  by Joni Sullivan Baker A lot can happen in 200 years. That”s plenty of time for a family to launch, prosper, and stretch out around the world. But it”s also plenty of time for punches to be thrown, hearts to break, and feuds to start and then to fester through many generations. And although most are too polite to say it, those outside the family puzzle or scoff at cousins who share the same name and same family mottoes but still can”t figure out a way to get along. It”s especially strange when a lot of those mottoes are

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