Articles for tag: T.R. Robertson

March 26, 2015

Christian Standard

Foster Care and the Church

By T. R. Robertson Last Christmas our home was filled with the same sort of holiday laughter and sharing that most families experience. We had a houseful of grown sons, now young men in their upper 20s. Along with them came a wife, a girlfriend, and little kids. All of them call us Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. Not one of them shares a drop of our blood or a strand of our DNA. The only one of our foster sons not there was Jeremy, whom we haven”t seen since he left our custody just before he turned 2,

March 8, 2015

Christian Standard

Redeeming Lent

By T.R. Robertson Some ignore it. Some condemn it. But others have found ways to redeem this 40-day observance with values both biblical and missional. I didn”t grow up with Lent as part of my life. My church, as well as most other congregations in the Restoration Movement of the 1960s and “70s, didn”t observe Lent at all. It was considered a nonbiblical invention of the Catholic Church. We not only looked down on Lent, we mostly ignored it. I don”t remember Lent ever being mentioned in Sunday school or in sermons. My first exposure to Lent came when I was a safety patrol guard

February 9, 2015

Christian Standard

True Love and the Hookup Culture

By T.R. Robertson You”re drunk. You”re at a party, sitting on the couch. It”s three in the morning. You”re looking around. You don”t know where your roommates went. You”re tired. You don”t know how you”re getting home. You look next to you, at this person. They look at you. You say to yourself, “All right . . . “ You won”t find lines like that in your average romance novel. They”re a college student”s description of a typical college hookup situation, quoted at the 2014 Q Conference by sociology and religious studies scholar Donna Freitas. Freitas is the author of

January 18, 2015

Christian Standard

I Still Need the Church

By T.R. Robertson This past February, Donald Miller, best known as the author of the book Blue Like Jazz, confessed on his Storyline blog that he doesn”t go to church very often.1 I”m not sure why this surprised anyone who has read his books, but his comments kicked off a hurricane of commentary in the blogosphere and on social media. Among the reactions were a blog entry titled, “Donald Miller”s prescription for spiritual suicide” (dennyburk.com2), and this tweet, “I”m scared for the next gen of young people who will read @DonaldMiller & think they don”t even need to go to

December 18, 2014

Christian Standard

Breaking the Link from Poverty to Prison

By T.R. Robertson Prison life is easier than life on the street for many in our country”s poor population. By understanding and taking effective measures to address poverty, we are helping to solve the crime problem as well. Here are some basic understandings and ideas. Until she went to prison, Janie said, she had never in her young life been sure she would get to eat three meals in any one day and have a bed to sleep on at night. Born into the make-do culture of generational poverty, the only “meals” she”d ever known consisted of whatever food could

November 20, 2014

Christian Standard

Of Oz and Opportunities

By T.R. Robertson An unexpected career path has opened many doors for this minister to a church and community “down under.” Rob Branham frequently begins his day by playing a game of Jenga with a middle school student. The boy”s teachers were having difficulties dealing with his behavior. He was arriving at school angry nearly every morning because of a troubled home life. So now he stops by the school chaplain”s office for a “pit stop” and a friendly game to help him calm down before classes begin. When Branham began his college journey at his hometown Central Christian College

October 16, 2014

Christian Standard

Right and Righteous

By T.R. Robertson The reaction of Christians to a prominent athlete”s admission of homosexuality can provide one clue to how the church is relating to culture. On February 9, Michael Sam, a senior defensive end for the Missouri Tigers football team, publicly “came out” in an ESPN interview. The news went viral nationally. In traditional and social media, Sam was heavily praised for his courage in announcing he is gay. In May, he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams and the celebratory kiss with his boyfriend on national TV was replayed many times during the following days. This news

August 8, 2014

Christian Standard

From College-Bound to “˜I GO Bound”

By T.R. Robertson “Behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city” (Acts 20:22, 23, King James Version). Corey Courtwright is a country boy at heart. He grew up with a love of fishing and farming, like most of his fellow college of agriculture students. Now he makes his living constructing integrated fish farming systems and training people from all over the world how to use aquaculture and agriculture technology to develop sustainable farms. It”s the sort of education-to-career path most parents

March 23, 2014

Christian Standard

Not the Only Christians on Campus

By T.R. Robertson Believers””and nonbelievers””from a wide range of backgrounds gather under the influence of campus Christian ministries. How do they experience and express the reality of this motto? James was raised in a Christian family, part of a rural Missouri church that brought him up to know and follow the teachings of the Restoration Movement. Gary was the product of a church that does not share the legacy of the Restoration Movement. Both James and Gary attended the University of Missouri when they left home, and both became involved with the Mizzou Christian Campus House, a Christian church/church of

February 8, 2014

Christian Standard

From Meager to Eager

By T.R. Robertson When people say they wish they could watch more football, or they wish they could spend more time on the Internet, most of them will actually find a way to do just that. But when the people in your church say they wish they knew the Bible better, will they actually set out to do it? For many, the answer is probably not. But why not? One reason some don”t work at learning the Bible might be they don”t really understand the benefits of being more biblically literate. Sure, they”ll agree it”s important. But in fact, they”re

January 13, 2014

Christian Standard

Proclaiming Release: Captives Caught by “˜Felt Needs”

By T.R. Robertson Shortly after our arrival at the prison chapel, the two-way radios crackle with the announcement: “Release Christian Campus House to the chapel.” Within minutes a few dozen offenders, as we”re told to call them, come walking across the central prison yard. We actually call them by their first names. We make a point to learn and remember their names, since no one else here offers them that courtesy. The courts have mandated the prisoners” freedom to practice their chosen religion. The weekly chapel schedule is filled with a wide variety of offerings in 10 different “fully accommodated”

December 21, 2013

Christian Standard

Mondays with Roy

By T.R. Robertson For nearly two years, from the first Monday in September 2004, until the first Monday in June 2006, I made a weekly trip from the Mizzou Christian Campus House to the Missouri state prison for women in Vandalia, Missouri, in the company of campus minister Roy Weece and an ever-changing group of students and CCH alums. Roy was always the driver. No one ever considered asking if he”d rather just ride along and let someone else drive. After decades of driving a succession of white Volkswagen beetles for hundreds of thousands of miles to hundreds of speaking

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