Articles for tag: Unity

January 29, 2019

Christian Standard

The Fortification of the Restoration Movement (Part 3 of 3)

By Steve Carr “What religion are you?” “Christian.” “Well I get that, but what kind of Christian?” “Um, just Christian.” Growing up on Cincinnati’s west side, where Roman Catholicism reigned supreme, I constantly had this exchange with kids at school. Raised in a Restoration Movement congregation, I was taught that our church was simply Christian—nothing more, nothing less. It wasn’t until years later in seminary that I learned another biblical name that could describe my tribe. Alexander Campbell was repulsed that some referred to his group as “Campbellites,” so he sought a more biblical description of our fellowship. Terms like

January 3, 2019

Christian Standard

The Value of Another Person’s Story in Resolving Racial Conflict in the Church

“Jesus treated everyone as important, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or class. Are we not to do the same?”   By Matthew McBirth As I see it, the relationship between two Jewish characters and their families in Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen illustrates one of the primary causes of racial conflict in our communities. The plot (in short): Reuven and Danny grow up in different sects and communities, and Reuven strongly objects to how Danny’s father raises his son in virtual silence to prepare him to be his community’s next leader. When Danny and his father do speak, it’s

December 6, 2018

Christian Standard

Our Plea Restated

– Dec. 12, 1903 –   In “‘Our Position’ Revisited,” from the June 2018 issue, Jerry Harris summarized Isaac Errett’s “Our Position” editorial from 1872. Harris then wrote: I have always heard the term “Restoration plea,” but outside of this work by Isaac Errett, I couldn’t find any good explanation of its meaning besides the quoting of our mottoes or references to the writings of some of the great pioneers of our movement. As Alexander Campbell’s protégé and the original publisher and editor of Christian Standard, I think it’s important to study Errett’s writings on “Our Position.” That’s one reason

December 4, 2018

Christian Standard

Three Greats: A Humble Reminder of Our King and Our Calling

By David Dummitt In all honesty, sometimes I just want to get through the Christmas season. As a pastor, Christmas usually means work. Lots more work. I can start to allow productivity and busyness for God’s kingdom to outweigh sacred wonder and worship of the King who has come for us. Earlier this year at a leadership retreat, my friend and fellow pastor Patrick O’Connell, the global leader of NewThing, led a devotional for a group of ministry leaders from all over the United States. He shared three “greats” that Jesus gave to us, and as he spoke, I watched

October 19, 2018

David Roadcup

How Do I Know If My Church Is Healthy?

E2: Effective Elders Blog Editor’s Note: Each Friday we publish a new blog post from our partners in ministry, E2: Effective Elders. We publish it here simultaneous to E2’s posting on their site. The leaders of E2 write an article for our print and online magazine every month as well. Those articles are full of wisdom and practical help for elders. Please check them out! _____ By David Roadcup A doctor examining a patient looks immediately for signs of vitality and health. When the signs are present, the doctor knows the patient is doing well. When the signs are absent, it

September 24, 2018

Mark Scott

Lesson for September 30, 2018 | Sanctification: Christ Empowers Me (Ephesians 4:1-16)

Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. This lesson treatment is published in issue no. 10 (weeks 37–40; September 16—October 7, 2018) of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ The Bible lessons now follow a scope and sequence prepared by Christian Standard Media. For more information, click here. ______ Lesson Aim: Sanctified and empowered to serve and build up the body of Christ; serve in love. ______ By Mark Scott  According to Dr. James McHenry (Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787),

September 6, 2018

Christian Standard

‘Nothing to Offer Except the Book’

CS Archive from September 8, 1923 _ _ _ The lead article in the Sept. 8, 1923, Christian Standard—an issue from 95 years ago—was “The Mission of the Church,” and it carried the subhead, “The Annual ‘President’s Address’ Delivered before the International Convention of Disciples of Christ at Colorado Springs, Col., Sept. 4, 1923.” The article/speech was written and presented by Thomas W. Grafton, minister of Third Church, Indianapolis, Ind., who served as president of that convention. I can’t begin to recap Grafton’s presentation—which ran almost three pages—or to pinpoint nuanced wording that may (or may not) have troubled some

August 16, 2018

Christian Standard

The Restoration Movement: Its Vitality, Quirks, and Needs in the 21st Century

Editor’s Note: Starting today, every Thursday we will post an article about the Restoration Movement from our Christian Standard archives. While some will be more recent stories, many others will be excerpts from older issues, going back to 1866, that are currently not available on the web. It’s “Throwback Thursday” . . . Christian Standard-style!   Today we go back to December 2006 to an article by LeRoy Lawson, which started as a presentation in the Publishing Committee’s 50th annual meeting in October that year. The Publishing Committee provided editorial oversight to Standard Publishing (the longtime owners of Christian Standard)

June 23, 2018

Christian Standard

Paddling Together in the Same Direction

By Victor Knowles   In our American Restoration Movement, we have been paddling in separate streams for more than 100 years. Like Paul and Barnabas, we had a “sharp disagreement” (Acts 15:39) over issues like instrumental music and missionary societies. We too “parted company” and had our own journals to spread the good news (Gospel Advocate and Christian Standard), started our own Bible colleges and Christian universities to prepare gospel workers (Lipscomb University and Johnson Bible College—now Johnson University), and developed our own lectureships and conventions to encourage and equip Christians (Pepperdine Bible Lectures and the North American Christian Convention). Since

June 20, 2018

Christian Standard

Five Best Practices for Restoration Movement Elders and Leaders

By Jeff Faull “Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1, New American Standard Bible). The Old Testament prophet Isaiah was not writing about church leadership or the Restoration Movement, but his words could easily be appropriated for Restoration church leaders. It is both refreshing and profitable for us to “look to our quarry” and gratefully consider the noble and admirable beginnings, underpinnings, and the future of our Restoration heritage. But could we start with an admission? Some inherent pitfalls come with our simple plea and its accompanying

June 3, 2018

Jerry Harris

The North American Christian Convention: What’s Next?

 By Jerry Harris Some of us have heard a massive shift is coming to the North American Christian Convention that will make it unrecognizable compared to gatherings of years past. While the 2019 convention will see some changes, in many ways it will focus on the fundamentals upon which the NACC was founded. I was at a meeting to help plan the NACC’s 92nd-year gathering. I was surrounded by committed leaders of our movement from churches, organizations, and missions. What I heard renewed my excitement for a great future. The mission of the NACC is “. . . to encourage

June 1, 2018

Jerry Harris

‘Our Position’ Revisited

By Jerry Harris When Isaac Errett wrote “Our Position,” a need existed within the Restoration Movement to define in succinct terms the soaring rhetoric of Barton W. Stone’s The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, Thomas Campbell’s The Declaration and Address, and Alexander Campbell’s “Sermon on the Law,” which had so eloquently defined the position of a movement intent on the restoration of first-century Christianity. Errett argued that while creeds are sectarian and create division, and therefore are sinful, we are free to identify those areas where we find ourselves in agreement with the larger evangelical framework, those areas

April 20, 2018

Christian Standard

The State of Our Christian Churches Today

Where We’ve Come From, Where We Are, and Where We’re Going By Ken Idleman In her book Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World, Tina Rosenburg sought to determine how to get people to change for the better. She concluded people don’t change simply because they desire to change, or feel guilty, or learn it would be beneficial (such as by quitting smoking). Instead, Rosenburg argues, people grow and change best in community. She asserts that few things in life are more important in determining the kind of people we become than the group of people with

April 12, 2018

Michael C. Mack

Church Statistics: A Healthy Approach

By Michael C. Mack How you view the statistics in this and the next two issues depends on the attitude you decide to take. I suppose you could look at the numbers with a competitive spirit, comparing your figures with those of a nearby church or one in your size category, with envy, suspicion, or snobbery. Some of us might do the same with churches of Bible college friends (and foes), churches where we used to work, or those hip, one-word-name churches—you know, like Vibe, Collage, 24|7, and TheUnpretentiousDeliberatelyIntentionalChurchofAuthenticRelevantChristianCommunity (“Unpretentious” for short). I’d like to suggest two healthier ways to

February 22, 2018

Jerry Harris

Christian Standard Media Purchases Christian Church Today

Christian Standard Media has purchased the assets of Christian Church Today, including its online database of Christian churches and Christian ministries, and plans to make them available to readers of Christian Standard and The Lookout. “Our intention is to create a digital list that will form a vital communication link in our church network locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally by providing connections and links to email, websites, and social media,” said Christian Standard Media Publisher Jerry Harris. “The database has more than 9,000 churches and organizations that we are presently and painstakingly bringing up to date,” Harris said. “We plan

February 22, 2018

Christian Standard

Extinguishing the Flames of Conflict

What Leaders Can Learn from the Fire Tetrahedron for the Good of the Church   By Walt Wilcoxson Heat, fuel, oxygen, and a chemical chain reaction. These four factors comprise the fire tetrahedron, which is basic knowledge to every firefighter and the basis for the plan of attack for fighting every fire. Even rookie firefighters know that if you can eliminate any single part of the tetrahedron, the fire will go out. Or, if any of these four elements is missing, there will be no fire. In church conflict, leaders have a tetrahedron to consider as well. They need to

February 7, 2018

Christian Standard

Denzil Holness Spreads a Message of Racial Reconciliation

By Jacqueline J. Holness Had Denzil D. Holness been hired as a pastor in Coward, South Carolina, or Peculiar, Missouri, or any other out-of-the-way American town or city, he may not have been led to take on racial reconciliation in the Christian church. However, since Holness was hired as the first black pastor at Central Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, “The City Too Busy to Hate,” it would seem tackling racial reconciliation was God’s plan for him all along.   Committed to Christian Church Principles Holness became CCC’s pastor in September 1979 and in December 2017, he retired from ministry

February 4, 2018

Christian Standard

Leading in the Direction of Unity      

By Alan Stein In the movie Hidden Figures, Kevin Costner plays Al Harrison, a mission director of NASA in April 1961 when the Soviets launched the first man into Earth’s orbit. Harrison (a composite character) had a single-minded mission: successfully launch an American into orbit and safely return him to Earth. NASA was just beginning to transition into the computer age, and so they had some uncertainty about the trajectory calculations provided by the agency’s IBM computer. Astronaut John Glenn, preparing for the Friendship 7 launch that would send him into orbit in February 1962, asked for mathematical genius Katherine

February 2, 2018

Jerry Harris

Inspiring Us to Greater Things

By Jerry Harris Last year at the North American Christian Convention, David Johnson of Harvest Point Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, stopped by the Christian Standard Media booth to talk. When I mentioned that I had been reading about Marshall Keeble, David just lit up. He began to share things he’d learned about Keeble’s methods of establishing churches and raising up leaders for them. He mentioned names of some other folks and asked if I’d heard or read about them. It was my favorite part of the convention, and it energized me for writing the article about Keeble this month.

January 30, 2018

Christian Standard

Beauty Out of the Storm

The “Big C” Church shows up to provide a flood of support after Harvey By Tim Liston Hurricane Harvey, the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since 2004, made landfall south of us on August 26, 2017. That put Houston on the “dirty” or rainy side of the storm. To make matters worse, Harvey stayed on top of Houston for days, pulling water from the Gulf of Mexico and dropping it on the region. Water rose in the streets, with every highway in Houston impassable because of flooding. At one point, nearly 10 inches of rain fell

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