March 2, 2025
The words challenge and hope describe well the focus of this issue. Ministry can be hard. And discouraging. But we stick with it because of hope—hope in whom we serve, and hope in the work to which he has called us.
Christ in Youth is expecting its busiest summer ever. The Joplin, Mo.-based youth ministry will host 56 middle and high school conferences this summer. It expects 53,000 students to attend—a record for the organization. About 2,000 students remain on waiting lists. . . .
February 22, 2022
After 53 years of vocational ministry that included service in church, college, and mission settings, Bill Weber says, "No matter how diverse the ministry activities or the people one works with, the focus must always be on Jesus."
Restoration Movement colleges struggle to produce enough ministry graduates to meet the growing need for pastors. College presidents explain why.
December 7, 2021
Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded Milligan University a $999,230 grant to review and redesign the academic programs offered through Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan.
July 15, 2020
The late Donald McGavran, respected missiologist and founding dean of the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, identified five kinds of leaders the church must have to thrive locally and have impact globally: 1. Volunteer leaders who focus inward: unpaid leaders who focus their gifts for service on the internal health and growth of the local church body. (Biblical examples: Priscilla and Aquila, Dorcas) 2. Volunteer leaders who focus outward: unpaid leaders who focus their evangelistic passion on the lost and unchurched in the larger unreached community. (Stephen, Philip) 3. Bivocational: leaders who are mostly or entirely self-supporting in order to launch or
February 5, 2020
By Chris Moon If you’re going to coach it, it helps to live it. And so Phil Claycomb got another job. That is, he got an additional job. The executive director of Texas-based Nexus Church Planting during the past year and a half also has worked 10 to 12 hours weekly helping out a local church that is trying to resurrect itself after falling on hard times. Central Christian Church in Richardson, Texas, saw its attendance drop in half and its finances lag. The church convinced Claycomb to come serve as its pastor in 2018. Claycomb was happy to help.
August 22, 2019
By Jerran Jackson Down through the ages, Jesus has used crises and challenges to renew his church. When Christians by the thousands were leaving their churches to pray alone in the desert, Basil of Caesarea redefined devotion to God by gathering Christians in cities and organizing them both for prayer and for service to their neighbors. When the church became corrupt and Christianity became a superstition, Martin Luther reemphasized the guidance of God’s Word. When dry formalism replaced living faith, Philipp Jakob Spener introduced home Bible studies. Jesus can renew the American church today in similar ways. Before there were
August 22, 2019
By Michael C. Mack It’s no secret that many small churches, especially small rural churches, face numerous challenges. How will the church respond? I asked Jerran Jackson—who for 40 years has served Clarksburg (Indiana) Christian Church, a small, rural congregation—to lead a team of writers to provide analysis, stories, and recommendations. As Jerran and I planned the package of articles, “The Challenges Facing Small Churches,” we discussed a list of issues leaders in struggling churches may be facing. You might use the following questions based on those issues as discussion starters with your team; each is addressed in the articles:
August 9, 2016
By Mark A. Taylor With his list of ways your church can move more young people toward vocational ministry, Matt Proctor implies this is a goal off the radar for too many today. I”m glad that wasn”t true in the congregation I attended while I was in high school. Central Christian Church in Waukegan, Illinois, was a small, simple congregation by today”s standards. Of course, this was almost 50 years ago, when almost every church approached ministry with less sophistication than many today. The Preacher Training Class led by ministers of the church was a simple idea, too. Get some
August 7, 2016
By Justin Horey As more and more local congregations recruit ministry staff from among their own members, they”re seeking new ways to equip them for ministry. Several traditional colleges and universities are offering nontraditional ways to give professional ministry skills to everyday Christians. Dave Moses never planned to serve in full-time ministry. He grew up in a non-Christian home in Huntington Beach, California”””Surf City”””playing football and enjoying the Southern California lifestyle. He entered the restaurant business shortly after graduating from high school and worked in the food-service industry for more than two decades, even owning and operating his own successful
January 24, 2016
By Angela Sanders I am a minister”s wife. I have the scars to prove it, but my children don”t. Not because they didn”t see. Not because they didn”t hear. Not because we lied to them. We didn”t. Hunter and Hope came through an enemy attack on their family by church members with their optimism, faith, and desire to serve the body intact. This was possible only because a few who had successfully waded through the murky waters of vocational ministry ahead of us were selfless enough to take us by the hand and teach us to survive and thrive””and maintain
October 15, 2015
By Jason Yeatts It is possible to study the Bible for a lifetime without really understanding it. Integrity may be the missing ingredient to give us the greatest insight. We know these passages well, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22); “Not everyone who says to me, “˜Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21); “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17). These verses
October 13, 2012
By Marshall Hayden  It”s great advice! “Read broadly” we have been told. It will enrich your life, your thinking, and your preaching. It”s true. But until retirement came, the stack of interesting books””purchased but unread””just kept getting taller. Now there is the fine advantage of carrying a little electronic thingamajig, rather than a bag or briefcase full of books. Maybe you will start taking that good advice earlier than I did. You may be like our remarkable friend, Roy Lawson, whose reviews you read on the pages of Christian Standard. He is not yet retired. Well, twice retired, but
July 31, 2012
By Patti Cappa Very successful people, driven people, devoted people, parents, leaders of all kinds, and people in ministry leadership sometimes don”t have a best friend. We hear the excuses time and again from those who come to us at Marble Retreat (an interdenominational Christian counseling center primarily serving people in ministry): “It isn”t safe to have best friends,” they say. “I don”t have time for them.” “I am simply too busy with work and ministry to make such an investment.” “I really don”t need a best friend. That”s for children.” “I have God and/or my spouse and I don”t
July 6, 2011
By Jessica Vana I attended college at an aeronautical university, which means I spent time brushing shoulders with a unique breed. Literally, I went to school with NASA interns and rocket scientists. My alma mater has one of the highest percentages of international students in the nation. Despite my colleagues” bright minds and tremendously diverse backgrounds, however, I began to notice a theme of need. A school like mine has an atypical amount of club involvement because, well, it wasn”t exactly the Greek system crowd. My club of choice, after being invited personally and repeatedly by two jaunty and entertaining
November 29, 2010
By Jennifer Taylor This month, Christ In Youth (Joplin, Missouri) launches THE CALL BOOK, a new online registry where generations of CIY conference attendees can share their stories of how a CIY conference changed their lives or prompted a call to vocational ministry. This past summer, “dozens of individuals eagerly shared stories of their calling to ministry after being challenged at a Christ In Youth event,” writes executive director Andy Hansen. “Their stories will be the first of what will be thousands in the years to come.” CIY is making plans now for its first CIY Alumni “CALL BOOK” event
October 25, 2010
By Guthrie Veech and Bill Behrman Use these ideas to increase the number of students from your church who choose to attend Christian colleges. Implementing “just one” of these will multiply servant leaders for kingdom work. “¢ Start encouraging young children ages 8-10 to consider ministry. The planted seeds bloom later as those students choose to become ministers. Tell those young people you are praying for them and God has a great plan for them. “¢ Every year have at least one lesson or sermon about the importance of every student spending one year in a Christian college. The resources
October 24, 2010
By Mike Kilgallin and Clay Perkins One servant in God”s hands can truly make a difference. Consider the story of G.H. “Dean” Cachiaras, a teenage immigrant from Greece who ended up polishing shoes. One day as he polished the shoes of a doctor casually reading a newspaper, the man discovered the boy was from Greece. The doctor lowered the newspaper and spoke to him in his native language, “Young man, what do you plan to do with your life?” The doctor encouraged G.H. to attend his alma mater, Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, Tennessee. The boy enrolled, began studying the
October 12, 2008
By Troy McMahon I was sitting on a park bench at Ozark Christian College, next to the young woman who would soon become my bride, when I made the decision. I was going to live a life without regrets. I had just attended the National Youth Leaders Conference where I heard Tony Campolo speak. He shared some statistics about people in their 90s. When asked what they would do differently in their lives if they had to do it all over again, three themes emerged. First, they would take more risks; second, they would reflect more; and third, they would
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