Articles for tag: Women in Ministry

July 7, 2016

Christian Standard

Miracles, Marvels, and the Vulnerable Minister

By LeRoy Lawson The Miracle of Dunkirk Walter Lord New York: Open Road Media; for Kindle, 2012 The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Brad Stone New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2013 The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry Mandy Smith Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2015 Just about everything I thought I knew about the “evacuation” of Dunkirk (read “retreat”) was wrong. Or at least wildly romanticized. I could picture the thousand-plus boats of all sizes and types crossing the English Channel to rescue soldiers fleeing for their lives from the Nazis. My mind”s eye saw them push up against the

August 22, 2015

Christian Standard

Powerful, Prolific, and the Professor

By LeRoy Lawson   Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Jack Weather ford New York: Broadway Books, 2005 Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues N. T. Wright New York: HarperOne, 2014 Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness Richard B. Hays Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014 When I told a friend I was reading a biography of Genghis Khan, he laughed at me. “You will read anything, won”t you?” No, not anything, but a lot of things! “But why Genghis Khan?” Because I don”t know very much about him, that”s why, and because he was

July 27, 2015

Christian Standard

Lori Wilhite’s Thought Leaders

We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Lori Wilhite, founder of leadingandlovingit.com for pastors” wives and women in ministry, and pastor”s wife, Central Christian Church, Las Vegas, Nevada. ________ Julie Richard, senior pastor”s wife at Lake Hills Church, Austin, Texas, is my go-to parenting guru. With practical yet powerful parenting content, she has encouraged me like no other in my family life. Her insight in establishing a vision for

February 17, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Your Church: a Boys Club?

By Mark A. Taylor Many, many years ago I bumped into the president of a parachurch ministry who was considering a woman for an executive role with his organization. “You know,” he said to me, as if he couldn”t quite believe the statement he was about to make. “She”s really sharp.” She would be the first woman to serve (with distinction, I might add) with such authority at his institution. That incident reminds me of a Christian college teacher who wrote on a student”s paper, “You write really well for a woman.” Admittedly, both these incidents occurred decades ago. But

January 13, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Contributors, Indeed!

By Mark A. Taylor Today is the middle day of this year”s annual CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editors retreat. For all of us who attend it, this is a special gathering that enriches us in a unique way. Of course, personal enrichment is a byproduct of the meeting. Its stated purpose is to brainstorm topics and writers for future editions of CHRISTIAN STANDARD. And this is a purpose that has been wonderfully achieved, year after year. Many of the innovations and changes you”ve seen in the magazine through the years have come at the suggestion (or prodding!) of this group. Several

January 5, 2015

Christian Standard

Going Strong

By Jennifer Johnson “I am the least likely person to lead a trip of women,” Gayla Congdon said during our interview. “I grew up with brothers and I”m not a “˜woman”s retreat” kind of person. I want to do something that matters.” Apparently she”s not alone””the Women of Strength trips she started in 2012 have had to be capped at 65 people, and dozens of ladies have attended more than one. A significant number of the participants aren”t even Christians, but find the experience more than worth the investment of money and vacation time. Actually, Congdon does think “women”s events”

October 20, 2014

Christian Standard

So You Want to Write a Book: Four Good Reasons to Self-Publish!

By Anne Milam The words self-published have carried a stigma that has long implied, “You weren”t really good enough to get an actual book company to publish you.” But I am here to debunk that myth. Self-publishing isn”t a dirty word anymore. Let me give you four good reasons to self-publish: “¢ First of all, if God has put a message in your heart to deliver, then you must share it. Plain and simple. No matter what size the audience. Let the public decide whether or not your work is worthy or valid or enjoyed. When I birthed my first

August 17, 2014

Christian Standard

Charting Some Changes (a Seminary Professor’s Reflections)

By Robert Hull Professor of New Testament, Emeritus, Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee I have had the rare privilege of spending my entire teaching career (33 years) at Emmanuel Christian Seminary in Johnson City, Tennessee. With all the caveats about the risks of generalizing, here are my reflections on some changes during the last couple of decades. The Students Educationally, about half our students come from Christian colleges or universities (20 years ago we would have said “Bible colleges”) and the other half from secular colleges or universities. Some of them are ready to hit the ground running, but

July 14, 2014

Christian Standard

Hard Work if You Can Get It

By Eleanor Daniel (From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I’ve Ever Received.”) I think the best advice I ever received was the response I received to one question in a survey I did while in graduate school at Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College. The survey”s purpose was to ascertain the function and future of the work of the Christian education director/minister. My mentor insisted I include a question, “What is the future for women in this vocation?” One reply from a prominent minister on the West Coast was clear and concise, “There will be a future, and it isn”t

October 25, 2013

Christian Standard

“˜What a Shame . . . God Didn”t Make You a Boy”

By Betty L. Aldridge I heard the words nearly 60 years ago, and I have never forgotten them. As I searched for God”s will in my life, the words triggered many questions. It has not been an easy search and, even today, I still have questions, but I give God glory for leading me and for the experiences he has given me. This is my story. I want to share how God has used me. First, I should explain the context for those words. As a high school student, I was asked to preach a sermon at an all-day regional

July 7, 2013

Christian Standard

40 Under 40: Melissa Hofmeister

MELISSA HOFMEISTER Assistant director of networks and recruiting, Stadia Melissa Hofmeister has emerged as a leader within the church, while keeping her roles as Christ follower, wife, and mom as priorities. In the coming years, her influence on the Christian church will reach far and wide as she connects high-capacity, world-changing leaders to more than 45 Stadia church plants in the United States and Latin America. She”ll influence Muskego, Wisconsin, as God uses Melissa and her husband to transform lives through the new church they just planted. And most importantly, she will influence the mission field of the three boys

April 21, 2013

Christian Standard

Women Preaching

By Brian Mavis Colleges are training them. Churches are using them. And Christ is being exalted. Here”s what we learned when we talked to women who preach and the professors who have taught them. Jodi Hickerson”s journey of becoming a preaching/teaching pastor began at 19 when she joined the teaching team for the high school ministry at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. A few years later she was part of the programming team at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and then at 26 became one of the teaching pastors at Heartland Community Church, Rockford, Illinois. Today she is

January 29, 2012

Christian Standard

How to Help a Preacher’s Kid

By Charity M. Walker-Byers I am a preacher”s kid. Being a PK has influenced every part of my life. It has influenced my values, my self-concept, and my life goals. I have lived through the joys and challenges of growing up in a ministry family. I know what it is like to be proud of a father and mother who give all they have to the service of God. I also know what it”s like to have my family life centered on, and at times almost overtaken by, service to God. Growing up as a preacher”s kid taught me the

November 18, 2011

Christian Standard

Advice for New Ministers and Their Churches

By Mark W. Hamilton Too often neither new ministers nor the churches they serve understand all the ways to help make their first year successful. Every year here at Abilene (Texas) Christian University, men and women receive degrees in theology and head off to their first work in a congregation. They pack a U-Haul, say goodbye to friends, eat their last West Texas barbecue and jalapeño cornbread, and embark. They are soon hip-deep in teenage angst, finding replacement teachers, or visiting the sick. They will try to remember what we have taught them about Scripture and systematic theology and church

February 19, 2011

Christian Standard

Why I Participate

By Herb Botts “If you build it, he will come!” You might remember that line from the movie Field of Dreams, a mystical presentation about a novice Midwestern farmer who loves baseball so much he builds an actual ball field in the midst of his cornstalks and watches the “greats” of the past gather and play. I believe I can honestly say the folks of the North American Christian Convention are in a similar building process, creating something wonderful and inviting all of us to come. The NACC is offering a program that mirrors God”s Holy Word, to draw “people

September 3, 2010

Christian Standard

Letters to the Editor (archived)

We always appreciate hearing from our readers. In the future, we would like to encourage readers to respond in the comment boxes after the articles. We are looking forward to reading your comments! ‘I Find His Comment Offensive’ (posted 8-31-10) I really appreciated the August 1 edition of your magazine, but a big red flag did pop up when I read Ryan Connor”s article (“Burnout in Ministry”). He said, “Ministers often enter the ministry with a need to compensate for personal hang-ups” (p. 5). Thankfully, the ministers I have known over the years chose ministry because they wanted to serve and

December 13, 2009

Christian Standard

The Point of Christianity 4: Reconciling Male and Female

  by Douglas A. Foster The first article in this series began with a question: “What is the point of Christianity?” My one-word answer was reconciliation. From the first sin in Genesis to the throne scene in Revelation, reconciliation is at the heart of God”s dealings with humanity.   If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,

October 19, 2008

Christian Standard

Three Resources on Elders and the Local Church

By Casey Tygrett When I was asked to write this article, I had to admit I had not read extensively in the area of eldership for some time. It isn”t exactly vacation reading for beside the pool! Especially after reading through Alexander Strauch”s classic Biblical Eldership, I had not explored other resources on the subject because I felt he had said it all in his detailed book. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the three books featured below, because they present challenges and ideas that can only serve to strengthen the leadership and character of elders in the local church.

August 24, 2008

Christian Standard

Especially in Bible Translation . . . Close Only Counts . . .

By Jeff Miller The list usually begins with horseshoes, followed by a couple clever additions. Thankfully, however, no one has proposed Bible translation as an area where “close only counts.” Indeed, problems with the details of a translated text can nudge a reader off course to the point that accurate understanding is all but impossible. Many Christians and many congregations are engaged in discussions about women in ministry and leadership. While some disagreement is inevitable, we all agree the Bible should drive these discussions. The accuracy of our English Bibles is therefore at the heart of the matter. How can

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