Christian Standard | May 2017

Founded 1866 by Isaac Errett

Devoted to the restoration of New Testament Christianity, its doctrine, its ordinances, and its fruits.

The Staff

Mark A. Taylor, Publisher and Editor

Jim Nieman, Managing Editor

Rosemary Mitchell, Editorial Assistant

Teresa Callahan, Marketing and Advertising Manager

Scott A. Ryan, Design Consultant

Cover designed by Scott A. Ryan; images ©Thinkstock

For Customer Service, phone 1-800-543-1353

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Subscription Information

To order Christian standard for yourself, your church, or your group, go to christianstandard.com or contact Customer Service. To one address, per copy: Annual Quantity Price/Each Issue

1

First Family

BY MARK A. TAYLOR

Ministry can be hard on a minister’s family life. The demands of the congregation don’t stop when the church office closes. Needs and opportunities to serve abound in the evenings, threatening to take the minister away from conversations with a spouse or attendance at children’s ballgames and concerts. Phone calls can come night and day. And the minister may feel he has no one to talk to about disappointments and difficulties except a spouse, who then becomes overwhelmed with information and worries that cannot be shared with anyone else.

2-34

35-49

50-99

100+

All prices include domestic postage. CUSTOMER SERVICE: 800-543-1353 info@christianstandardmedia.com

Our Permission Policy

Christian standard grants permission to reproduce up to 1,000 copies of articles in this issue (excluding Seen & Heard items) for ministry or educational purposes (church newsletters, classroom or workshop handouts, etc.) with the following provisions: (1) Copied material must be distributed free of charge. (2) The following credit line must appear on each copy: “This article first appeared in Christian standard on [date].”

Letters to the Editor

Letters regarding the contents of the magazine will be considered for publication in “Readers Write” unless specifically marked “not for publication.” Published letters may be shortened to meet editorial requirements. Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld upon request.

Freelance Submissions

We accept freelance submissions, double-spaced, typed on one side of the page only. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for return of unused manuscripts.

E-mail Microsoft Word attachments to address below.

Volume CLII. Number 5. Christian standard (ISSN 0009-5656) is published monthly by Christian Standard Media at 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Periodicals postage paid at Parker, CO, and additional offices.

Printed in U.S.A. Postmaster: Send address changes to Christian Standard Media, 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Phone: 1-800-543-1353. Subscribers: Send address changes to Christian standard 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Send old and new addresses, complete with zip numbers, at least six weeks before delivery date. This publication is available in microform from UMI; call 800-521-0600. Christian standard is published by Christian Standard Media, www.christianstandardmedia.com.

Copyright ©2017 by Christian Standard Media.

E-mail: christianstandard@christianstandardmedia.com

Website: christianstandard.com

We can be encouraged (see p. 8) that 70 percent of ministers recently polled by Barna say, “My marriage is excellent.” But when confronted with this statement, “My current church tenure has been difficult on my family,” 8 percent of ministers said that’s “completely true,” and 40 percent said it was “somewhat true.” Only 19 percent said the statement was “not at all true.” Bottom line: ministry is causing at least some family stress for more than half of minister’s families, and that may include yours.

Both the minister and the congregation can take steps to speak to this.

A book excerpt recently posted at CT Pastors¹ offers insight for the minister. Among the advice there: Beware of viewing ministry as a lifestyle: establish healthy boundaries, be willing to disappoint others with demands on your time or attention, and develop interests and hobbies outside your ministry role. Find confidants and advisers besides your spouse, but agree on positive ways your spouse can be a ministry partner. Be careful about discussing difficult situations in front of your kids (even the preschoolers).

The congregation’s role in this may well be determined by the actions and attitudes of its leaders. If the elders view the minister as a hireling, subject to their whims and demands, church members will feel the same. If church leaders nitpick and find fault, church members will have little respect for the minister’s private life or his professional accomplishments. If church boards are stingy with the pay or days off they grant the minister, church members won’t understand the minister’s needs for personal time.

It’s true that some ministers need more accountability than they’re receiving. But many more sacrifice their personal and their family’s emotional health for the sake of ministry. As one of the CT authors said, “The phrase ‘dying to self’ has covered a lot of sin.”

This month’s edition of Christian Standard highlights difficult family situations present in every community and facing every congregation today. While your church addresses these, remember a family whose needs are easy to overlook. You can take steps to help make your minister’s family one of the healthiest in town.

1View the whole article at http://bit.ly/2o7hVZM

Mark Taylor posts every Tuesday at christianstandard.com.

Is your minister’s family one of the healthiest in town?

THIS MONTH

12 It Takes More Than a Village

Children also need God and godly parents.

By Paul E. Boatman

15 Grandparenting Ministry

An Indiana church unleashes this secret weapon.

By Michael Crosley

18 Stepfamilies Are Real Families

Churches too often misunderstand and ignore these folks.

By Jeff and Judi Parziale

22 Preaching to the Post-Nuclear Family

How a preacher can offer true help and real hope.

By Ian DiOrio

24 The Best Youth Ministers

How and why the church must partner with parents.

By Les Christie

27 The Isaac Principle

Isaac’s life changed when he “built an altar.”

By Victor Knowles

30 Of Manure, Porches, and Good Fights

It’s a situation every married couple will face.

By Arron Chambers

33

I

35

By Tyler McKenzie

Dads Are Single Too

Does your church minister to all single parents?

By Matt Johnson

37 Teach Your Kids to Be Critical Thinkers

Regular reading of the Bible alone can accomplish more than any other method.

By Tricia Johnson

42 Questions Worth Asking

What questions are church leaders asking?

By Kent E. Fillinger

45 — Megachurches (averaging 2,000-plus weekly)

46 — Emerging Megachurches (1,000–1,999)

48 — Large churches (500–999)

50 — Medium churches (250–499)

53 Ministry Today — Longing to be like Caleb.

60 Best Practices — Root causes of staff conflict.

1 From the Editor — Is your minister’s family healthy?

6 4C’s

If You Build It . . . Will They Come?

Churches everywhere are building, and next month we look at a couple dozen of them. Our report contains snapshots of church buildings from California to Africa and talks with church leaders to ask:

• Why build?

• How did your church’s mission and situation affect what you built?

• What advice do you have for others considering this most important step in the life of a local church? While we’re at it, we’ll look at the history of church buildings through the ages and talk about the challenges and strategies behind urban church building and church building in the developing world.

Be among the first to see our June issue, ready early May in the Christian Standard app for your phone or tablet.

PUBLISHING COMMITTEE

(Established 1956 by the National Christian Education Convention for liaison with the management and editorial department of Standard Publishing)

Steve Wyatt, Chairman, Phoenix, Arizona

Clark H. Tanner, Vice Chairman, Wichita, Kansas

Marshall W. Hayden, Secretary, Worthington, Ohio

Alan Ahlgrim, Longmont, Colorado

Dennis Bratton, Gallatin, Tennessee

Aaron Brockett, Indianapolis, Indiana

Ben Cachiaras, Joppa, Maryland

T. C. Huxford, Savannah, Georgia

E. LeRoy Lawson, Johnson City, Tennessee

Eddie Lowen, Springfield, Illinois

Pat Magness, Milligan College, Tennessee

Steve Moore, Meridian, Idaho

Dudley Rutherford, Porter Ranch, California

Dave Stone, Louisville, Kentucky

Teresa Welch, Joplin, Missouri

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Contributing editors help define the focus of Christian standard, identify issues facing volunteer leaders and staff members in churches we serve, and suggest future themes. They periodically write for the magazine and regularly consult, advise, and react to the editors regarding past and future content in the magazine.

Becky Ahlberg, Anaheim, California

Ben Cachiaras, Joppa, Maryland

Arron Chambers, Greeley, Colorado

Glen Elliott, Tucson, Arizona

Jeff Faull, Mooresville, Indiana

Phyllis Fox, Milligan College, Tennessee

Randy Gariss, Joplin, Missouri

Jennifer Johnson, Levittown, Pennsylvania

Doug Priest, Indianapolis, Indiana

Matt Proctor, Joplin, Missouri

Jim Tune, Toronto, Ontario

New City Church, Phoenix, Arizona

Open air church, Ghana

Eastside Christian Church, Anaheim, California

Crosspointe Church, Cary, North Carolina

Grace Place, Berthoud, Colorado

FOUR

Always Trusting God C’s

Mike and Enise Grooms didn’t take high-profile, high-paying ministry jobs. After working in Cincinnati’s inner city and then in eastern Europe, the couple moved to metro Atlanta and began leading Tucker (GA) Christian Church five years ago.

“Mike and Enise never owned a house or a nice car,” says Al Serhal, Enise’s brother and executive director of Hippo Valley Christian Mission, a ministry to Zimbabwe with stateside offices in Grayson, KY. “They’ve always just trusted God to provide.”

During their ministry at Tucker, the Grooms could get health insurance and a modest life insurance policy for the first time—an important benefit when Mike was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

“They did a tremendous ministry there,” Serhal says. “It’s a very urban and ethnically diverse congregation, and Mike was great at relating to people from many different backgrounds. He preached right up to the end of his life.”

Christian Churches & Churches of Christ

“After Mike passed away last fall, I visited Enise and she gave me a $10,000 check for Hippo Valley,” he says. “I knew this came from the life insurance and represented much more than a tithe, and I tried to refuse it. My sister needed that money. But she insisted, saying again that she knew God would provide.”

Serhal used the money to start the Mike Grooms Scholarship Fund, a “full-ride” scholarship to Zimbabwe Christian College

“We have to turn away students every year,” he says. “Most of the men who attend the school have a sponsor who pays their $100 a month tuition. So Enise’s gift will be the principal of what we plan to use as an ongoing fund that will bless at least one preaching student each year.”

As people have learned about Enise’s generosity, they have been inspired to donate to the fund, and Serhal hopes to offer additional scholarships in the years to come.

In addition, one donor made a very special gift.

Mike had also visited Zimbabwe with the Hippo Valley mission and taught at the Zimbabwe Preaching Conference. Once again, Serhal says, his influence was significant; Grooms fell in love with the country and its people, and the preachers gravitated toward him during the conference.

“A young man from Ohio read about this story and sent Enise a check for $10,000, telling her he appreciated her sacrifice and wanted her to view the gift as God’s provision from the body of Christ,” Serhal says. “She tithed on it and sent me a check for $1,000.”

www.hippovalley.org

—Jennifer Johnson

(Above) Mike and Enise Grooms during VBS at Tucker Christian Church in 2016. (Left) Mike preaching at the church. The couple faithfully served TCC until Mike died of cancer last fall.

The Third Conversion

It was offering time, and the father sitting in front of me handed his 3-yearold son a dollar bill. The boy happily placed the money in the basket as it passed by, and then resumed working on the important task of covering his entire bulletin with green crayon scribbles.

While it was a nice moment, I distinctly remember thinking, Sure, it’s easy to give someone else’s money. But the truth is, I find it quite difficult to part with cash from Someone Else.

can share it easily.

My Take

Matt and I use the Wunderlist app to update a running grocery list. A few years ago, as we co-parented two middle schoolers, managed the financial ups and downs of self-employment, and steered a small church trying to grow, there were days I wondered if God saw our struggles, or cared about them. I created a new list on the app, titled “Faithful,” and listed every example of God’s provision for us. Years later, I still return to it.

By Jennifer Johnson

This child doesn’t own anything; he looks to his father for everything, and dad always comes through. So if dad shares even more, and directs where it should go, the boy has every reason to follow directions. With no expectations and with complete trust, he can give joyfully.

In some ways, Enise Grooms reminds me of that preschooler. Unlike that child, Enise is not simple; she is a grown woman, educated, who has ministered in tough situations around the world. But like that child, she truly believes her Father will provide everything she needs. He has always come through for her in the past, so when he gives her more, she

When I glance through the list I’m reminded of providential conversations with people who just “happened” to be in the right place at the right time. I see God’s hand in the timing of disappointments and delays. I also remember financial blessings; during that year I sold some property for more than I expected, received a brand-new laptop as a gift from an acquaintance, and started a new job that paid well. My Father came through for me and provided even more than we needed.

Yet I am not at all like the preschooler I observed during that offering time. I am not at all like Enise. Today, as Matt and I

save for retirement and prepare to send two kids to college, I still feel possessive of the sums my Father gives me. Yes, God has delighted in providing for me in the past, but what if he stops? Sure, there is joy in sharing with others, but there is also pleasure in keeping for myself. Although I have experienced God’s consistent care in my life, I want to hold on to the dollar bills he gives me instead of giving them away.

Martin Luther once wrote there are actually three conversions for the Christian: the heart, the mind, and the purse. My heart loves Jesus and my mind knows he loves me. We’re still working on what I do with his money.

Educator Eleanor Daniel, 77, Passes Away

Dr. Eleanor A. Daniel, 77, of Urbana, IL, referred to in a recent Christian standard article as “The Queen of Deans” because of her service as academic dean at three seminaries, died on March 2, 2017.

She was born Feb. 28, 1940, near Milton, IL, to Donald W. and Bernice (Hillig) Daniel. She spent more than 40 years ministering in churches, colleges, seminaries, and overseas. She earned a BA and an MA at Lincoln (IL) Christian University, and an MEd and PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She held ministries in Tuscola, IL; Buchanan, MI; Oklahoma City, OK; Lincoln, IL; Cincinnati, OH; and Johnson City, TN.

She taught at Lincoln Christian University, Midwest Christian College (Oklahoma City, OK), Cincinnati Christian Seminary, Emmanuel Christian Seminary (Johnson City, TN), and TCM International Institute in Austria.

She loved traveling; in addition to Austria, she taught in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, India, and the Philippines.

She was preceded in death by one sister, Glenna. She is survived by two sisters, Jean Sanderson and Kay Matthews, both of Urbana; and two brothers, Jerry Daniel and Terry Daniel, both of rural Pittsfield, IL.

Memorial gifts may be made to Windsor Road Christian Church, Champaign, IL, or to Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan College in Tennessee.

Enise Grooms helps lead VBS at Tucker Christian Church in 2016.

BY SIMON J. DAHLMAN

Professor of Communications Milligan College, Tennessee

Mother Menu

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

Calvin Trillin, American journalist and humorist

By the Numbers

The Health of Ministers’ Families

“My marriage is excellent,” according to . . .

70%

70% — Married ministers/ pastors

46% — Married Americans (overall)

Goodman,

27%

27% — Those who report significant parenting problems during their ministries

Americans feel more positive toward most religious groups today than they did just a few years ago. Asked in January to rate various groups on a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0 to 100, American adults gave nearly all groups “warmer” ratings than they did in a similar survey taken in June 2014.

While Americans still feel coolest toward Muslims and atheists, average ratings for these two groups increased from a somewhat chilly 40 and 41 degrees, respectively, to more neutral ratings of 48 and 50. With “temperatures” of 67 and 66 respectively, Jews and Catholics continue to be the groups that receive the warmest ratings, even warmer than in 2014. Mainline Protestants, whom respondents were not asked to gauge in 2014, received a warm rating of 65 in the new survey.

The only group whose mean average rating did not change since 2014 was “Evangelical Christians,” which remained constant at a relatively warm 61 degrees.

The mean ratings given to particular religious groups still vary widely depending on who is being asked, however. Adults aged 18 to 29 tend to express warmer feelings toward Muslims than older Americans do, for example.

“Americans Express Increasingly Warm Feelings Toward Religious Groups,” Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life, Feb. 15, 2017

“My current church tenure has been difficult on my family” . . .

8% — “completely true”

40% — “somewhat true”

33% — “not very true”

19% — “not at all true”

Barna Group, “How Healthy Are Pastors’ Relationships?” Feb. 15, 2017. (Based on a study conducted on behalf of Pepperdine University, including phone or online interviews with 900 Protestant senior pastors, April–December 2015. Interviews with U.S. adults included 1,025 web-based surveys conducted in April and May 2015 among a representative sample of adults throughout the U.S.)

“The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.”

—Ellen

American journalist

Quick Quiz: Who Said It?

A. Maya Angelou (1928–2014), American poet

B. Billy Graham (b. 1918), American evangelist

C. C.S. Lewis (1898–1963), IrishEnglish scholar and author

D. Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983), Dutch watchmaker and author

Immutable Backstory

“But there’s a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours begin.”

Albom,

“It’s all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it’s no good at all if you don’t have a plan for tomorrow.”

Immigration May Be Linked to Less Crime

Contrary to much political rhetoric, there is apparently no connection between immigration and increased crime. In fact, immigration seems more closely related to a decrease in some types of crime, according to a study from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

“Our research shows strong and stable evidence that, on average, across U.S. metropolitan areas crime and immigration are not linked,” said Robert Adelman, a sociology professor who led the study. “The results show that immigration does not increase assaults and, in fact, robberies, burglaries, larceny, and murder are lower in places where immigration levels are higher. The results are very clear.”

For their study, the authors drew on U.S. Census data from 200 metropolitan areas and uniform crime reporting data from the

Federal Bureau of Investigation, focusing on the 40 years from 1970 to 2010.

“We are not claiming that immigrants are never involved in crime,” Adelman said. “What we are explaining is that communities experiencing demographic change driven by immigration patterns do not experience significant increases in any of the kinds of crime we examined. And in many cases, crime was either stable or actually declined in communities that incorporated many immigrants.”

Adelman says the relationship between immigration and crime is complex and more research needs to be done, but this research supports other scholarly conclusions that immigrants, on the whole, have a positive effect on American social and economic life. Other research, based on arrest and offense data, has shown that foreign-born individuals are overall less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

R. Adelman, L. Williams Reid, et al., “Urban crime rates and the changing face of immigration: Evidence across four decades,” Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, Nov. 21, 2016

—Hilary Mantel, English author, in Wolf Hall (2009)

Mitch

American journalist and author, in For One More Day (2006)

“It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge, and my job to love.”

Answer: B. Billy Graham.

IT TAKES More Than a VILLAGE

BY PAUL E. BOATMAN

Family! This oldest of all institutions of God stirs amazingly conflicted images in the current American cultural climate. Some have Norman Rockwell-style family memories. Some view traditional family values as an evil to be fought and destroyed. Some enshrine idealized images of the family in a way that smacks of idolatry. Each of these perspectives may be found among leaders of American churches.

Whatever one’s value perspective, everyone seems to recognize we are living through an era of major change in the nature of the family. Here’s just a sampling of easily documented trends:

• 40 percent of all births are to unmarried women. Children born in such situations are more likely to experience poverty, low academic achievement, and a host of other social ills.

• Approximately 50 percent of marriages end in divorce—the rate is much lower for first marriages and much higher for remarriages. Only half of all Americans count stable marriage and family as a major value.

• Family stability is lowest among the uneducated and the poor, and highest among non-Hispanic immigrants. Asian immigrants exhibit stronger family values than white or black Americans.

• Cohabitation has moved from a “trial marriage” mind-set among young adults to becoming commonplace among all age

groups, even senior citizens.

• Media seems intent on “normalizing” the abnormal via matter-of-fact portrayals of almost every family pattern but the traditional. (For amplification of the above trends, explore www.pewsocialtrends. org.)

The Biblical Record

Popular culture perceives family as a merely evolutionary development. Not so, for Christians. The foundation for biblical teaching on the family is Genesis 2.

riage” with no pejorative allusions. Some of those polygamous relationships also give evidence of multigenerational family dysfunction. The children of Jacob via Leah, Rachel, and his two concubines illustrate profound personality and relational dysfunction. (See Genesis 37, 38.)

Similarly, among David’s multiple wives, two of them bore children—Amnon, Tamar, and Absalom—whose legacies include incestuous rape, murder, and treason (2 Samuel 13–18). God’s work in the midst of such dysfunction is evidence of a level of grace we still seek.

The Bible clearly is not a handbook on “How to Have a Happy Family.” Direct, family-specific instruction is sparse.

The account unquestionably notes the creator’s affirmation of the Eden couple as a prototype of “family.” The concept of marriage as “a union between one man and one woman” is absolute (Genesis 2:24), especially when placed in context of all other direct biblical teaching regarding the family.

Yet the biblical record includes many instances of marriages that are not monogamous, but still described as “mar-

The fifth of the Ten Commandments is specific to family relationships and certainly has implications far beyond the simple obedience of children. “Honoring” parents is a way of affirming mutuality of family bonds throughout life. Families may use Social Security and eldercare agencies, but such resources do not eliminate accountability for caring for parents with late-life needs.

The seventh and tenth commandments both bespeak a reverence for the marital covenant which, when consistently observed, can provide security and stability both for spouses and all family members. When love is the main mode of family relationship, stability is empowering.

The great shema passage, Deuterono-

In a rapidly changing culture, Christians look for a foundation for healthy life. We can’t ignore what’s happening around us. But we can decide how to handle our homes.

Media seems intent on “normalizing” the abnormal via matter-of-fact portrayals of almost every family pattern but the traditional.

my 6:4-9, clearly identifies the family as a primary context for educating children in the most important life values. Moses’ discourse evokes an image of a family in which interactive communication occurs with the will of God highlighted, both intentionally and incidentally.

The book of Proverbs has numerous family-oriented adages intermixed with diverse teaching on implementing godly wisdom. One can imagine a parent and child walking along the road (Deuteronomy 6:7) when the father carries out the Mosaic directive by saying, “My son, if sinful men en-

tice you, do not give in to them” (Proverbs 1:10).

Even apostolic instructions on family, of which Ephesians 5:21–6:4 is the most extensive, are offered with a nod to the command of Moses.

If one wonders about the relative scarcity of direct commandments regarding family, it should be observed that every commandment has some application to family, whether the directive relates to worship, holiness, truthfulness, or respect of relationships and property. The family is the primary incubator of godly living. Many hundreds of years

after Moses, additional generations of God’s children were hearing further interpretations and implications of the commandments as they apply to life together in the family.

It is notable that the core teachings on family were first offered to nomadic peoples living in the wilderness. The teachings were applied without revision as Israel went through numerous transitions, from theocracy, through monarchies, through exiles and enslavement, to involuntary incorporation into a predominantly pagan empire. As the world changes dramatically, God’s understanding of, and will for, the family is consistent.

Two thousand years ago God chose to nurture his unique Son in that same kind of family context. Jesus was born into a developing family with in-place parental figures, a man and woman married to each other, active in the practice of their faith, with siblings who were concerned for him when they could not understand his behavior, and with a mother who stayed with him even to Calvary. In dying, Jesus had family support that went beyond that of all but one of his apostles.

Political Movements and Pressure Blocks

Throughout the centuries, the changes in culture are phenomenal. “Family” has remained a constant in most cultures. Through most of the 20th century, the teaching of churches largely conformed to biblical teaching.

IT TAKES MORE THAN A VILLAGE

Continued

However, two major philosophical categories increasingly challenged family values. Socialism and secular humanism—accurately discerning that strong family structures would work against their atheistic moorings—began assaulting the family. In more recent years, some church groups that have largely forsaken their biblical orientations have joined in disparaging the family, redefining and marginalizing it.

The roots of this antifamily attitude are not recent. In the 1906 booklet entitled Socialism and the Family, self-identified socialist H. G. Wells declared,

Socialism repudiates the private ownership of the head of the family as completely as it repudiates any other sort of private ownership. Socialism involves the responsible citizenship of women, their economic independence of men, and all the personal freedom that follows that, it intervenes between the children and the parents, claiming to support them, protect them and educate them for its own ampler purposes.

Note the self-conscious intent to change all historic relationships, including replacing the role of the family. Wells adds, “Socialism, in fact, is the State family. The old family of the private individual must vanish before it.”

intruded upon by a government that lacks a sense of boundaries for its own empowerment and is hostage to aggressive power groups who are clamoring for approval of their own ungodliness.

In defending the biblical family, we need to be careful not to get caught in our own time warp, confusing what is familiar with what is truly biblical. Certainly, none of the biblical writers were suggesting the normal family function is for the husband/father to leave the house early in the day to go to work in a store/factory/ office, being paid a good salary based on competence and gender, with the stay-athome wife charged with care of the children. This image relates to an industrial/ capitalistic society that exhibits many patterns detrimental to family health.

An interesting media circus is currently playing out around a seemingly benign publication. Under pressure from LGBT activists, Highlights magazine for children in its February 2017 edition included a picture of same-sex parents and their children packing the car for a family vacation. Feeling unaffirmed by the magazine’s previous absence of overt presence of families with homosexual parents, Kristina Wertz used a Facebook posting to get action. Her criticism specifically related to Hello magazine, a Highlights publication for children age 2 and younger. Wertz de-

The family that is reasonably pursuing the character development of its children should not be intruded upon by a government that lacks a sense of boundaries for its own empowerment and is hostage to aggressive power groups who are clamoring for approval of their own ungodliness.

It is easy to see the applications of this mentality among contemporary political movements and pressure blocks. When schools, social agencies, or government assume prerogative over the function and definition of family, the integrity of the family is compromised.

This is not to suggest all families and all in-family abuse should receive a blanket blessing and protection from the state. Ungodliness and abusiveness should never be tolerated. Family in every age has been subject to dysfunction. But the family that is reasonably pursuing the character development of its children should not be

scribed feeling “keenly aware of the message kids’ books send to tiny minds,” adding, “There is a deep need for books that positively reflect back the diversity of the world around us.”

The scenario illustrates a strategy: Those who wish to change perceptions of what makes a family seek much more than simple acceptance or tolerance. They seek positive reflection, affirmation. Those who, for whatever reason, choose not to affirm may be subject to accusations ranging from microaggression to hate speech.

A wider-scale confrontation continues to unfold in relation to public or institu-

tional bathroom usage by transgender persons. It was expressed thusly in a small town in my area: The parents of a thirdgrade boy chose to affirm his desire to act on his feeling that he is a girl. Hence the parents announced to the school that he would enter fourth grade as a girl with a feminine name. The school is expected not only to change his name, but to affirm the child’s use of the girl’s restroom. Predictably, other parents resisted this last item, as they pondered both immediate and long-term implications of this change of privacy. Do parents have a right to protect the toileting privacy of their children?

Which Came First?

Stepping back from these specifics, we observe that in diverse areas the family as we have known it is being challenged. The challenge is of a “chicken and egg variety,” with uncertainty as to which came first, the family breakdown or the major value changes. They seem to be interactive. But most challenges that disturb us are results of the failure.

Families that fail to incorporate biblical values as a normal and intentional part of family life should not be surprised when family members act in ways that are opposed to either family values or biblical values.

Marriage partners who do not implement biblical patterns of love and respect in the relationship are already acting outside the covenant, and further covenant violation becomes probable—divorce may ensue or hostile wrangling may become the family norm.

Children who lack the security and accountability of positive parental models and appropriate boundaries and empowerment are likely to act out in ways that reflect the lack of moral maturity.

The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” in its original context suggested that the community supplements the family in bringing a child to maturity. Some in current culture call for community to displace the family in much of its child-formation process. I would offer an alternative. The best resource for raising a child is a healthy family, undergirded by Christian commitment, with a church that is committed to transforming the community.

Paul E. Boatman is a pastoral consultant living in Lincoln, Illinois.

Grandparenting

BY MICHAEL CROSLEY

A secret weapon—does your church have one? Recently Jeff Faull, our senior minister at Mt. Gilead Church in Mooresville, Indiana, said in a sermon, “We are unleashing a secret weapon . . . grandparents.” He was inviting all grandparents to attend a seminar on the biblical mandate to teach God’s Word “to your children and to their children after them” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

We were astounded by the response. Four weeks later, more than 90 grandparents of 325 grandchildren participated in a Saturday morning vision-casting seminar that launched a grandparenting ministry at Mt. Gilead. The enthusiastic response to the seminar showed the interest of Christian grandparents in being actively engaged in the spiritual development of their grandchildren.

What is grandparenting ministry?

Grandparenting ministry is a clarion

Ministry

Secret weapon. Unrealized potential.

call for grandparents to rise up and assume their God-ordained roles as heritage builders and faith preservers for the generations that follow them.

Grandparenting ministry is not just another program to be added to the plethora of church activities. Rather, it’s a movement to alter traditional views about grandparenting. Too often families and churches see grandparents as honored bystanders or babysitters. Some grandparents say things like, “We’ve done our job,

raised our kids, and now it’s time to retire and just enjoy life.” But such an attitude is neither biblical nor productive. Our hope is to start seeing families adopt multigenerational strategies for the spiritual development of children and youth.

Mt. Gilead’s grandparenting ministry is about inspiring, encouraging, equipping, and empowering grandparents to be intentionally involved in the spiritual

GRANDPARENTING MINISTRY

Continued from previous page

formation of their children’s children. We are helping grandparents find ways to pass on their faith to the younger generations.

The ministry is not a part of a “senior saints” ministry. (Studies show the average age at which people become grandparents is 47.) Instead, this ministry has a mutigenerational flavor. The primary targets for participation are people between the ages of 45 and 70, since they are most likely to have grandchildren who are forming their core beliefs and spiritual priorities.

Why should a church emphasize grandparenting?

It’s based on scriptural mandates. Scripture tells grandparents to pass on their spiritual heritage to the generations

that follow them.

In his excellent book Biblical Grandparenting, Josh Mulvihill writes,

There are hundreds of references to grandparents or grandparenting in the Bible. The central thrust of these Scripture passages is that God designed grandparents to be key disciplemaking influences in the lives of children. God has a plan and a purpose for grandparents, which focuses on the transmission of faith in Christ to future generations.

There are many Scripture references that make God’s mandate to grandparents clear. Here are two:

“Be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

“We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done, . . . so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands” (Psalm 78:4-7).

God’s Word emphasizes the need to

Our Grandparenting Ministry—and Yours

We have a core team of nine grandparents guiding the ministry and working closely with the Next Gen Ministry team.

Future plans include:

1. Developing strategies to incorporate the concepts of intentional grandparenting into the thinking of our church. This will be achieved through using social media and regular references about grandparenting in church publications and services.

2. Providing equipping opportunities, such as classes and occasional seminars.

3. Sponsoring “grand events.” We plan to have two or three special events each year just for grandparents and their grandchildren. In the near future we hope to have four- or five-day camps for grandparents and their grandchildren.

4. Surrogate grandparents. We have a number of children who either do not have grandparents or are living far away from them. We plan to match those children with volunteers who will serve as surrogate grandparents.

Is your church looking for a secret weapon in the struggle to effectively disciple children and youth? Consider unleashing your grandparents.

If you want to know more about the growing movement toward intentional grandparenting, check out these resources:

Biblical Grandparenting by Josh Mulvihill (atFamily: 2016); available at amazon.com.

The Christian Grandparenting Network, www.christiangrandparenting.net.

The Legacy Coalition, legacycoalition.com. —M.C.

Michael Crosley (center) leads a Sunday School class for grandparents at Mt. Gilead Church in Mooresville, Indiana.

Statistics about youth abandoning their faith are very worrisome to grandparents.

pass our faith on to our children and our children’s children. The logic and potential of that is clear. When faith is effectively passed on to new generations, the people tend to remember God’s deeds and keep his commands. Can you think of a better way to invest the “grand” season of your life?

It has a receptive constituency. Mt. Gilead is seeing, even in the early stages of the ministry, that Christian grandparents are a very receptive constituency. Statistics about youth abandoning their faith are very worrisome to these folks. Grandparents are often worried about the impact of negative cultural changes and eroding values and want to do something to stem the tide. That’s where the ministry will be most helpful by providing ideas, resources, and encouragement.

It unleashes the power of grandparent influence. A Barna study found the top five influencers in the lives of young people are (1) parents, (2) grandparents, (3) teachers and coaches, (4) friends, and (5) pastors or religious leaders. Think for a moment about how many grandparents you have in your church. What would happen if your church would help them become spiritual influencers and active partners in the disciple-making process with parents, youth ministers, and church leaders? The grandparents of your church can possibly impact many more generations—even children yet unborn.

It Works!

Mt. Gilead is just beginning this effort, so outcomes are yet to be assessed, but I can attest that intentional grandparenting works.

My wife, Joy, and I are the grandparents of eight who range in age from 8 to 17. About 10 years ago we began to evaluate our approach to grandparenting by asking questions like, “What are we doing to help them grow spiritually and what are we giving them that will really last?” We concluded we needed to change the way we approached grandparenting by

developing strategies to help disciple our grands. Some examples of those strategies include:

Girls Rock Camp—This is a weeklong retreat where we have fun and creative activities, but our main focus is to pour our faith and Christian values into our granddaughters.

Ten-Year-Old Trips—We have visited wonderful places and had enormous amounts of fun, but the deeper purpose of these trips has been to share our faith by telling our grandchildren “God stories” and our family’s stories.

Generosity Projects—

We have sought to teach our grands the joy of generosity. For example, we have given each grandchild money with a note that says, “This is your money to use as you choose, but we would be pleased if you use some or all of it to bless other people.”

One year the kids decided to add their own money, which more than doubled our gifts. They used the money to buy fabric to make more than 100 blankets. On a subzero night in January, the kids distributed the blankets to homeless people at a soup kitchen. It was a powerful lesson. Since we started doing that, the children have, on their own, initiated several other projects.

We recognize that every grandparenting situation is unique and what we have done will not work for everyone. We hope the examples provided will serve to stimulate creative thinking and help others in their quest to be more intentional in their grandparenting.

Since changing our approach to grandparenting, our favorite Bible verse has become, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 4).

Michael Crosley retired after serving 10 years as founder and executive director of LifeBridge Community in Indianapolis, Indiana, an organization that provides services to at-risk children and families.

God’s Word emphasizes the need to pass our faith on to our children and our children’s children. Can you think of a better way to invest the “grand” season of your life?

Stepfamilies

Are REAL

BY JEFF AND JUDI PARZIALE

John and Stephanie were married about two years before they started attending a nearby church. Each brought two children into the marriage. Stephanie’s children were with her full time; her former spouse had left the state and had almost no contact with his children. John shared custody with his former spouse, Pam. Every week their two sons transitioned from one house to the other.

Stephanie struggled with Pam’s interference in their family. She wanted John to take a stronger stand against Pam’s negative comments because she felt Pam was poisoning the boys toward her.

John’s boys were having a hard time adjusting to his home, because it was more structured than their mom’s house. In addition, it had become increasingly evident that John and Stephanie had very dissimilar views of parenting. John and Stephanie were attending church, hoping to find community, help, and healing.

And they have real problems too often misunderstood or ignored by the local church. Here’s what stepfamilies around you are facing and feeling and how your congregation can help them.

Families

them to reach out. The result was a mixed bag for stepfamilies. Some were welcomed, while others felt misunderstood, marginalized, or even unwelcome. Fortunately, today more churches are welcoming stepfamilies and attempting to meet them at their point of need.

What’s Going On in the Typical Stepfamily?

Stepfamilies are born out of loss, so most family members are grieving. Grieving can take many forms: depression, withdrawal, even anger and acting out. Stepfamilies are complex, and that complexity can cause a good deal of stress, especially in the first few years when stepfamilies attempt to sort out a variety of differences.

Some experts consider the stress of remarriage to be greater than that of a death or divorce, especially for children. Conflicts about children, parenting, or former spouses can play havoc on a new marriage, often causing a great deal of marital discord.

Children who act out as they struggle to adjust can overwhelm the new couple. Former spouses can have a powerful influence on a new stepfamily trying to blend sometimes vastly different traditions, rituals, values, and roles.

John and Stephanie were struggling with a variety of issues that were tearing apart their marriage. Problem areas included John’s former spouse, their different parenting styles, his sons’ acting out, and the sons’ difficultly accepting Stephanie as a stepmom.

They were looking for a church that would accept them without judgment, opportunities to connect and serve, and a safe place to get some help with their marriage.

Stepfamilies like John and Stephanie’s represent a growing population in our churches. The question is how to effectively minister to the unique and often complex challenges of these families, both inside and outside the church.

In the past, the need for ministering to this family type was not as evident, so church leaders knew very little about stepfamilies. In other churches, leaders struggled with the theological issues surrounding divorce and remarriage, making it less likely for

Unfortunately, stepfamilies aren’t always aware of how best to integrate into a new church. The following scenarios highlight the various outcomes a family like John and Stephanie’s might encounter at church.

What Might They Experience at Church?

A common scenario for a new stepfamily attending church is for them to stay on the fringe or to present themselves as a nuclear family. They might behave this way out of a desire to “fit

Churches haven’t always reached out to stepfamilies, and stepfamilies aren’t always aware of how to best integrate into a new church.

STEPFAMILIES ARE REAL FAMILIES

Continued from previous page

in” or to shield themselves from possible shame and embarrassment over current struggles.

It may be tough for a new stepcouple who had experienced divorce to realize they are struggling in their new marriage. Fears, like rejection, can keep them invisible and unintentionally marginalized by a church that does not know about them and therefore cannot speak into their lives.

A typical church scenario is one in which the staff, and to some degree the congregation, is unaware or insensitive to the challenges stepfamilies face. In this case, John and Stephanie might attend men’s or women’s groups or classes on marriage and parenting that never mention issues relevant to stepfamilies or stepparenting .

While they might seek counsel from the pastoral staff, there might be little effective assistance offered because staff members have little knowledge or experience with stepfamilies. In this case, families can feel frustrated or demeaned, leading them to conclude they are “on their own.” Consequently, they choose to deal with their issues alone, seek help elsewhere, or leave the church.

It’s also possible John and Stephanie may be attending a church that is beginning to search for ways to minster to stepfamilies. Although classes and groups may still be directed toward nuclear families, most at least mention topics relevant to stepfamilies. Children and youth workers in these churches are sensitive to divorce and remarriage issues, and leaders of men’s and women’s programs understand and support the unique positions of stepparents or parents who do not have custody of their children. Mother’s and Father’s Day celebrations, for example, also honor stepparents.

Finally, there are a growing number of churches that have become well-versed in the needs of single parents and stepfamilies. They provide special classes for stepfamilies and single parents, they offer marriage and premarital classes that are directed at remarriage. Staff members have a working knowledge of stepfamily issues and are available for counseling. They also have a referral base of counselors who specialize in remarriage and stepfamilies.

What did John and Stephanie find? They found a church willing to embrace them at the point of their need—a church

that did not judge or run from their struggles. They became involved and soon had a voice in how to best weave single-parent and stepfamily issues into current classes. They also lead a group of stepcouples where it is safe to talk about remarriage challenges and grief.

What Can You Do?

Churches that want to reach out to stepfamilies have several options.

First, learn all you can about stepfamilies. Christian books and resources on the subject have become plentiful. One of the best is The Smart Stepfamily by Ron Deal (see www.smartstepfamilies.com).

Invite a group of stepfamilies to meet with your church staff, elders, and leaders, and share their stories. Ask how you can serve stepfamilies better and how they may have felt marginalized.

Another way to become knowledgeable is to attend a conference that addresses stepfamily issues, such as the FamilyLife Blended conference. Organizations like FamilyLife Blended and Focus on the Family have begun to catalog and develop stepfamily resources.

Be sure to provide up-to-date resources and opportunities to learn, grow, and heal. One of the most common complaints from stepfamilies is that there are

no resources, classes, or groups at their church. Therefore, become knowledgeable about resources in your area; create a library of recent remarriage and stepfamily books and DVDs.

Even if you have no specific classes for stepfamilies, you can still weave stepfamily information into your current marriage and family programs. Simply insert ideas relevant to stepfamilies into a topic, such as marriage or parenting. Review your materials to make sure they are not biased against single parents or stepfamilies. Be sure to ask stepfamily members in your congregation to provide input. Gaining stepfamily input regarding the things

that need to be added to current programs or activities provides a “win” for both stepfamilies and the church.

Another thing to review is marriage preparation. Churches and ministers must do a better job of preparing people for marriage and remarriage. The average couple, whether in a first-time marriage or remarriage, is at risk in the first two years. How will your church be prepared to come alongside struggling families and help provide real solutions and supportive communities? Divorce prevention, covenant marriage, and the biblical model of family must be conveyed to remarrying couples.

If your church has life groups, consider starting one for stepcouples. You can lead even if you are not in a stepfamily. Couples in the first few years of remarriage need a safe place to be heard, and most remarry without much accurate information about stepfamily life. Identify mature stepfamily couples who have a passion for sharing their experiences and a desire to mentor new stepcouples.

If you work with children or youth, become familiar with relevant information on the needs of children of divorce and remarriage. There is a large body of literature on the struggles of these children. Chances are you’ve already encountered children in these situations.

A great resource is Linda Ransom Jacobs, who developed Divorce Care for Kids (DC4K) and now blogs and speaks on the needs of single parents and children of divorce (blog.dc4k.org). The DivorceCare program for adults can be offered along with DC4K. If your church does not have these programs, start them (go to churchinitiative.org). Let those experiencing this painful event know that your church cares about them. Much like Celebrate Recovery and other such programs, the message of DivorceCare is, “We care about people in pain and we don’t shoot our wounded.”

Finally, consider developing mentors for the children of divorced couples in your church. In Between Two Worlds, family scholar Elizabeth Marquardt notes

that few from the church or clergy are present when children’s families break up. You can make a difference in the life of a child of divorce.

On a personal level, get to know the single parents and stepfamilies in your circle of friends and families. Approximately 50 percent of all Americans have a connection to a stepfamily. And get to know the divorced singles and stepfamilies in your congregation. How many have children? What are their needs? Listen to their stories. How might you do this? Consider hosting a stepfamily seminar in your community and/or offer a short course on a vital area of stepfamily life, such as stepparenting, communication, or strengthening the couple relationship. Bring in a speaker from your area who is knowledgeable about stepfamily life. Communicate this around your city. Be sure your staff attends.

Real Solutions

If you are interested in developing a more visible ministry to stepfamilies, obtain a copy of InStep Ministries’ workbook, Thirsty People Sitting at Wells (www. instepministries.com).

As you seek opportunities to minister to stepfamilies, remember these families are struggling to find real solutions and supportive communities. Stepfamilies face stresses and strains we never dreamed of a generation ago.

The most important thing you can do is to think differently about stepfamilies and then find a way to get involved, even if it is as simple as inviting a family home for dinner. Stepfamilies are real families that are looking for acceptance and real connections. Will they find it at your church?

Jeff Parziale is a former staff pastor at Pantano Christian Church in Tucson, Arizona. Judi Parziale formerly worked as a research psychologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Together, Jeff and Judi lead InStep Ministries, a ministry dedicated to serving stepfamilies and assisting the churches that minister to them. They reside in Loveland, Colorado, and can be reached at instepmin@gmail.com.

How will your church be prepared to come alongside struggling families and help provide real solutions and supportive communities?

Preaching to the Post-Nuclear Family

BY IAN DiORIO

On a trip to Boston, I had the opportunity to tour the Old North Church, a National Historic Landmark. The beautifully constructed church, built in 1723, still carries powerful resonances of the spiritual climate of America before the climatic year of 1776.

One of the most notable features of the church are the pews, many of which are sectioned off by family. Families who attended the church had their own small, sacred place for sitting during worship. The architecture of the church simply assumed that church would always be a family affair and families would practice their faith together as a cornerstone of their communal life.

But in just a few hundred years, the spiritual climate of America has shifted dramatically. Not only have family pews become nonexistent, the family itself has been restructured in ways that impact the church and its mission.

Gone are the days when pastors can assume all who grace their churches are part of cohesive families made up of one mom and one dad who have been singularly married to each other. Every church in America reflects a

Confronted with the confusion and diversity in family arrangements today, how does a minister preach and teach biblical values that offer true help and real hope?

mixture of nuclear families, divorced and blended families, single mothers, single fathers, and couples who have children but remain unmarried, not to mention younger people who are losing faith in the “institution” of marriage altogether.

This creates complexities for Christian leaders, many of whom also do not fit into the traditional notions of family. The fragmentation of the family has negative effects on society as a whole and the church in particular, and it creates both a challenge and opportunity to impact today’s family, no matter what form it takes.

Thoughtful, Compassionate, and Clear

The reality of the modern family requires thoughtful, compassionate, and clear preaching on family. One of the greatest gifts communicators can give people in their congregation is a truly biblical perspective on the family.

I have found that many people in churches have a simple, twodimensional perspective on the Bible and family. They make many false assumptions: a big one is that everyone in the Bible fits into traditional notions of a nuclear family. But we know this isn’t the case. The Scriptures are replete with portraits of other types of family situations.

Every Christmas we remember an example of this complexity. Just think of what Joseph felt as he married Mary and raised Jesus as his own, knowing that doing so would mean being ridiculed and thought a fool by his surrounding culture. Joseph and Mary and Jesus did not comprise a nuclear family.

One of the greatest gifts preachers and Christian leaders can give their members is a biblical debunking of

what constitutes a “normal” family. The idealization of normal causes much grief to those navigating the complexities of doing family in our truly unique era in history.

Many of the patriarchs and heroes of the faith lived in family situations that were radically different from the nuclear ideal, and yet God used them and blessed them. Helping people see that God has not forgotten them just because their family may be a bit complicated. He does not perceive them as somehow “less than.”

Remove the Tension

When it comes to speaking effectively to a cross section of people from various family backgrounds, the following tools have helped me enormously.

First, remove the tension in the room around the subject of family. Instead of placing before people an unreachable ideal, give people hope by teaching them that God is working in every family situation, no matter how it is structured. Always acknowledge the pain and benefits that accompany trying to navigate family roles and always include those who may have suffered the variety of losses that come with family life.

Second, be personal and vulnerable about your own family experiences. If you are from a divorced home, share that with the church. You will be amazed how encouraged people can be when they discover their pastor is made of clay and that he has struggled through family challenges as well.

If you come from a together family that fits into a cultural ideal, celebrate that, and give wisdom about how you have achieved such stability.

There is nothing more practical than living in a family, and yet this everyday

experience is far from simple. When leaders identify with their people by sharing their own personal experience, hearts and minds open in ways they would not have otherwise.

An Eternal Family

One final thought on preaching to the post-nuclear family: always hold up the church as God’s forever family. God’s goal for human beings is for them to flourish in a spiritual family where they acknowledge God as their Father and fellow believers as brothers and sisters in Christ.

For those who find their earthly family difficult, it is a great gift to know that God is still at work in the world, patching together a family made up of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Those who offer their lives over to the kingdom of God will receive what Jesus promised, “that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come” (Luke 18:29, 30, New Living Translation).

For those who have been hurt or abused or have become disconnected from their earthly family, there is an offer on the table from Jesus himself to become part of God’s eternal, heavenly family. As we preach and teach on the topic of family, our final point should lead all people to discover in the church a family that adds to, or supplements, our earthly family.

Only an eternal perspective on family can give refuge to those dealing with family fallout in our time.

Ian DiOrio serves as pastor with Yucaipa (California) Christian Church, Yucaipa.

Youth Ministers

BY LES CHRISTIE

A youth-ministry expert tells why and how the church must partner with parents to bring their kids to spiritual maturity.

Fifty years ago youth leaders in churches were still largely volunteers, many of them parents of teenagers. When I was in high school and attending Cardiff Avenue Christian Church in West Los Angeles, I remember Mrs. Curry (who turns 100 this year and still drives a car—yikes!) was a parent volunteer in the youth department. Jim Irby was our part-time youth minister. Both strongly influenced my early years, and I still stay in touch with them.

Churches were smaller (mine averaged 125 in attendance), and teenagers were integrated into the whole life of the church. Now in midsize churches (attendance of more than 300) clear up to very large churches (more than 2,000), kids are likely to be isolated from adults, even their own parents. They may arrive in the same car but then they scatter to their appropriate buildings. In many churches today the predominant influence/role model for many teenagers is a part- or full-time, 20-something youth minister. Not their own parents and not the senior minister. So what are churches to do?

Eliminate Youth Ministries?

One reaction to both the secularization and the ineffectiveness of public schools has been the home-schooling movement that is educating more than 2 million children. A portion of this group is advocating the elimination of church youth ministries because of the deeply held conviction that fathers should provide Christian training for their children.

I remember early in my ministry hearing Jay Kesler describe what he called the “bright young man” model of youth ministry. He compared youth workers to light bulbs. Just as light bulbs attract bugs, so bright young men (sorry, there were fewer women pastors in those days) attracted teenagers. Every congregation needed a bright young man to keep the kids buzzing around the church.

The bright young man (or woman) model has been a popular one. It worked well, but we know that light bulbs burn out frequently. When the youth pastor would leave, the bugs (teens) disappeared.

Another image of youth workers comes from the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, about a small town (Hamelin) infested with rats. A man dressed in pied (multicolored) clothing showed up who claimed to be a rat catcher. The people of the town agreed to pay him a fair amount if he would rid their town of rats. So one day he played his musical pipe (something like a bagpipe) and the rats followed him out of town and into the river, where they drowned.

The people of Hamelin were very pleased with this outcome, but then refused to pay the piper for his service (which is where we get the phrase “It’s time to pay the piper”).

To get revenge, the Pied Piper came back

into the town while all the villagers were in the church. This time the music from his pipe attracted all the children of the village, who followed him out of town and into a cave where they were never heard from again. They simply disappeared.

In America the end result has been similar: Teenagers are largely disappearing from churches across the United States.

In Faith Begins at Home, Mark Holmen writes,

Pied Pipers are usually gifted in working with children or teens but simply don’t have the interest or desire to bridge their ministry to the home. Through their dynamic and charismatic leadership, they are able to draw a crowd of students to follow them. Yet in many cases, Pied Pipers see parents as a disruption to the work they’re trying to do. Unfortunately they don’t realize that their success or influence is only temporary. Many senior pastors fall into this same trap. Paul warned the church at Corinth not to focus on personalities like himself (see 1 Corinthians 1:13-17).

My friend Kara Powell serves as executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute and assistant professor of youth and family ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. In her studies and surveys, she raises the concern that “teens attend youth groups because they admire the youth pastors or other adults who lead the group.” If the teen’s primary connection to the church is their youth pastor, what happens when the youth pastor leaves?

In many churches, some parents expect the youth worker to take care of all the kids’ spiritual needs. This has to change. Deuteronomy 6:5-9 clearly states parents

The bright young man model of youth ministry has been a popular one. It worked well, but we know that light bulbs burn out frequently.

THE BEST YOUTH MINISTERS

Continued from previous page

ought to be the primary spiritual educators of kids.

Youth Ministers Reinvented

We need to reinvent the role of the youth pastor. The youth pastor today should be focused more on equipping adults, especially parents, rather than teenagers. The youth pastor should spend the majority of his or her time encouraging parents who have way more influence over their teenagers than he or she does. I realize partnering with parents will be a completely new way of doing ministry for some reading this, but it is well worth the effort.

Training schools, colleges, and universities are now including courses on working with parents. At the university where I teach, we offer an entire class on “Ministering to Families with Teenagers.”

In the last 50 years, we have seen seeker-driven, purpose-driven, transformational, contemplative, and presencecentered ministries. I think we need to see family-driven ministries.

The most influential people in forming a teen’s spiritual life are his or her parents. The church needs to return to its roots of

doing a more effective job of partnering with parents, in other words, a familybased youth ministry.

We need to encourage and equip parents through parent meetings and retreats. My friend Heather Flies wrote, “Each time I stand in front of my [stu-

The church needs to return to its roots of doing a more effective job of partnering with parents, in other words, a family-based youth ministry.

dents’] parents I say this: ‘We see it is our job to partner with you—to advocate for you—to speak the same truth you’re speaking.’”

I realize not all parents should be directly involved as youth workers, but we can do a lot more to involve parents. Good youth workers are passionate about coming alongside parents. I’ve never

Rites of Passage

I believe we need to bring back rites of passage. A rite of passage is a formalized ceremony or program (like a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah) intended to act as a community-endorsed acknowledgement of the passage from childhood to adulthood. These ceremonies teach students that they are a part of something bigger then themselves; they make the student the star of the community. Such ceremonies are a spiritual experience, and God is at the center. The “rites” acknowledge that the student is no longer a child—they are now on the road to manhood or womanhood.

In such a ceremony, friends, family, elders, pastors, and church members who care come and pray over the student and read affirmations to them. An event such as this gives the teen a vision for who they are and who they are becoming

and demonstrates the church’s commitment to them as a person. Make sure the student plays some important role in the ceremony. Another idea is to do a “passage retreat.” Every year take a group of 13- or 14-year-old girls or boys on separate weekend retreats. Have the same-gender parent come to the retreat. Give each girl a necklace that symbolizes their commitment to each other and to following Christ. Give each guy a ring that symbolizes his commitment to the group and to pursuing Jesus. Have participants dream what it means to be a man or a woman, and make an oath to each other to adhere to that dream. Jesus went through something similar to this in Luke 2 when he was in the temple talking with the men and reading Scripture.

—L.C.

heard a youth worker say “parents are the enemy,” but I have sensed this unspoken attitude. The majority of parents love their children, want what’s best for them, and are terrific role models for kids. We need to view them as allies and our biggest fans.

Reggie Joiner wrote, “All parents love their children. It may not be a perfect love, and there may be varying degrees of dysfunction, but most parents love their children in the best way they know how.”

Parents and other family members are the biggest influence on a teen’s life, followed by peers. Survey after survey has shown that, though the media seems to ignore it. We need to focus on resourcing and equipping parents and family members. Most parents worry about the direction their kids may be going.

Students need an intergenerational connection. Invite them to worship in the big church. Consider meeting your teens in the youth room just before the service begins and walk in with them. The kids can then sit with or at least sit near their parents. The parents and their kids will hear the same message. Provide questions for discussion, perhaps via the bulletin, for families to discuss at home after church.

I saw a sign that said, “Be the shepherd, not the veterinarian.” What parents need most is reassurance, perspective, and the knowledge that someone is willing to listen. Be available—most parents want help.

Woody Allen once said that showing up is 80 percent of life. I would suggest that a good amount of a parenting ministry is simply showing up and listening to parents. Ask more questions and make fewer statements. Stand in the parking lot and talk to kids while they are waiting for their parents to pick them up. Call or email parents a couple of times a year and ask, “How can we be praying for you?” and “Is there anything we can do to support your family?”

We also need to keep parents informed. Let them know what you are teaching and the dates and purposes for upcoming events. Give them discussion questions they can ask their kids that relate to the lessons you are teaching. Communicate

Three words for a productive life and a thriving family

The Isaac Principle

BY VICTOR KNOWLES

Several years ago I was driving west to Denver, Colorado. Somewhere in Kansas, I found a radio station playing a prerecorded sermon by someone whose name I can’t remember. But I have never forgotten his text. “Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well” (Genesis 26:25).

There are three nouns in this verse that can forever change the structure of your life. Understanding these simple words can help you determine proper priorities. In fact, the three words can assure you of a happy, fulfilling, and productive life. Those words are altar, tent, and well.

Isaac was the son God promised to Abraham and Sarah in their old age (Genesis 17:16). When Isaac was 40, he married a young girl named Rebekah. A famine in the land forced Isaac and Rebekah to leave home and live in the land of Philistia in Gerar. Isaac became a wealthy man. In fact, “he had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him” (Genesis 26:14). The resident Philistines took fiendish delight in pouring dirt into his wells—the same wells Abraham’s servants had dug when he occupied the land. Each time this happened, Isaac was forced to take down his tents and move to another place and try again, only to experience the same frustrating results. Finally, the king of Gerar told Isaac to pack his bags and move on to new territory altogether.

After the third failed attempt to dig a well, Isaac came to Beersheba, the southernmost city in Judah, a place where his father had once lived (Genesis 22:19). It was good for Isaac to be in a familiar place again. And there he did what every man should do.

©Lightstock

THE ISAAC PRINCIPLE

Continued from previous page

First, Isaac “Built an Altar”

“From there he went up to Beersheba. . . . Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 26:23, 25). Isaac was probably in his 60s or older by this time. This may have been the first time Isaac built an altar. His father, Abraham, had literally left a “trail of altars” (Genesis 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; 22:9) wherever he went.

You can trace some people by the things they leave behind: broken hearts, broken lives, broken homes. Now Abraham’s son was finally following in his father’s footsteps. But not before he had experienced repeated failures living among the Philistines. “Living among the Philistines” will always lead to heartache and sorrow.

What changed Isaac’s mind and pattern of behavior? Why did he build an altar at Beersheba? I believe it was because at long last he had a personal encounter with God. The verse that precedes our text tells us of that encounter. “That night the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham” (Genesis 26:24).

First, God revealed to Isaac his person. He said, “I am the God of your father Abraham.” God is a personal God. Second, the Almighty revealed to Isaac his presence. “I am with you.” How encouraging that must have been. Third, God reassured him with a promise. “I will bless you.” Without the blessing of God, a person cannot succeed in life, in marriage, or in one’s home and family.

In rapid response to this encouraging and assuring visit from God, Isaac built his first altar. He was now altering his life by building an altar. Please notice that Isaac not only built an altar, but he also “called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 26:25).

The first thing a man must do if he is to succeed in life is to establish a relationship with God. Henry Whitney Bellows said, “I have never known a man, who habitually and on principle absented himself from the public worship of God, who did not sooner or later bring sorrow upon himself or his family.”

Billy Graham said, “Let your home be your parish, your little brood your congregation, your living room a sanctuary, and your knee a sacred altar.” Simeon Strunsky said, “A dining room table with children’s eager, hungry faces around it, ceases to be a mere dining room table, and becomes an altar.”

Second, Isaac “Pitched His Tent”

“There he pitched his tent” (26:25). People in Isaac’s day lived in large, roomy tents. Many nomadic desert tribes in the Middle East still do. In the past, Isaac had always made “pitching his tent” his first priority. But he had suffered all kinds of grief as a result.

When he came to Beersheba, where his father once dwelt, he first built an altar, and then pitched his tent. After bitter experiences he had learned a vital lesson. It is more important to have a relationship with the living God than to build a fine mansion in which you can live with your relations (i.e., your family members). Our crumbling modern society is cursed with derelict fathers. “Like a bird that flees its nest is a man who strays from his

home” (Proverbs 27:8).

I believe God gave mankind three basic institutions: the home, civil government, and the church. The primary responsibility for the success of the home is placed on the shoulders of the man. God gave Adam a “helpmeet,” Eve, to help him meet this tremendous need (Genesis 2:18-24). William Shakespeare said, “The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.” Benjamin Disraeli believed that godly homes were “the best security of a nation.”

But God’s plan also calls for a man to leave his father and mother and to be inseparably joined to his wife in an indissoluble union. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). He is to leave his parents and “cleave” to his wife. Cleave (dabaq), in Hebrew, means “to cling or adhere.” We would say it means to “stick like glue.” God intended marriage to be a permanent institution.

A good family life does not just happen. It must be cultivated. Long ago, God set the standards.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

The above Scriptures contain three essentials for a godly home. First, there must be a revelation of God. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (v. 4).

Second, there must also be a proper response to God’s revelation. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (v. 5).

Third, there is a two-fold responsibility. God’s Word must govern our hearts. “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts” (v. 6). God’s Word must also govern our homes. “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (v. 7).

Notice that the revelation of God must be first in our own hearts before we can ever transmit it to those in our home. Then it must be communicated in a variety of ways to our children: verbally, symbolically, and visually. “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (vv. 8, 9).

Charles Spurgeon said, “When home is ruled according to God’s Word, angels might be asked to stay a night with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.”

Third, Isaac “Dug a Well”

“. . . And there his servants dug a well” (26:25). Wells were essential to survival in the arid Middle East. Water was necessary for cooking and bathing, to say nothing of quenching the thirst

The first thing a man must do if he is to succeed in life is to establish a relationship with God.

of man and beast alike. God expects a man to provide the basic necessities for his family (1 Timothy 5:8).

A man should work hard to support his family, but not to the exclusion of the first two principles we have suggested in “The Isaac Principle.” “Digging a well” does not mean digging a hole so deep that the wife and children never see you. Your presence is more important than all the presents you might buy for them. Even if your work is noble, you can still spend too much time away from home.

For more than 50 years I have traveled throughout the United States and around the world preaching the gospel, and if I have but one regret in life, it was all those days and weeks and sometimes months being away from my wife and our six children. If I had life to live over again, I would stay home more in my children’s formative years.

Family time is so important. Wayne Rickerson said,

If I were an enemy of the United States and had been told by my government to destroy the American family, I would start by sabotaging the family meal. I would deluge family members with so many separate activities that they would rarely be able to sit down to eat together. If they did happen to have a meal together, I would make a diligent effort to cause this time to be a real hassle: arguments, tenseness, and each family member wanting to ‘get on to his own thing’ as soon as possible.

I’m so glad I was raised in a Christian home where we all sat down together at the supper table. To this day, each Sunday, Evelyn prepares a nice Sunday dinner for the family members who still live in town.

“Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their chil-

THE BEST YOUTH MINISTERS

Continued from page 26

your vision, rules, and expectations.

Ask parents to chaperone when you go on a trip. Have a parent-advisory committee that meets quarterly. Have some parents do guest teaching; they can start by sharing their own testimony. Schedule only one student ministry program a week (with rare exception). This is also helpful for volunteers.

Have parent meetings right after a church service so parents don’t have to make two trips. Offer to have lunch brought in. Offer parents opportunities to serve around the edges of your ministries—hosting a youth group gathering at their home, driving a vehicle for an event, staffing the information desk, running the soundboard, or chaperoning a onetime event.

We also need to reach out to parents who don’t go to church. We need to of-

dren it will be a refuge” (Proverbs 14:26). “The family circle,” said Henry Drummond, “is the supreme conductor of Christianity.”

At Beersheba, Isaac discovered a forgotten principle that had worked for his father and would also work for him. After being frustrated by the Philistines three times, he finally got his priorities straight. And here is an amazing result: the Philistines, who had caused him so much grief, saw that the Lord was with Isaac. Abimelek, king of the Philistines, came to him and made a covenant of peace (Genesis 26:26-31). God’s promises are true. “When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them” (Proverbs 16:7).

And that’s not all! The same day Isaac’s enemies made a covenant of peace with him, his servants came running to him with the welcome news: “We’ve found water!” (Genesis 26:32). Perfect timing! Because Isaac honored the Lord and rearranged his priorities, he was blessed with peace and provision.

These blessings can be yours if you follow the order of “The Isaac Principle.”

Condensed from Stand and Deliver ©2017 by Victor Knowles. Used by permission. Stand and Deliver is available for $14.99 postpaid from Peace on Earth Ministries, P.O. Box 275, Joplin, MO 64802-0275.

Victor Knowles is founder and president of Peace on Earth Ministries, Joplin, Missouri. Victor and his wife, Evelyn, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year.

fer them the love of the gospel and serve them wholeheartedly as a work for the Lord. Build rapport with these families and they will invite you in, but don’t push it. When you’re with them, listen to them more than you speak. Equip their students to minister to their parents.

Next Generations

The theme verse for my life and ministry is, “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:18). This verse is in a frame that sits on my desk. We need to come alongside parents in their effort to grow their children spiritually. Our influence on kids is limited— we have a maximum of about five hours a week—so the church and parents must work together.

My friend Jim Burns has written, “Today’s students are growing up in an amoral culture where ‘each person does what is right in his/her own eyes.’ It is no surprise they are living in a world that has grown increasingly hostile to the traditional values of the Christian faith.”

Let’s encourage parents to live lives of integrity and authenticity. Most parents are frightened by the amount of negative distractions and temptations facing their kids. However, as we partner with parents and support them along the way, we can help our students make it through the maze of negative influences and develop positive morals and values that they, in turn, can pass on to their own children.

Les Christie retires this year as chair of the youth ministry department at William Jessup University, Rocklin, California.

BY ARRON CHAMBERS

All married couples fight at one time or another.

It’s like a pile of manure landing on your front porch. You know what manure is, don’t you? Manure on your front porch is not a good thing. Not at all. It’s a smelly, disgusting, and completely unappealing in every way kind of thing.

In my experience as a marriage coach, I’ve come to believe that every married couple will have a pile of “manure” fall onto their “porch” at one time or another.

Of Manure, Porches, and Good Fights

Bad stuff happens to good married couples. And when the unexpected pile of manure shows up on the front porch of your marriage, you are faced with a few options.

Choose the Right Option Option 1: Roll in it! Some people, upon finding a pile of emotional manure on their front porch, decide to roll in it. They identify with a problem, struggle, disappointment, hurtful experience, harsh word, or rejection in a deeply personal way. They roll in the manure

until they feel better about feeling pitiful. They make the problem their new identity with the hopes that, when others see they are covered in manure, they will feel so sorry for their stinking situation they will pity them, coddle them, support them, fund them, and enable them to use their coating of manure as a cloak against any critical analysis of their actions.

Interesting thing about manure: it stinks, so victims who choose to roll around in the manure stink. They are so identified with their

Sure, it stinks. But it’s a situation every married couple will face.

manure that they stink, and no one wants to be around them.

Option 2: Avoid it! Some people, upon finding a pile of emotional manure on their front porch, decide not to deal with it—they push it aside to deal with at a later time. It’s just so overwhelming. The smell. The mess. The drama. It seems so much easier to shovel the most recent pile of manure into the larger manure pile made up of

other previously undealt-with piles of manure now surrounding the house. Choosing not to deal with something bad today often leads to having to deal with something bad tomorrow. Those who never productively confront pain—choosing instead to shovel the pain to the side—find themselves in a potentially hopeless and overwhelming situation. Surrounded by mountains of manure, their only option is to plow through it.

Overwhelmed by the prospect of handling what they must deal with to just get started cleaning up their mess, they shovel it aside and unwittingly trap themselves within a prison with really big stinky walls.

Option 3: Do something good with it! I’m a city kid who knows very little about farming, farms, or anything farm related, but I do know that if you want to grow something, spreading manure in a field is a good thing. It’s not even called manure anymore once it is placed in a field in preparation for planting—it’s called fertilizer Everything changes with intentionality. When fertilizer is intentionally placed in a field, it is powerful, fruitful, and useful.

In your marriage, bad stuff is going to happen. Every healthy marriage has its share of problems—or piles of “manure” that end up on the porch. Every couple I know and respect who has been married more than a few years has a story of when they didn’t think they were going to make it—a time when a pile of manure landed on their porch and they were faced with rolling

Choosing not to deal with something bad today often leads to having to deal with something bad tomorrow.

OF MANURE, PORCHES, AND GOOD FIGHTS

Continued from previous page

in it, pushing it aside, or dealing with it. Healthy couples who want to have an extraordinary marriage don’t roll in it or avoid it—they do something good with it. They take it from the porch, and they use it to help something good grow in their marriage. The problems we face in marriage, when dealt with intentionally, are powerful, fruitful, and useful.

Which is why I believe in good fighting I believe good fighting is a sign of a healthy marriage. I believe good fighting is good because it is an opportunity to do something good and productive with a bad situation.

When two independent adults live together . . . every day . . . for the rest of their lives, . . . it’s inevitable . . . there are going to be disagreements, frustrations, hurtful experiences, harsh words, disrespectful behavior, and a myriad of other provocative actions that lead couples into a good fight. They are going to find piles of manure on their porch.

Not all fights are good. A fight is not good if it includes . . . fits of rage, violence, alcohol/drug impairment, physical abuse, throwing things, cursing or yelling at one another, terrorizing the children, the silent treatment, mocking, shaming, belittling, smashing, slamming, rolling (in manure), shoveling (manure aside), or any other out-ofcontrol, toxic, abusive, or neglectful behaviors.

So, how can a couple have a good fight?

How can we do something good when something bad happens in our marriage?

Six Keys to a Good Fight

Good information—Did you ever have an argument only to realize you didn’t have all of the information or the information you had was not correct? Maybe this rhyme will help: Facts right before you fight.

spouse is at work; when your spouse is in the middle of a big project (like dinner); when you’re leaving for vacation, on your way to church, or on your way home from church; when you’re leaving on a date or on a date; before sex, after sex, or during sex; when your spouse is trying to get the kids out the door for school; or when your kids are in the back seat of the car.

These are just a few examples. Now, every time can’t be the wrong time, because it’s essential that fights be had in a reasonable amount of time. Avoiding a fight is only delaying the fight.

Good goal—The goal of every good fight should be understanding, not victory. Why would we want to defeat our teammate and the one we need to achieve victory?

Good place—A good fight never happens in the wrong location. It’s always good to avoid fighting in some of the following bad places: in public, in front of extended family, at work, in front of the kids, or in bed (I’ll expand upon this point in my upcoming book).

Good time—The right time to have a fight is when—and only when—you and your spouse agree it’s the right time. I’m writing from experience.

Here are a few bad times to have a fight: when your spouse is leaving for work, when your spouse is walking in the door from work, or when you or your

Good weapons—Not all couples fight the same way. Some couples fight quietly—in soft whispers and well-chosen words. Some couples fight loudly—in loud shouts and with a free flow of emotionally charged words. When fighting, our words are weapons.

Here’s a general principle I’ve found to be helpful in having a good fight: Don’t use a hammer when a feather will do. After just a short time being married, most of us have already identified the words we can use to cause our spouse the most pain. Don’t use those words.

Good resolution—After reaching mutual understanding, call a cease-fire. Put your “weapons” down. Take a breath. Embrace. Pray together. Apologize. Make love. And resolve to discuss it no further except by mutual agreement and with this list of keys as a good plan for having a good fight.

So, there you go. The next time you and your spouse find yourselves facing a pile of manure on the porch of your marriage, don’t roll in it or avoid it. Do the good thing and deal with the bad thing in an intentional way. Talk it through. Have a good fight, if you must. Get the manure off the porch, put it in a field, and expect good things to grow.

Arron Chambers serves as lead minister with Journey Christian Church, Greeley, Colorado. This article is ©2017 Arron Chambers

Here’s a general principle I’ve found to be helpful in having a good fight: Don’t use a hammer when a feather will do.

©Lightstock

How I Know My Wife Married the Wrong Person

BY TYLER McKENZIE

Today my wife, Lindsay, and I celebrate our five-year anniversary. Five years ago we tied the knot and took the plunge. Five years ago the cutest girl in Indiana was taken off the market! Five years ago we launched the beginning of the rest of our lives. Five years ago . . . And after five years, there’s no more hiding behind the dinner-and-a-movie façade of dating life. I can’t buy enough flowers to conceal it. I can’t open enough doors. I can’t say enough “I love yous.” She knows (and painfully, so do I) that she married the “wrong person.”

Allow me to humbly explain. For quite some time now, there has been a myth floating around our idealistic society. A myth that claims that marital union will be durable and satisfying only when you find your “smoking-hot, high-class, loveat-first-sight, sexually compatible, acceptme-as-I-am-and-never-try-to-changeme, Titanic, Notebook, Sweet Home Alabama, Twilight-esque, soul mate.”

It’s a terribly self-centered myth, and by

definition (at least God’s definition) selfcenteredness has no place in marriage. It’s unrealistic, discounting the defective world we live in and our high propensity to mess stuff up as sinful beings. Yet it has infected every avenue and outlet of popular culture. It represents a cultural narrative that puts a salvific burden on

romantic love it simply cannot bear. One pastor called it “The Myth of Romantic Completeness,” and it’s everywhere.

Dehumanizing Pressures

Don’t believe me? Look at the dehu-

HOW I KNOW MY WIFE MARRIED THE WRONG PERSON

Continued from previous page

manizing pressures the unmarried suffer from in our society. Even the church (often especially the church) makes singles feel incomplete, as if they are in a holding pattern in life stalled for takeoff until they find “the one.” Do you see? It’s “The Myth of Romantic Completeness” at work.

Look at the messaging the film and music industry communicate about romance. Look at the empirical evidence pointing to an increase in marriage age and decrease in marriage rate. People just won’t commit even though they want to find love. Why? Because they are suspect of everyone’s suitability to provide them the eternal bliss romance is supposed to deliver. Research studies suggest this is a primary factor that holds people back from marital commitment—they just haven’t found their “soul mate.”

Much more could be said about where this way of thinking came from and what drives it, but let’s just leave it at this—singles today (and most married couples too) are looking for super-spouses who simply don’t exist. People hope and expect far too much from romance, but then again, we are people. And I’ve found people are quite good at ruining good things by turning them into ultimate things.

That’s why I know beyond doubt, at least by society’s standards, Lindsay married the wrong person. I’ll never be as smart as a New York Times Best Seller. I’ll never make a six-digit paycheck. I’ll never electrify the bedroom in the way our pornographic media culture broadcasts as the norm. I’ll never understand her quite as well as we both wish I would.

I’ll continue to make mistakes. I’ll get angry over silly disputes. I’ll forget to do the dishes and make the coffee before bed. I’ll secretly and selfishly send the kid to her when his diaper needs changing. I’ll raise my voice when I shouldn’t. I’ll let pride get the best of me. And I’ll probably think of myself far more often than I should. . . . (Are you drowning in my self-pity yet?)

Look, I’m not an astrophysicist. I’m not an MLB All-Star. I’m not a billionaire. I’m just Tyler, and Tyler does not meet the standards of the Real Housewives of Louisville.

Consider Solutions

So what then is the solution? Well here are a handful that seem popular:

1. Every time your significant other falls short, find another. On to the next one, because it just wasn’t meant to be. Settle only for perfect people because there is no room for grace when it comes to romance. Perfect people deserve perfect people! Or remarry again. And again. And then again. Sooner or later you’re bound to find Mr. or Mrs. Right, right?

Of course, there will be emotional damage that comes with engaging sexually with several partners. There will be financial fallout from dividing your wealth over and over. Your children may grow

from everyone. Lock your heart up in an ironclad dungeon where no one can reach it, and allow it to grow motionless, unbreakable, and impenetrable.

4. Or . . . realize that love takes hard work. And that as long as you limit the field to human beings, you’ll never marry the “right person.” Because there are no “right people.” Sin’s presence in the world guarantees it. There are only wrong people who pretend to be right and wrong people who are becoming right, through Jesus.

Fact: growing relationships require grace. That’s why I like the biblical image of marriage. The fairy-tale image of two soul mates finding apocalyptic love at last is just that, a fairy tale. But the biblical image of marriage provides something so much more durable, cross-shaped, and beautifully realistic.

up with a distorted view of parenting and an approach to marriage that fails. But it all may be worth it if your soul mate is out there.

2. Try it before you buy it. Test drive it. See if the chemistry is there and the sparks fly. Cohabitate. Allow someone else into your life at a degree of vulnerability that only God and your spouse should ever experience. Give them this priceless delicate gift without asking them to commit to you past tomorrow morning.

Who knows, you may find your soul mate this way. Let’s just hope they agree. And it’s worth noting, those who implement this strategy increase their chances of divorce dramatically if they one day do marry.

3. Avoid it all. Because who needs marriage? It’s an institution of the past. Focus on you, your career, and your happiness! Feed your appetite for sex when it’s hungry because that’s all it is, an appetite. Right? No strings attached! No vulnerability required.

Guard the deepest parts of your heart

It paints a portrait of two sinners, committing to the task of one another, for the sake of one another. It’s two imperfect people committing to the sanctifying work of expressing Jesus’ self-sacrificial love to each other, for life, so that they might see him or her become the person God has always intended them to be, knowing full well that neither of them has yet to reach this goal.

When you both commit to this, not only will you experience the perks of marital intimacy like you never could imagine, but you both will change. Few things mature a person like marriage. You both will become more forgiving, more sensitive, more loving, and more truthful, together.

Even if just one of you commits to this, I think you’ll be surprised how much you both will change. Your forgiveness, your sensitivity, your love, and your truthfulness may evoke reciprocity from your spouse. And what could be more satisfying than that?

Not much. Trust me. I know. I’ve been married five years now to a woman who has relentlessly committed to this task with me. And because of that, I’m a better human. And so is she.

Tyler McKenzie is the husband of Lindsay, father of Palmer, and lead pastor of Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. This article is adapted from a blog entry posted June 4, 2013.

Few things mature a person like marriage. You both will become more forgiving, more sensitive, more loving, and more truthful, together.

Dads Are Single Too

Why your ministry to single parents shouldn’t stop with the moms

BY MATT JOHNSON

“Please raise your hand if you can name three single moms in your congregation,” I said while coleading a workshop at the 2015 North American Christian Convention. Many hands proudly shot up. Most of us can easily rattle off the names of three or four single mothers. Many can list 10 or more.

These are women we respect. They faithfully wake up early on Sundays to get three wiggly children to worship. They are frazzled with life and still carve out time to volunteer at the Welcome Center. They often do the work of two parents while feeling they yield half the results.

In response, our churches target single moms with ministries designed to meet their needs. MOPS groups provide support. Benevolence programs offer assistance when financial resources run low. Service projects provide moms with free oil changes. It is good when our churches respond with compassion and kindness to single women and their children. It is very good.

“Please raise your hand if you can name three single dads in your congregation.” This was my follow-up request. Exactly zero hands were raised. Full disclosure: my name on the marquee does not attract hundreds to a workshop. Still, many of us

DADS ARE SINGLE TOO

Continued from previous page

struggle to name one single dad at church. Single dads do not have fellowship groups targeting their specific needs. They have the same three wiggly kids, but no one expects them to be at the 11 o’clock service. Ministry leaders rarely approach to ask them to serve the congregation. And your benevolence ministry probably has not thought much about their needs.

Statistically speaking, there are just as many single fathers in our culture as single mothers. I know. I was one of them. After the breakup of a 12-year marriage, I navigated what it meant to have primary custody of my 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

I created new traditions to replace old ones that were lost through the divorce. I clumsily played both disciplinarian and nurturer to children who, in a time of transition, didn’t know what questions to ask, let alone how to process the answers. When money was tight, I stretched dollars and pinched pennies. I paced work, juggled life, ran our home, and kept current with their school, sports, friends, art, music, and church activities.

There is a word to describe that kind of parent—typical. There is nothing supernatural about raising children on your own. In fact, in 2009 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that almost 13 million families were headed by a single parent. But the same poll revealed that only 20 percent of those families were headed by a single dad. It seems foreign for men to raise the children in our culture, and in our churches, people like me are often made to feel invisible.

The good news is we can reach out to the other half of the broken family and rethink our attitudes about single dads. The single-parent household is a crisis that is not going away, and our churches can address it more comprehensively by being intentional.

Realize the Culture Is Changing

A few months ago, I sent an e-mail to my daughter’s teacher. I signed it with my first and last name. The teacher’s reply began, “Dear Mrs. Johnson.” I try not to be hypersensitive to wrong assumptions, but year after year even small slights begin to wear on a dad. Please realize I care about my children’s education and I am a father.

Until recently the children of divorced parents almost always lived with their moms and they saw their dads every other weekend. While that dynamic is still the

experience of some children, more and more family courts are giving preference to a 50/50 physical custody arrangement.

So, unless we want to see those children only every other weekend, churches must expand their ministry mind-set to include single dads who have the kids half the time. Additionally, many dads like me have the responsibility of primary custody, and we choose if our children will ever go to church.

When we stereotype and assume active and involved parents are always mothers, we risk alienating single fathers in our community. It sends the message that we don’t understand them and either cannot relate or don’t care about them as parents.

Beware of Unintended Consequences

Without stepping on the theological landmine of God’s gender (or lack of), we must acknowledge that the Scriptures overwhelmingly portray the Lord as our Father. We undermine our own theology when we ignore dads.

camp, there is often only one line for a parent’s e-mail. Provide two lines—one for mom and one for dad. Regardless of which parent brings the child, make sure both parents are on your e-mail list to get all your updates, pictures, and newsletters.

2. Remain neutral. It may be tempting to get sucked into divorce drama, but it’s unproductive. Besides, who are you going to believe? Solomon said, “In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines” (Proverbs 18:17). Make sure dads walk through your doors with an even count. The church should be a refuge from family conflict.

3. Never, and I mean never, refer to a dad as a babysitter. Just don’t.

4. Accept the single-dad identity. Some churches unintentionally communicate single-dad status as incomplete or as in-between life goals. Unfortunately, this is a misconception some single dads adopt. We must accept the identity of a single father. The last thing he needs is a date with your cousin. Like yours, his identity is in Christ, not in his marital status.

5. Give him a break. Some single dads are exhausted. Others are financially strapped. We can be sensitive to these needs, especially when the youth trip costs $350 per student and he has three children. Most men will not ask for help. We must take the first step to offer it.

Admittedly, some dads are dopes or worse. Some dads are absent. Others are abusive. Sometimes it is easier to ignore the bio-dad and hope he goes away. But what message does that send to the child? “We’re assuming the worst of your dad and ignoring him. And by the way, your Heavenly Father loves you and always wants to be with you.”

Isn’t it far better to assume the best of a dad? How can we exalt God our Father while degrading earthly fathers? There are theological implications to our assumptions and actions, and little eyes and ears are paying attention. It is in their best interest to support both of their parents.

Take Steps Toward Inclusion

Attitudes and theology are great, but ultimately we have to take action. Here are some practical steps for ministering to dads more effectively:

1. E-mail dad too. When you register a child for children’s church or summer

6. Create space with the guys. Since parenting in our culture is still stereotypically maternal, many single dads feel more like one of the gals than one of the guys. If the women of the church are more open and accepting than the men, this dysphoria is perpetuated. Men in the church must reach out to single dads as one of the guys.

7. Speak to his family situation. Single dads should be represented in your next sermon series on parenting. Skipping this family dynamic while speaking to nuclear families and single moms communicates that these men are either ignored or unwanted. Speaking to him and his unique challenges is good pastoral ministry.

These are small steps, but they are steps in the right direction. Awareness is a great beginning, and acknowledgement will speak volumes to single dads. We may not be able to save every marriage, but we can redeem the relationships that remain.

Matt Johnson serves as pastor with Levittown (Pennsylvania) Christian Church.

It seems foreign for men to raise the children in our culture, and in our churches, people like me are often made to feel invisible.

Teach Your Children to Be Critical Thinkers

BY TRICIA JOHNSON

She was the professor of theology; my son was her student. He attended a secular university, and when he needed an extra elective, he thought theology would be a breeze, so he took the class. Her teaching was right on target most of the time, which was surprising since it was a secular university, but when she taught about Abraham and Lot, my son had to disagree with her summation of one particular scene.

You may recall, Abraham and Lot were about to part ways, as Genesis 13:1-13 tells us. They traveled from Egypt to Bethel.

They went to the place where Abraham had first made an altar to the Lord, between Bethel and Ai. They each had many riches, but the land could not support them both, plus their herdsmen did not get along. So, Abraham suggested they each take a portion of the land that was before them. Abraham told Lot to choose first, and he would take whichever land Lot did not choose.

Lot chose the land of Jordan, seeing that it was well watered, and Abraham went to the land of Canaan. Besides a few

details about the location and benefits of these lands, the Bible does not comment on these choices. And this is where my son had to disagree with his theology professor.

She condemned Lot’s choice, calling it selfish and accusing him of “looking out for number one.” My son said we don’t know that. He pointed out that the Scriptures did not pass any judgment on Lot’s choice. His professor argued that it was clearly a selfish choice. My son stuck to what the Bible said and reminded her that her opinion of Lot’s choice was speculation because the Bible did not teach condemnation of Lot.

He got an A in the class, much to his surprise. I hope he made that professor think. I hope she went back to the Scriptures with new eyes—nonspeculating eyes—and took the Scriptures for what they say and nothing more. Scripture did not condemn Lot’s choice; Scripture did not even comment on it other than to say what he chose.

I was proud of my son and realized he came by his approach to Scripture quite naturally. What my son practiced here is key to independent, critical-thinking success. Being able to read the Scriptures without speculation is a lost art among many Christians. Today’s Christian seems to be looking for the next Bible study book, the next “big idea” from their favorite author, or the next “biblical principle” they think will help them with their Christian walk. What they are getting is akin to junk food: it fills them up but does not provide what they need. It does not nourish their soul.

Simple, regular reading of the Bible alone can accomplish more than any other method.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO BE CRITICAL THINKERS

Continued from previous page

Simple Answer

How do we encourage independent, critical thinking in our kids? There is one simple answer: the Word of God. When I say the Word of God, I’m not referring to books about the Word of God. I’m talking about the Word of God itself—unfiltered. This is why my son argued with his theology professor; she taught speculation; he knew the truth.

God’s Word gives confidence. We can give our kids confidence in their Christian walk by giving them confidence in their Savior, who gives them the powerful Holy Spirit.

My son embodied Psalm 119:99, which says, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.”* Because of his direct approach to Scripture, he had enough confidence to question his professor right in class.

Even if he’d been wrong, one must admire his confidence. But, in this case, he was not wrong, and his professor may have realized it at some point since she gave him an A in the class.

God’s Word gives discernment. Consistent exposure to the truth helps us recognize false teaching. This is discernment. Those who follow Christ and learn his Word will develop discernment. We can help our kids develop discernment by taking the Word at its word and adding nothing.

When our kids were little, we started out with a “family Bible time” where we read from an illustrated children’s Bible.

As the kids got older, we used Keys for Kids devotionals which worked great unless what the authors were saying was wrong. There were times when the authors misused Scripture, took it out of context, and misrepresented what God was saying to us through his Word.

At those times, we corrected the authors. We told our kids what the Bible said, then compared it with what the author said and showed them the difference. Then we reminded the kids the author is just a person and people make mistakes, so we need to always make sure the Bible itself is our final source. This taught them the truth of Acts 17:11 where the Bereans were praised for looking things up for themselves instead of taking someone’s word for the Word.

We eventually abandoned other resources altogether, and for years now we have simply read the Bible and discussed

it together every night at dinner.

God’s Word creates disciples, not clones. Not all Christians look and act the same. Even in the writing of his Word, God allowed for the different personalities and writing styles of each person to show through.

Kids who know the Word are not prone to a “herd” mentality where they are ushered with a crowd and expected to act, think, and look like everyone else. We say we want our kids to be independent, critical thinkers, but we balk at them when they don’t go with the flow or when they stand out from the crowd.

When I became a Christian at age 18 (the first time I ever heard the gospel), church members told me I couldn’t wear pants anymore, and I had to evangelize every Tuesday night, and they gave me a whole list of things I was to do or not

little and need daily guidance just to use a spoon, it’s easy to forget they are God’s, and God may lead them down paths we would not choose for them. They may be called to serve in places we would rather they not go.

As parents, it’s easy to spiritually abuse our kids, in a sense, by teaching them principles that make us comfortable. But, remember, in his day Jesus went against the grain of accepted thinking again and again. His Word still does this today.

Recently, Josh Harris, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, apologized for the book and some things he said at the time he wrote it. Apparently, growing up and actually having a serious relationship taught him a few things. People were abused by others who abused his book. It had very negative effects on others. One statement he said resonated with the thrust of this article, “There is no formula.”

I know one thing from raising eight kids: Their paths aren’t mine to carve out or create. They belong to an all-loving, allsovereign God who is far better equipped than I to lead them in the path of righteousness. Stop looking for formulas. Don’t buy yet another book in hopes it will help you guide your kids. Go to the Word alone. It is a light to their feet and a lamp to their path.

do. As I grew in my faith, I realized these instructions were ridiculous because I couldn’t find them in Scripture.

God, being a gracious, loving, and creative God, allows us to be who he created us to be and have our individual personalities.

Warning: If you raise your kids to be independent, critical thinkers, they will take you out of your comfort zone over and over again. They will quietly balk at traditions and push the boundaries of faith to a frightening point.

Without Speculation or Tradition

There is no magic formula or set of steps for raising kids who are independent, critical thinkers. There’s something so much better: the Word of God. Teaching kids to read and study God’s Word without speculation and without tradition getting in the way is the crux of raising kids.

One thing we must understand is that we don’t own our kids. When they are

The first commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and the second, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” are essential truths we must teach our children. Loving their neighbor as themselves might lead them to a dangerous, Middle Eastern country to fight terrorists . . . it did one of my sons. It might lead them to an inner-city work among gangs. It might lead them to an emergency room as a nurse or doctor where they see horrid things that cause nightmares. It might lead them to a small Midwestern town that needs to be turned upside down by the gospel. It might lead them to be a cop on a late-night beat with danger all around.

In any case it will lead them, and there is no safer place for them than to be where God leads.

Tricia Johnson is a homemaker, freelance writer, and pastor’s wife residing in Beltsville, Maryland.

We eventually abandoned other resources altogether, and for years now we have simply read the Bible and discussed it together every night at dinner.

When Modern Ministry Gets Messy

BY JESSIE CLEMENCE

“Messy” is the only choice for a ministry that opens the door for God’s power to change lives. Here’s a frank look at our situation today, with a challenge to demonstrate attitudes and actions worthy of Christ.

What would you do if you walked into church on Sunday and found a new couple sitting in your usual pew, holding hands and envisioning how lovely their wedding ceremony would look in the room? What if they were both men, or both women?

How would you feel if a transgender person handed you the Communion tray or a bulletin? If the couple behind you leaned forward and told you—honestly

and truly—about their fight last night, explaining how drunk they became, and what happened when the police showed up, what would you say?

I’m guessing you’re having a hard time coming up with a good answer. Don’t worry; I’m also struggling to find the right response to ministry challenges of this current culture. It’s messy. It’s hard. But it’s something we need to address.

As Christians, we say we long to reach

the unchurched, the lost, and the dying. But let’s be honest. If the unchurched really wandered into our doors this Sunday, we’d be surrounded by marriages in shambles, individuals in the middle of a gender change, gay couples who want our minister to officiate their wedding, and families filled with alcoholism, domestic abuse, and poverty.

These are exactly the people Jesus came to reach. We may be squirming with discomfort when we don’t know how to respond well, but I don’t think Jesus did. When he told us to go into all the world and preach the good news, I’m quite sure he knew that one day our contemporary

WHEN MODERN MINISTRY GETS MESSY

Continued from previous page

culture would get very messy, causing our ministry to get very messy at the same time.

New Normal

Things used to be so much tidier when society at least shared some basic beliefs with us. When I was a child in the 1980s, our community was relatively homogeneous. What the church taught was what everyone believed—at least in public. Couples might have lived together before marriage, but at least they felt a little embarrassed about it. And they certainly tried to hide it from their grandmothers. Most members of the community saw unwed parenthood as a problem, and it was basically impossible to find a person in the middle of a gender crisis.

Now these things are common. Celebrated, even. Church teachings have faded into the background, which means individuals from the community will come to our churches with absolutely no idea of what we believe or why it’s important.

They’ve never been told that sex outside of marriage is a sin—they hardly even understand the concept of sin. But when their modern life choices don’t bring them the freedom or peace they need, they will start seeking joy that goes beyond temporary happiness. Let’s not be shocked when they arrive.

We’ll have to start at the very beginning, gently teaching them biblical basics. Does a kindergarten teacher expect her students to begin the school year with a firm grasp of calculus? Of course not! She doesn’t even expect them to have a firm grasp of the alphabet. We’d do well to learn from those teachers and find reasonable expectations for our new attendees.

Is there anything more exciting to us than a new believer coming out of the darkness and into Christ’s beautiful light? But we tend to focus on the future and charge right past where these individuals are in this moment. They’re in darkness, and that darkness is tangled and deeply layered.

That new couple in the back row might not be married because of their legal troubles. Perhaps she’s about to be sentenced to prison and is facing tens of thousands of dollars of restitution. Perhaps he knows his ex-wife will make sure he never sees his children again if she learns he’s marrying a felon.

That’s not a made-up example, by the

way. These are people I know and love. They sat, unmarried, in a pew for a year of Sundays while they waited for her sentencing and imprisonment. They had to move carefully through the ex-wife trouble. It would have been far more comfortable for the church if they’d quickly married, honestly. But these two were terrified. They were facing the very real loss of their careers, children, financial stability, and freedom.

Fortunately for this couple, the church began with the language of love. They didn’t push. They didn’t demand. They supported them through her imprisonment and parole. The church met needs and gave these two the space they needed to gradually come to an awareness of their own sin and need for repentance.

Like this couple, families damaged by our culture’s values are going to have needs. Are we ready to meet them? This

“When you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:3, 4).

God’s kindness has always led us to repentance. Always. He worked that way with his children as they fled from Egypt, as Christ died on the cross, and even now as we wait for the kingdom to be established. He is so gracious to us; we must be patient and gracious with a lost and dying world entangled in sin.

Our Calling

I know this is true, but may I be completely honest? I’m a little afraid of what comes next. I don’t like messy ministry; I like it tidy and simple and fast. But I take comfort in this fact—we’re called to love God, love others, and share the good news. We’re not called to drag others to the cross, ensuring repentance and right standing with God by the end of the service. We serve a patient and gracious God, so we can choose to follow his example.

may mean we have a baby shower for the single mother. It may also mean we take in the transgender teen who has been thrown out of his house. That love and care will open doors and help build relationships that will allow us to share the truth in love.

Clear Truth

We need to speak the truth clearly, of course. The Word still stands, and we don’t change what we believe for the convenience of culture. But we do need to accept that what we believe is light years away from what the modern mind understands. Kindness and patience are our best allies here, giving us credibility to those we hope to reach.

The Holy Spirit isn’t shocked at the darkness of the world. His methods haven’t changed. With all of us, he gently speaks truth into our hearts as we open our lives to his presence. We must remember the Bible challenges us with some pointed questions.

If God meets us where we are and loves us gently until we change, we can extend that same grace to the world that wanders through our doors this week. In fact, I think we should be excited when we face these challenges, because we serve a mighty God who can untangle the messiest of human conditions. We’re given a small role to play in his work in those lives.

That couple I mentioned—the man and woman with the legal and ex-wife trouble—are slowly rebuilding their lives. Their pastor never gave up, gently leading them to a public profession of faith, a baptism, and then a wedding. They’re now serving in their congregation in a way that never would have happened if they’d met a wall of judgment and anger. Change happened slowly, but it happened.

I hope this gives you hope if you walk into your church this week and find a ministry challenge you never expected. There is hope, I promise you. But it most likely comes as relationships are built with kindness and gentleness. A broken, hurting world needs the truth of Christ. We must be ready to show them love where they are, not where we’d like them to be.

Jessie Clemence serves as administrative assistant with Oakland Drive Christian Church, Portage, Michigan.

If God meets us where we are and loves us gently until we change, we can extend that same grace to the world that wanders through our doors this week.

What questions are church leaders asking? And how do their answers lead to questions of our own?

Questions Worth Asking

BY KENT E. FILLINGER

Leading a church is a complex undertaking. The challenges can seem to mount more quickly than answers or resources become available. However, asking good questions is helpful. And asking the right questions as a leader is a game changer.

One question I always ask is, “What can we learn from our annual survey data to apply to life and ministry?” Here are some important findings from key survey questions, and I’ve included some application questions for you and your team to discuss.

One of this year’s survey questions was, “What questions or issues is your church currently asking?”

More than 20 categories of questions and issues emerged from the responses. Here are the 10 most-asked questions from leaders of megachurches (average weekly worship attendance of 2,000-plus) and emerging megachurches (1,000 to 1,999 in weekly attendance).

1. Where is our next location?

The multisite movement continues! These churches continue to ask questions related to starting and growing new campuses. How do we move from a multisite model to a regional movement model? How do we give great customer service to a large network of churches? How do we organize ourselves into campuses? How do we find a permanent location for one of our campuses?

Almost two-thirds of megachurches use a multisite model compared with 31 percent of emerging megachurches. These 58 multisite churches operated 167 different campuses last year. Eleven more megachurches and emerging megachurches plan to start a multisite within the next year.

The attendance and growth rates continue to be higher for multisite churches compared with single-site churches. However, single-site megachurches had better baptism ratios the last two years than multisite megachurches. Even with the addition of more campuses, the five-year average shows that 75 percent of all attendees of these multisite churches still attend the original campus.

2. What is our vision?

Strategic plans and long-range planning are a key emphasis for many churches. Several of these churches have worked with or are working with outside consultants to help them with their vision, mission, core values, and strategies.

3. What is the role of staff?

When 48 percent of your total budget is invested in staffing costs, it makes sense to ensure you have the right people in the right seats on the bus. Although staffing costs remained the same as in 2015, 20 percent of megachurches and 25 percent of emerging megachurches reduced the size of their staffs last year.

4. How do we start growing or keep growing?

Growth questions were common, whether it was how to grow beyond a certain size or how to keep pace with and make room for continued growth.

5. How do we make better disciples?

Improving the onramps and clarifying the pathways for discipleship continues to capture the attention of many churches. One church asked, “What is a disciple who changes the world, and how can we help make that type of disciple?” Our March issue featured an article about Discipleship.org, a new discipleship resource you might want to explore.

6. What does leadership development look like?

Most churches today need to create a clear process for leadership development to increase the leadership pipeline.

7. How can we best reach and serve our community?

Churches want to know how to increase their local impact and grow their outward focus to serve their communities better.

8. How can we make room for more?

Churches are asking the following buildingrelated questions as they continue to grow: Should we build? What should we build? When is the right time to build?

9. How can we better engage and involve our members?

Church leaders used words like move, motivate, engage, and involve with hopes of seeing more people invest, commit, and contribute beyond just showing up for a worship service.

10. How do we fund the vision? Capital campaigns and debt reduction were the most common themes here. Two churches are struggling with the question of how to fund the vision when their people are struggling financially.

A few honorable mention questions included: What are our next steps with succession planning? How do we respond to a changing culture that’s increasingly post-Christian? And how do we show love to those in the LGBT community while embracing God’s truth?

What’s Change Worth?

The bold white letters on the dark Porsche magazine ad caught my eye. The message shouted, “Either you drive disruption or you’re outpaced by it.”

In addition to capturing consistent, historical data each year, I try to ask a few questions that look past the numbers to get a better glimpse into what’s happening in the lives of our churches. One such question this year had to do with the perception of change. I asked, “Do you feel as if your church is changing as fast as the world around us?”

I wasn’t too surprised to find that megachurches were the most likely to say “yes”—63 percent. By comparison, only 33 percent of medium-sized churches (average weekly attendance of 250 to 499) felt they were keeping pace with our changing world. Just over half of the emerging megachurches said “yes.”

When I cross-checked the responses with the growth rates for each church, the answers became more telling. The megachurches who felt they were changing fast enough grew an average of 3.9 percent last year. This growth rate was three times better than for megachurches who felt they weren’t keeping up with the pace of change.

Emerging megachurches whose leaders felt their churches were keeping pace with the changing world grew an average of 4.6 percent, while those who thought their churches weren’t keeping pace with change declined by almost 1 percent last year.

John Maxwell said, “You can change without growing. But you can’t grow without changing.” This statistical snapshot seems to confirm the necessity of both a mind-set for change and for making changes to realize growth.

Application Questions: How can you infuse a culture of change in your church? What changes are you afraid to make as a leader, staff, elders, or a church that could have a positive impact on growth?

Better with Age?

America recently elected its oldest president, and there is still no verdict on the results. But for churches led by guys 60 and older, the verdict is in, and it’s not pretty! Here is the hard to hear—but true—news.

One in four megachurches had a senior leader 60 or older. The same is true for one in five emerging megachurches. The average growth rate for those megachurches

QUESTIONS WORTH ASKING

Continued from previous page

was less than 1 percent. Moreover, the average emerging megachurch with a seasoned leader declined by more than 2 percent last year.

Unfortunately, this slow or declining growth wasn’t a one-year blip! The average growth rate for megachurches with a leader over the age of 60 during the last three years is only 0.5 percent. By comparison, megachurches led by ministers in the 40- to 44-year-old bracket grew an average of 6.8 percent during the same three-year period.

The same story was true for emerging megachurches. The three-year average growth rate for those churches with a leader 60 or older was 1.7 percent, while the growth rate was 7.4 percent for emerging megachurches led by guys in the 40 to 44 age category.

The one bright spot is that megachurches with ministers over the age of 60 had the second best baptism ratio last year at 8.1 baptisms per 100 in attendance. This was bested only by megachurches with lead ministers in the 40–44 age range with a baptism ratio of 8.9.

Application Questions: How should the lead pastor’s role and the leadership structure of the church change as the lead pastor

How can your church engage more with your local community to meet needs in love?

ages and his tenure increases? What should you do now to better prepare for an eventual leadership succession?

How Externally Focused Is Your Church?

Another new question was, “How would you assess the current focus of your church and its ministries?” Respondees were asked to use a scale of 0 to 100 with “0” being

“completely focused internally” and “100” being “completely focused externally.”

Megachurches registered the highest average score at 65. Emerging megachurches were second at 58.

I wondered, What impact does this score have on a church’s growth rate and baptism ratio? I studied the data and found churches that saw themselves as more externally focused grew less, but baptized more. Megachurches that were more externally focused grew 2.8 percent last year compared with 4.2 percent for the less externally focused. The finding held true for emerging megachurches as well. However, megachurches and emerging megachurches that were more externally focused had better baptism ratios than other churches in their groupings.

Application Questions: What shifts can you make in your church focus and ministry priorities to be more externally focused? How can your church engage more with your local community to meet needs in love?

Statistical Snippets from Our Survey

AVERAGE SIZE

Megachurches: 4,898

Emerging Megachurches: 1,358

Combined average weekly attendance: 375,324

GROWTH RATES

Megachurches: 3.4 percent (up from 1.3 percent in 2015); overall, 61 percent of megachurches grew (up from 54 percent in 2015).

Emerging Megachurches: 2 percent (the same as 2015); overall, 61 percent of emerging megachurches grew (up from 57 percent in 2015).

Large churches: 4.3 percent (up from 4.1 percent in 2015); overall, 69 percent of large churches grew last year.

Medium churches: 2.1 percent (down from 3.3 percent in 2015); overall, 62 percent of medium churches grew last year.

FASTEST-GROWING CHURCHES

New City Church, Phoenix, AZ, 23.2 percent

Eastside Christian Church, Anaheim, CA, 23.1 percent

2|42 Community Church, Brighton, MI, 19.3 percent

Northeast Christian Church, Louisville, KY, 19.3 percent

GIVING

Average weekly per-person giving based on general fund only:

Megachurches: $29.46

Emerging Megachurches: $28.81

Large Churches: $29.22

Medium Churches: $28.78

OUTREACH GIVING

Percentage of total budget spent on ministry “outside the walls”:

Megachurches and Emerging Megachurches: 12.9 percent

Large and Medium Churches: 14.4 percent

AVERAGE TOTAL DEBT

Megachurches: $9.27 million, on average (or $1,894 of debt per person, based on average attendance figures)

Emerging Megachurches: $4.0 million. (or $2,952 of debt per person, based on average attendance figures)

BAPTISM RATIOS

(Number of baptisms per 100 people in average attendance)

Megachurches: 7.4

Emerging megachurches: 6.6

Large churches: 5.9

Medium churches: 6.0

HIGHEST BAPTISM RATIO PER 100

Maryland Community Church, Terre Haute, IN, 15.1

Community Christian Church, Hemet, CA, 14.5

Eastside Christian Church, Jeffersonville, KY, 13.6

Kent Fillinger is the president of 3:STRANDS Consulting and director of partnership with CMF International, Indianapolis, Indiana.

2016 MEGACHURCHES Churches that averaged more than 2,000 in weekly worship attendance.

C hrist ’ s C hur C h of the V alley

s outheast C hristian C hur C h

C entral C hristian C hur C h , a rizona

s hepherd C hur C h

C ompassion C hristian C hur C h

t he C rossing 1 2

C rossroads C hristian C hur C h

p ark V iew C hristian in o rland p ark 1

C anyon r idge C hristian C hur C h 3

e astside C hristian C hur C h

r eal l ife C hristian C hur C h

C rossroads C hur C h 3

t raders p oint C hristian C hur C h

r eal l ife C hur C h 3

2|42 C ommunity C hur C h

e ast V iew C hristian C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h 3 5

m ountain C hristian C hur C h

n orthside C hristian C hur C h

t he C rossing , a C hristian C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h of the V alley

s outheast C hristian C hur C h 3

s outh B rook C hristian C hur C h

C ompass C hristian C hur C h 3 4

m ount p leasant C hristian C hur C h

C onne C tion p ointe C hristian C hur C h

i ndian C reek C hristian C hur C h 5

m an C hester C hristian C hur C h 3

C rossroads C hristian C hur C h

p athway C hur C h

n ortheast C hristian C hur C h

l ife B ridge C hristian C hur C h 1

w est s ide C hristian C hur C h 3

n orthside C hristian C hur C h 3

e agle C hristian C hur C h

C entral C hristian C hur C h

g enerations C hristian C hur C h

r i V er t ree C hristian C hur C h 5

t omoka C hristian C hur C h 1 2 3

C ommunity C hristian C hur C h

s herwood o aks C hristian C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h of o ronogo

w hite r i V er C hristian C hur C h 1 2 3

C handler C hristian C hur C h

h ar V ester C hristian C hur C h

P eoria , a

L ouisvi LL e , KY

esa , a Z P orter r anch , ca s avannah , G a Q uinc Y , i L G rand P rairie , t X o r L and P ar K , i L L as v e G as , nv a nahei M , ca c L er M ont , FL

c orona , ca

Z ionsvi LL e , in

v a L encia , ca

B ri G hton , M i

n or M a L , i L

J ac K sonvi LL e , FL

J o PPa , M d

s e LL ers B ur G , in

L as v e G as , nv

s an d i M as , ca

P ar K er , co

M ia M is B ur G , oh

c o LL e Y vi LL e , t X

G reenwood , in

B rowns B ur G , in

i ndiana P o L is , in

M anchester , nh

n ew B ur G h , in

w ichita , K s

L ouisvi LL e , KY

L on GM ont , co

s P rin GF ie L d , i L

F resno , ca

e a GL e , id

w ichita , K s

t rinit Y , FL

M assi LL on , oh

o r M ond B each , FL

F t . L auderda L e , FL

B

L oo M in G ton , in

o rono G o , M o

n o BL esvi LL e , in

c hand L er , a Z

s aint c har L es , M o

d a M ascus , or

d on w i L son

d ave s tone

c a L J erni G an

d ud L e Y r uther F ord

c a M h u XF ord

J err Y h arris

B arr Y c a M eron

t i M oth Y h ar L ow

K evin o dor

G ene a PP e L

J ustin M i LL er

c huc K B ooher

a aron B roc K ett

r ust Y G eor G e

d ave d u MM itt

M ichae L B a K er

J ason c u LL u M

B en c achiaras

G eor G e r oss

s hane P hi L i P

J e FF v ines

P hi L v au G han

c har L ie M c M ahan

d rew s her M an

c hris P hi LB ec K

s teve r eeves

G ar Y J ohnson

B o c hance Y

P atric K G arcia

t odd c arter

t YL er M c K en Z ie

r ic K r usaw

e ddie L owen

d avid r uther F ord

s teve c rane

d avid w e L sh

G re G J ohnson

t ho M as J ason L ant Z

J oe P uttin G

s cott e Y non

t o M e LL sworth

M ar K c hristian

t i M oth

Y B roc K

r o G er s tor M s

d o YL e r oth

G eor G e P owe LL

ccv.church

southeastchristian.org

centralaz.com

shepherdchurch.com

compassionchristian.com

thecrossing.net

crossroadschristian.org

parkviewchurch.com

canyonridge.org

eastside.com

real.life

crossroadschurch.com

tpcc.org

reallifechurch.org

242community.com

eastview.church

christs.church

mountaincc.org

mynorthside.com

thecrossinglv.com

ccvsocal.com

southeastcc.org

southbrook.org

mycompasschurch.com

mpcc.info

connectionpointe.org

thecreek.org

manchesterchristian.com

cccgo.com

pathwaychurch.com

necchurch.org

lbcc.org

wschurch.org

northsidechurch.com

eaglechristianchurch.com

ccc.org

generationscc.com

rivertreechristian.com

tomoka.cc

communitycc.com

socc.org

ccochurch.com

wrcc.org

chandlercc.org

harvesterchristian.org

alcpdx.com

2016 MEGACHURCHES Churches that averaged more than 2,000 in weekly worship attendance.

c r A ig g r AMM er

g len e lli OTT

S HA n M OY er S

S c OTT M A rT in

d A rin M ir A n T e

J AM ie S. A llen

J OH n H AM p TO n

S T ep H en B O nd

, w A

d A n S H ield S

Key to attendance insights (other counts included in overall attendance reported):

1: Includes nursing home worship service(s)

2: Includes prison worship service(s)

3: Includes Internet campus

4: Includes multisite(s) outside of the U.S.

fcclife.me

pantano.church

rmcc.org

fcchb.com

firstchurch.me

centralnow.com

journeychristian.com

summitnv.org

vrl.church

5: Includes church plant(s) in the U.S. or overseas

2016 EMERGING MEGACHURCHES Churches that averaged 1,000 to 1,999 weekly.

C entral C hristian C hur C h

n orthside C hristian C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h 5

t en M ile C hristian C hur C h

l ega C y C hristian C hur C h

o wens B oro C hristian C hur C h 3

F irst C hristian C hur C h

s tone B ridge C hristian C hur C h

C alVary C hristian C hur C h 5

M aryland C o MM unity C hur C h 5

P lain F ield C hristian C hur C h

n ew C ity C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h o F the V alley

C ollege h eights C hristian C hur C h

C atalyst C hur C h

u ni V ersity C hristian C hur C h

r ede MP tion C hristian C hur C h

F irst C hristian C hur C h

w hitewater C rossing C hristian C hur C h

g reen F ord C hristian C hur C h

n orthside C hristian C hur C h

s outh P oint C hur C h

l i F e P ointe C hur C h

r olling h ills C hristian C hur C h

n ew l i F e C hristian C hur C h 3

r i V er g len C hristian C hur C h

C entral C hristian C hur C h C urrent – a C hristian C hur C h

B el O i T , wi

S pring , TX

M ASO n , OH

M eridi A n , id

O V erl A nd p A r K , KS

O wen SBO r O , KY

c HAM pA ign , il

O MAHA , ne

B elle V ue , ne

T erre H A u T e , in

p l A infield , in

p HO eni X , AZ

r OY er S f O rd , pA

J O plin , MO

p HO eni X , AZ

M A n HATTA n , KS

J AS per , in

c A n TO n , OH

c le V e S , OH

g reenf O rd , OH

w A d S w O rTH , OH

T ren TO n , M i

r A leig H , nc

e l d O r A d O H ill S , c A

c HA n T illY , VA

w A u K e SHA , wi

l A nc AST er , c A

K ATY , TX

M A ri O n , l A

g reenw OO d , in

d AV id l c l A r K

d AV id r g A ri SO n

T re VO r d e V A ge

S T e V e M OO re

r eggie l e pp S

S c OTT K enw O rTHY

d A nn Y S c HA ffner , J r

M A r K c H i T w OO d

S c OTT B ec K en HA uer

S c OT l O ng Y e A r

S T e V e w H i T e

B ri A n K ruc K en B erg

B ri A n J O ne S

S Y H uffer

S AMSO n d unn

B A rr Y p A r K

d A rrel l A nd

r YA n r ASM u SS en

d AV id V A ug HA n

S e A n K ellY

r OB in H A rT

B re TT K AYS

d O nnie w illi AMS

J eff B igel O w ( i n T eri M )

B re TT A ndrew S

B en d AV i S

M ATT d u MAS

d A rren w A lT er

J OH n S ei TZ

M ATT g ie B ler

centralwired.com

northsidechristian.com

ourchristschurch.com

tenmilecc.com

lcc.org

owensboro.cc

fcc-online.org

sbomaha.com

calvary.ch

mccth.org

plainfieldchristian.com

newcityphx.com

moviechurch.com

chjoplin.org

catalystaz.com

uccmanhattan.net

redemptionin.com

fcccanton.com

whitewatercrossing.org

greenfordchristian.org

northsideweb.org

southpointccc.com

lifepointechurch.com

rollhill.church

newlife.church

riverglen.cc

centralchristian.org

currentchristian.org

lifeisforliving.org

greenwoodchristian.com

O k O l O na C hristian C hur C h

s alty C hur C h

t hird C ity C hristian C hur C h

t rue n O rth C O mmunity C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h C amden 3

F irst C hristian C hur C h

C O rnerst O ne C hristian C hur C h

n O rthsh O re C hristian C hur C h 3

l akesh O re C hristian C hur C h

r ainier V iew C hristian C hur C h

s O uth r OC k C hristian C hur C h

e ast 91 st s treet C hristian C hur C h

F irst C hristian C hur C h OF d e C atur

J O urney C hristian C hur C h

w hite F lag C hur C h

P ikes P eak C hristian C hur C h

m t g ilead C hur C h

r eal l i F e O n the P al O use

n ew d ay C hristian C h OF P O rt C harl O tte

n O rthside C hristian C hur C h

B r O adway C hristian C hur C h

F irst C hristian C hur C h 1

r i C hw OO ds C hristian C hur C h

F irst C hristian C hur C h

m adis O n P ark C hristian C hur C h

s un C rest C hristian C hur C h

h azel d ell C hristian C hur C h

F irst C hur C h

s e CO nd C hur C h OF C hrist

F O rum C hristian C hur C h

m O sai C C hristian C hur C h

e ast PO int C hristian C hur C h 1

r i V er h ills C hristian C hur C h

w O rthingt O n C histian C hur C h

r i V erlawn C hristian C hur C h

F airm O unt C hristian C hur C h

C O mmunity C hristian C hur C h

C enter P O inte C hristian C hur C h

B lue s P rings C hristian C hur C h

w hite O ak C hristian C hur C h

e astside C hristian C hur C h

w ester V ille C hristian C hur C h

n O rthridge C hristian C hur C h

P inedale C hristian C hur C h

n O rthside C hristian C hur C h

F irst C hristian C hur C h

C a P ital a rea C hristian C hur C h 5

m issi O n V ie JO C hristian C hur C h 1

L ouisvi LL e , KY

o rmond B each , FL

G rand i s L and , ne

B ohemia , n Y

K in G s L and , G a

K ernersvi LL e , nc

s hi L oh , i L

e verett , W a

a ntioch , tn

t acoma , W a

d er BY , K s

i ndianapo L is , in

d ecatur , i L

m id L othian , va

s aint L ouis , mo

c o L orado s prin G s , co

m ooresvi LL e , in

m osco W , id

p ort c har L otte , FL

s prin GF ie L d , mo

m esa , a Z

J ohnson c it Y , tn

p eoria , i L

c ounci L B L u FF s , ia

Q uinc Y , i L

s t . J ohn , in

c arme L , in

o W asso , o K

d anvi LL e , i L

c o L um B ia , mo

e LK rid G e , md

s outh p ort L and , me

L ove L and , oh

c o L um B us , oh

W ichita , K s

m echanicsvi LL e , va

h emet , ca

L i B ert Y t o W nship , oh

B L ue s prin G s , mo

c incinnati , oh

J e FF ersonvi LL e , in

W estervi LL e , oh

m i LL ed G evi LL e , G a

W inston s a L em , nc

Y or K to W n , va

e L i Z a B ethto W n , KY

m echanics B ur G , pa

m ission v ie J o , ca

B i LL G ei G er

r o BB ie o ’B rien s cott J ones

B ert c ra BB e s cott c L even G er

p eter L. K un KL e

c hris v ande L inde

K enneth L on G

r and Y c orde LL

i nterim

r ic K W hee L er

r ic K G rover

W a Y ne K ent

J ames B rummett

p au L W in GF ie L d

d arrin r onde

J e FF F au LL

a aron c ouch

r ust Y r usse LL

W a Y ne B ushne LL

J ohn e na B nit

e than m a G ness

J im p o W e LL

J ed m u LL enix

c huc K s ac K ett

G re G L ee

m ar K W ri G ht

d re W m ent Z er

s cott s uther L and

c ar L K uh L iv

s cott t au B e

J e FF m et ZG er

d avid r o B erson

J e FF i saacs

r ic K r aines

J ohn s cott

s ha W n s prad L in G

d ave F erneau

r ic K s hon KW i L er

d ave h astin G s

G re G B ondurant

m i K e W aers

W i LL iam (B i LL ) m c K en Z ie

L arr Y J ones

s tuart J ones

d on m h ami Lton

m i K e m aio L o

okolonacc.org

salty.org

thirdcitychristian.org

truenorthchurch.net

christschurchcamden.com

fccministries.com

onecornerstone.org

northshorechristian.org

lakeshorechristian.com

rainierview.org

southrockchristian.com

east91st.org

firstdecatur.org

journeyrva.com

whiteflag.church

pikespeakchristian.org

mgchurch.org

liferotp.com

newdaychristian.net

northsidechristianchurch.net

bccmesa.com

fcc-jc.org

richwoods.org

firstchristiancb.org

madisonparkchurch.com

suncrest.org

hdchristian.org

firstchurchok.com

secondchurch.com

forumchristian.org

mosaicchristian.org

eastpoint.church

riverhillscc.com

worthingtoncc.org

riverlawn.org

fairmountchristian.org

community.cc

cpcc.church

bscc.org

thewocc.com

discovereastside.com

wcchurch.life

northridgechristian.com

pinedale.org

nccgrow.com

fccetown.com

capitalareachurch.com

mvcchome.org

Key to attendance insights (other counts included in overall attendance reported):

1: Includes nursing home worship service(s) 2: Includes prison worship service(s)

Includes Internet campus

Includes multisite(s) outside of the U.S.

5: Includes church plant(s) in the U.S. or overseas

2016 LARGE

CHURCHES

CHURCH NAME

J ourney C hristian C hur C h 3

K issimmee C hristian C hur C h

s helby C hristian C hur C h

m ission C hur C h

s outhern h ills C hristian C hur C h

W indsor r oad C hristian C hur C h

C ommunity C hristian C hur C h

o utloo K C hristian C hur C h

W estbroo K C hristian C hur C h

b ettendorf C hristian C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h of f lagstaff

m ount C armel C hristian C hur C h

f air W ay C hristian C hur C h

n e W berg C hristian C hurdh

C onne C t C hristian C hur C h

C hapel r o CK C hristian C hur C h 3

f irst C hristian C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h

C rossroads C hristian C h of J oliet 3

n orth t erra C e C hur C h of C hrist

C ourt s treet C hristian C hur C h 3

g reenville f irst C hrisian C hur C h 1

b oones C ree K C hristian C hur C h

r estore C ommunity C hur C h

d is C overy C hristian C hur C h

g ate W ay C hristian C hur C h 4

C ross W ay C hristian C hur C h

s uburban C hristian C hur C h

b a C helor C ree K C hur C h of C hrist

b right C hristian C hur C h

l in C oln C hristian C hur C h

r a C ine C hristian C hur C h

C apital C ity C hristian C hur C h

p ost r oad C hristian C hur C h

a C ademy C hristian C hur C h

s unnyside C hristian C hur C h

b eaverton C hristian C hur C h

m omentum C hristian C hur C h

C alvary C hristian C hur C h 4

b ridges C hristian C hur C h

t ates C ree K C hristian C hur C h

v i C tory C hristian C hur C h

C hristian C hur C h of C larendon h ills

f irst C hristian C hur C h

f

C hristian C hur C h

C

Churches that averaged 500 to 999 in weekly worship attendance.

G reeley , CO

K issimmee , F l

s helbyville , K y

v entura , C a

C arr O llt O n , G a

C hampai G n , il

n O ttin G ham , m D

m C C O r D sville , in

b O lin G br OOK , il

b etten DO r F , ia

F la G sta FF , a Z

b atavia , O h

t he v illa G es , F l

n ewber G , O r

C O n CO r D , n C

i n D ianap O lis , in

y uma , a Z

e FF in G ham , il

J O liet , il

Z anesville , O h

s alem , O r

G reenville , il

J O hns O n C ity , tn

K ansas C ity , m O

b r OO m F iel D , CO

s t a lbans , wv

n ashua , nh

C O rvallis , O r

w abash , in

l awren C ebur G , in

l in CO ln , il

r a C ine , m O

F ran KFO rt , K y

i n D ianap O lis , in

C O l O ra DO s prin G s , CO

C O l O ra DO s prin G s , CO

b eavert O n , O r

m C D O n O u G h , G a

w in C hester , K y

r ussell , K y

l exin G t O n , K y

F ran K lin , in

C laren DO n h ills , il

C O lumbus , in

n O r FO l K , ne

C O ry DO n , in

h i G hlan D s r an C h , CO

m O rris , il

a rr O n C hambers

J ames C. b OOK

D ave h amlin

m i K e h i CK ers O n

s hann O n l O vela D y

r an D all b O ltin G h O use

D avi D r O bins O n

r O b m C C O r D

m O nt m it C hell

t im s CO tt

C hris r ee D

J O hn “D i D i ” b a CO n

m ar K F essler

D avi D C ase

e ri C p ruitt

C asey s CO tt

J e FF e l Z ey

J e FF m i C hael

m att s ummers

m att m eha FF ey

b en b rys O n

D arryl b O len

D avi D C lar K

t r O y m C m ah O n

s teve C uss

D ave s tau FF er

r O n K astens

m i K e K in G

s O l O m O n D avi D

J e FF s t O ne

r O n O tt O

J O hn s t C lair

s tephen p attis O n

D ennis m C C O nnau G hhay

b ryan m yers

e ri C b attei G er

b art s t O ne

m i K e m C C O rmi CK

K evin F raley

t O mmy s imps O n

J O sh C a D well

m atthew r OG ers

t im D e F O r

r an D y K ir K

K en h ensley

s CO tt Z O rn

journeychristian.org

kissimmeechristianchurch.org

shelbychristian.org

missionventura.com

sohillscc.com

windsorroad.org

communitycc.net

outlookchurch.org

westbrookchurch.org

bettendorfchristian.com

ccof.church

mtcarmelchurch.org

fairwaycc.org

newbergcc.org

connectchristianchurch.org

chapelrock.org

fccyuma.org

christschurch.com

crossroadsofjoliet.org

ntcoc.org

courtstreet.org

greenvillefcc.org

boonescreekcc.org

restorecc.org

dc2.me

gatewaychurch.net

crosswaycc.org

suburbanchurch.com

bachelorcreek.com

brightchristian.org

lincolnchristianchurch.org

racinechristian.org

capitalcitychristian.org

prcconline.com

academychristian.org

sunnysidechristian.com

bcc.org

momentumcc.org

calvarychristian.net

bridgeschristianchurch.org

tatescreek.org

victorycc.life

ccch.org

fccoc.org

fcnorfolk.org

firstcapitalchristian.org

mountainviewfamily.org

fccmorris.org

2016 LARGE CHURCHES Churches that averaged 500 to 999 in weekly worship attendance.

CHURCH NAME

H azelwood C H ristian C H ur CH

K aimu K i C H ristian C H ur CH

l ega C y C H ristian C H ur CH

l ife P ointe C H ristian C H ur CH

n ort H side C H ristian C H ur CH

C ross P oint C H ristian C H ur CH

m iamisburg C H ristian C H ur CH

V alley V iew C H ristian C H ur CH 1

V alley V iew C H ristian C H ur CH

C lifton C H ristian C H ur CH 2

o a K wood C H ristian C H ur CH

H ig H land C H ur CH of C H rist

n ew l ife C H ristian C H ur CH

w entz V ille C H ristian C H ur CH

g alilee C H ristian C H ur CH

P res C ott C H ristian C H ur CH

C orint H C H ristian C H ur CH

m adison C H ristian C H ur CH

r ise C ity C H ur CH

P ar K side C H ristian C H ur CH

b elmont C H ristian C H ur CH

H i K es P oint C H ristian C H ur CH

t win o a K s C H ristian C H ur CH

t ri -V illage C H ristian C H ur CH

s out H s ide C H ristian C H ur CH

o rr V ille C H ristian C H ur CH

l ibby C H ristian C H ur CH

H armony C H ristian C H ur CH

l eesburg C H ristian C H ur CH

H o P e C ity C H ur CH

t H e C ar P enter ’ s C H ristian C H ur CH

w est V alley C H ristian C H ur CH

r estoration P ar K C H ur CH

r inggold C H ur CH 1 5

s eymour H eig H ts C H ristian C H ur CH

J essamine C H ristian C H ur CH

n ort H side C H ristian C H ur CH

a rea 10 f ait H C ommunity

d iamond C anyon C H ristian C H ur CH 1 5

C ommunity C H ristian f ellows H i P

s eymour C H ristian C H ur CH

w oodland H eig H ts C H ristian C H ur CH

i ndian H ills C H ristian C H ur CH

w ildewood C H ristian C H ur CH

t H e V illage C H ristian C H ur CH 3

f irst C H ristian C H ur CH

C layton , I n

H onolulu , HI

S eno I a , G a

e lk G rove , C a

W arren S bur G , M o

C ape C oral , F l

M I a MIS bur G , o H

l I ttleton , C o

e d G e W ood , n M

C l IF ton , C o

e n I d , ok

r ob I n S on , I l

b ella v IS ta , ar

W entzv I lle , M o

J e FF er S on , G a

p re SC ott , az

l o G anv I lle , G a

G roveport , o H

l ake SI de , C a

C I n CI nnat I , o H

C H r IS t I an S bur G , va

l ou IS v I lle , ky

W ood H aven , MI

p ata S kala , o H

S pr I n GFI eld , I l

o rrv I lle , o H

l I bby , M t

G eor G eto W n , ky

C ynt HI ana , ky

J opl I n , M o

H arrod S bur G , ky

W e S t H I ll S , C a

M ed W ay , o H

H a G er S to W n , M d

S ey M our , tn

n ICH ola S v I lle , ky

b roken a rro W , ok

r ICHM ond , va

d I a M ond b ar , C a

S I loa M S pr I n GS , ar

S ey M our , I n

C ra WF ord S v I lle , I n

d anv I lle , ky

p ap I ll I on , ne

M I nooka , I l

S andpo I nt , I d

S tevan r an S on

r on a rnold

r oy r ober S on

C H r IS d el FS

S I d t I ller

J e FF S W ear I n G en

M I ke t uttle

G ene b arron

b randon S H a FF er

r o G er F er G u S on

e r IC k eller

S H ane b opp

J oe W I ll I a MS

k e I t H C o M p

n IC k v I pper M an

J a S on p r IC e

a da M t urner

p aul b arne S

b randon G rant

b art S teever

J a M e S “ b eaver ” t erry

J e FF W alla C e

r andy W H eeler

p aul M. S noddy

b rook S W I l S on

J o H n M ulpa S

p HI l a l S pa W

b I lly S trot H er

S a MM y H arr IS

C ody W alker

G re G W arren

r ob d enton

r andy W arner

d on C onley

H arold e k e C k

W ally r endel

J u S t I n C arpenter

C H r IS b arra S

J a M e S p r IC e

p atr IC k C alla H an

b I ll l o C k M an

t ony t H o M a S

J IM C ooper

r on W y M er

n ate F er G u S on

S C ott l er WIC k

hazelwoodchristian.org

kaimukichristian.org

legacysenoia.org

lifepointe.org

northsidechristianchurch.com

crosspointcape.com

exploremcc.org

valleyviewcc.net

valleyviewnow.org

cliftonchristianchurch.com

myoakwood.org

hccrobinson.com

newlifenwa.com

wentzvillecc.org

galilee.org

prescottchristian.com

corinthchristian.org

madisonchristian.org

risecitychurch.com

parksidechristian.com

belmontchristian.org

hikespointchristian.com

twinoakschristian.com

tri-village.org

southsidechristian.com

orrvillechristian.org

libbychristianchurch.com

harmonychurch.cc

leesburgchristianchurch.net

experiencehopecity.org

carpenterschristian.com

wvcch.org

restorationpark.church

ringgoldchurch.com

seymourheights.org

jessaminecc.com

northsideonline.com

area10church.com

diamondcanyon.org

ccfconnect.com

seymourchristian.com

whcc.us

ihccdanville.org

wccomaha.com

thevillagechristianchurch.com

1stchristian.com

Key to attendance insights (other counts included in overall attendance reported):

1: Includes nursing home worship service(s)

2: Includes prison worship service(s)

3: Includes Internet campus

4: Includes multisite(s) outside of the U.S.

5: Includes church plant(s) in the U.S. or overseas

CHURCH NAME

W ilmington C hur C h of C hrist

s outh u nion C hristian C hur C h

t he C rossing C hur C h

f irst C hristian C hur C h of m alvern

m C C ook C hristian C hur C h

C rossroads C hristian C hur C h

P lum C reek C hristian C hur C h

C entral C hur C h of C hrist

W oodland h ills C hristian C hur C h

C hristian C hur C h at C ogan s tation

v alley m ills C hristian C hur C h 1

W ilkinson C hur C h of C hrist

n orth W est C hristian C hur C h

s unbury C hristian C hur C h

t W o r ivers C hur C h of C hrist

f airfield C hur C h of C hrist

g reen C astle C hristian C hur C h

C reekside C hristian f ello W shi P

P oin C iana C hristian C hur C h

P omona C hristian C hur C h

k alkaska C hur C h of C hrist

i m Pa C t C hristian C hur C h

g randvie W C hristian C hur C h

e ast P ointe C hristian C hur C h

C entral C hristian C hur C h

f irst C hristian C hur C h

C entral C hristian C hur C h

o gilville C hristian C hur C h

e lm s treet C hristian C hur C h

l ega C y C hristian C hur C h

f irst C hristian C hur C h

C hilho W ie C hristian C hur C h

b edford a C res C hristian C hur C h

g ethsemane C hur C h of C hrist

n orthvie W C hristian C hur C h

t aylorville C hristian C hur C h

C am P bellsville C hristian C hur C h

i ndian C reek C hristian C hur C h

m omentum C hristian C hur C h 3

e ast W in C hristian C hur C h

f irst C hristian C hur C h

C ross P oint C hristian C hur C h

d ela W are C hristian C hur C h

l ife P ointe C hristian C hur C h

f ifth a venue C hristian C hur C h

W ilmington , o H B loomington , in

atavia , o H m alvern , o H

c c ook , ne

acon , mo

utler , k Y

S treator , il

a B ingdon , va

c ogan S tation , Pa

i ndiana P oli S , in W ilkin S on , in a c W ort H , ga

S un B ur Y , o H n e W B ern , nc F air F ield , o H

g reenca S tle , in n eedville , t X

k i SS immee , F l

P omona , mo

k alka S ka , mi

W oodland P ark , co

J o H n S on c it Y , tn

B lacklick , o H

S t P eter SB erg , F l

n e W P H iladel PH ia , o H

P ortale S , nm

c olum B u S , in

o lne Y , il

l akeland , F l

e van S ville , in

c H il H o W ie , va

P ari S , k Y

m ec H anic S ville , va

d anville , in

t a Y lorville , il

c am PB ell S ville , k Y

c Y nt H iana , k Y

g ar F ield H eig H t S , o H

m em PH i S , tn

g reeneville , tn

c on Y er S , ga

d ela W are , o H

t oano , va

H avre , mt

l amar , mo

d ale m c c ami SH

J im c ain

k enn Y W H ite

k enn Y t H oma S

c lark B ate S

m att S tieger

d oug H artle Y

r or Y c H ri S ten S en

P aul v ier S

m ark a . B eard

B o B B eltz

r Y an m c c art Y

J a Y r ice

m ic H ael d . B ratten

d avid m c c ant S

B rian S c H rei B er

J o H n t i S c H er

g reg g arcia

m ark a tte B err Y

m arcu S a llen

a nd Y B ratton

S cott P ark

a aron W Y mer

c H ad W ick k ellen B arger

r ick F ranz

J im B orton

d on t H oma S

m artin W rig H t

c a S e Y k leeman

S teve n e W land

J err Y c lark

F rank B ran S on

m itc H ell m c i nt Y re

B ill W ine S

n at H an r ector

J ame S c . J one S

r odne Y B ooe

c H ad B roaddu S

d an S mit H

J e FF W H itlock

S cott W ake F ield

c urt z e H ner

S am r o S a

P H illi P m urdock

F rank d onato

i nterim

wcconline.org

southunioncc.com

cometothecrossing.com

fccmonline.org

mccookchristian.church

maconcrossroads.com

plumcreek.org

centrallive.net

whcc.info

cccschurch.com

valleymillscc.org

wccin.org

nwcc.net

sunburychristian.com

tworiverschurch.com

fairfieldchurchofchrist.com

greencastlecc.org

creeksidefellowship.org

poincianacc.org

pomonachristian.com

kccwired.com

impactcc.net

grandviewchristian.org

eastpointe.cc

centralstpete.com

fccnewphila.org

centralwired.org

occtoday.org

elmstreetchristianchurch.org

legacychristian.com

fccevv.com

chilhowiechristianchurch.com

bedfordacres.com

gethsemanechristians.org

northviewchristian.org

taylorvillechristian.com

campbellsvillechristianchurch.com

indiancreekchristian.com

momentumchurch.com

eastwin.org

fccgreeneville.org

xpt.cc

dccwired.org

lifepointechristian.net

fifthavenuechristian.com

fcclamar.org

CHURCH NAME

C i C ero C hristian C hur C h

n i C holson C hristian C hur C h

P as C o C hristian C hur C h 1 2

n orthglenn C hristian C hur C h

l in C oln h eights C hristian C hur C h

a valon C hur C h of C hrist

r i C hwood C hur C h of C hrist

l ake r idge C hristian C hur C h

f irst C hristian C hur C h

n orton C hristian C hur C h

t onganoxie C hristian C hur C h

B atesville C hristian C hur C h

C enter B urg C hur C h of C hrist

C hur C h of C hrist at M anor w oods

P arkview C hristian C hur C h

d owney f irst C hristian C hur C h

v erve C hur C h

h orizon C hristian C hur C h

n ew C ity C hur C h of la

v intage C ity C hur C h

v ernal C hristian C hur C h

h uron C hristian C hur C h

u nion C hristian C hur C h

g rinnell C hristian C hur C h

f irst C hristian C hur C h 1

r eunion C hristian C hur C h

f irst C hristian C hur C h

t roy C hristian C hur C h

n ovesta C hur C h of C hrist

B rady l ane C hur C h

C anvas C hristian C hur C h 3

g ardenside C hristian C hur C h

f ortville C hristian C hur C h

u niversity C hristian C hur C h

M illers B urg C hristian C hur C h

C hrist ’ s C hur C h of M arion C ounty

s outh f ork C hristian C hur C h

o ak P ark C hristian C hur C h

n orthfield C hur C h of C hrist

C a MB ridge C ity C hristian C hur C h

s arasota C hristian C hur C h

C herokee h ills C hristian C hur C h

C i C ero , i N

i N depe N de NC e , KY

p as C o , W a

N orthgle NN , C o

p hoe N ix , a Z

V irgi N ia B ea C h , Va

r i C h W ood , oh

p aris , il

t itus V ille , F l

N orto N , K s

t o N ga N oxie , K s

B ates V ille , i N

C e N ter B urg , oh

r o CKV ille , M d

F i N dla Y , oh

d o WN e Y , C a

l as V egas , NV

V alri C o , F l

l os a N geles , C a

h i CK or Y , NC

V er N al , ut

h uro N , sd

t erre h aute , i N

g ri NN ell , ia

r oa N o K e r apids , NC

B osto N , M a

K e W a N ee , il

t ro Y , oh

C ass C it Y , M i

l a Fa Y ette , i N

C u MM i N g , ga

l exi N gto N , KY

F ort V ille , i N

M u NC ie , i N

M illers B urg , oh

o C ala , F l

V ero N a , KY

g ro V er B ea C h , C a

F ort d odge , ia

C a MB ridge C it Y , i N

s arasota , F l

o K laho M a C it Y , o K

a da M C olter

l arr Y t ra V is

C hu CK r odgers

d a V id t rout M a N

C hris r oussi N

C hris M C C arth Y

M atthe W C raig

N ate a lexa N der

M i C hael C assara

l arr Y l l Y les

r oss F ris B ie

s te V e Y eato N

d ar YN d a W es

d YK e M C C ord

N eil N orhei M

d a V e s M ith

V i NC e a N to N u CC i

d a N s to FF er

K e V i N h aah

C ro CK ett d a V idso N

M art Y Y ou N g

a l W ager

t odd W. p a Y to N

B ra N do N B radle Y

B a N e a N gles

C hris h all

J oseph l s C h M idt

M ar K M ess M ore

B rad s peirs

J e FF K eller

s ta N p er C i V al

r i CK B urdette

r o B r igs B ee

s te V e h uddlesto N

W es M C e lra VY

d a V id B ello W s

B o B h ight C he W

M i K e g u N derso N

d ale h arlo W

d a NNY B err Y

l ee r o B iso N

C harles C urra N

cicerochristianchurch.org

nicholsonchristian.org

pascochristian.com

northglenn.cc

lincolnheights.church

avalonchurch.com

richwood.church

lakeridgechurch.org

fcctitusville.com

nortoncc.com

tongiecc.org

batesvillechristianchurch.org

centerburgchurchofchrist.com

manorwoods.com

parkviewfindlay.org

downeyfirst.com

vivalaverve.org

gohorizon.org

newcitychurchla.com

vintagecitync.com

vernalchristianchurch.com

huronchristianchurch.com

unionchristianchurch.org

grinnell.cc

fccrr.org

reunionboston.com

kewaneefirstchristian.org

troycc.org

novestachurch.org

bradylanechurch.org

canvaschristian.org

gardensidecc.org

fortvillechristian.com

universitychristianchurch.com

millersburgchristianchurch.com

ccomc.org

southforkchristianchurch.org

oakparkchristian.org

northfieldchurch.org

cambridgecitychristianchurch.org

sarasotacc.org

cherokeehillschristian.church

Key to attendance insights (other counts included in overall attendance reported):

1: Includes nursing home worship service(s)

2: Includes prison worship service(s)

3: Includes Internet campus

4: Includes multisite(s) outside of the U.S.

5: Includes church plant(s) in the U.S. or overseas

A Different Spirit

BY TIM HARLOW

Different can be a synonym for “weird.” “She’s kind of different” usually means, like, not in a good way. The elevator doesn’t go to the top floor. One taco short of a combination platter. Not the brightest crayon in the box.

Every generation of teenagers talks about how they want to be “different,” and then they go buy the same labels and wear the same styles and listen to the same music as everyone else. “Herd Mentality” is a psychiatric term describing the fact that we’re basically not much better than animals that don’t like to go outside the group. In animal terms, straying from the herd might mean being picked off by a predator. Basically, it’s the same in human terms, I guess. Different can be painful.

I am not a Cubs fan, but I’ve worked in Chicago for 27 years now so I know that Cubs fans are different. As a Cardinals fan, I used to poke fun at Cubs fans every year. But while I’m not a fan of the Cubs, I am a fan of Cubs fans! I mean, how much dedication did it take to get up every April and put on your Cubs jersey, hoping that this would be “next year,” only to have your hopes dashed every September (OK, more like August) for 108 years in a row?

Such dedication involved both craziness and faithfulness. How hard is it to be a Yankees fan? Since the first World Series in 1903, 24 percent of all games in the Fall Classic have included a Yankees team! For that matter, it doesn’t take that much faith to be a Cardinals fan. I’ve rejoiced plenty in October. You gotta give them credit— Cubs fans deserved a “W” in 2016 . . . they are different.

What does it mean theologically to be different? Billions of people call themselves fans of God. Plenty of churches claim to be followers of Jesus.

“Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it” (Numbers 14:24).

A different spirit.

God wasn’t calling Caleb a dull crayon. It was a compliment. And his differentness came with a reward, because God rewards those with a different faith while everyone else wanders around in the desert. “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

And fully committed to him is different.

Willing to Risk

The backstory on Caleb, in case you don’t know, is this: “Twelve went down

to spy on Canaan. Ten were bad and two were good.” Can I get a witness? Did anyone else sing that song in Sunday school?

Caleb was among the 12 spies sent into the promised land on an Israelite scouting expedition. “Some saw giants big and tall—some saw God was over a . . . a . . . all.” The two good spies were Joshua and Caleb.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We

Sure, I serve God wholeheartedly. But even then, sometimes it’s easy to see giants instead of what he wants me to do for him.

A DIFFERENT SPIRIT

Continued from previous page

can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored (Numbers 13:30-32).

The people didn’t want to be different, and so they trusted in the advice of the majority, grumbled against God, and were punished by wandering the desert for 40 years. The majority of spies were wrong. However, Joshua and Caleb’s different spirit allowed them to see God’s amazing plan unfold.

Holy cow! (Cubs pun intended!)

Is there modern application for you, your leadership, your family, and maybe your church?

The verse that says Caleb “has a different spirit and serves me wholeheartedly” just keeps replaying in my head.

I guess those two things go together. I

feel like I’m serving God wholeheartedly, but it’s so easy to fall back into “the giants are so big” paradigm, that it’s not even funny.

What risk are you afraid of taking right now because everyone else thinks it can’t be done?

Maybe it’s time to be . . . different.

Oswald Chambers wrote,

So many of us limit our praying because we are not reckless in our confidence in God. In the eyes of those who do not know God, it is madness to trust Him, but when we pray in the Holy Spirit we begin to realize the resources of God, that He is our perfect heavenly Father, and we are His children.

Caleb had a “we can do this” spirit. A “God is able to do immeasurably more” spirit (Ephesians 3:20).

Caleb saw the giants. He knew his available resources. But unlike everyone else, he didn’t neglect to add the Godfactor.

ill-fated attempt to keep David, God’s anointed, off the throne.

BY RANDY GARISS

The Unexpected Place Setting

It must have seemed an odd table. David was king of Israel, and when he sat down to eat he had his family and his sons. As king, he naturally would have included some friends and perhaps a favorite servant or two. And also a crippled man by the name of Mephibosheth.

The backstory has all the human interest we can handle. Years before, Saul had been the king and he had made the young David’s life miserable—repeatedly attempting to cut it short! Saul’s despotic life and desperate panic were all an

The story gained additional intrigue and depth when King Saul’s son, Jonathan, whom the world would have expected to inherit his father’s throne, chose to love David like a brother. Jonathan had seen God’s hand on David and swore to the former shepherd that, when the time came, he would support David’s kingship and not his father’s claims.

Jonathan never got the chance.

King Saul and Jonathan were killed in a battle with the Philistines, and David became king.

A little time passed, and David inquired, “Is there anyone of Saul’s or Jonathan’s family left?” That question typically would have struck terror across the land, for it normally would have come from the darkest corner of a ruler’s heart. When the king of a different family takes power, you see, members of the former king’s family historically are killed, thus eliminating all potential threats to the current reign.

There was one member of King Saul’s family left—a grandson, a son to Jonathan. He was severely crippled,

having been dropped as a baby. David summoned this grandson of his former enemy. With what must have been unimaginable fear, Mephibosheth limped into the throne room. The conversation went like this: “‘Don’t be afraid,’ David said to him, ‘for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table’” (2 Samuel 9:7).

And so there he is. Mephibosheth at the king’s table. Can you imagine the nightly meals?

“Can we eat yet?”

“No son, we are not all here yet.” And then the sound of crutches can be heard as a crippled man slowly crosses the room and sits down among the sons.

The king’s table is not complete until Mephibosheth is at the table.

And that is why I am at this table. It is precursor to my story. From the family of an enemy to the table of the king, it takes one’s breath away.

Randy Gariss serves as the director of the Life and Ministry Center at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri.

Tim Harlow serves as senior pastor with Parkview Christian Church, Orland Park, Illinois.

I feel like I’m serving God wholeheartedly, but it’s easy to fall back into “the giants are so big” paradigm.

5 Questions about New Ideas

BY JOE BOYD

There is something about springtime that makes all things new. Winter can be a cold and gray marathon to endure, especially for those of us on the East Coast and in the Midwest. But then comes life. Every April and May I find myself full of new ideas.

And I should say that I love new ideas. They are like catnip for my soul. As a movie producer, I have no shortage of people pitching story ideas to me. Some of them are quite interesting. I want to pursue more of them than I should.

I needed to create a system to help me determine when a new idea is worth investing my time and resources. I came up with these five questions I ask myself almost every day. Maybe they can help you if you find yourself itching to do something new this spring.

Five questions to ask when you encounter a new idea:

1. Is this new idea consistent with my life mission?

The older I get, the clearer my purpose becomes. I want to partner with others to tell stories that spark hope in the world. Some new ideas sound fun or profitable, but they don’t help me get there. I may still indulge in a new idea that is “off mission,” but with the realization that it probably won’t last when more integrated ideas come around.

Off-mission ideas are a form of creative adultery. If you flirt long enough with new ideas that aren’t true to the core mission of your life, you will eventually find yourself cut off from what you know you’re called to do.

2. Can this new idea be absorbed into a current idea?

Some new ideas fit perfectly into something I am already doing or dream-

ing about. If a new idea fits into a current idea, it jumps way up the list of possibilities for me. At that point, it is less of a new idea and more an answer to a question I didn’t even know to be asking.

3. Will I be frustrated if this idea is wildly successful?

I have learned to say no to new ideas that seem interesting only if they aren’t successful. For instance, I recently turned down an audition for a regular role on a TV series. (I’m also an actor.) I would have gladly read for a smaller part in this show, but had I actually landed a regular role in the series, it would have disrupted everything good in my life now. It would have been a massive distraction. Ten years ago it would have been my dream job, but I had to remind myself that it’s not the main thing I want to do anymore.

4. Whom do I know who could better serve this idea than me?

I used to think, “Whom do I know who can help me do this idea?”

Now I think more about gifting the idea to someone who can bring it to life with or without my help. Both of us usually end up a lot happier this way.

5. Will I regret not following this idea?

The projection of a future state of regret is a defining factor in how I make decisions. If I look into my future and know I will constantly be asking, “Why didn’t I pursue that idea?” then it’s a problem. When it comes to my creative and professional life, I’d pick regretting doing something over regretting doing nothing every single time.

For those of us in ministry, whether vocationally or as a volunteer, deciding when and when not to pursue a new idea can have real and everlasting consequences in the lives of those we serve. Ultimately, through prayer and meditation, God gives us wisdom to lead. Hopefully these five questions can help you the next time you find yourself discerning whether to say yes or no to a new opportunity.

Joe Boyd is founder and president of Rebel Pilgrim Productions, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Springtime always stimulates new ideas for me. But I’ve learned I should pursue only some of them.

FROM MY BOOKSHELF

Other Worlds, Fond Memories, and Lessons

BY LEROY LAWSON

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum

Grand Haven: Brilliance Audio, 2016

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World

Edward Dolnick

New York: HarperTorch, 2011

OK, go ahead and laugh. Here I am, a great-grandfather, hanging on to every word of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, without a child nearby to provide cover for me. Maybe there’s truth in this “second childhood” charge after all.

Or, the hypothesis I prefer, maybe there’s something special about the story. Like most persons of my generation, I already knew the plot. I saw the movie. I fell in love with Judy Garland and her impossible friends: the cowardly lion, the heartless tin man, the scarecrow with no brain, and Toto, her irrepressible dog. But I had never read the book.

It’s even better than the movie.

Strictly speaking, I still haven’t read the book. I listened to actress Anne Hathaway read it. She doesn’t just read, either; she dramatizes, her amazingly versatile voice playing all the parts. Each character comes distinctly, vividly alive. She held this second-childhood admirer spellbound.

Like most of the best children’s books, this one is for adults too. And not just as an invitation to indulge our imaginations again, which it does offer, but because it raises age-old issues like good and evil, mercy and grace, love and sacrifice, and the meaning of friendship. Since it purports to be a children’s book, it catches adults unaware. We think we are simply revisiting a magical land of our childhood—and we are—but then we are surprised to discover ourselves pondering life’s most important values.

good, I’m not even embarrassed to admit I liked it.

Emerging Secularism

Edward Dolnick’s The Clockwork Universe takes us back to filthy, disease-ridden, God-fearful, 17th-century London, where a handful of “mad scientists” (for so the Royal Society members appeared to their less curious contemporaries) peered through telescopes and squinted through microscopes and dissected whatever they could get their hands on, trying to figure out how everything works. It was a paradoxical time, a deeply religious culture

Edward Dolnick assembles a cast of eccentrics—Isaac Newton included—who are almost as interesting as their discoveries.

giving birth to the secularism that finally buried it.

Dolnick assembles a cast of eccentrics who are almost as interesting as their discoveries, their feuds and controversies a good reminder that the 21st century holds no monopoly on political infighting and its appalling meanness.

They lived in an even meaner, more dangerous age. People died young then, taken away by plagues, religious wars, fires, and murder (the homicide rate was five times our own).

Amid this chaos, the earliest members of the Royal Society, men (only men in those days) like Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Samuel Pepys, and Isaac Newton,

The Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient

Landscape

James Rebanks

New York: Flatiron Books, 2015

sought order and truth by conducting rudimentary experiments (some of them life-threatening).

Most—but not all—of them worked on the premise that the best metaphor for explaining how the world is run is a clock. That theory had serious theological implications, of course. Once God had made and wound the clock, what else was there for him to do?

Isaac Newton’s discovery of the governing mathematical rules fueled the debate. His further discovery of gravity raised the stakes even higher. Newton himself never wavered in his belief in God’s sovereignty; he meant his work to glorify God. The unintended consequence of the discoveries of Newton and his fellow Society members, however, has been to shove God to the edge, where there is, in the opinion of some, nothing for God to do.

I am not of that opinion.

Encroaching Modernity

Reading James Rebanks’s The Shepherd’s Life took me on a sentimental journey back home. Knowing Joy and I would be including the United Kingdom’s famed Lake District in our Next Phase (our term for our post-retirement wanderings), friends gave us a copy so we would be ready to see what we would see. It did that; it also excavated long buried scenes from my childhood.

The author’s graphic descriptions of shepherding are what did it. My maternal

L. Frank Baum’s classic tale is so

The Best Sermon I’ve Ever Heard

BY ARRON CHAMBERS

Christian leaders, some of them preachers themselves, tell us about a sermon they can’t forget— and maybe you won’t either.

Kevin Wise was raised in the church but lived in the world. After two years in college, he left school to party and deal drugs for a couple of years. He then returned to college, where he took anatomy and physiology classes that made him more aware of a designer and creator. As he studied the Bible, his life totally changed. He became a minister and served with the North County Church of Christ in Escondido, California, for 20 years and with The Metro Church in Denver, Colorado, for 12 years. He has since moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, to be a support for his son who now serves as a minister with Shiloh Christian Church.

Kevin’s Best Sermon: The best sermon I’ve heard regarding Easter is “Easter Unsealed” by Rick Atchley, the preacher at The Hills Church in Dallas, Texas. It is available at http://bit.ly/2kZxi0T.

Why Kevin likes this sermon: “Rick’s sermons are very biblical and practical. This sermon points out how God removed the seal and brought Jesus back to life. Easter unseals death for us, and it unseals the power of evil and the devil. Easter is a shadow of our future! The sermon ends with people giving testimonies about how God has unsealed sin and death for them.”

KJ Tencza

KJ Tencza, a graduate of Milligan College, is a pastor at Christ Community Church in Greeley, Colorado, a beekeeper in the Northern Plains, a bow hunter in the Rocky Mountains, and a storyteller in the local coffee shops. KJ and his wife, Yendra, have two adventurous children, Zion and Yara. As a family, their motto is “Find the sacred in the simple.”

KJ’s Best Sermon: One of the best sermons I have heard on the topic of practical implications of Christian living is “Shining Like Stars in the Sky” by Matt Krick, senior pastor with Bay Marin Community Church in San Rafael, California. The sermon can be heard at http://baymarin.org/resources/sermons/shining-like-stars-in-the-sky/.

Why KJ likes this sermon: “‘Shining Like Stars in the Sky’ speaks directly to the call and heartbeat of the Christian looking for direction on how to live, think, and pray in today’s systems and culture. The sermon is deeply rooted in Scripture. Krick addresses current conflicts and internal struggles one might feel living as an American Christian in the 21st century.”

Jeff Rosenberry

Jeff Rosenberry grew up in a Christian home in Kokomo, Indiana. He attended Milligan College in Tennessee and later Cincinnati Bible Seminary in Ohio. After dabbling in the ski industry for a few years, Jeff has spent the last 18 years doing ministry, mostly as a student pastor, in Colorado and Southern California. In 2006, God blessed Jeff with a beautiful wife, Sarah. The couple have been blessed with two beautiful daughters, Brooklyn and Olivia.

In October 2014, God laid it on the couple’s heart to plant a church. Nearly two years later, on September 11, 2016, Revive Christian Church had its grand opening in Loveland, Colorado. Revive is a church on a mission to “help people far from God come to LIFE in Christ.”

Jeff’s Best Sermon: The best sermon I have ever heard on the importance of reaching people for Jesus, titled “Lost Sheep,” is from Jeff Vines, lead pastor with Christ’s Church of the Valley in San Dimas, California. The sermon can be viewed at www.ccvsocal.com/watch/ detail/85/.

Why Jeff likes this sermon: “This sermon spoke the things God had already laid on my heart for Revive, and it was delivered exactly when I needed to hear it. This message ignites and encourages passionate commitment to loving people where they are, no matter how their story reads; it points them to Jesus.

Tony Sullivan

Tony Sullivan has been a Christian for 57 years. The Atlanta Christian College graduate has done additional studies at Cincinnati Bible Seminary. He was in full-time evangelism for many years and has been the evangelist with the Lester Road Christian Church, Fairburn, Georgia, for 15 years. He has served as an associate evangelist with the Christian Restoration Association for the past 23 years. He and his wife, Suzanne, will celebrate their 50th anniversary this June.

Kevin Wise

“Easter unseals death for us, and it unseals the power of evil and the devil. Easter is a shadow of our future!”

THE BEST SERMON I’VE EVER HEARD

Continued from previous page

They have two sons and seven grandchildren.

Tony’s Best Sermon: The best sermon I’ve heard on being courageous in the Christian life is “Courageous Christians” by Glen Bourne, former president and professor at Florida Christian College (now Johnson University Florida). The sermon can be heard at http://bit.ly/2jiXp2O.

Why Tony likes this sermon: “Glen gives three reasons we should not have a spirit of timidity in our lives as Christians. He peppers his message with several solid

illustrations that make it educational, enjoyable, and challenging.”

Jeff Walling

Jeff Walling serves as a teaching pastor with Shepherd Church in Porter Ranch, California, and directs the Youth Leadership Initiative at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Jeff’s Best Sermon: Landon Saunders delivered what I consider the best sermon for a young preacher’s heart more than 30 years ago. Listen to the sermon, titled “The Wolf,” at www.youtube.com/

OTHER WORLDS, FOND MEMORIES, AND LESSONS

Continued from page 56

grandfather was, among other vocations, a shepherd. I visited his spread in Eastern Washington only once, but the memories linger. He was a gentleman shepherd. His son-in-law actually did the hard work. As I recall, the venture didn’t last many years. Joy’s grandfather, on the other hand, was a shepherd for much of his life. You’d think we’d like lamb dishes, but we don’t.

Rebanks is the son of a shepherd who was the son of a shepherd. Three generations of Rebankses populate these pages. He inherited, but he also chose this life; he dreads how encroaching modernity is threatening it. He traces the roots of sheepherding in the Lake District back to the beginning of recorded history; nothing much changed from millennium to millennium until the 19th century. That’s when three prominent authors called outsiders’ attention to it—and that hasn’t been so good for it.

The famous romantic poet William Wordsworth was the first. He remains a looming presence. His memory is en-

shrined in residences in Grasmere (the famed Dove Cottage) and Rydal Mount and in his birth home in Cockermouth. His name alone draws tourists by the thousands every year.

Beatrix Potter of Peter Rabbit fame adds to the crowd. She was herself a shepherd, buying up several farms in the Lake District. Rebanks treats her with the respect due one’s own kind.

Alfred Wainwright devoted most of his life to trekking over and meticulously sketching more than 200 fells (hills). He published his work in a seven-volume tome, A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, an enormous labor of love.

Together these three altered the culture they strove to preserve. Rebanks tries not to resent us tourists too much, since we help pay the bills. But as he rightly complains, we simply don’t know and can’t fully appreciate the shepherd’s life. He wrote this book to educate us.

I mentioned my grandfather’s brief foray into shepherding. My other grandfather probably didn’t know the first thing about sheep, but he could have written a book about cows. Because of him I grew up in dairy country in a town widely known for its cheese, Tillamook, Oregon. (More than once Delta Airlines has garnished our meal with Tillamook cheese. Obviously a

watch?v=DbJvHx8nXOM.

Why Jeff Likes This Sermon: “This sermon was from a series of lectures on preaching done at Abilene Christian University. Many have told me how they remember and were touched and challenged by it. I certainly was.

“Landon addresses the wolf in sheep’s clothing that lurks within all of us. It’s good for anyone who gets to stand before people and try to speak for God.”

Arron Chambers, a Christian standard contributing editor, serves as lead minister with Journey Christian Church, Greeley, Colorado.

quality airline!) So I grew up with cows.

When Rebanks describes the labors of a shepherd’s life, its rhythms dictated by the passing of the seasons and the welfare of the flock, I think of the farmers I have known whose days are equally chained to rituals: milking and breeding and calving and haying. Life for them is about the birth-and-death cycles of the animals, about mud and muck and manure, about the cold and wet and racing to harvest and store the winter’s hay before rains ruin the crop.

Like Lake District shepherds, Tillamook farmers have had to adjust. Modernity encroaches; conglomerates swallow up farms too small to compete. Some still eke out a living; others had to give up—to give up the farming, but not the love of farming.

This columnist, who never became a real farmer, understands Rebanks’s love of the life. And like him, I hope it never disappears.

LeRoy Lawson serves as international consultant with CMF International.

best practices

COMPILED BY MICHAEL C. MACK

Staff Conflict 12 Root Causes

“There is a lot of church staff conflict out there,” says Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. He says his e-mail box is full of these stories and he receives far too many social media messages about it. But why? Rainer has discovered 12 key reasons for conflict among church staff members.

1. Lack of training. Many staff members have not been adequately trained in leadership and relational skills.

2. Lack of input. Church staff members did not have a say in selecting their fellow team members. As examples, a lead minster inherited the staff or a selection committee chose the lead or other staff members.

3. Poor chemistry.

4. Unaligned priorities and strategies among staff members.

5. Jealousy and insecurity.

6. Clear insubordination. “I will lead my ministry the way I want to lead it, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” (Perhaps the core issue is the “my ministry” mind-set!)

7. Unhealthy alliances. Rainer says when staff members form these precarious alliances, it is “akin to hostile political parties always seeking to win their way.”

8. Poor communication. This may stem from staff members not spending enough time together in formal and informal settings or a senior minister not getting buy-in for an idea, for instance.

9. Work-ethic discrepancies. One staff member works 60 hours a week while another works 30. Resentment is likely to build when they are peers and earn similar incomes.

10. Blame. When staff members attack each other rather than taking appropriate responsibility, conflict is sure to occur.

11. Thwarted or frustrated solutions. For instance, a senior minister meets with the elders or personnel committee to deal with a staff member who is defiant, lazy, or has ethical issues, but they refuse to take action because any proactive solutions “would not be the Christian thing to do.”

12. Consistent lack of appreciation for one another. Unhealthy leaders do not regularly show appreciation for others, which then leads to unhealthy relationships and conflict. Healthy leaders consistently appreciate others.

—For more on this topic, see Thom Rainer’s blog post, “12 Key Reasons for Church Staff Conflict” (http://thomrainer.com/2016/10/ twelve-key-reasons-church-staff-conflict). Also, listen to his podcast, “12 Ways to Handle Staff Conflict” (http://thomrainer. com/2016/11/12-ways-handle-staff-conflict).

Ministering to Moms on Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day, and the weeks surrounding it, is a prime time to minister to the needs of moms in the community. Here are six ideas you can use:

• Teen Moms: Partner with a local teen or crisis pregnancy center to provide basic necessities, such as nursing and newborn supplies, a rose, and a signed Mother’s Day card.

• Refugee Families: Contact a local organization that serves refugees to discover their needs, especially for moms in these families. Assemble care packages of gift certificates, groceries, and housewares, for instance, as well as a Bible and Mother’s Day card.

• Young Moms: Work together with a nearby day care center (or your church’s day care ministry) to send home a small care package and card of encouragement. Include gift cards for personal care or other niceties.

• Single Moms: Women who are part of a small group or class can team up with groups for single (or any) moms, to offer occasional free childcare, help with grocery shopping, or just to meet for lunch or over coffee to chat and enjoy some girl time.

• Military Moms: Start a support group for military families. These families often live far from other family members; if so, small groups or classes can “adopt” them to help provide support, encouragement, and care.

• Moms Who Want to Serve: Develop ministries with moms in mind. Ideas: Provide childcare close to the place of service. Keep serving times short. Make serving opportunities fun and relational. Get moms involved in serving other moms!

How to Balance Humility with Confidence in Ministry

“We can all list well-known preachers who fell victim to an affair, pornography, embezzlement, or drugs or alcoholism, primarily because of arrogance,” says Bob Russell in his newest book, After 50 Years of Ministry: 7 Things I’d Do Differently and 7 Things I’d Do the Same. “We start believing we are someone special. We think we’re above the rules and become easy targets for the enemy.”

Russell suggests three ways ministry leaders can avoid arrogance:

1. Embrace the humbling experiences God brings into your life. Instead of resenting embarrassing moments, welcome them as reminders of your humanity.

2. Stay close to Christ. The closer you are to Christ, says Russell, the more aware you are of your own sinfulness and inadequacy. That’s why Paul wrote that he himself was the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). At the same time, Russell advises, stay balanced. “Some [people] go to extremes and don’t take advantage of the leadership role God has given them.”

3. Remember, there’s a place for proper dignity, authority symbols, and leadership perks. A church leader needs to be esteemed and loved, Russell says. “The idea of leading from behind is mostly a myth.”

Russell quotes Sir Laurence Olivier, who, when asked what it took to be a great actor, responded, “Humility enough to prepare and confidence enough to perform.”

That’s the balance ministry leaders need, says Russell. “Enough holy fear to remain dependent on God every day; yet enough confidence in our Divine call that we remain strong and courageous no matter how challenging the assignment.”

—Adapted from “Balancing Humility and Confidence—Every Leader’s Challenge,” at BobRussell.org.

best practices

Every Person in Your Church Is Already in a Group!

Every person is already in a group, but it may not be the group you have in mind.

People are in groups called families, friends, coworkers, neighbors, soccer moms, and many others. If your question is, “How are these church groups?” I want to suggest you change your question to, “What can these groups do intentionally about their spiritual growth?”

When pastor Troy Jones of New Life Church, Renton, Washington, invited 2,500 adults to gather their friends for a sixweek study, 300 adults responded to lead a group. At first glance, hundreds and hundreds of people immediately “joined groups.” But the truth is, they were already in these groups. The addition was a sermon-aligned curriculum, on-the-job training, and a support structure to help them, but, overall, these groups weren’t strangers who became friends. They were friends becoming closer to each other and closer to God.

I’ve seen this happen in churches of 50 members and churches of more than 20,000, but I initially didn’t recognize groups in this way.

I began learning about this way of envisioning groups at a gathering of church leaders. I listened as Brett Eastman from LifeTogether and Kent Odor, who at that time was serving with Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas, shared how they had connected large numbers in their congregations in a relatively short period of time. I heard how groups could multiply without dividing. I learned how people overlooked in recruiting would actually start some of the best new groups.

I realized the only reason my church had been stuck on a plateau of 30 percent involvement in small groups was because of a mental block. It was like back in the 1950s when everyone said no one could ever run a four-minute mile. It was just a dream. Then, on May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3:59.4. After that,

many runners broke that barrier. Four minutes wasn’t a physical barrier. It was a mental block.

Our church had just broken the “four-minute mile.” Churches could actually start groups that would involve the majority of the congregation and then reach their communities through community!

This wasn’t about numbers, though. One man named Ken invited his coworkers to join him for a study. Two of them accepted Christ.

A guy named David was asked, “What motivates you to continue your group?”

“My dad showed up,” he replied.

Because of a painful experience years before, David’s dad had turned his back on church. But though he refused to walk through the church doors, he was willing to attend a small group meeting at his son’s house. That was his first step back toward God.

Our small groups began to reach out beyond the congregation. Groups served hot meals to the homeless every Friday night. One lady took the study to a local women’s shelter. Groups met in coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, community rooms at apartment complexes, homes, and even on a commuter train. Once we gave our people the freedom to form groups in more flexible ways, they became very creative about the groups they would lead.

—Allen White, adapted from Exponential Groups: Unleashing Your Church’s Potential. Get more information at allenwhite.org/ exponential-groups-book.

#Ministry Tweets

Have a ministry tweet to share? Please tag @MichaelCMack, #BestPractices. We may use it in a future issue.

“God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not by how many people serve you!”

—@DanielLucas

“The crowds Jesus spoke to KNEW what he could do, but his small group (disciples) DID what he could do. ‘Even greater things’ #discipleship”

—@Dustin_Woodward

“Hardest part about ministry? Having a warm and open heart yet thick enough skin around it to protect it from haters and debaters.”

—@MistrtdYouthGuy

“Sometimes the only way healing begins or even concludes is by serving others.”

—@leighgray

“Wise is the leader who is not too proud to let others help him.”

—Jim Hughes, @4248

“Disciples, on an intentional transformational journey, attract not yet believers because of the change they see in their Christ-like lives.”

—@Nelson Roth

5 Ways to Keep Your Youth Ministry Fresh and Inspiring

“Youth ministry may be more of a calling than a job,” says veteran youth ministry practitioner Rachel Blom, “but that doesn’t mean it can’t get somewhat monotonous. When you keep doing your thing year after year, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut.”

To keep youth ministry fresh and exciting for both the youth minister and the students, Blom gives these five rut-busting ideas:

1. Attend a conference. While a big youth conference may be an obvious choice, Blom also suggests other more general or more specific conferences where you can learn, be refreshed, and be inspired.

2. Change your spiritual habits. A ministry rut may be pointing to a spiritual rut. Change your spiritual routines. Try a new spiritual practice. Find new ways to connect with and abide in Christ.

3. Visit other youth ministries. Find a church (or tour several) that is similar to yours but takes a different approach to youth ministry.

4. Try one new thing. Rather than throwing everything out and starting over when you hit a rut (which usually backfires and makes people in your ministry very cranky), try changing one thing at a time and see how that triggers new opportunities.

5. Examine your heart. Why are you clinging to ministry methods that aren’t working? Are you going through other big life changes, so you’re keeping your ministry as routine as possible? Ask yourself, “What’s at the core of this rut?” Discontent? Burnout? Fear? Tiredness? “Be honest with yourself and dare to look inside,” Blom says, “knowing that God loves you, no matter what.” Don’t forget that doubt is normal, and so are struggle, fear, being overwhelmed or tired. “It starts with acknowledging it—and then allowing God to show you the way out.”

—Adapted from “5 Ways to Get Out of a Youth Ministry Rut” on YouthWorker. com. Rachel Blom has been involved in youth ministry for more than 15 years in several countries. She’s a writer, speaker, blogger, and the author of Storify: Speaking to Teenagers in a Post-Christian World

The Social Side of Best Practices

Try changing one thing at a time and see how that triggers new opportunities.

Securing a Future

BY JERRY HARRIS

What’s going on with the Christian Standard and The Lookout? As a pastor of a church and a founding board member of The Solomon Foundation, I was interested in the answer to that question. Both magazines have been staples of the Restoration Movement from early on, and I, like many, had assumed they would always be there.

When I heard in our board meeting the Christian Standard and The Lookout could be shut down because their owners had found no buyers for them, I was deeply troubled. The chairman of the Publishing Committee had informed Doug Crozier, CEO of The Solomon Foundation, that earlier negotiations to purchase the magazines had proven fruitless. The timeline for response was extremely short, and it would nearly take a miracle to pull it off.

Doug presented the situation to the The Solomon Foundation board and, with their approval, investigated whether it could be done. The board members agreed that owning these magazines was beyond the scope of what extension funds do, but there was also a strong desire to keep these symbols of our fellowship and unity speaking out. After careful review, the board decided to move forward with the purchase.

A new not-for-profit, Restoration Movement Media, was set up for the transition. Now, for the first time in 62 years, Christian Standard and The Lookout are owned by the Restoration Movement!

Finding a Leader

With Mark Taylor’s looming retirement, the next hurdle was to find someone who would lead these magazines into a bright future. It’s one thing to own a magazine but quite another to run it. That was when five different leaders from our movement (Doug Crozier, Barry Cameron, Don Wilson, Dennis Bratton, and Mike Nave) spoke with me individually about being that person. I already have a great responsibility in helping to lead a large multisite church like The Crossing, but the confidence these men expressed in me was not to be brushed aside. After some processing and prayer, I came back to Doug with these stipulations:

mon Foundation/Restoration Movement Media as owners. During this stage, Restoration Movement Media would seek board members not attached to the foundation.

Stage 2: As the magazines were able to produce a positive cash flow, the foundation would move to the role of benefactor, seeing to it the magazines remained stable as their base and subscriptions were rebuilt. Restoration Movement Media would then begin a process of using its positive cash flow to repay the foundation for its investment, with interest.

You will see a number of changes in the July issue of Christian standard, my first issue as publisher.

Stage 3: As the initial investment was paid off, The Solomon Foundation would become a contributor, stepping back from control. Restoration Movement Media would be an independent ministry.

Stage 4: Finally, with all of The Solomon Foundation’s investment completely repaid, with interest, the foundation would be completely disconnected from ownership of the magazines. Its only involvement with the magazines would be as an advertiser like the many other ministries whose messages appear in the magazine’s pages.

Doug, the TSF board, and the newly formed Restoration Movement Media board were very happy with this proposal.

Accepting the Privilege

1. I would lead these magazines while continuing my work with The Crossing.

2. I would take no salary from the magazines, as that is already being provided by my church. (I wanted there to be no conflict of interest in the eyes of my elders. However, The Solomon Foundation has set up a rabbi trust for me.)

3. The Solomon Foundation would relinquish ownership of Restoration Movement Media, Christian Standard, and The Lookout when they were able to stand on their own.

I presented a four-stage process to Doug: Stage 1: Initially, the magazines would operate with The Solo-

With these stipulations in place, I accepted the privilege of being the new publisher for Christian Standard and The Lookout. You will see a number of changes in the July issue of Christian Standard, my first issue as publisher. Those who attend the NACC will receive a complimentary copy of this newly remade magazine.

In next month’s article, I will explain what you can expect with Christian Standard’s new look and approach, and I hope that you, like me, will take advantage of subscribing to this old friend and share it with your congregations.

Jerry Harris, pastor with The Crossing in Quincy, Illinois, assumes full duties as publisher of Christian standard with its July issue.

Photo ©Abby Harris

Jerry Harris (left) has been named publisher of Christian standard, replacing Mark Taylor on July 1.