Christian Standard | July/Aug 2024

Evangelism and Discipleship: Evangelism Comes First

The word evangelism seems to have fallen out of favor with many in church circles these days and been replaced with the word discipleship. I believe this change to be a relatively new phenomenon in our movement.

Recently, we scanned and archived issues of Christian Standard going back to 1966. During that process, something that jumped out to me was the frequent use of the word evangelism—or something synonymous with it—in most of those issues. I read much about “personal evangelism,” “soul-winning,” “witnessing,” and “sharing your faith.” These words frequently highlighted news of spring and fall revivals, church crusades (another word that has fallen out of favor), canvassing neighborhoods or-door-to door evangelism, evangelism explosion, gospel tracts, Vacation Bible School, etc. References to discipleship seemed to be nearly entirely missing. Why?

Churches of the evangelism era dedicated a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money to a deeper

understanding of God’s Word and Christian lifestyle through such activities as Sunday school. Adult relationships formed around Sunday school class identity. Classes named themselves to honor that desire; some examples include Noble Bereans, Faithful Followers, and Truth Seekers. These classes typically became involved in missions and community-based ministry. Time was carved out every Sunday to meet. Many had their own budgets and purchased their own study materials. Much of the cost of church buildings was dedicated to classroom spaces for education in God’s Word.

Children and teens had their own classes, their own curriculum, Sunday or Wednesday evening Bible clubs, Bible Bowl, Youth Sundays, and much more. They “did life” together this way. Every service ended with an invitation to come to Christ, be baptized, join the church, or to rededicate oneself to their faith. My point is this: even though the word discipleship wasn’t often used, it was exactly what was happening . . . and it was comprehensive.

Most in our churches today have no understanding or recollection of those days.

The church growth movement ushered in much larger congregations and a greater focus on the worship and preaching experience. As the concept of small groups that meet in homes was adopted, church architecture changed, and Sunday school classes and classrooms were largely consigned to history.

Many have criticized these changes by saying such things as, “Many churchgoers are consumers rather than committed,” “Churches are making converts but not disciples,” “Churches are a mile wide but an inch deep,” “Small groups are just group therapy,” and “We are more biblically ignorant than we’ve ever been.”

Those criticisms aren’t completely off-base, so it makes some sense to emphasize discipleship.

Evangelism First

However, I don’t believe that discipleship should be emphasized at the expense of evangelism. In fact, I would contend that evangelism comes first. You can evangelize someone but fail to build them into a disciple, but you can’t make a disciple unless you evangelize them first!

I have seen some react to evangelism as if it’s only a part of discipleship, and I’ve seen evangelism de-emphasized to the point that we don’t even ask people to come to Christ during our church services anymore.

Church leaders who separate evangelism and discipleship can cause a church to become inwardly focused instead of fully embracing the Great Commission. “Going” and “baptizing” precede “teaching” in Jesus’ command, and it pains me to see churches with healthy worship attendance numbers in our movement but scarcely any baptisms.

A Worthy Goal

Do we set goals today for how many our church should be evangelizing in a given year? As I look at our church

reports, I see that many churches achieve a 10 percent ratio of baptisms to regular attendance . . . some even more! What a great goal to aim for!

Do we train people to share their faith personally? Personal evangelism was a required class at Ozark Christian College when I attended, and part of the homework was to actually share one’s faith and then write a report on it. Do we model sharing our faith during invitation times at church? Do we witness and celebrate it in public confession and baptism? Many churches today have done away with the invitation; some say it might be too confrontational or that it uses up too much time. I will paraphrase the words of James, the Lord’s brother: “Maybe we do not have because we do not ask” (James 4:2). We are what we celebrate!

Evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel, either public or private, and that gospel is the foundation of disciple-making. Our Lord said a house should be built on a solid foundation. If a church’s foundation is Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the gospel, its construction will survive the circumstances of life. A foundation serves little purpose if we do not build upon it. It is like Jesus’ illustration of an unfinished tower in Luke 14:28. Foundations are laid so that structures can be built on them, and in the church setting, discipleship is that structure. As the gospel is freely given and received, a foundation in the gospel is provided without cost. Discipleship, however, comes with great personal cost. The result for those who fail to count that cost is only ridicule. 

Jerry Harris is publisher of Christian Standard Media and teaching pastor at The Crossing, a multisite church located in three states across the Midwest.

@_jerryharris /jerrydharris

CHRISTIAN STANDARD

FOUNDED 1866 BY ISAAC ERRETT

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

team

Jerry Harris, Publisher

Shawn McMullen, Editor

Jim Nieman, Managing Editor

Abby Wittler, Designer

Renee Little, Operations

Allison Harris, Marketing + Advertising

Christine Reiner, Customer Service

Subscription Information

To order Christian Standard for yourself, your church, or your group, visit christianstandard.com or contact Customer Service. Bulk pricing is available.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

720.598.7377

info@christianstandardmedia.com

Volume CLIX. Number 4 Christian Standard (ISSN 0009-5656) is published every other month by Christian Standard Media at 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Periodicals postage paid at Parker, CO, and additional offices.

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.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Christian Standard Media, 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Phone: 1-720-598-7377.

SUBSCRIBERS: Send address changes to Christian Standard, 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Send old and new addresses, complete with zip codes, at least six weeks before delivery date.

ChristianStandardis published by Christian Standard Media, www.christianstandardmedia.com.

Email: cs@christianstandardmedia.com Website: www.christianstandard.com

Copyright ©2024 by Christian Standard Media

Printed in USA

Steve

Dave

Gary Johnson

A New Religion— ‘Enlightenized Inclusified Guruism’ Tyler McKenzie

I’m Next, I’m Now, I’m Ready Rudy Hagood

‘Preaching With No Regrets’ Chris Philbeck

Steve

LeRoy

Hope for a Movement

While working on a research project for a seminary degree, I visited Bethany, West Virginia, home of Bethany College. The school was founded in 1840 by Alexander Campbell, more than two decades before West Virginia became a state.

Having studied the history of the Restoration Movement as an undergraduate student, I felt well acquainted with Campbell. But despite all I knew about him, I wasn’t prepared for the connection and admiration I would come to feel toward this Christian leader.

My visit began with a tour of the Alexander Campbell home. I walked through the formal parlor where Campbell and Margaret Brown were married in 1811. Years later, in 1854, family and friends gathered in the same room for the funeral of Alexander’s father, Thomas Campbell. I stood in the expansive dining room where the Campbells entertained guests—national dignitaries and common travelers.

I walked the grounds and stepped inside the brick study Campbell built outside his home in 1832. I stood

at his desk, looking up at the hexagonal skylight that illuminated the little building, and thought how only time separated me from this spiritual giant who labored here for decades writing books, preparing for debates, and editing The Millennial Harbinger.

I visited God’s Acre, the Campbell family cemetery. I stood at Thomas Campbell’s graveside. I read the inscription on the marble monument to Alexander Campbell: “In Memorial, Alexander Campbell, Defender of the faith once delivered to the saints.”

With each new experience I felt a growing closeness to the man I had once known only through books, articles, and class lectures.

I left the family cemetery to visit the Bethany College campus. As part of my research, I had made arrangements with the college archivist to view the Campbell collection. Expecting access to only a few key items, I was overwhelmed by the opportunity she presented to me. I found myself in a small room, holding in my hands aging sheets of yellowed paper—Alexander

Campbell’s class notes taken while a student at the University of Glasgow. She then unlocked a glass bookcase, giving me access to Campbell’s personal library. I read from his Bible and leafed through several books and commentaries he regularly used in his studies.

In those moments, holding in my hands some of the very works Campbell held in his, I felt a special affinity toward him. It was as if, in some way, I was reliving history. I felt awe and gratitude for the man and his ministry. My experience put me in touch with the history of the Restoration Movement in a more meaningful way than I had known before. And I’m grateful for it.

This issue of Christian Standard, the final issue in a series of three, focuses on the future of the movement Campbell helped to launch. In preceding issues, we looked at our past and asked ourselves what we’ve learned. From there we looked at our present and considered where the past has led us and how we’re currently stewarding the opportunities God is giving us. This issue addresses what’s ahead for our movement. It’s filled with encouragement, a healthy dose of reality, and hope.

• In addition to his regular column, our publisher, Jerry Harris, has written an overview of the foundational principles of the Restoration Movement—key commitments we must keep as we move into the future.

• John Dickerson explains the vision he has cast for the church he leads to help each new generation of believers form a biblical worldview as they chart their futures.

• Steve Poe points us to the nature of truth and the importance of pursuing God’s truth in a culture that increasingly values its own truth.

• Dave Stone challenges us to share the beauty and simplicity of the Restoration Plea with churches that are desperately seeking it.

• Orpheus Heyward reflects on the unity Christ prayed for and encourages us to live it out among the various streams of our movement.

• Phil Claycomb shows how our growing regional church-planting movement is leading us into a season of vibrant growth and discipleship.

• Steve Brooke writes about his own experience in coming to Christ and addresses ways our churches can prepare to minister to the growing number of “nones” in our culture.

• At our request, several current and emerging leaders in our movement have written short essays on our future.

• And finally, LeRoy Lawson, seasoned preacher, leader, discipler, and writer, concludes with a message of hope for the Restoration Movement.

Back to Bethany. As I pored over the books and papers in the Campbell room, a painting on the wall caught my attention—a portrait of “the sage of Bethany” with Campbell’s own inscription at the bottom. It read:

Yours in the hope of immortality, A. Campbell

In a way, the inscription summarizes for me what the Restoration Movement is about, and why its future matters. We’re not perfect—as a movement, as a fellowship of congregations, or as individual believers. But we’ve discovered solid and simple ways to view God’s Word and to be the church. And as we continue faithfully on this path, more and more people in this world will share in the hope of immortality. 

@shawn.a.mcmullen

/shawn.a.mcmullen

e 2:effective elders

Future-Thinking Elders

By Gary Johnson

This issue of Christian Standard focuses on “future thinking” when it comes to the Restoration Movement. At e2, we are convinced of the vital role elders play in the local church, which means elders must be forward in their thinking and leading.

Before we can do future thinking as elders, we need to briefly look at present-day elder leadership. To help us do so, e2 just completed a survey of hundreds of elders serving in our churches across the country. The elders who responded varied in age (from their 30s to 80s), church size (from smaller churches to megachurches), location (from rural to urban), and in education (from high school graduates to people with doctorates).

The 2024 survey is not the first one we have conducted. We did similar surveys of elders in 2018 and after the arrival of COVID in 2020. In analyzing the results from all three surveys, it appears elder leadership is trending in the right direction. Since the initial survey six years ago:

• New elders are being onboarded with increased care and preparation.

• Elders are being trained to lead more effectively.

• There is increased relationship health between elders and lead ministers.

• Elders have a high degree of fulfillment from serving in this leadership role.

• There is a growing concern among aging elders who serve multiple years because of an empty leadership pipeline—and they are now recruiting potential elders.

• Elders want to focus more on pastoral care, evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development, while spending less time on financial matters, “putting out fires” between congregants, micromanaging staff, and attending irrelevant elder meetings.

Asking What’s Next

For elders to move the church forward, they must think forward. Future thinking is a leadership skill that frequently is unused or undeveloped. Yet, throughout the Scriptures, we see examples of exceptional forward thinking. I call these examples “Kodak moments.” For those of us who are older, a heartwarming gathering of friends and family would often warrant taking a picture, which we called a “Kodak moment.” The Bible (i.e., God’s family photo album) is filled with such snapshots depicting the “what’s next” of forward thinking.

• Noah had to think “what’s next” when it came to building the ark; he had to cut the trees, make the planks, design a feeding and watering system for animals, etc.

• Joseph had to ask “what’s next” when it came to tilling and planting every available acre of ground, building and storing record harvests, developing an accounting system to distribute grain, keeping millions of people alive during a seven-year famine, etc.

• Nehemiah examined the debris from Jerusalem’s destroyed walls and gates, and then strategically thought through “what’s next” in the rebuilding of those walls, section by section, in only 52 days.

• Jesus told his disciples they would receive power from the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses beginning in Jerusalem, then move strategically into Judea, then into Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Even the creation account in Genesis 1 reveals God moving forward from day-to-day in his speaking the universe into existence. Moreover, having been made in his image (Genesis 1:26-27), we have the capacity to think forward, and only then will we be able to move forward as elders.

divine discontent

Are we content with mediocrity and satisfied with the status quo? Do we ache to be more effective in our leadership efforts? Is there a longing within us to be more biblical in our behavior as elders? Do we think there is a better way to lead the church for which we are accountable? After all, “Those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).

How we think determines how we lead. Nothing will change if we think nothing needs to change. We will be mired in mediocrity. If we think there is nothing new to be learned, we will be anchored in age-old ministry methods (think flannelgraphs and hymnbooks). Deep inside, each elder should have a divine discontent wherein we are never satisfied with how we are leading the local church. We should long to be relevant as we live on mission to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

desired destination

Whether traveling on vacation or merely running errands, it is common to use a phone’s GPS app. All we need is to input the destination’s address and press

“go,” and every turn for our drive is mapped for us. More often than not, the GPS will guide us to our desired destination.

At e2, we coach elder teams through a PFE, a preferred future exercise (I even do this annually for myself and call it a “life map.”) The PFE can revive, energize, and compel an elder team to become what they have always dreamed of becoming. Elders can use these five steps in developing their preferred future.

1. On a whiteboard, record words that describe your elder team one year from now.

2. Narrow the list down to no more than seven words.

3. Using these words, compose one or two sentences (at most) that describe your team at the end of the year.

4. Develop a step-by-step process to move your elder team to achieve your preferred future.

5. Someone on the elder team must take ownership of leading the team to this desired destination.

Every elder team is part of Team Jesus. Every elder team’s lone opponent is the kingdom of darkness. If you want help putting together a preferred future plan, give us a call or drop us a note (www.e2elders.org).

Elders who think forward move the church forward. 

about the author

Dr. Gary Johnson served 30 years with Indian Creek Christian Church (The Creek) in Indianapolis. He is a cofounder of e2: effective elders, which he now serves as executive director.

A New Religion—‘Enlightenized Inclusified Guruism’

By Tyler McKenzie

I n 2005, sociologist Christian Smith coined the term moralistic therapeutic deism. It went viral before viral was a thing. The term summarized his extensive research on the core religious beliefs of American teenagers.

• Moralistic—God wants me to be kind and good.

• Therapeutic—God’s will is for me to feel happy.

• Deism—God isn’t really necessary until I face problems.

He found that while many teens claimed to be Christian, their beliefs weren’t. In 2005, I was 19 and his summation felt true. Fast-forward 19 years, we are now the twentysomethings and thirtysomethings rising to leadership, parenting the kids, and exercising influence. How have we changed? Well, it’s complicated. Many of Smith’s conclusions hold true, but a lot has changed. I have come up with my own updated term for how our religious perspectives have evolved—I call it enlightenized inclusified guruism (or EIG).

Are these real words? No. But topics like this need a little levity. Let me explain. Statistics show that in Western nations there is a considerable slide out of orthodox Christianity, especially among young people. What are we sliding into? Enlightenized inclusified guruism It seems to be the final destination of the deconstruction script young adults are following. I have loads of empathy for the deconstructors out there. (I’ve written about this previously in Christian Standard; see “Wrestling with Deconstruction and Doubt” from January/ February 2022.) I, too, have gone through painful seasons of working through every tenet of orthodox faith. I preface my argument in this way because what I say next may feel critical, but I assure you my heart is filled with compassion.

The Deconstruction Script

I think the “deconstruction” phenomenon into an EIG faith is a cultural script. It’s a coming-of-age script where young adults doubt the dusty and closed-minded faith they inherited in childhood and then grow beyond it. It gives youth a sense of independence from—we might even call it superiority over—their parents as they come through the identity formation season of young adulthood. I call it a coming-of-age script because it has become trendy and young people are following it without questioning it. It is made to feel edgy, but it’s everywhere. It isn’t authentic, it’s culturally conditioned.

There are lots of scripts out there that people subconsciously absorb. Let’s illustrate this with something uncontroversial.

When I was a kid, women wore high-waisted jeans and men wore cargo pants. They were cool. I had some cargo pants. They had like seven pockets, including the signature buckets on the legs that you could store tools, water bottles, and other fun activities in.

Then . . . all the sudden . . . they weren’t cool anymore. The shock! SNL was doing sketches on “mom jeans” and my cargos went into the Goodwill pile. What happened? I’m not sure who decided. The illuminati? Jay-Z? Young Taylor Swift? Either way, they were ridiculed ruthlessly.

Then . . . fast-forward 10 years to the 2020s, and guess what . . . they are cool again! Youths, I love you, but I feel like y’all think you discovered something. You didn’t discover nothing! You followed a fashion script that your momma and daddy wrote years ago!

Deconstruction is a script too. I recently read an essay articulating the common characteristics of deconstructionto-deconversion announcements. They come from young adults via Instagram. The photograph is usually a selfportrait gazing in the distance or a shot from behind as the person stares into nature. The caption is a long selfnarrative beginning with phrases like “I never thought I would be saying this . . .” or “It’s terrifying to post this . . .” They proceed to describe their faith using words like evolving, journey, authentic, and free.

Then there are a set of specific beliefs that these people take issue with. They cite them as the reasons why they are leaving the faith or the beliefs they have decided to move beyond. I’ve put them in two categories:

1. “I’m too smart to believe in” . . . the Bible’s trustworthiness, miracles, the divinity of Christ (“he’s just a really nice teacher of love”), a literal resurrection, or really anything supernatural.

2. “I’m too kind to believe in” . . . hell, biblical sex ethics and gender codes, atonement theory, or the exclusivity of Jesus (“he’s not the only way to God”).

There are hundreds of Christian teachings to choose from, but these are the ones targeted in our cultural moment. Finally, the post ends with the same core conclusion, “While I may be leaving the church, I’m not leaving Jesus. I’m just going to follow him.”

Let me try and pull all this back together.

• Enlightenized—We are now too smart to believe in the supernatural and superstitious stuff our parents do.

• Inclusified—We are way too kind to believe in the judgmental and oppressive stuff our parents do.

• Guruism—We just follow Jesus, a great teacher of love.

a new religion

Think about the specific beliefs listed above. When you deconstruct them out of your worldview, you don’t just lose your faith. You also lose three vital resources of orthodox Christianity.

The first is wise boundaries. When you deny the trustworthiness of the Bible and trade its timeless teachings out (forgiveness for cancel-culture vengeance, self-sacrifice for self-assertion, generosity for greed, communal shalom for personal rights, sexual holiness for sexual gratification), people suffer, families fail, communities disintegrate, and we get what we got politically.

The second thing we lose is spiritual power. When you erase key aspects of atonement theory, the literal resurrection, or the divinity of Jesus, sins don’t get dealt with. People don’t get set free. It’s not even Christianity anymore. Without spiritual power to draw on, we must come up with other techniques to deal with our brokenness. We convince ourselves that our sins aren’t

about the author

that bad. We medicate the frustration. Modern people place an enormous weight on therapy. While therapy is usually good, it can’t do for you what God did on that great Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The last thing we lose is eternal urgency. When you erase the belief that Jesus is the only way to God or that there will be an eternal judgment day where evil will face final justice (no matter what you think hell looks like), then our mission to spread the gospel in word and deed dissipates. Humans will find adventure! We must have urgency in life! But when you deconstruct evangelism and eternity out, you must thrust that life-or-death urgency onto something else. In his book The Thrill of Orthodoxy, Trevin Wax warns that when we lower the stakes of eternal truth, we will raise the stakes of earthly matters.

When you lose eternal perspective:

• Every election becomes “the most important ever.”

• There’s no final justice, so increasingly violent activism is the only hope.

• “Making America Great Again” becomes more important than the global kingdom of God.

• Getting money and leaving a legacy is everything.

• You believe that your neighbors are the enemy rather than the spiritual powers behind what’s dividing us.

• The approval of others (usually via social media) determines your emotional well-being.

• Faith becomes private.

When we do what we’re told and run the EIG script, the cost is greater than we ever could have anticipated. Perhaps we shouldn’t even call it a cultural script. It feels like an understatement. Maybe we should call it what it is . . . a new religion. It’s a new religion that plays to some of our strongest feelings but not our deepest needs. 

Tyler McKenzie serves as lead pastor at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

horizons

Grandchildren: A Mission Field

By Laura McKillip Wood

Harold and Becky raised their three children and sent them off to college. Before they knew it, their children were married and living their own adult lives. Harold and Becky began to think about retirement and even downsized into a smaller house in a 55-plus community. The time they formerly spent with their children was soaked up with volunteering at church and traveling to see their kids in other states. Then one day, their daughter broke the news: she was pregnant! Suddenly Harold and Becky realized they would soon meet a whole new generation of their family. They would be grandparents!

As excited as they were, they also were nervous. They lived far away from their daughter. How would they maintain the relationship with their children and develop a new relationship with this sweet baby they already loved? They had taken their role as parents seriously, and they wanted to be influential in the life of this new little one as well. They believed God put them in a family to guide their children and grandchildren to him. How could they do that while still respecting their children’s autonomy? Suddenly the roles of grandma and grandpa seemed intimidating.

Legacy Coalition to the Rescue!

Legacy Coalition was created to encourage churches to minister to grandparents as they encourage and influence their grandchildren. The leadership of Legacy Coalition believes grandparents are uniquely positioned to disciple and minister to their grandchildren while respecting the role and relationship of their own adult children (the parents of the grandchildren). The coalition notes that grandparents are often under-resourced, ignored, and mislabeled; their potential to influence the next generation is often overlooked. Sometimes grandparents want thriving relationships with their grandchildren but do not know how to manage this since they live far away or even have tense relationships with their adult children.

Legacy Coalition points out that Christians are mandated to influence their children and grandchildren, teaching future generations to love God and follow him. As their website states, their dream is “to know that our legacy of faith in Jesus Christ will outlive us in our grandchildren and the generations that follow.” To do that, Legacy Coalition is building a network of ministries that champion intentional Christlike grandparenting. The ministry provides a platform for churches to engage grandparents in the lives of their grandchildren and equip them to minister to those beloved little ones.

Resources and Methods

Ministries to seniors in the church traditionally have focused on social activities. Sometimes older people tend to stick together and do not have much contact with younger

generations. The age gap and generational differences seem too big to surmount, leaving grandparents feeling isolated and left out, parents feeling alone and overburdened, and grandchildren without the wisdom and guidance from older generations. Legacy Coalition works to bridge that gap and give all the generations in a family the chance to learn from and minister to one another. Their website states, “Legacy Coalition raises the importance of grandparenting through training, discussion, seminars and webinars as well as recommended resources shared by ministry partners.”

Legacy Coalition holds seminars and gatherings to teach, encourage, and lead grandparents in their relationships with their children and grandchildren. Their extensive website offers a blog, a podcast, and small-group Bible study materials. They provide speakers for churches or organizations interested in their work, and they provide other resources for grandparents and churches interested in starting a ministry with grandparents.

Legacy Coalition also hosts the only national conference on Christian grandparenting.  The annual Grandparenting Summit draws thousands of attendees and has featured such speakers as Anne Graham Lotz, Ken Davis, Gordon MacDonald, John Stonestreet, and David Green (CEO of Hobby Lobby). The 2025 Summit will gather Feb. 21-22 in Birmingham, Alabama. Additional information is available on the Legacy Coalition website.

David and Cathy Wheeler became involved in Legacy Coalition as a way to more effectively connect with their grandchildren and help others do the same.

“Most Christian grandparents are tragically missing vital opportunities to influence their grandkids for Christ, either because they don’t see the need or they lack tools for fulfilling the mission,” David says. He explains that many grandparents see the struggles of their grandchildren’s generation and want to help them experience the love and grace of Jesus.

“Some of us are mystified why so many of our adult children are so lax about getting our grandkids involved in the life and ministry of a local church.”

David and Cathy say the ministry of Legacy Coalition has changed their lives for the better. They meet via Zoom with many other volunteers around the country and in eight different countries. The workers encourage one another and share resources. He and Cathy are East Coast presenters of the amazing “Grandparenting Matters” seminar.

“We refer to it as Intentional Christian Grandparenting 101,” David says. “It’s a delightful six-hour event that explores the biblical mandate for intentional grandparenting, examines the various barriers many grandparents face (geographical/relational/spiritual), explains the

eight best practices of intentional grandparents, reveals some of the amazingly creative resources grandparents are developing, and closes with a powerful time of commitment and commissioning.”

a worldwide impact

There are approximately 30 million grandparents in the United States today and well over 1 billion worldwide. Legacy Coalition recently branched out to other countries, and now local congregations in eight countries have caught the vision. Churches in Spain, Australia, Greece, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic, and Canada have begun using materials from Legacy Coalition to empower their grandparents to intentionally reach their grandchildren with the gospel.

To learn more about the work of Legacy Coalition, visit their website at https://legacycoalition.com/ or contact David Wheeler at dwheeler@johnsonu.edu. 

about the author

care

/laura.wood2

@woodlaura30

@woodlaura30

lauramckillipwood.com

lauramckillipwood@gmail.com

Laura McKillip Wood, former missionary to Ukraine, now serves as bereavement coordinator and palliative

chaplain at Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She and her husband, Andrew, have three teenagers.

I’m Next, I’m Now, I’m Ready

Embracing the Call to Co-Parent with the Divine

By Rudy Hagood

Paul wrote, “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service” (1 Timothy 1:12*, emphasis mine).

As parents, have we not all been appointed to a blessed service to disciple, minister, and shepherd our children in a similar fashion to Paul’s appointment to disciple the Gentiles? Eternally speaking, our children are God’s children. Think about that. God has entrusted his children to us. Wow! I pray that this article will challenge and encourage you to commit, or recommit, to taking up the call to disciple your children. After all, we have been entrusted by God to nurture and train the next generation of disciples.

Friends, this is a parent-to-parent encouragement to embrace the call of raising up our children to take up the call. As a parent myself, I want to remind you, there are no experts at parenting, and there are no perfect parents. We’re all just practicing and stewarding the best we can.

Say it with me my friends, “I’m next, I’m now, I’m ready.” Let this be the anthem we parents pass down to our children for the journey onward! Parents, let us be reinvigorated so that our children will be diligent in their pursuit of godliness and truth.

A Profound Responsibility

In the overwhelming rhythm of contemporary life, amid many obligations and distractions, it’s easy to drift away from the profound responsibility we bear as parents in shaping the future through raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We’re not merely shepherding children; we’re sculpting disciples and shaping lives to ripple through eternity. So, parents, let me hear you: “I’m next, I’m now, I’m ready.” Take up the call.

As Paul reminded us so eloquently, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). Our mandate isn’t just to nurture, but to cultivate a love that springs from purity, goodwill, and unwavering faith. So, when it comes to our children, we are merely co-parents in God’s divine mission. We are Christ’s catalysts in the transformative journey of the souls that have been entrusted to us.

The essence of what we believe isn’t a stagnant set of verbs and adjectives, but a dynamic process, a journey of growth and refinement. These are not just words on the pages of our Bibles. We’re commissioned as parents and as disciplers, not to a static state of “it is what it is,” but to an ongoing transformation in ourselves and in our children. This charge moves us toward a gentle, yet firm

pursuit of godliness in ourselves and in our children, the disciples who share our faces.

In 1 Timothy 3, Paul considered the true meaning of godliness, which is paradoxical to our human understanding. Paul wrote of the enigma of faith that is godliness by saying, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). In 1 Timothy 4, Paul confronted the truth that godliness isn’t a destination but a disciplined pursuit, a commitment to continuous elevation and freedom. As parents who are stewards of souls, God calls us to a work beyond high school and college graduations. Our job is more than assisting our children in attaining great jobs. Parents are called to raise disciples. Say it with me: “I’m next, I’m now, I’m ready.”

Standing Firm

In a world overwhelmed with counterfeit truths and alluring deceptions, we’re encouraged to stand firm in the face of spiritual decay. Paul’s passionate warning in 1 Timothy 4 rings true in our present age; it’s a clear call for us to be vigilant, even as we face thunderstorms of falsehood.

“For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). This reminds us that while social skills, education, sports, etc., hold some value, the cultivation of godliness yields eternal rewards. Discipling our children is a gentle, yet firm journey of self-discipline, an unwavering commitment to spiritual tenacity in a world demanding our allegiance when our citizenship is in heaven.

Paul’s encouragement to Timothy echoes over the centuries of time as a charge for disciplers and parents to embody the transformative power of godliness in every aspect our lives. We’re called not to a passive existence but to an active demonstration of the living testament and the surpassing truth that we profess.

In the sometimes crushing crucible of parenting, amid the noise of our internal doubts and external criticisms, we’re still called to fan into flame the gifts of our children. We are called to boldly proclaim the divine inheritance entrusted to us, which is his very Spirit. Say it with me: “I’m next, I’m now, I’m ready.” My friends, this is not an exercise in false humility, for not one of us is an expert. This is an admission we are in over our heads if we function in our strength; yet we are fully capable in his strength. This is full acknowledgment of our dependence on God as the ultimate Father, and we are merely co-parents with the divine.

As we navigate the maze of life, let us heed Paul’s timeless counsel and persist in our pursuit of godliness to immerse ourselves in the transformative power of truth. For in our steadfastness, we not only safeguard our own souls, but we take out our flashlights to shine a path for our children.

So, let us embrace the beautiful charge placed before us. It is a charge to embody lives of holiness and godliness, not merely for our sake, but for the sake of our children. Let us hasten to the close of this present age (whenever you preach, you have to find a way to say hasten. I’m just saying, it’s a rule). For in our faithfulness to our divine call as parents, we become lighthouses of hope in a world our generation could never imagine would or could exist.

Let us persist, my dear co-parents, for our success in godliness is forged through the faithfulness of repetition and discipline. Let us not merely raise children but also nurture disciples who are bold, committed, and ready to embrace the call themselves.

“I’m next, I’m now, I’m ready.” My friends, let this be our anthem as we move forward, steadfast in our pursuit of godliness and truth. We know we are having success when our children are able to shout the same anthem, for they are truly next, they are truly now, and they must be made ready! 

*All Scripture verses are from the English Standard Version

about the authors

Rudy and Osharye Hagood have seven children and nine grandchildren so far. Osharye is a women’s minister who is also certified as both a life coach and a health coach. Rudy is a college professor with a background in social work. They love being married and love to bless both married and engaged couples.

@rudy.hagood

@rudy_hagood_

‘Preaching With No Regrets’

By Chris Philbeck

I

’m writing this on the Monday after Bob Russell was guest speaker at Mount Pleasant Christian Church, the church I’ve served for over 22 years. Bob delivered a powerful message called “Keeping Calm in Troubled Times” from Philippians 4:4-9. In his typical fashion, Bob used humor and personal stories to bring the text to life in a way that made a huge impact on all who were present. It was a tremendous weekend.

The Power of the Word

As I sit here thinking about the message, I am reminded once again of the power of God’s Word. In a day and age when many preachers simply “reference” the text of Scripture, Bob preached the text, not just verse-byverse but line-by-line, and in some portions, word-byword. He also reinforced each of his sermon points with other verses and passages. The message primarily revolved around what Paul said about anxiety in Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). Bob began by sharing four practical truths about anxiety, and then he used the text to provide four very specific cures for anxiety in everyday life.

Recently while looking for a reference for a monthly devotion I write in a community newspaper, I came across a podcast whose title caught my attention: “Preaching with No Regrets.” The podcast, as it turned out, wasn’t about preaching, but that title stayed with me. Most every preacher will tell you they have a certain number of regrets in their life when it comes to ministry. I certainly do. But I don’t want to have any regrets when it comes to preaching. One of the best ways to make sure that never happens is by committing to always preach the text of Scripture.

The Bible is an old book. Its earliest sections were written more than 3,000 years ago. But that doesn’t mean the Bible is out-of-date or irrelevant to modern times. We must always remember it’s not our job to try and “make” the Bible relevant. Tim Chester shared two dangers with this approach in a Lifeway Research article aptly titled, “Stop Trying to Make the Bible Relevant.”

First, we misapply the Bible by making it say something (more) contemporary. “When you make the Bible say something,” Chester wrote, “the chances are you’re communicating your thoughts rather than God’s thoughts.” The second danger is even greater. “If we think the Bible isn’t a contemporary word, then we’ll be tempted to update it . . . to make it fit our culture.” We must remember that one thing that makes the Bible so special, and so relevant, is that it is a “living word.”

Living and Active

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” In context, the Hebrew writer is talking specifically about the promise of the rest in Hebrews 4. At the same time, however, these words describe the entire Bible, which is alive through the Spirit of God and the power of God.

More than 3,000 people heard Bob’s message, plus the students in our Next Gen ministry and hundreds of people who worship at our four satellite campuses. How many of those people do you think struggle with anxiety? According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 30 percent of U.S. adults experience some kind of anxiety disorder. As someone who’s been the pastor of a local church for almost 45 years, I think that number is low. But I can tell you from personal comments and testimonies that those people were challenged, they were blessed, and most important, they were instructed by a straightforward and practical message on how to deal with anxiety that came straight from the Bible.

“a front-row seat (literally) to the power and significance of preaching God’s Word in a straightforward way, with humility and authority. And it reminded me of Charles Spurgeon’s words of long ago: “Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.”

We can trust in the power of God’s Word. 

In fact, this morning I received an email from one church member thanking me for what he called “the remarkable service yesterday.” He went on to write some very complimentary things about Bob’s message and what it meant to him. Then, he ended the email by writing, “I was recently told that I have a probable ALS diagnosis and have been on disability since January. I am 47 and have three school-aged children. It’s been overwhelming.” I’m so grateful this man was able to hear Bob’s message from Philippians 4.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul wrote, “All Scripture is Godbreathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The word Paul uses for “thoroughly” means “completely outfitted and fully supplied, decked out, furnished, and equipped.” I love that!

There is a verse that becomes more and more meaningful to me with every passing year. “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception” (Proverbs 14:8).

There have been times in my life when I thought, Maybe I need to reinvent the way I preach, or Maybe I need to be more creative in the way I preach. Perhaps you’ve had those same thoughts. But this past weekend I had

There have been times in my life when I thought, Maybe I need to reinvent the way I preach, or Maybe I need to be more creative in the way I preach.

about the author

/PastorCPhilbeck

@cphilbeck

@pastorphilbeck

Chris Philbeck retired as senior pastor of Mount Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, Indiana, at the end of June. He had served in full-time ministry since 1980.

a financial deep dive

By Kent E. Fillinger

Christian author Randy Alcorn said, “God sees our finances and our faith as inseparable.” Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Examining the financial picture of churches provides insights into the faith and focus of some of the churches in our movement. This deep dive is designed to help identify trends and enable your church to better evaluate its financial situation.

Church Giving vs. Inflation

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck four years ago, most church leaders were concerned that closing in-person services would negatively affect giving. It’s been encouraging, though, to see positive giving trends reported for most of the churches we’ve surveyed the last several years.

In 2023, this trend continued as 57 percent of the churches reported their giving exceeded their budget, with 21 percent of churches saying giving met their budgeted needs. Thus, only 22 percent of churches we surveyed experienced a giving shortfall compared to their budget expectations.

More than $500 million total was given at the 296 churches that reported their offering statistics, for an average of $1.8 million per church. While the churches we’ve surveyed have reported positive giving since 2020, I wanted to see how pre-pandemic giving in 2019 compared to last year’s giving, when adjusted for inflation. The chart below shows what church giving in 2019 would have been in 2023, based on inflation adjusted dollars (using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Inflation Calculator).

While the actual average dollar amounts given in each size category were up slightly (3.5 percent overall) from 2019 to 2023, the actual “buying power” of those dollars, when adjusted for inflation, suffered an overall decline of 17.3 percent.

Larger churches felt the biggest impact based on inflation-adjusted giving, while medium size and very small churches fared the best with their average giving almost keeping pace with inflation from 2019 to 2023. (See chart on p. 32.)

Sources of Giving

Overall, 40 percent of giving was received electronically (online, text-to-give, giving app, kiosk, etc.). Megachurches led the way with 68 percent of giving received electronically. Very small churches had the smallest percentage of electronic giving, 9 percent.

Our 2023 survey asked churches to report the number of “giving units” who support the church. For example, a family of four who gives to their church would be one giving unit. Comparing the number of giving units to the combined average worship attendance showed that overall, there was one giving unit for every two worship attendees.

The chart on the next page shows the average weekly giving for each church size category based on giving units and also on combined and in-person-only average worship attendance. Average giving was the strongest in our medium churches and the weakest in our megachurches in 2023.

The Difference Debt Makes

Overall, half of the churches surveyed were debt-free in 2023. The total indebtedness for the other half of churches was $517,662,817, an average debt load of $3,863,155 per church. Megachurches were the most likely to report having debt (77 percent). Very small churches had the smallest percentage of churches with debt (11 percent). The spectrum of total indebtedness for individual churches ranged from $51,000 to $30 million.

When calculating average debt per worship attendee (in-person and online) for each size category of churches, megachurches had the smallest average per-person debt: $2,915 of debt per attendee. Very small churches had the largest average per-person debt: $7,369 of debt per attendee.

On average, the overall current debt load for the churches reporting was 1.9 times their average annual giving. This means it would take almost two years’ worth of a church’s giving to pay off their existing debt.

By comparison, the average debt load of the 355 churches surveyed in The Unstuck Church Report (Q1 2024) was 0.7 times the church’s annual giving. The handful of very small churches in our survey had the highest debt-to-annual-giving ratio with 3.6. Medium churches had the lowest such ratio with 1.3.

Overall, the churches with debt grew faster and had a higher baptism ratio than the debt-free churches. Churches with debt grew an average 17.5 percent in 2023 compared to 14.6 percent for the churches with no debt. Additionally, churches with debt had an overall average baptism ratio (number of baptisms per 100 people in attendance) of 6.8, while churches without debt had an average baptism ratio of 5.7.

It’s worth noting, churches with a debt-to-annualgiving ratio of 2.9 or less predominantly had the best growth rates and baptism ratios. So, it appears that when churches cross the debt threshold of three times or more of their annual giving, then the weight of that additional debt can stifle attendance growth and reduce the baptism ratio.

cash reserves

Our 2023 survey also asked, “Approximately how many weeks’ worth of operating expenses does your church currently have on hand in cash reserves?” In the past, this question included pre-populated answer options with “21 weeks or more” as the maximum option. The answer box was open-ended for the 2023 survey, which allowed churches to report their actual number of weeks of cash reserves beyond 21 weeks.

Overall, the 292 churches that answered this question reported they had an average of 30 weeks of cash reserves. By comparison, churches in The Unstuck Church Report reported having 19 weeks of cash reserves.

Very small churches in our survey had the most weeks of cash reserves (an average of 49 weeks) while megachurches had the fewest weeks (an average of 19 weeks). Financial experts recommend churches keep 13 weeks of cash reserves to provide the margin needed to handle financial challenges or giving shortfalls. Overall, almost a third (29.5 percent) of the churches in our survey reported having 12 weeks or less of cash reserves. 

CHURCH SIZE CATEGORIES

2,000 OR MORE WEEKLY

MEGACHURCHES 1,000 TO 1,999 WEEKLY

about the author

Kent E. Fillinger serves as president of 3:STRANDS Consulting, Indianapolis, Indiana, and regional vice president (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) with Christian Financial Resources.

/3strandsconsulting 3strandsconsulting.com

I was recently asked to give a 20-minute talk describing the Restoration Movement to a group of about 400 people. As I prepared my remarks, I considered a variety of things I could highlight, many of which were historical. I wanted my presentation to be engaging and compelling, but upon completing my preparations, I wasn't satisfied I had hit the mark.

That same weekend, a friend who had ministered to a very large church came to our church as a guest speaker. I picked him up at his hotel and showed him around our area in the hours leading up to that night’s sermon. I decided to show him The Crossing’s campus in Hannibal, Missouri. I am particularly proud of that one because we purchased and transformed a theater in the downtown area. The building was built for vaudeville in the roaring twenties, and we restored it to its former glory.

The location also has great personal significance for me as it is where I started my journey that led me to become publisher of Christian Standard, but that’s another story . . . one which I’ve written about before.

My friend’s church is nondenominational but his roots are in the Assemblies of God. We became friends when he was invited to fellowship with a group of large-church ministers from across the country who gather regularly. When we stepped out of the church’s doorway onto the street, we were facing Central Park, the oldest green space in Hannibal’s downtown. I told him

that Barton W. Stone started the first church at the park in a log cabin that also served as a school. I pointed in the direction of the Mississippi River, four blocks away, and indicated that Stone died at his daughter’s house “right over there.” Then I pointed up to Cardiff Hill in the distance and told him that Stone’s wife, Celia, “is buried up there.”

I thought he would be impressed with those facts, but the blank stare on his face indicated I had lost him.

“Do you know who Barton Stone is?” I asked. He did not.

I asked him if he had heard of the Cane Ridge Revival and the Second Great Awakening. He answered that he had.

I said that Cane Ridge was Barton Stone’s church . . . but then I decided to go a bit deeper.

“You fellowship with all these guys that are Restoration Movement. Would you like to know what we believe and why?” He answered that he would really appreciate that.

I told my friend that our movement is based on Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17. It’s known as the “High Priestly Prayer,” and Jesus prayed it just before he and his disciples left the upper room and headed for the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested. In that prayer, Jesus focused on three things, and it’s on those three foundation stones that the Restoration Movement stands.

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

I told my friend that the first foundation stone of our movement is TRUTH . . . the belief and implementation of the truth of God’s Word. We don’t just believe the Bible contains truth, but that it is truth in its totality. This means we seek to use God’s Word as our only rule of faith and practice . . . that we do Bible things in Bible ways and call them by Bible names . . . that we speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where it is

silent . . . no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, no name but the Divine.

“[T]hat all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21). “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity” (John 17:23).

I told him the second foundation stone of our movement is UNITY . . . to strive and fight for unity instead of giving in to our more fleshly needs of ego and pride. These foundation stones of truth and unity are held in tension with one another because truth without unity is sectarianism, clearly not what Jesus was praying for, and unity without truth is universalism, in complete contradiction to Jesus’ teaching in John 14:6.

Thomas Campbell said, “The church of Jesus Christ on earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.” Barton Stone said, “Let Christian unity be our polar star.” While it might be easier to burn a bridge, we seek to build and maintain them but without sacrificing the truth.

“May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). “Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23).

I told him the third foundation stone of our movement is EVANGELISM. Jesus’ prayer informs us that the whole mission of the church—Jesus’ declaration of building the church in Matthew 16:18 and his Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20—is all dependent on his disciples living out the reality of truth and unity simultaneously. When a watching world sees that, they are drawn into the reality of a holy God, the sin that separates us from him, the sacrifice of a Savior who demonstrated his unconditional love for us on the cross, and the power that resurrects us from death even as Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

I looked at him and said, “You believe in all of those things too, don’t you? As a matter of fact, you believe in them just as much as I do.” He agreed.

My friend said he thought it was baptism by immersion that set our movement apart, and that we believed that unless you were baptized, you weren’t saved.

I took him back to that first foundation stone and pointed out that every conversion story recorded in the New Testament was accompanied by baptism by immersion. We do that because that is what we read in God’s Word.

He then brought up the fact that we take Communion weekly.

I responded that although Communion was shared initially in homes at meals and that Jesus had taught, “as often as you do it . . .”, that the final word in the New Testament was in Acts 20:7. It’s simply that we are trying our best to honor Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer by being obedient to what we read in his Word.

It’s painfully obvious that we can read and study God’s Word and come to different conclusions in biblical interpretation because there’s a lot that is downhill from these three foundation stones. But if we are all going to the same source, then even though we might disagree, we will do so in an agreeable way. When we do so, we do a much better job of honoring our Great High Priest’s prayer, and we are not putting a stumbling block in front of a lost and dying world.

I drove back from Hannibal with my friend not so much proud of myself for the conversation we had, but for the answer God gave me for the talk I was going to give a few days later. I discarded much of what I had prepared to discuss, and instead, recounted this conversation.

The best history we have isn’t about the Restoration Movement, it’s about the restoration of the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we as a movement are in alignment with Jesus, we’re always in the right place!

While it’s relatively easy to find fault with a particular viewpoint, interpretation, or practice in the church, it’s another thing to stand against the prayer of our Lord and Savior. It reminds us that the church is his, not ours, and that we shouldn’t be giving orders . . . especially when we seem to have a problem taking them. 

It hasn’t been 80 years since the Holocaust.

And yet, today at Harvard University, Jewish students cower under anti-Semitism from proHamas classmates and professors. On a campus funded by World War II veterans and Jewish entrepreneurs, yarmulkes are hidden in backpacks. Jewish heritage clubs meet in hiding.

How did we get here?

Harvard is a tragic example of mission drift. Founded by Puritan pastors to train ministers to preach “Truth for Christ and the Church,” the antiBible and anti-Jewish ideologies at Harvard today are entirely opposite of its founders’ intentions.

It wasn’t always this way. For about 200 years Harvard remained true to its founding charter. Then, like Yale, Princeton, and other Christian institutions, Harvard began a gradual drift from Scripture. Over generations, that drift graduated from apathy about Christian ideals to antagonism against Jesus and the Bible.

What does this have to do with the Restoration Movement?

As the Restoration Movement marks 200 years, we steward a network of ministries that has not drifted from Christ or the Scriptures. We should pause to acknowledge that this is not the norm.

And as we look to the future, we do well to humbly acknowledge that very few church movements remain vibrant, thriving, and biblical beyond 200 years.

How can we ensure that our churches and ministries do better . . . and do not drift from Christ, do not wander from Scripture, and do not lose their zeal to fulfill the Great Commission?

I believe the spiritual and intellectual training of our young people is the most important thing we can do today to ensure the future vitality of our churches and movement.

If we do not raise today’s students and young adults to view the Bible as the standard for all they do and believe, then today’s successes could be eclipsed by tomorrow’s catastrophic failures.

If we—as ministers, churches, and a movement— fail to raise our next generation to view Christ above culture and his Word above the values of this age, then we will have failed, regardless of the size of our attendance, facilities, or finances.

Stated more positively, if we do succeed in raising up the next generation to love Christ and to hold to his Word, then we will enter God’s presence having fulfilled the Great Commission

At the church I serve, Connection Pointe Christian Church, we are dedicating much time, money, and energy into training up our teens and students with our pioneering Youth Worldview Initiative.

Two Connection Pointe staff members wrote about our initiative in the last issue of Christian Standard. They described how, with God’s help, we aim to raise up a generation of vibrant young Christians who are intellectually rooted in their beliefs, who find their identity in Christ alone, and who launch out into their generation playing offense for the kingdom.

The response to that article has been encouraging. It is our prayer at Connection Pointe that we will be able to freely share our learnings, our tools, and even our failures with you, so that you can better raise the next generation in your ministry.

My hope in penning these words is that you will join me in praying that our collective sons and daughters across the Restoration Movement will outdo us in their faithfulness. I also pray that you will be stirred to allocate resources toward providing a strong foundation for the young people in your ministry.

DEFINING TRUE SUCCESS ACROSS GENERATIONS

My grandpa used to say, “You will know if I was successful—not by how my kids walk with the Lord, but by how their kids walk with the Lord.”

That’s an intimidating quote, especially now that I’m a 42-year-old dad to three school-aged kids of my own. Another old saying goes something like this: “How terrible it is to see our own free will and sin nature running around on two little legs.”

Praying that God captures our own hearts—and those of our kids—can seem an impossible task in and of itself. Indeed, I consider it a miracle any time a young person raised in a Christian home chooses Christ for themselves.

I am a pastor’s kid who wandered intellectually from God’s truth for a season. I doubted God’s existence, and I questioned the relevance of the Bible to our modern world. But God dragged me back, perhaps in response to prayers from my grandparents and parents.

While my grandpa’s quote is not Scripture, it does embody some of the paradoxical values Christ teaches. We find these values in the forgotten groundwork surrounding two of Jesus’ well-known commands to us.

The first is the Great Commission, which we often shorten to: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . .” (Matthew 28:19).

But Jesus’ Commission didn’t end there. It continued: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

“Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded” is just as much the Great Commission as “baptizing them.”

The Youth Worldview Initiative is our attempt to recover this indispensable piece of the Great Commission—as it relates to our students. If we lead a person to salvation and baptism, but we

fail to teach them how to obey Jesus’ commands in the culture they find themselves in, then we haven’t really completed the Great Commission.

In this time when mainstream media, academia, social media, and celebrities mock Christian ideals, we must teach our young people to give a defense for their faith—first to themselves and then to those in their generation. Otherwise, if their very faith is stripped from them, how will they “obey everything” Jesus commanded?

I believe the local church must reclaim personal responsibility for discipling the young people in our flocks. This is at the heart of our calling as the body of Christ. And I cannot imagine a higher priority.

My book, The Great Evangelical Recession, outlines six sociological trends that portend the decline of the church in America. The most disturbing of those trends is the pattern of young American Christians quitting the faith between their 18th and 29th birthdays.

Multiple researchers have found that about two out of three children raised in evangelical Christian homes abandon the faith by age 29. That startling statistic—validated by many tragic anecdotes—is something God has never let me forget. Our hope at Connection Pointe is to “end the trend of two-inthree drifting from the faith.”

Our efforts are in their infancy. And, while we are seeing anecdotal successes within our congregation, we really are just getting started in this important work. In the next five years we will know clearly if our concerted efforts and investments are bearing the fruit for which we pray.

Our congregation’s calling to this task can be summarized in whispers that I often hear in times of prayer or reflection, such as: “Good for you that there are thousands today, but what about the church in 20 years?” and “John, are you really raising up the next generation to live for me in the difficulties they will face?”

In John 8:31-32, Jesus described how his truth will set people free, but he prefaced it with a conditional if-then statement.

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32, emphasis mine).

At a time when suicide, self-harm, and paralyzing anxiety are overtaking American teens, how we need to see Christ setting the young people free. But the promised freedom for Christ’s disciples results only when they “hold to” Jesus’ teaching.

“Hold to” implies that if we do not intentionally cling to Christ’s truth, then in this fallen world, we will slowly lose our grip. We will drift. We can see the trajectory of the culture around us. Terrible storms are on the horizon.

Our young people will face cultural opposition and even persecution, so we must, all the more, teach them to “hold to” Jesus’ teachings.

In 2012, a Gallup poll found the percentage of Americans who identified as LGBTQ was 3.5 percent, or roughly 4-in-100 people. Now, just 12 years later, some 30 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 26 identify as LGBTQ. That is 30-in-100, or roughly 1-in-3.

This aggressive growth of the LGBTQ community is just one trait of the post-Christian secularism overtaking American culture. Others include the assumption that Bible-believing Christians are bigoted and that Christianity is dangerous for society. Only God knows the future, but it would not be unexpected for biblical churches to someday lose their nonprofit status or for ministers to no longer have the right to decline performing same-sex weddings.

If we hope for the churches and ministries that bear our fingerprints to “hold to” Jesus’ teachings in 20 years, 40 years, and beyond, then we must prioritize this command of Jesus with our young people. We must teach them the nuances of “holding to” the teachings of a Christ who is both full of grace and of truth.

As leaders who actually lead, we must prepare our people today for the challenges of tomorrow. We must raise up young men and women who “hold to” Jesus’ teachings with such resolve that their obedient faith makes our future ministries places of continued supernatural activity, where Christ is the Head and where his Word guides souls into the freedom that only his Spirit can facilitate.

In short, Connection Pointe’s concerted efforts at Youth Worldview are little more than us returning to the simplicity of running God’s play, God’s way.

Our aim is to equip our middle and high school students to understand Jesus’ teachings as they relate to sexual morality, cultural change, scriptural authority, the intellectual validity of Christianity, the common objections that their college professors and classmates will pose to Christianity, and so forth.

We aim to train our young, from kindergarten to 12th grade, in a curriculum of deeper intellectual, emotional, and identity truths from Scripture and Christian history.

Upon high school graduation, we desire to journey with every graduate from age 18 to age 29, doing all we can to slow the exodus out of Christianity. For that crucial decade, we aim to pair every young adult with godly peers, and also with an older Christian “career mentor,” who can counsel them in their vocation as well as their character.

Simultaneously, we will be measuring how much we are succeeding or failing in our mission to end the drift of young people away from the faith.

Our prayer is that God captures the minds and hearts of a generation. We are praying that God raises up future lawmakers, college professors, business owners, homemakers, pastors, missionaries, and disciples from among the young people in our church . . . men and women who will “hold to” Jesus’ teachings in every industry and facet of modern life.

We are striving and praying toward the end goal that today’s kids and students at Connection Pointe will become tomorrow’s Christ-centered leaders across Central Indiana.

I pray that, in my lifetime, I will get to see our church graduating 2,000 high school seniors from this program every year. Imagine young men and women who journeyed through our in-depth Youth Worldview training from kindergarten to 12th grade, and who go off to their college or trade as deeply rooted believers, knowing their identity in Christ, viewing the Bible as their truth, and living on mission in a world that is not their home.

We also pray that we will be able to give away our resources to you. Specifically, we are praying for churches in every major metro area across North America to utilize and improve on our Youth Worldview Initiative.

THE GREAT NEWS

Christ promised that he will build his church “and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).

That’s a promise for every generation, for every century, for every continent and culture.

We can trust that God has a plan for the Restoration Movement and for the American church—a plan far bigger than our lifetimes.

As I get to meet and observe teens and young adults in the church today, I am deeply encouraged. The young American believers who are “all-in” are truly “ALL-IN.” They’re living countercultural lifestyles for Christ, and they’re already paying a cost to follow Christ.

At a time when we see Satan advancing in academia, media, and so many halls of power, I am deeply encouraged that God is raising up a generation of leaders, designed by him from eternity past to lead the church forward in their generation.

Their faith is uncomfortable, and it is thriving. Now let’s resource them with the training, encouragement, freedom, and opportunities they will need to shine like lights in the darkness. 

John S. Dickerson serves as lead pastor and visionary for Connection Pointe Christian Church in Indiana (ConnectionPointe. org). Discover his books and writings at JohnSDickerson.com.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ESSAY, YOU MIGHT ENJOY THE FOLLOWING FROM THE SAME AUTHOR.

• Find “Biblical Manifestos” to keep your ministry true to Christ during rapid cultural change in the book Hope of Nations (Zondervan) by John S. Dickerson.

• Learn the trajectory of decline in the American church and six things you can do to reverse it in the book The Great Evangelical Recession (Baker Books) by John S. Dickerson.

• Learn more about the biblical Christian foundations of Harvard and every other Top 10 university and hospital, in the book Jesus Skeptic (Baker Books) by John S. Dickerson.

STAY CONNECTED WITH CPCC’S WORLDVIEW INITIATIVE

Get updates on the Connection Pointe Youth Worldview Initiative by joining the email list at worldview.cp.church.

MY TRUTH or

TRUTH?

LIVING IN THE

SHADOW OF

By Steve Poe

For years I’ve noticed a popular bumper sticker. More than likely, you’ve seen it, as well. It’s probably the best-known bumper sticker or window decal on the planet. It spells out the word Coexist, using different religious symbols. These bumper stickers first appeared shortly after the events of September 11, 2001. Bono even wore a Coexist headband during U2’s 2005-06 International tour. Today there is even a Coexist foundation dedicated to building religious literacy through money raised by selling Coexist products.

THE NATURE OF TRUTH

While the idea of different religions coexisting together in peace is a commendable goal, as followers of Christ, it’s important we understand that all religions do not point to the same truth. In fact, all other major religions contradict one another on major claims. Yet many in the secular world lump all religions together, advocating that it’s all right to believe whatever you want to believe. Truth, they would say, is relative and subjective, often shaped by your own ideals and perspectives. And therefore, it’s OK if your truth happens to change from time to time. This is why it’s important for us as Christians to see the difference between relative truth and absolute truth.

Relative truth is to believe that while something might be true for one person, it’s not necessarily true for another. One person might tell you they don’t believe Jesus is God while someone else might say he most certainly is God. Both think their belief is truth.

Absolute truth, by contrast, is when something is true for everyone regardless of whether they recognize it to be true. God’s Word and what it says about Jesus are examples of absolute truth. God’s Word is unchanged and unaffected by opinions or societal trends.

Believers must understand that truth in its divine form—Truth—is not a mere collection of facts or data. Truth is a living, breathing entity, dynamic and transformative. Truth in its divine form is Jesus, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). This statement is a cornerstone of Christian belief. Jesus did not say, I am a way to God; rather, he said, I am the way to God. He didn’t just speak truth; he is the embodiment of truth.

For example, when Pilate asked Jesus if he was a king, Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true,” (John 18:37, New Living Translation). Jesus stated that his purpose in coming into the world was to bear witness to the truth.

Imagine the house of your dreams. A beautiful two-story home with incredible architecture and large living spaces. It’s everything you’ve always hoped for in a home. But now imagine the house begins to fall apart. It leans to one side and develops cracks in the roof. How disappointed would you be? The foundation, you discover, was improperly constructed and is too weak to support

the home’s weight. A house will not stand the test of time if the foundation is improperly built.

If your marriage, family, and life are not firmly planted on absolute truth, they will not stand the test of time. It is imperative that we build our lives around the absolute truth of God’s Word.

THE FOUNDATION OF TRUTH

Paul presented a profound image of Truth in his first letter to Timothy. He described the church as the “pillar and foundation of the truth.” This image is more than just a metaphor. It carries deep meaning for us as believers. It tells us something fundamental about the nature of the church and its role in the world. “If I am delayed,” Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15, “you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”

The body of Christ is the church, and we are part of the church because we have accepted Jesus as the Truth. Therefore, it’s God’s spirit living in us that unites us.

A. W. Tozer offered a great example of this in his book The Pursuit of God. He wrote, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.” In the same way, we are all one in spirit because Jesus is the tuning fork we’ve all been tuned to. Therefore, we are one in spirit, not because of anything we’ve done, but because we are tuned to the same divine standard, which is Jesus.

TRUTH

IN ITS DIVINE FORM IS JESUS,

WHO SAID, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE”

(JOHN 14:6).

IT

IS IMPERATIVE

THAT WE BUILD OUR LIVES AROUND THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD.

THE PRACTICE OF TRUTH

Paul’s imagery of a pillar helps each of us understand our role and responsibility as believers. A pillar is an object that supports the weight of a building. Similarly, we are to uphold the truth of God’s Word to a lost and hurting world. So then, what are some ways we can do that?

First, we must pursue God’s truth, for how can we uphold the truth of God’s Word if we don’t know what it says? This is why it’s so important to read and study Scripture on a regular basis. It’s an important spiritual discipline that’s critical for spiritual growth. Regular reading of Scripture also is important if we’re going to help our friends and family discover the truth about a relationship with Christ. Paul said to let the word of Christ richly dwell within you (Colossians 3:16). This is why it’s so important to create a healthy habit of reading Scriptures daily.

We also need to proclaim God’s truth. Matthew said Jesus went around Galilee teaching in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. All believers have this same obligation and responsibility to proclaim the truth. In fact, the last instruction Jesus gave the church before ascending to heaven was that we go to all the world and make disciples. There are, of course, many ways for us to proclaim the truth, but it often begins with building healthy relationships. The closer you get to someone, the better able you are to share truth with them. Sharing the truth of God with the people we rub shoulders with each day is a crucial part of the church’s mission. It’s the reason the church exists.

We also need to practice God’s truth. In other words, it’s not just about what we say, but also how we live it out in our daily life. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). People are watching how we live; they want to know if we practice what we preach! They want to see if we do more than talk the talk. There are so many ways to plant seeds of truth without being preachy. Some

examples: Make healthy comments on social media, be a friend to someone who is grieving, help a neighbor who is in need. We need to look for creative ways to express the love of Christ.

We must also protect God’s truth. Of course, the truth of God will endure forever whether we protect it or not. But God has made it clear we are to defend the truth against those who try to attack it. We are to stand up against false teachers who pervert the truth. Paul told Timothy to “correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). So, we have a responsibility to speak up if someone is perverting the truth with their false teaching.

It’s God’s Word, the gospel of truth, that serves as the foundation on which our faith is built. It’s active and alive, shaping us, molding us, and guiding us in our walk with God. As we learn to rely on God’s truth, it will direct our steps and become our compass, our “true north,” guiding us through the difficult times of life. It will shape and mold us in our walk with God. Truth, like a beacon, will lead us on the path of righteousness. And because it’s a solid foundation, it can withstand the storms of our life.

So, my friend, are you embracing the absolute truth of Christ, or are you being swayed by the relative truths of our culture? As followers of Christ, we must always remember that truth is not a matter of personal opinion or feeling. It’s not something we can mold or shape to fit with our own personal beliefs. Truth is objective, unchanging, and absolute. So, let’s commit to embracing truth in our own life, and let’s share this truth with others, so they can experience the lifechanging power of the gospel. 

Steve Poe has served as senior pastor of Northview Church, a multisite church in central Indiana, since 1999. He began his ministry after spending 11 years in the business world and cultivating a heart for the unchurched.

BY DAVE STONE

When I was a little kid and would go outside to play, my parents would say to my brother and me, “Stay in our yard.” It was a loving effort to protect us. When we moved to a new house, my parents even went to the expense of having a fence installed around our backyard. They “claimed” it was because of our curious dog, but looking back, it probably had more to do with their two rambunctious sons. (Pretty wise on their part.)

When kids are immature and impressionable, parents are wise to lay out some boundaries and restrictions. The more mature my brother and I became, the more Mom and Dad would loosen our boundaries, widening our territory. Dangers still lurked on the other side of the fence, but we had been guided to be adventurous but discerning. Our parents also realized there were positive people beyond the fence line who could be great mentors and encouragers along the journey of life.

Some Christians have experienced a similar upbringing in the church world. All of my life I’ve been a part of this nondenominational fellowship of Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. I have always been proud to share about that heritage with others. Each church is autonomous and governed by its own group of elders. We desire to restore what we see in the book of Acts. Realizing that “a river is purest at its source,” we endeavor to replicate the principles of the original church.

BEYOND THE FENCE

I like the “churchyard” that I’m in, and I intend to reside in it for the rest of my life; yet the older I get the more apparent it becomes that we don’t have all the answers. I hope we’re willing to say we can learn from other neighboring, sold-out believers who live beyond our fence.

The early leaders of the Restoration Movement had values and slogans that defined how our churches would be seen and known.

“No book but the Bible, no creed but Christ.”

“In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; and in all things, love.”

In my study of our Restoration heritage, it seemed leaders were more concerned with eradicating fences than erecting them. That value has been overlooked by some. The ethnocentrism for the movement among some now seems to carry more weight than biblical truth or our movement’s original values.

About 18 years ago, Don Wilson, former senior pastor with Christ’s Church of the Valley in Phoenix, and I began a yearly retreat for pastors leading churches over 5,000 in attendance. Early on, it was just for pastors from our brotherhood, but gradually we invited some other evangelical leaders who were in a neighboring yard. We saw a benefit for us and for them. Studies have shown that the larger the sphere of

leadership influence, the lonelier the leader feels. If these fellow leaders loved Jesus and believed God’s Word to be true, then we can share fellowship and learn together.

People like Randy Frazee, Steve Poe, Rick Atchley, and several others started meeting regularly and attending this “support group.” From year to year, we’d have occasional visitors like Jimmy Scroggins or Josh Howerton.

The common thread was the need to be in community with like-minded leaders who understood the leadership pressures of large churches. As we prayed for each other and lifted one another up, we discovered that what we had in common far outweighed our differences on opinion issues.

As I mentor pastors going through succession planning, the vast majority aren’t from our brotherhood. They are humble enough to believe that they can learn from someone from a different heritage than their own. Can we display the same teachable spirit? I have gained so much from these friendships and their fellowship.

Recently I did some all-day preaching seminars in two different states. In both settings, I met a minister who had invited someone who served in another church in the area to come and join them. They meet together regularly for lunch, prayer, encouragement, and counsel.

At a time when loneliness for pastors is at an all-time high, we need to tear down fences, reach into the neighboring fields, make some connections, and build some friendships. The likelihood of an isolated pastor leaving the ministry is much higher than the pastor who is in community with another pastor.

I’ve spoken at conferences for Church of God congregations, a cappella Churches of Christ, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, even a group of conservative churches that have stepped away from the Disciples of Christ denomination. Last week I spoke at a retreat for pastors of the largest Baptist churches.

I had the opportunity to serve an interim ministry for 18 months at a church outside of our fellowship. It proved valuable for me to see and hear how others view secondary doctrines and how they perceive “us.”

Several years ago, a good friend served with a church on the West Coast that wasn’t part of our fellowship. They had done little teaching on the topic of baptism, and certainly didn’t talk about it as much as my church

did. But after he listened to a sermon I did on the meaning and importance of baptism, he contacted me. He said his church didn’t really have a new member ministry or a protocol, so he instituted a new plan. Before a person could be baptized, they had to first listen to my sermon on baptism. Our God is quite creative!

CHRISTIANS ONLY . . .

Some 40 years ago, Dr. Lewis Foster, one of our fellowship’s most respected professors, said this: “There is coming a day when all of Christendom will be divided into two camps: those who believe the authority of the Bible and those who don’t.”

That day has come. It is here. This is not the time to limit our fellowship by our property lines.

It seems every month I hear of another Christian leadership casualty, with Satan gaining a victory over a lonely leader trying to handle the pressures of ministry alone. As Christian leaders trying to withstand the onslaught of evil from a compromising culture, we must begin to see our cousins across the fence as brothers and sisters trying to point people to Jesus, the resurrected Lord, and the inspired Word of God.

I’m glad our tribe has widened through the years. My ministry and life are deeper and richer because of relationships inside our “property lines” and outside them.

I agree with Jerry Harris, who said, “I believe we were meant to be a movement within churches rather than a collection of churches.” Our influence isn’t just to those who attend our church, it is to have a ripple effect throughout the church world.

There will always be some who enjoy putting up boundaries and who want our conversations and interactions to be confined within the fence lines.

We are stronger together than we are apart. I’m learning that it’s possible to be true to the essentials of the faith and still tear down the fences that separate us. Because when the church is unified, God is glorified. 

Dave Stone is on the Spire Network board and serves on the teaching team at Christ’s Church of the Valley in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the former pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

A CALL TO UNITY WITHIN THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

BY ORPHEUS J. HEYWARD

The Restoration Movement has a rich history that rests on a pursuit of unity and biblical fidelity. However, the trajectory of this movement has led to three distinct religious bodies that share the same tree yet have become independent branches. A question has permeated the minds of believers who are part of this impactful movement: Can we return to an experience of communal unity? This article seeks to explore the possibility while acknowledging the obstacles.

A HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The Restoration Movement, also known as the StoneCampbell Movement, is a significant chapter in the history of Christianity. It began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840). This movement was a response to the religious turbulence and denominational fragmentation of the time, with its pioneers seeking to return to the pattern of New Testament Christianity. The Restoration Movement had several catalysts. Noted men such as James O’Kelly, a Methodist Episcopal Church minister, sought after a more primitive Christianity, choosing to refer to God’s people as Christians. The spirit of restoration also impacted a man named Abner Jones, who became disgruntled with the Baptist name and found himself attracted to the movement that had begun with O’Kelly.

This idea of a return to apostolic Christianity also was present in the work of Barton W. Stone, noted for his revival at Cane Ridge in 1801. In 1824, Stone met Alexander Campbell, and they found commonality in their desire for religious reform. Although these two men disagreed on some things, Campbell stated, “Our bond of union is neither opinion nor unity of opinion. It is one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

The Restoration Movement was initiated by men of varying religious backgrounds with divergent views regarding eschatology, church polity, salvation, and even which designation would adequately describe those who had subscribed to this belief system. Despite these differences, a sense of unity existed within the diversity. There was room to grow and learn as the movement matured. However, over time, the efforts of the early Restoration Movement developed into three distinct streams. These three streams are the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, and the a cappella Churches of Christ.

Early symptoms of division began in 1849 regarding the issues of missionary societies and the implementation of instrumental music within the context of worship. Alexander Campbell strongly criticized

missionary societies because of his convictions that nothing should take the place of doing the work of the church. He amended his position in 1850, as recorded in the Millennial Harbinger; he accepted that missionary societies could be an extension of the church represented by messengers. On October 23, 1859, the American Christian Missionary Society was formed. Concurrent with this in the 1850s, significant debates regarding the use of instrumental music began. The instrumental music discussions started as a social dispute, as reflected in the disagreement between Benjamin Franklin and L. L. Pinkerton. Franklin argued against instrumental music, contending it was being implemented by the social elite based on entertainment; Pinkerton argued that the singing had degenerated, which could result in worshippers being discouraged. Eventually, arguments regarding instrumental music became a matter of theological debate heavily predicated on divergent positions regarding the silence of Scripture and the application of biblical authority. A Christian movement that began and was motivated by a desire for unity became fragmented based on peripheral issues unrelated to the core essentials of the Christian faith.

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES TO RECLAIM UNITY

Unity has always been the goal of the New Testament church, for it is a reflection of the unity experienced within the context of the Godhead. Jesus articulated this desire for unity by using a purpose clause in his prayer, “that they may all be one” (John 17:21*). The nature of the oneness is of such intimacy that he qualified it by saying, “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” On the first Pentecost after the resurrection, the apostle Peter preached the first gospel sermon and established the New Testament church. More than 3,000 souls were converted that day, and Luke described those who believed by saying they “were together and had all things common” (Acts 2:44). Luke, the meticulous historian, documented the church’s unity as a portrait of Jesus’ prayer. Those who accepted the words of the apostles experienced communal unity predicated on the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Throughout the history of the New Testament church, inevitable moments of controversy and division surfaced. This new movement gained traction quickly but found itself trying to navigate the differences between a Jew and Gentile constituency. The Jews saw themselves fighting for the heritage of Judaism; they desired for the Mosaic law and circumcision to be obligatory upon Gentile believers. As a way of addressing this controversial subject matter,

the apostles and elders convened in Jerusalem to discuss the significance and implications of the gospel. To safeguard the unity of the body, letters were sent out by chosen men to communicate the essentials vs. the unnecessary (Acts 15:30).

Within the fabric of the Epistles, Paul implored Christ followers to maintain unity (Ephesians 4:13). The apostle said we are to show tolerance for one another and diligently preserve the unity produced by the Holy Spirit. There are times when the divide goes far beyond the issues of doctrine and relates more closely to issues of intolerance, negating the effort to fight for unity. This is drastically different from fighting for who is right, which often is fueled by ambition that is antithetical to the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:1-8).

At the very least, New Testament Scripture suggests that unity is possible and desired by God. If the summation of Scripture is correct, then the church must pose a hard question to itself: How dedicated have we been to the efforts of communal unity among believers?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Sounds of unity echo in the early development of the Restoration Movement. In The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, Barton W. Stone and others moved to dissolve their association with the Presbytery and called upon all Christians of every name to join them in prayer that God would remove all obstacles to unity and the purpose of the church. In his Declaration and Address, Thomas Campbell stated that we must be essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.

Throughout the developmental fluctuations of the Restoration Movement, the practical and theological intent of the movement has remained clear. This movement is rooted in the biblical ethic of communal unity through a commitment to apostolic teaching while wrestling to understand the difference between godly essentials and our preferences.

HOW DO WE DO IT?

The three streams of the Restoration Movement have the potential to experience unity again. While years of theological and practical differences have created barriers to unity, the prayer of Jesus must

be considered possible. How do we arrive at biblical unity? Consider three necessary components.

Honor the Essentials While Acknowledging Preferences. It is vitally important that the New Testament church never loses its biblical identity. This identity is found in the ethical and doctrinal essentials revealed by the apostles as the Holy Spirit led them. As in the Acts 15 controversy regarding circumcision, believers must learn to engage in intentional conversation to collectively take hold of the essentials that are the basis of our unity. Unity built upon essentials must become more prominent than differences based on preferences. Preferences must always be categorized as unnecessary. The local church should debate preferences, while the universal church experiences unity on the basis of the essentials of the Christian faith. To this end, believers must recognize that we are brothers and not twins, and allow for unity in diversity within the boundaries of apostolic truth.

Magnify the Mission. Peripheral disagreements become minimal when the mission is maximized. The Great Commission, as articulated by our sovereign Christ Jesus, remains a centerpiece on the table of Christianity. It is a reminder of the mission’s centrality to expand the kingdom’s borders. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commissioned his disciples to “make disciples of all nations.” This is accomplished through the participial phrase, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” When differences become more significant than the mission, we slow the process of kingdom expansion. Additionally, we potentially forestall beneficial partnerships because fighting over preferences becomes more important than working for purpose.

Revisit Bible Study Methodology. Part of our history has involved loyalty to a rationalistic approach to scriptural interpretation. Alexander Campbell was heavily influenced by philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon, one of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment. Campbell intended to demonstrate that Christianity was a rationalistic religion guided by reason. While this has merit, the Bible is a book of various genres that are not simply sets of propositions to be rationally understood. To arrive at a proper understanding of Scripture, we must seek what the author intended to communicate under the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit within its literary context. Scripture divorced from context can mean anything. For our movements to experience unity, we must place the Bible back in its proper place as an authority, but also as literature that must be interpreted appropriately.

WITHIN OUR REACH

Although obstacles are present, unity remains within reach. Multiple efforts toward unity have included fruitful discussions and progress centered on the common root shared by our Restoration branches. God has consistently raised Christian voices to declare the heart of God. As God’s Word continues to go forward into the consciousness of men, he will always have a remnant that responds in obedience to his good pleasure. 

*All Scripture verses are from the New American Standard Bible, 1995.

Dr. Orpheus J. Heyward serves as the evangelist of Renaissance Church of Christ in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to speaking at conferences and revivals across the country, he teaches exposition and Christian leadership at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, and D. Newell Williams (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/ Churches of Christ, Churches of Christ, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 123, 531, 755.

Daniel G. Reid, Robert D. Linder, Bruce L. Shelley, and Harry S. Stout, Dictionary of Christianity in America (InterVarsity Press, 1990).

S. Michael Houdmann (Gen. Ed.), Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered (WestBow Press, 2014).

Hoyt H. Houchen, “Sponsoring Church Arrangements: Herald of Truth (A Test Case),” in Their Works Do Follow Them: Florida College Annual Lectures 1982, M. D. Curry (Ed.), (Florida College Bookstore, 1982), 49.

Richard T. Hughes and James L. Gorman, Reviving the AncientFaith:TheStoryofChurchesofChristinAmerica, Third Edition, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2024), 58.

CHURCH PLANTING IN THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

BY PHIL CLAYCOMB

Being neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, I am wary of predicting the future. But I do feel adequate to comment on emerging trends. These observations are not futuristic guesses. Nor do they reflect my thoughts alone. I solicited input from church-planting colleagues. I asked them to identify up-and-coming trends they see. The surprise was that we all see the same developments. I did not expect that. So here are the trends that are emerging within the church-planting efforts of the Independent Christian Churches.

REGIONAL NETWORKS: FROM LETHARGY TO VITALITY

I left seminary wanting to plant a church. As such, I explored options with several “church-planting organizations.” To my dismay, I discovered that many were neither: they were neither “starting churches” nor were they “organized.” While most groups talked a lot about church planting, they only rarely launched a church. In the end, it was mostly just a lot of talk. Nobody seemed to be getting it done.

I don’t think I am being unfair to suggest that, at one point, many of our regional networks were lethargic. But that has changed. Praise the Lord! Our regional networks are back in the game. Churches are being started. And because they are being launched by regional networks, they are being started all over the country, in all kinds of places. My own ministry, Nexus: Church Planting & Leader Care, has partnered with 16 regional networks across 23 states. (See www.nexus.us.) The networks that were once lethargic and slow are now active, limber, creative, and engaged!

And as these regional networks show signs of vitality, young leaders are assuming leadership roles within the networks. Older leaders who faithfully revived the lethargic ministries are handing their ministries off to young, energetic successors. And even better, I know of 11 church-planting leaders who are aspiring to start new networks in their own regions.

New vision is emerging. New ways of doing church are being embraced. The once lackluster networks are on the cutting edge of innovation and creativity. There is a new sense of vitality among our regional church-planting networks.

If you’re not already supporting your regional network, check it out—I strongly suspect it’s worth your support! These can be found at www.newchurchnet.com.

STRATEGIES: FROM SOPS TO IEPS

Not so long ago, almost all our new church plants followed the same “standard operating procedures” (SOPs). Everyone targeted the same type of community (fast-growing suburbs). We hired similarly equipped leaders (typically high D-dominant or Iinspirational types, as indicated via the DiSC temperament scale). Given that almost all projects were in the same suburban context, the projects all required roughly the same level of funding. And the projects were coached to run basically the same game plan, regardless of location. It looked and felt like we were launching franchise locations.

Every new church was a lot like all the other new churches, regardless of location, context, or the individual call of the founding pastor. And it was hard to argue with our success. We got good at planting the same kind of churches all over the continent. Our SOPs worked well for a long time.

But that’s no longer our norm. A new willingness to experiment and innovate has emerged. Why? I’d like to say that we’ve been innovating voluntarily and intentionally. But my gut tells me it has more to do with the fact that the old SOPs no longer produce the same successes we once saw. We needed new game plans and we have found them.

New methods and ideas abound in our networks. New churches are now being started everywhere, not just in suburban sprawl. My ministry, Nexus: Church Planting and Leader Care, and our partners, are launching churches in urban, rural, small-town, and yes—suburban settings. And the unique dynamics in differing communities and the individual call and vision of the leaders force us to tailor our strategies. Our projects require the equivalent of what educators call an Individualized Education Program (or IEP).

We need IEPs because we are starting different kinds of churches in different types of communities, often using a different kind of leader. We are targeting different ethnicities and people groups. We are experimenting with new ways of being the church. Our typical strategies have focused on launching Sundaycentric programs. As the name implies, those churches are mostly about what can be built on and out of a Sunday morning program. But a new approach to church life is emerging.

Some leaders opt to launch group-centric models that focus attention on more than a Sunday morning program. These new churches invest heavily in smaller

expressions of church life. These emerging trends are forcing church-planting networks to shift from the predictable uniformity of previous SOPs to the serendipitous customization of an IEP.

The results are not nearly as predictable as in the past. These new approaches are messy. But new people are being reached by smaller, simpler expressions of worship, community, and mission. This is an exciting time to be engaged in starting new churches.

PARTNERSHIP: FROM COMPETITION TO COLLABORATION

To be fair, I have rarely witnessed outright competitiveness between church-planting networks and their leaders. We generally get along well. We learn from one another. We help each other. We like one another. But even so, the behind-the-scenes reality is that we often find ourselves chasing the same supporters, or worse—the same church-planting candidates. In those moments we engage in friendly competition for the same resources. I wish I could see that changing. But I don’t.

However, the good news is that a newfound spirit of collaboration and partnership has emerged between our regional ministries. And this spirit of collaboration is much stronger than any incidental competitiveness that might occasionally pop up.

Networks are partnering to start churches regardless of the project’s location. State lines used to prevent neighboring state networks from cooperating. Not anymore. Networks ignore state lines and assist one another because it seems to be the right thing to do. I would be hard put to identify a recent church plant that was not started in collaboration between multiple networks and sister churches.

The NewChurch Network (see newchurch.network) is a tangible expression of this newfound spirit of collaboration. Twenty or more regional networks have linked arms in this collaborative network. We like to say, “We engage in mutual projects that may not apparently advance narrow regional agendas because we’re following One who has an agenda far bigger than any of our regional agendas.” I think Christ, and the original founders of our movement, would be pleased by these displays of missional unity.

NETWORKS ARE INVESTING ENERGY AND CAPITAL TO PREPARE CHURCH PLANTERS FOR THEIR CORE TASK: MULTIPLYING DISCIPLEMAKING LEADERS.

NEW LEADERS ARE EMERGING FROM UNEXPECTED SOURCES.

NEW WAYS OF PROVIDING LEADERSHIP TRAINING ARE BEING INTRODUCED.

NEW WAYS OF BEING THE CHURCH ARE BEING EXPERIMENTALLY LAUNCHED.

TRAINING: FROM SEMINARY-TRAINED TO “JUST-IN-TIME” TRAINING

Anyone who has been tracking the health of our colleges and seminaries has reason to wonder where we will find church planters and church staff in the coming years. Every network leader I know has noticed that the pool of potential seminary-trained candidates is drying up. They’re just not out there. Fortunately, the Lord appears to have already provided a solution. A new wave of leaders is emerging from within the churches themselves. They are often stepping into leadership with little or no seminary training. And they are entering ministry as bivocational leaders. They have separate jobs and careers in addition to their ministry.

Seventeen of our most recent 25 Nexus church planters are bivocational. Many never intend to quit their “day jobs.” They prefer to lead their churches from a “I have a day job too!” posture. Several of our leaders have had no seminary training. Our challenge is to provide them with the right training at the right time. They need “just-in-time” training. I anticipate this will be the new norm going forward. We are advising current church planters to assume that the pastor who follows them may need to be raised up and developed from within their new church itself.

Those familiar with our tribal history might note that this is not so much a new trend as a freshly emerging old trend. This used to be the way it was within the Restoration Movement. This new trend might prove to be better than our recent approaches to training and preparing leaders.

MISSION: FROM DISCIPLE-MAKING AS A METHOD TO THE MISSION!

I’m excited to report that disciple-making is being rediscovered and rethought. For far too long disciplemaking was viewed as a means to the real mission of the church: church growth. Nearly anything that produced growth was valued and emphasized in church-planting circles. On a personal level, I fell into this wrongheaded approach to mission. My earliest rationale for promoting small groups and disciple-making was based on the realization that I would lose Sunday morning attendees if my church did not provide people with closer relational connections. So, I sold small groups and talked about

disciple-making. But I did not view disciple-making as the core mission of Christ’s church. And I’m not the only one who has thought this way. I’ve coached a couple of hundred church planters over the years. And I believe most leaders viewed disciple-making as I did . . . a means to their own end: growth. We did not see it as the mission of the church. Thankfully, this is changing. Networks are investing energy and capital to prepare church planters for their core task: multiplying disciple-making leaders.

My own network, Nexus, has hosted more than 40 churches through The Bonhoeffer Project. (See nexus. us/bonhoeffer.) This 10-month cohort learning experience guides participants through the process of rediscovering Jesus’ discipleship gospel and methodology. The participants design and implement their own disciple-making strategy in their local church. Instead of seeing disciple-making as a method toward church growth, our new churches are discovering that disciple-making is the core of our mission.

All in all, the Independent Christian Churches have much to be excited about as we look to our future in church planting. A new spirit of collaboration has broken out between our regional networks. Partnership and cooperation are the new norm. New leaders are emerging from unexpected sources. New ways of providing leadership training are being introduced. New ways of being the church are being experimentally launched. Sleepy and lethargic regional networks are waking up, shaking the dust off, and jumping into the fray. Our regional networks are handing the leadership reins to a new generation of eager leaders. And our churches are remembering their core mission is to make disciples who make disciples.

As I survey these emerging trends, I find myself wishing I was just now starting out in ministry. The present and near future look exciting and stimulating! But I can’t complain . . . my ministry run from the late 1980s until now has been a wild ride! What’s coming next looks to be much of the same! 

Dr. Philip Claycomb serves as executive director of Nexus: Church Planting and Leader Care, McKinney, Texas.

www.nexus.us

phil@nexus.us

It was the 1970s and ’80s. Most people thought of themselves as “Christians” of some kind, and church was part of their lives. Not us. My parents probably believed conceptually in a God, but if there was a Bible in the house, I never saw it opened. If there was a church in the neighborhood, we never stepped inside.

Today, they’d call people like us “nones,” a term describing people who say on surveys that they believe in God, but when asked to list their religious affiliation or church they belong to, they simply mark “NONE of the above.”

Nones make up more of our population than ever before, and they are an ever-growing concern for Christians and churches who want to help people discover the treasure of faith and family that can be found in Christ and his church.

WE’RE MISSING SOME THING

Back when I was a kid—before all the surveys, labels, and concern—I thought we were just normal people living normal lives. But you don’t know what you don’t know. When I was 4, my parents divorced, my mom became a hippie, and she drove my brother and me across the country to California to “find herself.” My biochemist dad remarried and leveraged the courts to remand us back to Indianapolis. But parents fought, new marriages crumbled, promises were broken, and people were broken in their wake.

And when you’re broken, you do broken things. I teamed up with friends to steal cigarettes, skip school, hide pornography, smoke weed, sneak liquor, and cuss up a storm. These things didn’t feel wrong. They just felt like normal attempts to fit in, fill the void, or fix what seemed “blah” inside.

And even though I believed in a God, not once during these years did I ever think to myself, What I need is a Father God, or a friend in Jesus, or a church where I can find belonging and purpose and family. To many of us nones, broken life is just normal life, most of us just don’t know we’re missing something.

and said something to my dad that would forever change my life: “I know we don’t go to church, but when I was his age, I did, and I remember it helped me.” My dad went along with the idea. Nancy’s coworker overheard and invited us to her church, East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

And so, for the first time in my life, I went to a church.

I resisted it at first. I told my dad, “These Christians are a bunch of hypocrites, so I shouldn’t have to go to church.” He saw through my ploy, and said, “You can’t tell if people are hypocrites after two weeks with them. So instead, over the next six months, you’re going to go to everything they do, every time they meet.”

Those were wise words, because Jesus promised that if you get to be around a church of his good-hearted followers for long enough, their love for him, and for each other, and for you, will draw you in and win you over in a way that’s hard to resist.

But I tried resisting. Every time I went to church, I tried wearing, saying, and doing things to get these Christians to dislike me and kick me out of their club. But it didn’t work. Those people, young and old, loved me, were genuinely happy to see me, and cared about my life. It was as if they liked me being part of their group.

In life, I was trying to fit into all kinds of groups, but didn’t. Yet in this group called “the church” (where I didn’t want to fit), I fit!

And after those six months passed by, instead of calling those Christians in that church hypocrites, I came forward, confessed my faith in Christ, was baptized into him, and that whole church, young and old, became the kind of loving, healthy family I never knew existed, or that I needed, or that I’d ever hope to build.

THERE’S A LOVE IN A CHURCH THAT CAN FILL OUR VOID

When my dad dove into the New Age movement, he met his third wife, Nancy. She noticed my waywardness

On our own, my unchurched family of nones would’ve never solved my problem of brokenness and sin or unlocked this treasure I now have in Jesus and get to share with others! Jesus’ church saved my life. The way they genuinely tried following him, and loving each other, and inviting outsiders like me and my family into their circle, it gradually warmed and won me to trusting Jesus. It’s why I’ve spent the last 30 years just trying to help his churches be the healthy families that can love more of us into his family.

THERE’S A GOSPEL IN A CHURCH THAT CAN LIGHT OUR WAY

Once a church wins a none (or former none) with love, there’s still a lot more work to do. Most of us don’t possess the same bank of Bible knowledge or ethical assumptions as those who grew up with the Bible and in church. It will often require more time to teach us, and more patience to help us navigate the confusing web of beliefs and values we built along the way.

In college, a new minister and his wife at my church saw potential in me, befriended me, and asked me to help them minister with the youth. It was wonderful to feel like I was making a difference. The more I got involved in the church and in ministry, the more excited I became about my faith in Jesus.

And then my hippie mom sent me The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ. In retrospect, the name should’ve been a giveaway that it was bad news for me, but because I’d grown up in hippie and New Age culture, and still hadn’t read the Bible, this different gospel of a more New-Age Jesus was a comforting mash-up of the beliefs I’d grown up with, mixed with the Jesus of my church. I was hooked.

Problem was, I started sharing it with others around me, even young people in church. Not good. Looking back, I would have understood if the youth minister would’ve found a way to quietly dismiss me from their ministry team, or if the church would’ve discreetly distanced themselves from me. But they didn’t. They worked with me.

The youth minister and other older, wiser Christians invited me into their prayer groups and their discipleship groups. Christian friends encouraged me to read the Bible. All the while, the church just kept lovingly, responsibly teaching the gospel from the Bible.

When I finally decided to read the Bible (even if it was to prove to myself that my different, angel-delivered Aquarian Gospel beliefs were right), the first place my new “one-year Bible” opened up to was Galatians 1, where Paul said,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!

My first words upon reading the Bible were, “Oh [expletive], I’m wrong!” And I couldn’t put the Bible down, every day I read things that were changing the way I saw God and everything in life!

When nones come into the church, we don’t come as blank slates. We’ve built up a confusing web of backgrounds, beliefs, and values that Christ’s church and his gospel can uniquely and patiently help us untangle, to help us see life through his lens.

THERE’S A MISSION IN A CHURCH THAT GIVES MEANING TO OUR LIVES

And the more we feel the love of his family and see life through the light of his Word, we encounter another powerful medicine Christ and his church uniquely have for people: the sense of meaning and purpose that come with his great mission to help people find the faith and family that’s in Christ and his church.

I was attending a state college, where I’d already declared education as my major and was planning to be a teacher. I was on campus, reading God’s Word, when I heard his quiet voice say, “Yes, you’re going to teach, but you’re going to teach what’s changing your life.” I remember it like it was yesterday.

And the same church that loved me to Christ, and patiently led me to his Word, helped me in countless

ways after that onto a path to becoming the Christian man, husband, and father I never dreamed this brokenhearted, broken-homed, unchurched kid would ever amount to, and they helped me become the Christian Church minister I’ve had the privilege of being over the past 30 years.

From spending my twenties ministering in my church home in Indianapolis, to spending my thirties planting churches in the wild unchurched frontiers of Portland, Oregon, to spending my forties ministering in Jacksonville, Florida, sometimes I pinch myself that, somehow, by the grace of God, this kid who once had none of church or Christ in his life, has now gotten in on witnessing and helping some thousands of people (even nones like I was) all over the country trust Christ, be baptized, and discover the rich faith and loving family and life purpose that can be found in full only in Christ and his church.

CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH HAVE THAT SOMETHING PEOPLE NEED. LET’S BELIEVE IT.

Even now, spending my fifties helping lead Legacy Christian Church in Lakeland, Florida, I find myself believing all the more that Christ and his church hold the love, light, purpose, and hope the world around us needs.

I’ve never had a ministry assignment of helping nurture a wounded church back to health, so I’ve been learning that kind of ministry right along with them. I’ve loved witnessing them becoming a healthy, happy, loving, and trusted church again. In fact, the “inside” of the church has never been healthier.

But an even greater joy is seeing a revived evangelistic heartbeat for us “outsiders” to be invited and welcomed into the loving “inside” of a church family, where they can warm up to the faith in him and the family in his church, where they can learn his Word and find a higher purpose in his world. It’s actually happening in ways I’ve never imagined!

We’ve partnered up with a Spanish-speaking church in our city to share space and build friendship across cultural, language, and even denominational differences. For the past few years, we’ve visited neighbors and done occasional outreach events together. We’ve even orchestrated some Spanish-English services together. It’s heavenly! It’s modeling unity in the kingdom, but it’s also winning people to both churches!

I’ve always had to invent ways to go “love our neighbors” like Jesus taught us. But our neighbors have grown to trust us so much that they now come to eat lunch with lots of our church family every single week. Sometimes you can’t tell the church family from the neighbors, because we’re all eating together. And as they get to know us, they start serving with us, joining us in church on Sundays, trusting Christ, being baptized, and becoming part of the church family!

And having so many new unchurched Christians inspired us to create a simple 40-day journal to develop or strengthen the core habits of being a Christian. It’s helping all our unchurched become stronger in the faith and more engaged in their church family.

But my heart especially skips a beat when I see the unchurched neighbor teens coming to church, experiencing the love of a church family where they’re hearing his good news, asking questions, trusting Christ, being baptized, living life with God, telling others about him, serving meaningfully in their church, inviting their friends, even baptizing and discipling their friends!

Because that’s what Christ and his church did for me. Thank God, they can take a life of little-to-none and transform it into the life of full-and-forever. Let’s never stop believing it! 

Steve Brooke is a proud product of East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was led to Christ, grew in faith, met his lovely wife, Renee, and was called and equipped into a life of ministry. Steve currently serves as lead minister of Legacy Christian Church in Lakeland, Florida.

A

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT.

BY LEROY LAWSON

The problem is, things just won’t stay put. The moment you think you’ve got everything arranged the way you want, the ground beneath you shifts and time passes and circumstances change and there you are, discovering yourself in a world not of your making and, usually, not of your liking.

So, you dream backwards, remembering when days were brighter and people seemed saner and the causes you believed in appeared impregnable and you were more comfortable. But unfortunately, as I said, things just won’t stay put. And when they don’t, you peer into tomorrow with deepening dread and wonder whether there is any hope after all.

The Restoration Movement has been my religious home since my youth and, though in adolescence I flirted briefly with rebellion, I didn’t flee. In time I came to terms with this often scrappy, sometimes misguided, but never completely hopeless band of believers. And yet, in my old age, a question persists: Is there hope for the Restoration Movement? It’s usually sighed with overtones of resignation or regret. Over the decades my answer hasn’t changed much. It is yes. And no.

A MOVEMENT THAT REALLY MOVES

Let me clarify the “no” first. No, there’s no hope if we are asking whether the movement as we know it today will survive even the next 50 years. It will not—as we know it today. I can speak boldly, because the movement as it was when I was ordained in 1959 has morphed drastically in the years since. And that 1959 expression differed vastly from, say, the 1909 version. And that one would have greatly surprised the pioneers who started the movement a hundred years before. The indisputable fact is that the Restoration Movement has always been moving, ever adapting to the shifting sands of cultural time. We didn’t “restore” or “reform” and then rest from our labors, trusting that once we’d achieved organizational and doctrinal perfection there would be no further alterations. Perfect is perfect, after all.

Let me be more specific. I assumed our leading institutions in 1959 would still be leading in 2024. Then they began dying on me.

I grew up in Christian Endeavor because my home church believed it was the best youth organization around. You probably never heard of it, unless you are of a certain age. Though I didn’t know it, CE was in its death throes even then. In its place nationally, Christ In Youth arose. The Bible college I attended is still around, although Northwest Christian College had been Eugene Divinity School before then and is Bushnell University now. But many other colleges that flourished in those days are now dead: Puget Sound Christian College, Midwest Christian College, Cincinnati Christian University, Lincoln Christian University, and St. Louis Christian College (I could go on) are gone.

We used to gather annually in the grand conclave called the North American Christian Convention. It’s also gone now, succeeded by Spire, numerically a shadow of NACC’s former self. Most of my writing was published by Standard Publishing Company. Gone.

There have been other hurtful losses, too many of them, but these are enough to make my point. In what I like to think of as my relatively short lifetime, the Restoration Movement has experienced near-cataclysmic losses. Many of these institutions by which we identified ourselves no longer exist or exist in greatly modified forms.

So if, when we ask whether there is hope for the RM, we are thinking in terms of institutions and agencies and organizations, the answer has to be no. (A good example from my home state of Oregon: In the 19th century, pioneering members of the Restoration Movement planted nine colleges in the Pacific Northwest. Only two of them are alive today, and neither identifies with our movement.) The truth is, there is not now, nor has there ever been, hope for the status quo. I repeat: things just won’t stay put.

REASONS FOR HOPE

But despite the losses, the balance sheet still shows a net gain and the principles which fostered and sustained the movement remain powerful—so powerful, in fact, that no attempts to govern its energy have succeeded. It will not stay corralled.

Let me give you my reasons for hope. You’ll note they are conditional; wishful thinking won’t take us into a prosperous future, but the empowering Spirit of God can. By relying on that Spirit and adhering to the movement’s best principles, I think we can do it. Here they are, then, first the conditions and then the hope:

If we’ll remember we are primarily a movement, not a denomination. Denominations can write rules to keep everybody who conforms safe inside the borders and to keep the mavericks, malcontents, and other disturbers of the peace out; movements can’t. So, let’s choose to remain a movement, one whose members humbly strive to be Christians only and not the only Christians. If we will, then we have a future. The church at large still needs such Christ followers.

If we’ll keep our passion for truth coupled to grace; if we, like the apostle Paul, will speak the truth in love—always the truth, always in love—then there’s great hope for us.

If we’ll add to our evangelistic passion generous helpings of “the joy of our salvation,” we not only will have a hopeful future, but a joyful one.

If we’ll employ the gifts of the spirit (prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, etc.) with the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), then we have every hope that the words of Scripture—“and the Lord added to them . . .”—will apply to our movement.

If we’ll uncouple our religious passions from our political ones, lifting the cross of Christ high above all party or even patriotic symbols, if we’ll understand that partisanship is a powerful source of division whereas the cross is the route to unity, then our movement can remain whole and the font of hope-giving wholeness in a fractured religious world.

If we will remember that unity does not mean unanimity, that within a united movement differences of opinion are tolerated because individuals are respected, then we can offer proof that Christ does indeed break down dividing walls of hostility. There’s hope for such a people.

If we’ll remember that Christ sent his followers into all the world to make disciples. . . . In other words, the Restoration Movement exists for the benefit of “them” and not just “us.” Our emphasis on evangelism and mission keeps our focus on others; it encourages us to sacrifice our own comforts for the sake of those who aren’t yet part of us (but we hope one day will be). Isn’t this what Jesus had in mind when he urged us to love our neighbors as ourselves? We want the best for them.

For all these reasons and more, the young man who stepped into the Restoration Movement in the middle of the 20th century is still here as an old man in the 21st.

I do recognize that our ways are not always the best. I could write another essay, probably longer, on our many dysfunctions. We have them. And our history is replete with many efforts to “tidy up” the movement; well-intentioned people have fretted anxiously over our open borders, our thinkers of heterodox thoughts, our rogue pastors or churches who don’t toe “the party line,” whatever that is.

We’ll always have too many self-credentialing pockets of like-minded, culturally similar groups with their (usually) self-appointed gatekeepers. Give them their reign, they argue, and they’ll purify us and define us (define, meaning “set limits on”). Such internal unity efforts have repeatedly divided us; the medicine has usually been more deadly than the disease. But the truth is, we will not be tidied up.

Perhaps that’s because we shouldn’t be. We are, I repeat myself, a movement, and movements move. Read our history, starting back in the early 19th century with the Campbells and Barton Stone. From that early beginning until today, every effort to corral the herd (or “herd the cats”) has failed. We’ve been squabbling since we were born. That’s why, when I was serving a local church, I took pains to teach the principles of our fellowship—they’re really good—but I wasn’t eager to divulge all the secrets hidden in our history, because our practice has never lived up to our principles. We’re better at advocating than we are at accomplishing, I’m afraid. But our aspirations are worth hanging on to.

You may wonder how, with all these challenges, I can still assert that I’m hopeful. Let me answer with my personal testimony. I’m still one of us. Even though I’ve never quite fit, I still belong.

My formal education doesn’t fit the pattern; my political proclivities are not appreciated in some circles; my theological curiosity has sometimes scared my friends. I think aloud, trusting the love of my church family to hold me close, even when they disagree with me. Yet—and this is huge—nobody has kicked me out. And that’s for a very good

reason. Nobody can. Nobody has the denominational authority to “church” me. Because—have I said this before?—we’re a movement.

There’s another, even larger, reason for the hope I have. We’re disciples of Christ, after all, and he promised “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the church. We’ve been through discouraging days, we’ve been assailed and ridiculed and been under attack—often for our own sinfulness—but we are still here. Notice Jesus’ language: He’s assuming an active, even aggressive, church, a body capable of breaking through the defenses of hell itself. Truth won’t be defeated by falsehood, not ultimately. Love can’t be destroyed by hate, not over the long term. Partisan politics may triumph in a season, but not forever.

This essay has been written by a disciple of Christ who is not a disciple of a disciple of Christ. To the best of my ability to live up to this honored slogan, I have “no creed but Christ.” My hope, therefore, is in the Lord and not in any of our temporal, temporary, and thus flawed, organizational structures. Given a chance, our mutual trust in Christ will foster a spirit of tolerance, a readiness to adapt when necessary, and a freedom to innovate, all the while “speaking the truth in love.”

Yes, there is indeed hope for the Restoration Movement.

LeRoy Lawson started ministry more than 60 years ago. He has served as senior minister of Central Christian Church in Mesa, Arizona, and as president of Hope International University, Fullerton, California, among his many ministry roles.

THE FORUM

Thoughts on the future of the Restoration Movement

We asked several current and emerging leaders in our movement to respond to the question, “When you think about the next 10 years for Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, what concerns you and what excites you?” Here are their responses.

LOST AND FOUND

By Alex Eddy

Nearly 100 years ago, author and preacher J. J. Haley described the religious context in 19thcentury America as an “ecclesiastical reign of terror.” Haley wrote, “Three things had happened to bring [this] about . . . First, the Bible had been lost to the church; second, Christ had been lost in the Bible; third, the church had been lost in the world.” The Restoration Movement was founded by a convergence of individuals who arrived at a singular point of conviction: the Bible was the first and final authority for rules of faith and practice. The Bible was “found” in the church.

My concern and excitement for the future of our movement center around this critical issue. Within our own societal context, we are witnessing a struggle for individual identity, meaning, and purpose. We are revisiting the time of the Old Testament judges when there was no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. If no one is king, then everyone is king. The deconstruction of the authority of God’s Word leaves a void too often filled with a subjective authority of our own device. When this begins to infiltrate our churches, the Bible is lost to the church, Christ is lost in the Bible, and the church is lost in the world.

My excitement lies in the opportunity to “find” the Bible again. Our Restoration forefathers discovered that when the Bible is found, love for Christ is renewed in the church and the church is a powerful witness to the world. The crises of identity, meaning, and purpose can be truthfully and accurately addressed only by the Word of God, our first and final authority.

Alex Eddy serves as executive director of Person to Person Ministries in Hillsboro, Ohio. He and his wife, Missy, live at Restoration Acres, site of the ministry headquarters and the annual Hillsboro Family Camp Meeting. They have six children and two grandchildren.

REVISITING OUR ROOTS

By Brittany Gill

My concerns for the Restoration Movement center on my children and their future, as well as the future of our brotherhood. Many of our Bible colleges are shutting down. There has been much compromise among Restoration Movement churches on theology, morals, and values. Churches are trying their best to be acceptable to everyone for the sake of pleasing people.

Christian leaders should stand up to fight for the future of our children and grandchildren. Otherwise, the future will be worse. Conservative Christians must be bold, courageous, and speak up, even if we get backlash. Remember, we will never please everybody. We should focus on God’s approval rather than man’s approval (Galatians 1:10).

What excites me about our movement is that it was founded on amazing values, it has an amazing history, and it teaches some of the best Bible doctrine. American Christians have two amazing opportunities in front of them:

The first is technology. Technology helps to quickly spread the gospel message. International communication is easier than ever before. We can reach people we cannot physically meet. Also, technology provides pastors with an outlet to boldly preach the truth without pressure from any church or organization.

Second, Islam is on the rise in America, which is both a concern and an opportunity. In many cases, Muslims are living next door and we need not travel around the world to reach them. That being said, American Christians need much special training to effectively reach our Muslim neighbors.

I pray that American Christians, in the midst of so many glittery, worldly distractions, will take a step back and focus on our families and true biblical values, and make the necessary lifestyle changes to become a fantastic testimony for Christ.

Brittany Gill is a missionary wife, mother, women’s Bible teacher, singer, worship leader, and YouTube Influencer who sings Christian songs in the English, Urdu, and Punjabi languages. She is married to Dr. Sam Gill, and they have four daughters. The Gills work in Pakistan where Sam serves as CEO of New Hope for the World.

A FRUITFUL FUTURE

By Jessie Harden

At Great Lakes Christian College, where I teach Restoration history, we spend a considerable amount of time teaching students to apply Restoration principles to their lives and to take those principles into the world as future church leaders. Our movement’s emphasis on unity resonates with my students. They are eager to embrace others in ways that are often difficult, by looking beyond denominational divisions, physical and social differences, and sin to see people in need of God. Their joy in inclusivity makes them quick to recognize nonessential issues and to love people as Christ loves the church; this attitude foretells a fruitful future for our movement.

In 10 years, these students will lead churches that ignore sectarian arguments and guard against division. They will do us proud. However, they will face some uphill battles. Prevailing worldly wisdom preaches “you do you,” but the Restoration Movement balances unity with careful examination of the Scriptures, and then applies what it says to our Christian walk. Our students, eager to love others and invite them to the table of fellowship, need to be prepared to share all the biblical knowledge and wisdom they can.

They will have battles to fight and lines to draw. The lines will be drawn in love, certainly, but drawn nonetheless. At GLCC we are preparing students to fight the good fight, but we know it will be challenging. Most of my students tell me their favorite Restoration slogan is, “In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things love.” In the coming decades, we can expect men and women in the church to strive to embody this, just as we have done for the past 200 years.

Jessie Ellis Harden serves as adjunct professor of Restoration history at Great Lakes Christian College, Lansing, Michigan.

PRESSING CONCERNS, BUT A BRIGHT FUTURE

By John Maurice

I have spent my life in the Independent Christian Church. Sunday school, church camp, Bible college, seminary, and ministry cemented my love and devotion to the Restoration ideal. On the flip side, I also served 25 years as a Navy chaplain where we were able to cooperate with other chaplains and Christians without compromising our own faith to care for the men and women serving in uniform. Both experiences helped shape my love for Christ and his church.

When I think of the next 10 years, some things concern me. One such thing is an attitude of judgmentalism which judges all other Christians and nonbelievers from a sense of superiority. The idea that we are right and everyone else is wrong is divisive and condemning. This attitude is evident when we engage with anger and self-righteousness. It causes the church to be perceived as unloving and uncaring. Second, the loss of our historical roots and identity Many people in our churches have little understanding of our history. Another great concern is the lack of young men committed to vocational ministry. I fear that we will minimize ministry preparation, and this eventually will backfire on the churches.

I am most excited about the future because God is sovereign, and his purpose will be fulfilled. I am thrilled we are a people of the Book with a mandate and message to lead people to Jesus Christ. I am optimistic that a new generation will take the lessons from the past, yet not be bound by tradition, and will put new wine into new wineskins “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 1:3).

BEING THE CHURCH

By Rachel Sanderson

As we pray about the future of the church, I believe we need to shift our focus from simply going to church to being the church. The church is full of people who believe we should share the gospel with our neighbors, but we lack intentionality—we fail to develop deep relationships with those people who need Jesus in their everyday lives.

Most of my life has been spent doing ministry on the university campus, but for the past few years, I’ve lived in rural South Dakota. As I’ve ministered in two very different contexts, one shift I’ve seen in both over the last few years is the growing ineffectiveness of using large events to bring new people to Jesus. Gathering in large groups will always be important, but that is not proving to be the way to make disciples of Jesus who then go make disciples.

The Great Commission is the mission of each follower of Jesus; it is not just the mission of each church. Our solution to discipleship needs to include more than just, “Come to church with me”; we also must teach others how to follow the Spirit’s leading . . . no matter the cost. Sunday morning attendance should not be the sole determinant of our “success.” Instead, look at how many people are opening Scripture together, serving those around them, and living in obedience to Christ. I am encouraged by the number of leaders who are having conversations about discipleship, praying together, and eagerly stepping up and stepping out to where God is calling them. The old rhyme we learned as kids is misguided—the church is more than a place with a steeple and people. The church really is a being with hands, feet, and a heart that beats to love God and others as we walk in the ways of Jesus.

John W. Maurice is president of Mid-Atlantic Christian University. Rachel Sanderson lives in Bonesteel, South Dakota, with her husband, Tim, and their three beautiful girls. She loves being outdoors, creating spaces for community, and having conversations over a good cup of coffee. She works with Christian Student Fellowship in Nebraska and South Dakota.

WHO—AND WHOSE—WE ARE

By Micah Stephen

The culture around us is slowly influencing the church. I fear that, in the next decade, many will feel the need to “keep up with the times” and, in the process, will neglect the truth. In the name of acceptance, I worry the church will struggle with its identity. I think the further we move from a biblical worldview, the harder it will be to accomplish what God wants for the church.

While culture and challenges constantly shift, God always remains the same. We need courage as we speak into this generation. We need the ability to equip and empower people to go out and make disciples. By the end of the first century, there were only a small group of Christians, but by the fourth century, there were so many Christians that people started to take notice. Growth like this happens when the church shares the message of Jesus with the world.

I think churches will need to decide who and whose they are. Many challenges exist, but there also is excitement because of the opportunity set before us. Light always shines brightest in the darkness. We have an amazing opportunity to be that light, a city on a hill. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do through the church in the next decade, but I know that if the church will stay true to him and his Word, people will respond, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. As Bob Russell said, “It’s good to be in the flashlight business when the power goes out.”

WHAT IF WE DON’T GET IT RIGHT?

By Dr. M. Ben Williams

I was born and raised in a Restoration Movement church. That instilled in me a strong desire to get it right. I want to be sure we are teaching the Bible accurately. Stated differently, I have a fear of getting it wrong. Church history shows that getting it wrong can lead to division and chaos.

In recent years, new churches have been emerging and drawing younger generations. Their leaders may not have attended Restoration Movement colleges or churches, but they are emphasizing biblical truth. These congregations go by various names, but many are baptizing by immersion and partaking of the Lord’s Supper more frequently.

My well-developed fear arises again as I look toward the future of the Restoration Movement. Will we still be a movement in 10 years? Will these upstart congregations grow in prominence? If they are teaching the Bible, is that actually a danger? Is the bigger danger that they, too, may get it wrong?

Trends suggest that younger generations also want to get it right. What will they see in us in the next 10 years? Will they see a movement that is teaching the Bible? Will they hear us willingly admit our struggles with areas of biblical truth, or will they encounter another generation that thinks they alone are correct? In the pursuit of biblical accuracy, will dividing lines again be drawn between those who presume to be right and those they presume to be ignorant?

My prayer is that the next generation will see in us a desire to be biblically accurate and engaged in the relentless pursuit of Jesus’ command that we be known by our love for one another.

Ben Williams has taught preaching and Old Testament at Boise Bible College in Idaho since 2014. Before that, he taught for eight years at Central Christian College of the Bible, Moberly, Missouri. He is a preacher at heart and is currently serving as the interim preacher at Canyon Springs Christian Church in Middleton, Idaho. He and his wife, Melissa, have raised five children and have one grandchild.

Micah Stephen serves as lead minister with Odon Christian Church in Indiana. He and his wife, Crystal, have three children.

LEADS THROUGH ITS CORE VALUES

BY JERRY HARRIS

From its outset, The Solomon Foundation has sought to build the kingdom of God while giving investors a great return on their investment. Ministries follow their core values to help them reach their preferred future, and from the beginning, TSF's values have guided their path to success.

When teaching about core values, Craig Groeschel relates some important guiding principles.

First, a core value is not something an organization aspires to do, but rather something it already does that is central to its purpose. When those core values are stated and understood, it keeps the ministry from the drifting that can occur due to changing circumstances, personnel, or growth. Core values define the identity of the ministry. We can aspire to values we haven’t achieved and set goals to that end; but we must not confuse our aspirations with our identity— who and what we actually are.

Second, core values need to be stated in simple and compelling terms. They need to be easy to remember and communicate. If it requires a lot of explanation or a long definition, it’s probably not what you think it is.

Third, core values must be transferable. They need to be easy to state and easy to receive, so they can be repeated over and over again. Groeschel uses words like “memorable, portable, and emotional” for core values. They need to be “tweetable, actionable, and inspirational.”

Walter Scott, the great evangelist of the early Restoration Movement, was called “the golden oracle” because of his relatable way of preaching. He is famously remembered for his five-finger exercise. He would lift up his hand and use it as an illustration of how a person could implement the gospel message in their personal life.

Scott would point to his thumb and say “faith.” He then would point to successive fingers and say, “repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and gift of the Holy Spirit.” It was such a simple illustration, but it conveyed mighty truth about receiving the gospel . . . and thousands of people responded.

Early on, The Solomon Foundation adapted that same principle of using a hand to convey its core values to those who would partner to invest in and build the kingdom through construction of church facilities.

CORE VALUE 1: HONOR GOD.

The thumb is the strongest of all the fingers; without it, it would be difficult to grip anything. Similarly, honoring God is the epicenter of all we do at The Solomon Foundation. Without it, TSF is just another not-for-profit . . . just another company. But with it, we are set apart from other financial institutions. Honoring God encapsulates the ultimate reason for everything we do.

CORE VALUE 2: POINT PEOPLE TO JESUS CHRIST.

The finger closest to the thumb is often referred to as the pointer finger (also: the forefinger and index finger). It serves to communicate direction. The success of TSF is determined not by financial growth so much as by the baptisms taking place in the churches we serve. The kingdom isn’t made up of buildings but of people who find the Lord, and it’s our desire to point people to him.

CORE VALUE 3: PROVIDE A GREAT RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

If one puts their fingers together, it’s readily apparent the middle one is the tallest and, in a sense, the greatest. It reminds us that while we invest together in building the kingdom, God blesses us immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine. Investing in TSF not only builds the kingdom, it provides a great return on investment not only in this life but also for eternity!

CORE VALUE 4: HELP CHURCHES GET TO THE NEXT STEP.

The next finger on the hand might be considered the weakest. Similarly, many churches today are struggling because they don’t have the tools they need to realize their kingdom dreams. TSF has always been committed to helping these churches get to the next step in order to accomplish those dreams. Churches and church leaders may wish to reach out and grow, but there are obstacles in the way, limiting or even stopping that growth. TSF uses investments to remove those obstacles and turn what had been weaknesses into strengths. Our history is a catalog of stories overcoming obstacles and helping churches to prevail. It’s what gets us fired up!

CORE VALUE 5: HAVE FUN!

The last finger of the hand has a funny name . . . the pinky finger! When we accomplish our first four core values, it invariably produces a great deal of joy! At TSF, we love to celebrate the wins and we love to invest in that celebration and invite as many into it as possible! God’s Word is full of examples of celebration and joy, and we want to reflect that attitude for every victory and every harvest! God knows that ministers and ministries endure much hardship, so when great things happen, we need to relish it and enjoy it together. That’s why we invest in celebration!

These are The Solomon Foundation’s core values—it’s what we do because it’s a reflection of who we are. And we would like to share our ministry with you.

If you’re a church that wants to get to the next level, we have never wanted to be your banker . . . we don’t want a business relationship with you. We want to be your ministry partner and help you to increase the yield for an eternal harvest.

If you’re an investor, we never wanted to compete with worldly organizations for an increase of your investment dollars. Instead, we want to help facilitate the blessings God has given you to not only bless you with a great return on your investment, but also to let you realize a partnership in kingdom building that will pay eternal dividends. What 401(k) can do that?

We think that Walter Scott would be proud!

THE LOOKOUT

OUR FREE WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY MATERIAL IS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH CHRISTIANSTANDARD.COM AND OUR “+LOOKOUT STUDY” NEWSLETTER.

To access our weekly lesson material, simply visit ChristianStandard.com in your web browser and select +The Lookout in the main menu.

There you will find the most recent

• Study by Mark Scott (longtime Christian college professor)

• Application by David Faust (veteran Christian educator and minister)

• Discovery questions for use by your group or for personal reflection.

A new block of related lessons begins every month, so your group can jump in at any time during the year.

Many small-group leaders and participants prefer to receive our lessons via newsletter, which we send out monthly at least 10 days in advance. The newsletter provides a link to a download of the next month’s lesson material all in one easy-to-print pdf. (Send an email including the title “The Lookout Study” to cs@christianstandardmedia.com to be added to our mailing list.)

You have our permission to print as many copies as you need for your group or class, or you can forward the link or share the pdf via email with your friends.

A final thought: Our Discovery questions are designed to foster conversation and “discovery” of biblical truth among groups and individuals with much Bible knowledge or little Bible background. Try it out! It’s free!

july 2024

ESTHER

A HERO’S PORTRAIT

The exilic book of Esther is different from any other book in the Bible. It never mentions God’s name. But God’s presence is evident in every chapter. (This idea is effectively conveyed in Donald Sunukjian’s article and sermon titled “A Night in Persia,” which also is known as “My Name Is Harbona.”) Esther’s uncle Mordecai plays a major role in the book and nudges Esther to step up and play the role of hero. Esther, a Jewess, succeeds Vashti as queen of Persia. She becomes the wife of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and ends up saving the Jewish people from annihilation. Students will learn how discernment helps achieve favor, how courage rises when it is most needed, how love acts in protection, and how joy is found in God’s victory.

august

2024

MINOR PROPHETS (HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, MALACHI)

GIVE CAREFUL THOUGHT

Seth Wilson used to say, “You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.” He stressed humility in the first phrase. In the second phrase, he stressed the destiny of the direction of our minds. When God’s people returned from Babylonian exile, how they directed their thoughts would shape the new nation. Six men helped the remnant reconstitute themselves. The three key leaders were Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. These leaders were assisted by three Minor Prophets: Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. In this month’s lessons, students will learn about thoughtful ways to obey the Lord, about thoughtful hearts that should not be hardened by life’s situations, about thoughtful offerings to test God’s provision, and about thoughtful relationships to evidence faith.

INTERACT

‘WONDERFUL TESTIMONY’

David Faith Thank you, Ben, for sharing Mountain Christian’s story of how God has made a way for the gospel to be shared, believers to be discipled, and God’s kingdom to grow [“The ‘Only God’ Story of Mountain Christian Church,” by Ben Cachiaras, March/April 2024, p. 36].

Kevin Dooley “The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.” So true. Wonderful testimony of God faithfully making a way where there was no way!

‘IMPRESSIVE LEADERSHIP’

Bob Kitchen This is a great article [“Traders Point Christian Church: 190 Years of Kingdom-Centered Service,” by Aaron Brockett, March/April 2024, p. 42]. Impressive leadership. I hope and pray that many will read it and be encouraged to pursue innovative growth and maintain attractive, helpful programs within biblical guidelines while avoiding psychological impediments to cogent reasoning. Looking back on my experiences as a church leader and consultant in about five cultures, I’ve too often said to myself, “If only we had—”.

Bob Sartoris I would encourage you to write a follow-up article detailing [former Traders Point minister] Dave Roberts’ thesis and the action steps which TPCC followed as a result. That will help others to assess where they are and perhaps guide them toward similar changes.

David Roberts As I said to Aaron Brockett in thanking him for his kind words about our time at TPCC, there are many others who deserve much more recognition than I do.

Several previous ministers laid significant groundwork for the later developments, but during our time there the elders of the church were by far most responsible for the wonderful spirit and openness to the guidance of God which have been so evident in recent years.

All of the growth and outreach of this current era were clearly beyond our imagination in “the old days,” but the wonderful spirit of Christ has worked wonders through that ever-renewing congregation.

Pam Burns My husband and I attended [Traders Point Christian Church] for the first time today, April 21, 2024. Our dear friend invited us. We felt so welcome and comfortable. Everyone was so kind that it felt like home. Thank you for the background article to help us understand the beginnings and history. [We] will be going every Sunday possible.

‘WHAT

THE LORD SAYS, GOES!’

Jon Weatherly Excellent piece, James. Thank you [“Understanding the Disciples’ Decline,” by James Hansee, March/April 2024, p. 56].

Recently I have seen migration from the Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ to Disciples congregations among people seeking theological and ethical flexibility, specifically about sexual behavior. I suspect the migrants will not be satisfied to remain, but I fear they will exit the faith altogether [and] not return to historic orthodoxy.

Michael Bratten Thank you for the documented review of the Disciples’ decline, James. Well done. These are facts, not opinions. And the fact of the matter is, what the Lord says, goes! Too many of the Lord’s commands have become ping-pong fodder, batted back and forth, with “your opinion is as good as mine.” But the Word of God has been used only as a reference book in these matters instead of as his authoritative Word. May God help us to hold firm to his truths, “saving both ourselves and our hearers.”

INTERACT (CONT'D)

‘SOMETHING

WE CAN EASILY SHARE’

Tim Taft Very good article [“The Restoration Movement: A History of Separation,” by Richard J. Cherok, March/April 2024, p. 50]. Most brothers and sisters in our churches today are likely unaware of their historical heritage. Thank you for writing this, Mr. Cherok, as this is something we can easily share with them.

Keith P. Keeran Thank you for sharing this excellent overview of our history. Many in the church today are unfamiliar with the origins of this 19th-century movement, not to mention the persistent struggle of the ancients who were always working to restore and renew the faith and obedience of the church in their day and were always seeking unity among believers. We don’t tell the stories of any of these champions of unity very often or very well. The unity for which Jesus prayed has gone largely unanswered since the first century. Unity remains a going concern for every generation. Do we even hear the church pray for unity anymore? Perhaps we should begin there. There is no better example of how to pray for unity than the example of he whose church it is.

Jim E. Montgomery [Your] article filled in a few gaps in this student’s knowledge of the Restoration Movement. Thank you for a lucid concise presentation. Congregants today know nothing of the RM’s history because the pulpiteers don’t know much/anything about it. Many/most are trying to keep seats in the seats and dollars in the bank and their own rep/street cred for advancement. . . .

‘THOUGHT-PROVOKING ANALYSIS’

Elaine Francis I’ve never heard it explained this way, but it is very good [Engage, “Why the Restoration Movement Needs Saints and How to Become One,” by Tyler McKenzie, March/April 2024, p. 14]. Heaven or hell—our habits, our choice!

‘A WONDERFUL REMINDER’

Cheryl Mohorn What a wonderful reminder of women and their role in affecting the outcome of church history and society. May God bless you for your service to our country and this ministry [“The Resurrection: A Personal Encounter,” by Renee Mitchell, March/April 2024, p. 72].

A ‘YES’ WHEN EVERYONE ELSE SAID ‘NO’

Randy Wheeler Ten years ago, the church I pastored in Michigan was left in need of a financial partner when our local bank called our loan out of the blue. When every other lender we could think of told us “no,” a friend suggested I call Doug Crozier. “He’s got a new thing going called The Solomon Foundation. I contacted Doug and we had our loan in no time [“The Solomon Foundation Impact,” by Jerry Harris, March/April 2024, p. 84]. Since then, I have heard the same story over and over from pastors across the country—“Doug believed in us when no one else did”; “Solomon said ‘yes’ when everyone else said “no.” . . . Doug’s leadership has left an indelible mark on the Restoration Movement and has impacted tens of thousands of souls for eternity.

For space, length, readability, relevance, and civility, comments sent to Interact may remain unpublished or be edited. We do read them all and prayerfully take them to heart. If we publish your comment, we will try to honestly reproduce your thoughts with those considerations in mind. Where we disagree, let’s continue to keep P.H. Welshimer’s words in mind to “disagree without being disagreeable.”

@chrstandard @christianstandardmagazine @christianstandardmagazine cs@christianstandardmedia.com

by david faust

Climbing the Mountain Together:

The Crucial Role of Older Believers in the Church’s Future

As the church heads into the future, we may be overlooking one of our greatest resources: senior adults. In many congregations, people over age 50 are a sleeping giant—an untapped reservoir of ministry potential. Seasoned saints have wisdom, experience, spiritual gifts, time, and financial resources to share, but they struggle to find their place in God’s family. In some cases, they have been “put out to pasture” by leaders who overlook them or tacitly communicate that the church doesn’t care about them.

It’s a mistake to ignore this demographic. By 2030, when the last of the Baby Boomers move into older adulthood, more than 71 million residents over age 65 will live in the United States. That number will rise to more than 85 million by 2050—roughly 22 percent of the U.S. population. In other words, more than one in five Americans will be age 65 or older, and about one in three will be over age 50. It’s vital for the church to have a robust ministry with children and students as we nurture the next generation, but at the same time, we must not neglect our older neighbors. According to census data, by 2034 older adults will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.

It’s counterintuitive but true: The future will be shaped not only by the younger generation, but by the attitudes, actions, and faith of the older generation as well.

What Should the Church Do for Older Adults?

Older people need the same things everyone else does.

Love them. If you are young, ask yourself, “How will I want to be treated when I am in my sixties, seventies, or eighties?”

Disciple them. If church membership means little more than showing up for an hour on Sunday, listening passively to a sermon, and dropping money into the offering, it is no wonder many Christians lose their zeal. Like their younger brothers and sisters in Christ, older adults need to be involved in one-on-one and smallgroup discipleship.

Challenge them to stay engaged in service. Older believers still have gifts and abilities to use for the Lord.

Listen to them. We shouldn’t cater to senior adults’ whims, but we should heed their wisdom. Wise leaders keep lines of communication open and seek the counsel of mature believers who have the church’s best interests at heart.

What Should Older Adults Do for the Church?

Listen to and learn from younger generations. Yes, older people have wisdom to share; but it works the other way as well. Timothy was a young preacher, but older members of the church needed to respect him, learn from his example, and listen carefully as he taught them the Scriptures (1 Timothy 4:11-16).

Speak well of others. We should empathize more than we criticize, listen more than we lecture. The apostle Paul described his young friend Titus with glowing terms like enthusiasm, initiative, partner, and coworker. He called his young friends “representatives of the churches and an honor to Christ” (2 Corinthians 8:16-24). He considered Timothy and Titus his “dear [true] sons” in the faith (2 Timothy 1:2; 2:1; Titus 1:4). Let’s be “balcony people” who cheer on the next generation, not “basement people” who drag them down.

Mentor someone. Many young adults are eager to connect with older men and women who love them and serve as positive role models. Leadership expert John Maxwell says, “Many people go far in life because someone else thought they would.”

Engage in “culinary diplomacy.” Why do government officials host state dinners for diplomats from other countries? People tend to open up and talk when they share a common meal. If you are an older adult, invite your church’s student ministry leaders out to lunch and ask how you can help them and pray for them. Invite young adults over for dessert and conversation.

Pass the baton. In their book Growing Young, authors Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin talk about “keychain leadership.” They point out, “Keys provide access to physical rooms, as well as to strategic meetings, significant decisions, and central roles or places of authority.” Keychain leaders are those who are “intentional about entrusting and empowering all generations, including teenagers and emerging adults, with their own set of keys.”

Be firm about what matters most, but be flexible where you can. Jesus was full of both grace and truth (John 1:14). Christians need to stand solidly on the truth of Scripture while showing lots of grace to others and being flexible about our personal preferences.

Stay in the game. You can “still bear fruit in old age” (Psalm 92:14).

Climbing the Mountain Together

At Glacier National Park in Montana, my wife, Candy, and I considered hiking a trail to a well-known site called Avalanche Lake. A park ranger told us, “Altogether, it’s about six miles—three miles up and three miles back.” That didn’t sound too bad, except for the part about three miles up. The path uphill was even steeper than we expected.

Several times along the way, we thought about turning back. An interesting thing happened, though. Other hikers on their way back down the trail kept offering words of encouragement. “You’re halfway there.” “You can do it.” “Don’t give up.” “It’s worth it when you get to the top.”

If not for the encouragement we received from the hikers ahead of us, we wouldn’t have kept going. After making it to the top and enjoying breathtaking views of Avalanche Lake, it was time to head back to our car. As we trekked back down the trail, an interesting role-reversal occurred. Now, we were the ones encouraging exhausted hikers coming up the hill, just as others had done for us. We told the weary walkers, “Don’t give up. You’re almost there. It’s worth it when you get to the top!”

The church should be an intergenerational family where those who have walked a little farther up the hill encourage others coming along behind them. Whether we are young or old, Jesus invites us, “Come, follow me.” Let’s climb the mountain together.

This article is adapted from David Faust’s new book, Not Too Old: Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years (College Press, 2024), available in print, audiobook, or e-book form through College Press.com or Amazon. 

Dave Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard. He has written a weekly lesson application for our Bible study material for several years. Previously, he was editor of The Lookout magazine. Dave presently serves as senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.