Lifeway Research executive director Scott McConnell is back to talk about some new research that sheds light on current events.

For starters, church attendance and sales of Bibles are going up. Not only that, but Americans' regard for the Bible seems to be increasing. Young people, in particular are demonstrating more openness to learning about the Bible. Scott explores what could be driving these trends and what it means for Church of Christ congregations and members.

Next, we turn to Lifeway Research's ongoing research on how evangelical Christians say they feel and think about immigrants and immigration in the United States. On one hand, evangelical Christians say that they are pro-immigrant and pro-immigration by a wide margin; on the other hand, they continue to support politicians that seem to be anti-immigrant and anti-immigration. What explains this?

Link to Lifeway Research's latest findings on the increase in church attendance in the United States

Link to Lifeway Research's latest findings on attitudes about the Bible and Bible-reading habits among Americans

Link to Lifeway Research's latest findings on how evangelical Christians feel and think about immigrants and immigration in the United States

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Church of Christ member Brian Bates is one of the cleanest--and hottest--comedians in the country these days. In this episode, he takes us behind the jokes to reveal how a comedian builds rapport and trust with strangers--whether they're in a bar on Saturday night or a church on Sunday afternoon. Could all Christians learn something about the "Jesus way" from stand-up comedians? 

Link to Brian Bates's website, including upcoming shows and videos

Link to the Nateland Podcast, featuring co-hosts Nate Bargatze, Brian Bates, Dusty Slay, and Aaron Weber

Link to Ryan Hamilton (a clean comedian that Brian Bates recommends)

Link to Greg Warren (another clean comedian Brian recommends)

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Could eating more pie lead to healthier and stronger churches?

Doug Pell says "yes." A longtime Church of Christ elder and retired senior executive from the U.S. defense industry, Pell recently authored Set in Order the Things That Are Lacking: Lessons in Biblical Leadership (Sain Publications).

In this episode, Pell shares the experience he gained from decades in church and corporate leadership and the knowledge he gained from his intense study of biblical eldership for local congregations.

Pell touches on the following themes:

• Why the corporate management model is not the leadership model that the Lord chooses for his church
• Why biblical leadership is harder than anyone imagines, but perhaps not as hard to attain as congregations might think
• How congregational leadership must happen in living rooms, not elders' meetings
• Why deacons and wives may be the most important people to a congregation's eldership
• And what does pie have to do with congregational health?

Link to Set in Order the Things That Are Lacking: Lessons in Biblical Leadership

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For Christians who are Black, life in the Church of Christ in the United States is an experience that is formed by the experience of being Black. In other words, each human being encounters life (and church) through her or his experiences. Likewise, the world (and often the church) perceives human beings through the assumptions that form about certain groups of people.

Barron Jones (host of the Unfiltered Crossroads Podcast and the preaching team at Holgate Street Church of Christ in Seattle, Washington) talks about why being Black in the Church of Christ in the United States is a unique experience that often leaves Christians who are Black feeling isolation and pressure among their own brothers and sisters in Christ. Jones makes the case that a relentless pursuit of the gospel and the truth will well serve all Christians now.

Read Barron Jones's Christian Chronicle op-ed, "Stuck in the middle with Jesus: Why Black Christians in America feel alienated from cultural camps on either side - and what comes next"

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In the United States, the mood about immigration carried a new administration to power in Washington, D.C. Since then, the news media has reported sensational stories of law enforcement arrests around, or in, faith-based ministries and houses of worship.

How does this affect Church of Christ congregations and ministries that are active among immigrant neighbors in their communities? Do they have any reason to fear that law enforcement may target them and their own members and neighbors? What should they do when the law of the Christ and the law of the land seem to contradict each other?

In this episode, immigration attorney Isaul Verdin, former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief counsel Paul Hunker and Bible professor and Church of Christ minister Dr. Jeremie Beller help church and ministry leaders understand the biblical mandate for immigrant care, the laws of the United States, and what to do when the Bible and law enforcement are at odds.

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In some congregations, you may find one member whose ministry is sending hand-written cards of congratulations to new Christians upon their baptisms.

Imagine if that one member tries to send a card to every new Christian, not just in their own congregation, but in the entire world.

Meet Lorraine Smith of Central Church of Christ in Dalton, Georgia. Inspired by a card her grandson received from strangers after his baptism, Lorraine set out to handwrite an encouragement card to every new Christian she can find. In the last two years, she's hand-written and sent cards to almost 7,000 new Christians from all over!

In this episode, she talks about how (and why) she does it and what's she's learned about how God turns strangers into family. She also testifies about how God is adding to the church of Christ every day (though we are often too distracted by bad news to notice). And she talks about how the church can better come alongside new Christians when they come up out of the waters of baptism.

Links from this episode:

Calvin Cockrell's Christian Chronicle report on 37 Faulkner University football players submitting to baptism in one night (from August 2023)

Christian Chronicle Podcast Episode 30 interview with some of the Faulkner University football players who submitted to baptism in August 2023

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In 2 Corinthians 3:5, the apostle Paul writes: "Not that we are competent in ourselves...but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of the new covenant."

Casey Coston is a veteran Church of Christ campus minister of more than 20 years. As he started his third decade in ministry, he took stock of his own "incompetence" and turned it into a book: Made Competent: A Story About Life in Ministry.

In this episode, Casey touches on some of the biggest ministry challenges and shortcomings he's faced so far, including:

• Balancing the commission to "make disciples" (a slow process that happens with a few intimate relationships at a time) and the pressure to attract bigger and bigger crowds to ministry "events" 
• Balancing the love the church needs and the love his own family needs (and how church and family often compete for his energy, focus and time)
• Handling disagreements and discord with church elders and members

Casey also uses his unique point of view working with emerging generations of believers and seekers to imagine:

• How evangelism is changing and must change to connect with emerging generations
• How legacy congregations and new congregations might adapt to changes in the culture (without changing the essence of the church and the gospel it practices and preaches)
• The kinds of ministers who will meet the next moment

Links for this episode:

Made Competent: A Story About Life in Ministry by Casey Coston

Campus for Christ national Church of Christ campus ministry network

Episode 72 featuring Chris Buxton and Casey Coston on campus ministry

Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry by Milton Jones

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"The Restoration Movement" refers to the 19th and 20th century stream of events, people and thinking from which the Church of Christ emerged. Church of Christ folks of a certain age imagine that they are restoring the first century church as they find it in the New Testament.

But does restoration itself sometimes need to be restored? 

If so, how do Christians restore restoration?

Matt Dabbs, a Church of Christ minister and scholar, offers his answers in his book, Restoring a Movement: A Hopeful Future for Churches of Christ. 

In this episode, Matt talks about the powerful trends that fed the rise of the Church of Christ in its 1950s "golden age" in the United States. He also explores the powerful trends that worked against the Church of Christ and led to its decline in U.S. congregations and members in recent decades. Most important, he testifies to the power and work of God that is already making a future for emerging generations...if they choose it.

Links:

Restoring a Movement: A Hopeful Future for Churches of Christ by Matt Dabbs

Home Church Resources (Matt Dabbs's ministry to Christians and congregations who want to explore planting home churches)

The Christian Chronicle's report on Matt Dabbs's "backyard church" that formed during COVID isolation

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What is Christian nationalism and what are its effects on the United States? Christians these days may choose to consume any number of blogs, books, cable news, podcasts, social media and talk radio shows that deal with those questions.

In this episode, however, we address how Christian nationalism may effect the Church of Christ community in the United States. In other words, is it bad or good for the health, integrity and witness of the church and its members?

Dr. Christina Littlefield, co-author with Dr. Richard Hughes, of Christian America and the Kingdom of God (University of Illinois Press) helps us unpack what "Christian nationalism" actually means and how the idea developed and manifested in the United States over 400 years. She answers questions like:

• Is Christian nationalism biblical?
• Can Christian nationalism be a good thing?
• How embedded and engaged should Christians be in the halls of power and in the public square?
• How does Christian nationalism affect Christians and congregations who embrace it?
• How  might the Church of Christ community avoid the sin of political idolatry?

Links to books and podcast episodes that appear in this interview:

Christian America and the Kingdom of God: White Christian Nationalism from the Puritans through January 6, 2021, Updated and Expanded Edition (University of Illinois Press), by Richard T. Hughes and Christina Littlefield

Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories that Give Us Meaning, by Richard Hughes

Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America, by Richard Hughes

Chosen Nations: Pursuit of the Kingdom of God and its Influence on Democratic Values in Late Nineteenth Century Britain and the United States, by Christina Littlefield

The Christian Chronicle Podcast Episode 5 featuring Richard Hughes on The Grace of Troublesome Questions

The Christian Chronicle Podcast Episode 64 featuring Brad East on why we need to stop talking about Christian nationalism

The Christian Chronicle Podcast Episode 71 featuring Richard Hughes on how the founding of the United States influenced the Restoration Movement

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Photo by Cody Otto on Unspla

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It is a fact that more people in the world live in cities than in rural areas. That means the Church of Christ, if it is to be faithful and obedient to Jesus the Christ, must get used to city life and loving its neighbors in the city.

But what we imagine to be "urban ministry" in the Church of Christ is outdated and perhaps was never quite right-headed in the first place. These days, affluent professionals are moving to the "inner city" in droves while the things that we once assumed characterize the inner city are becoming more common in exurbs and suburbs.

So, in a sense, "urban ministry" may now be just...ministry.

In this episode, Dr. Steve Cloer, associate professor of ministry at the Harding School of Theology and director of the Center for Church and City Engagement in Memphis, Tennessee, talks about how our assumptions about "urban ministry" reveal a lot about ourselves and what we imagine about God and the world God so loves. He also riffs on how the Church of Christ might follow God into a future of (city) ministry that may look nothing like what was normal in the mid- to late-20th century.

Link to Dr. Steve Cloer's Christian Chronicle column on the "changing face of urban ministry"

Link to the Center for Church and City Engagement

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