Larry Osborne says he grew up in a rather legalistic church and that it tended to confuse American values with Biblical values. “Frankly, it turned me off to both God and the church. But by my senior year in high school, through the influence of my parents — who are amazingly godly people without a trace of legalism — and my youth pastor — who is now my Executive Pastor — I came to Christ.
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Mel Lawrenz is leaving the active pastorate of a congregation and taking up the “pastorate” — creative director to be more precise — of a multi-dimensional media ministry called The Brook Network. “After 30 years of being a pastor at Elmbrook Church, the past 10 as senior pastor, I am enthused to be moving into a new role in which I will be seeking to help resource church leaders here in the U.S. and internationally with many of the things we have learned over the years.”
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When Seung-Hui Cho began a killing spree on the campus of Virginia Tech, ending in 32 staff and students killed and others wounded, on April 16, 2007, Jim Pace was sitting in a coffee shop he frequents about a block off campus.
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Not many pastors choose a missions point where they can also pursue their favorite sport. “I grew up on the beach in California and surfed all my life, and Indonesia has some of the best surfing in the world,” says Gary Galbraith, 43, senior pastor at Revival Christian Fellowship. But there was more to it than the love of surfing. “I fell in love with the people and saw the need,” he says.
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“Because Christ should be the head of the church, the church should be the model of organizational integrity for the business world,” believes Josh Whitehead, executive pastor at Faith Promise Church, a nondenominational church of 3,300 in attendance in Knoxville, TN.
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At a conference hosted by the North American Christian Convention last summer in Kentucky, Rick Rusaw stood on stage before thousands of church leaders and posed this question: “If your church disappeared today, would your community miss it?” Then he echoed a disturbing finding by a national research firm: 66 percent of Americans agree that churches have little or no value in helping them find meaning or direction for their lives.
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This particular Saturday was the fifth wedding anniversary of Wayne Chaney Jr. and his wife Myesha, an occasion when they usually kicked back, enjoyed a leisurely dinner and spent quality time reflecting on their marriage. But the day began at 9:00 with a wedding ceremony, a 10:00 interview with a writer, a 2:00 funeral and burial, a 3:30 wedding in Los Angeles, and a 5:00 comedy showcase at Antioch Church of Long Beach. By the time they drew their breath at 8:00 that evening they had fallen asleep in the back of a limo ride to a restaurant. They opted instead to celebrate a week later in Palm Springs.
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It’s something of an irony that Miles McPherson some three decades ago wasn’t much the “marrying kind,” but today can say, as he did in a recent blog, “I am for traditional marriage as God designed it, because it is the model that honors His original and eternal intent.”
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The Moody Church and its founder in 1864, Dwight L. Moody, are as recognizable in Christian life and work as any church in the country. In a long line of outstanding preachers, Erwin W. Lutzer marks 30 years in that pastorate this fall, with only a thought of retirement any time soon as he turns 67 next month.
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Talk with Dave Browning and you’ll soon pick up on how he peppers the conversation with “our story” and “this story.” The unique congregation that is Christ the King Community Church is indeed a story, and he’s written a book, Deliberate Simplicity, that explains the philosophy of his multi-state, multi-country church.
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