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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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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It is a common narrative (assumption?) that Church of Christ congregations in rural and small town America are in decline. Perhaps that is a story that numbers (of congregations and members) might tell.

But are numbers the whole story? Or even the most important one?

Mike Cope believes it is not the whole story. In this episode, he talks about how the way we talk and think about rural and small town congregations needs to change and how those congregations enjoy spiritual gifts that make them rich and strong in things that matter.

Mike also fills us in on how Pepperdine University plans to invest a $7.5 million Lilly Endowment grant to come alongside rural and small town Church of Christ congregations to position them for the growth in the kingdom of God.

Link to The Christian Chronicle's coverage of the Lilly Endowment's grant to Pepperdine University

Link to The Christian Chronicle's ongoing coverage of Church of Christ trends among congregations in rural and small town America

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It may be said that God does God's mightiest work in the unlikeliest places.

Take South Sudan, a young nation where civil war has been the norm for generations. Conditions in that country are as poor as anywhere on earth, yet in just the last year 73 Church of Christ congregations formed and more than 2,400 South Sudanese were baptized into the kingdom of God.

What is going on there?

In this episode, Dennis Cady (Faith Village Church of Christ, Wichita Falls, Texas) of the Starfish Foundation, tells the story straight from South Sudan, where he has been ministering, preaching and traveling since 2011.

Link to The Christian Chronicle's coverage of the Church of Christ in South Sudan

Link to the Starfish Foundation

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Cover photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145963320

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Almost as soon as Church of Christ missionaries entered Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Christian Chronicle reporters entered the country as well. For more than three decades now, The Christian Chronicle has covered how the Ukrainian people embraced with joy the gospel of Jesus Christ. Few parts of Europe can match Ukraine for how the Church of Christ took root, sprang up, grew and spread.

Russia's invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory in 2014 and all-out war against its neighbor starting in 2022 has done great harm to the Church of Christ and its members in Ukraine. But not grave harm. In the face of death and destruction, Church of Christ congregations and members are rising up and showing how the love and power of God is greater than bombs and tanks. But recent events in the United States are leaving some Christians in Ukraine feeling betrayed by their brothers and sisters in Christ.

In this episode, Jeff Abrams (executive director of Rescue Ukraine and former minister with Tuscumbia Church of Christ in Tuscumbia, Alabama) and Marina Noyes (a pillar in the Vinograder Church of Christ in Kiev, Ukraine) talk about how the Church of Christ and its members are holding out after three years of war in Ukraine. They also talk about how the changing political situation in the United States is affecting the Church of Christ in Ukraine.

Link to Christian Chronicle CEO Erik Tryggestad's recent report on the Church of Christ in Ukraine at the third anniversary of Russia's second invasion

Link to a full archive of The Christian Chronicle's coverage of the Church of Christ in Ukraine

Link to Rescue Ukraine

Link to College Hill Church of Christ in Richland Hills, Texas, which provides support for Vinograder Church of Christ in Kiev, Ukraine

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