“We’re not always going to get it right. “But when we get it wrong, call it out,” said Casey Merrifield at the Midwest Leadership Summit in Springfield Jan. 21-23. “Own it.” Merrifield, a leadership consultant and Lifeway Women’s trainer, encouraged Midwest leaders to be advocates for racial reconciliation in increasingly divided times. “This is an […]
Church hits the ‘Mother Road;’ Red Hill’s outreach aims for a better city through gospel presence
Edwardsville | In a town proud of its Route 66 heritage, thousands gather every year to celebrate what John Steinbeck called “the Mother Road.” For more than 20 years, Edwardsville’s annual Route 66 festival at City Park has offered visitors fun, food, and classic cars. What was missing, realized church planter Rayden Hollis, was a […]
Leaders
Midwest Leadership Summit: Reaching the nations in your neighborhood
At the Midwest Leadership Summit in Springfield Jan. 21-23, Mark Stevens, a missionary with the International Mission Board, shared that immigrants and their U.S.-born children number approximately 81 million, or 26% of the population. Around 22% of the population age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home. “Our call as disciples […]
Prayer meeting faltering? Let it go.
I didn’t kill our Wednesday night prayer gatherings, but I didn’t keep them alive either. Our youth and AWANA programs engage lots of students and require numerous volunteers. It never made sense that our churchwide prayer meeting was at a time that so few could attend. Praying with fellow believers was always encouraging, but I […]
Midwest Leadership Summit: Churches urged to reach the next generation
“College students still think they can change the world.” That’s part of what makes campuses such strategic mission fields, collegiate ministry leaders said at the Midwest Leadership Summit in Springfield Jan. 21-23. Many students are at the beginning of what one sociologist has called “the defining decade.” Young people in their 20s want to make […]
True dependability: My Maytag moment
Our family has a new washing machine. That may not seem like big news, but it is at our house. We haven’t bought a new washing machine in over 30 years. We don’t even know exactly how old our previous washing machine was. It came with the home we purchased in 1993, part of the […]
Intercessors lift up Chicagoland on I-55 bus tour
“Let the Lord use your eyes, your ears, and your feet to prompt your prayer time.” Cheryl Dorsey’s charge to around 30 pray-ers in Chicagoland sent them all over four church buildings and the surrounding communities Feb. 1, during the Chicago Metro Association’s second-annual I-55 Prayer Bus Tour. The tourists traveled by charter bus to […]