"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 Unsplash

Get the education and formation that can help you become the best minister you can be. Learn more about Freed-Hardeman University at fhu.edu/chronicle.

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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Get the education and formation that can help you become the best minister you can be. Learn more about Freed-Hardeman University at fhu.edu/chronicle.

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

Get the education and formation that can help you become the best minister you can be. Learn more about Freed-Hardeman University at fhu.edu/chronicle.

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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More Christians in more parts of the world may sing Chris Tomlin's worship music ('Our God,' 'How Great is Our God,' 'God of Angel Armies') than any other artist alive today. A Grammy Award winner and two-time Songwriter of the Year with more than 7 billion global streams, Tomlin is branching out into film. He is executive producer for the new major motion picture The Last Supper, written and directed by Mario Borrelli and starring Robert Knepper, James Faulkner, and Jamie Ward.

In this episode, he talks about what it is like to be caught up in a global worship movement and why The Last Supper is the right film for right now.

Link to Chris Tomlin's website

Link to The Last Supper film

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Marie Stroughter (Westside Church of Christ, Killeen, Texas) is an all-star "church mom" and "church wife," raising three kids (two adopted), supporting her elder/deacon husband, and volunteering in the life and programs of the church. And she does all of that while living with mental health challenges like obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic attacks.

As many as one in four Americans deals with mental illness on some level at some time. As Marie says in this episode, that means that in a congregation with 100 members, there could be 25 members who are going through some mental health struggle at any given time.

Living with mental illness gives Marie the compassion, empathy and understanding to come alongside other Christians who are living with mental illness challenges of their own. She started the MoMo ("Motivational Moments") 634 (as in Matthew 6:34) Podcast, a daily dose of affirmation and inspiration from Scripture for those who live with mental illness.

Link to MoMo634 Podcast

Link to 9-8-8 suicide crisis hotline

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Get the education and formation that can help you become the best minister you can be. Learn more about Freed-Hardeman University at fhu.edu/chronicle.