This article was originally published in Restoration Quarterly (Volume 41:1, First Quarter 1999), pages. 11-26. It is reprinted here by permission of Restoration Quarterly. Nashville’s Central Church of Christ— The First Twenty Years Harold Shank The role of the local church in evangelism and benevolence has been discussed at both the theological and methodological levels.1 At the theological level, […]
Healing the Wounded Father – The Contemporary Fathering Crisis by Harold Shank
Healing the Wounded Father – The Contemporary Fathering Crisis The Wounded Father In his book Finding Our Fathers, psychologist Samuel Osherson tells about a forty-two-year-old doctor who came to him with a problem. His younger brother’s wedding had brought the entire family, including their divorced parents, together in St. Louis. The physician spent most of […]
Reasons To Be Involved In Child Care: Part 1 by Harold Shank
Part 1: Fathers in the Bible The word “father” appears in the Bible over 1,500 times. Most Christians could name dozens of biblical fathers and sons, from Adam and his sons, Cain and Abel, to Zebedee and his sons, James and John. We could cite several father and daughter relationships, including the […]
Reasons To Be Involved In Child Care: Part 2 by Harold Shank
Part 2: God as Father God as Father is well known to most Christians. In the New Testament, God is called father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 15:6 and several other texts), father of mercies and all comfort (2 Cor 1:3) and father of glory (Eph 1:17). God is also father of […]
Reasons To Be Involved In Child Care: Part 3 by Harold Shank
Part 3: God as Father of the Fatherless The Bible calls God the father of the fatherless (Psalm 68:5). About forty times, the Old Testament describes orphaned children as fatherless. Perhaps they were called fatherless because the high casualty rates in the numerous Old Testament wars left them with mothers, but no fathers. Orphans became […]
Reasons to Be Involved in Child Care Part 4: by Harold Shank
Sons and Daughters of God Central to our identity as Christians is our claiim to be children of God. He is our Father. We become his daughters. We are reborn as his sons. Yet none of us have a direct bilological link to God. The New Testament makes it clear that our claim to be […]
"Reclaiming Our Children's Childhood" by Harold Shank
“Reclaiming our Children’s Childhood” Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA Jon Partlow preaches for the Pennyrile Church of Christ in Madisonville, Kentucky. One day, while reading the local paper, he read two unrelated articles about children involved in sexual acts (all under the age of ten) at two different elementary schools. Speaking for him […]
"Baby Pictures In The Bible" by Harold Shank
“Baby Pictures In The Bible” Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA The people of the Old Testament didn’t paint pictures on walls or carve images in stone like the ancient Egyptians or Babylonians, but they did leave snapshots in words. Many of these images are of their youngsters. Take a quick look at some […]
"Day of Prayer" by Harold Shank
National Day of Prayer Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA The National Day of Prayer for Children among Churches of Christ falls on October 3, 2004. Although such a day may seem more political than biblical, we find rationale for such an event in the Old Testament book of Joel. Writing in the midst […]
"Foster Father" by Harold Shank
“Meet my foster father, His Royal Highness, the King.” Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA We were at the Memphis City Library. The little boy’s face beamed as he looked up at the businessman who held his hand. “This is my new dad.” All of us who witnessed his claim admired the man who adopted […]