When I was a kid, I never wanted to become a minister.That is a surprising statement, but true. When I was born in Houston, Texas, my father was a youth minister. Sometime after my first birthday, our...  Read More

Note: This is a revised version of an article that appeared in the bulletin on August 16, 2026.          On Sunday, June 21st at College Church, as LJ Valentine closed his Bible and walked from the le...  Read More

Behind every budget number, there is a beautiful story of God’s love. A story of ministry—people using their God-given talents to serve others, to be salt and light for His glory. Those of us on the b...  Read More

I was blessed to grow up in a family that loves to sing and worship. My sister’s beautiful voice, along with my dad and brother’s great range of harmony as bass and tenor, respectively, were normal ar...  Read More

     Like the Cutlers of South Dakota, Clarence and Patty Wilson, long time members of College Church, worship online now.     In 2017, while serving communion in the auditorium one Sunday, Clarence w...  Read More

     Amid the clamor of 3,000 responses to the first gospel sermon (Acts 2), some man, or woman, became the first person there to “go down into the water” (Acts 8:38). Being “first” is unimportant, bu...  Read More

     The photograph of a “traditional” mission team often includes preachers, teachers and healthcare professionals. In contrast, our team to El Salvador was composed of parents and their children in ...  Read More

Most of what I know about leading songs I learned from my father, Andy T. Ritchie III.He taught me how to beat a pattern, how to pitch and lead a song, and how to putthought into the words and music. ...  Read More

     In jail ministry, there is a hard-and-fast rule: focus only on spiritual needs of the people inside these walls. That rule has been broken twice in the past month.     A couple of weeks ago, I go...  Read More

     This June the College Church of Christ Youth Group and a medical mission team from Searcy had the opportunity to serve alongside Misión Para Cristo (MPC) in Jinotega, Nicaragua. It was more than ...  Read More

     Every Sunday morning, College Church member Heather Rollins, her youthful puppeteers, and puppets Jimmy, Susie, and Frizzy, team up to present entertaining but valuable spiritual lessons during C...  Read More

1. The Education of Ted Lloyd     A self-described “Kansas farm boy,” Ted Lloyd grew up in two “pretty traditional” country churches and was baptized at 16. However, he characterizes his spiritual con...  Read More