In April, Christian Courier’s Editor spoke with Rev. Albert Postma about his newly-permanent role as Executive Director-Canada of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in North America and – for this theme issue on rural Canada – drilled down into the health of rural churches, which make up a significant portion of the CRC historically and…
A few weeks ago, Peter Schuurman and I were invited to speak at an Inter-Classis Safe Church Conference in Waterloo, Ontario hosted by the Christian Reformed Church. Peter talked about his experience at The Meeting House. I decided to focus on a big-picture question: what would happen if it was easier for sexual abuse victims…
My home church has two pastors – one man, one woman. They’re not a married couple but two ordained ministers with different gifts and passions. I appreciate how they work together on sermon series, coming at a theme from multiple angles. I’m happy that kids in Hope Fellowship Christian Reformed Church (CRC) are hearing God’s…
It started with 15-minute catnaps on the seminary campus. Tricia Hersey was juggling study, work and raising a young son on very little sleep. Now a ‘sleep activist,’ Hersey runs Collective Napping Experiences – rented rooms filled with mats, pillows, freshly washed blankets, and an open invitation to rest. If it seems incredible that 40…
Dear Angela, Happy New Year to you, your family and creative writers team. Attached is a 1971 article from the Vancouver Sun that my son dug up: “Pulse Beats for Youth: Group Shares Art, Religion as Commune.” It brought back memories. That entire project was funded by a federal arts grant. Some of the projects…
Like the Duggar family I grew up without a TV. Yet their lives, more than mine, have been deeply shaped by television. Over two million people watched each episode of 19 and Counting, a reality show that ran from 2008 to 2015 featuring Jim Bob, Michelle and their very large homeschooling Baptist family. Despite the…
“Something new and strange has happened in Canada,” the voiceover says gravely, “something we haven’t seen before. An entire generation of youth now say they will never be able to afford a home. This is not normal for Canada.” It’s Housing Hell: How We Got Here and How We Get Out with host Pierre Poilievre…
“Mom, Aunt Mel – Look!” Everyone came pouring into the living room. Two teens proudly held out a small package. I could see something dun-coloured under the plastic, but it was unrecognizable. “Guess what?” they said happily. “We shrink wrapped a hot-dog bun!” “Stop putting random things through that,” Jeff groused, without any real anger…
In this interview, John Vanderstoep spoke on behalf of a new initiative advocating for more – and perhaps full – independence for the Canadian side of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). This is a debate that regularly gets addressed in Christian Courier (CC)’s pages. Operating autonomously from any denomination, CC is, without taking sides, the…
I didn’t see the Twin Towers fall. I didn’t even hear about it until September 12, when my mom called our tiny Moscow apartment at 6 a.m. local time with a horrible update: terrorists … planes … the world has changed. Word-of-mouth news. We didn’t own a computer and it would be another decade before…
I dug out some of my journals from high school recently. One page had the title “The Life of a Grade Twelve.” It was just two lines: “I can’t say anything. I’m too busy doing homework.” In another section, I describe babysitting a sack of potatoes for a week to practice being a parent in…
It sounds like a Dickens tale. Born poor and orphaned at age 12, John Fawcett survived by apprenticing to a tailor. He became a Christian in his teens, married at 25 and began pastoring a small rural church for pennies – sometimes potatoes, if that’s all his parishioners had. It was 1770, Wainsgate, England. There’s…
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