“When I was fifteen . . . an angel of God came to me in the night, pinned me to my bed, and demanded that I trust in the Lord.” So begins Christopher Beha’s book Why I am Not an Atheist. The former Harper’s Magazine editor writes of growing up Roman Catholic, turning to atheism…
After 27 years with the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), including two terms as General Secretary from 2018-2026, Peter Noteboom will step into semi-retirement at the end of June. Ecumenism – working for the visible unity of the church across denominational lines – has been his calling and life-work. “This job of General Secretary is…
“My breathing patterns change daily,” Seerveld emailed me on July 24. “Often within a day. It has been bad.” He then fell asleep in the Lord on August 5, 2025, four days before his 95th birthday. I combed through some of his writings to bring some of the pieces of his life together. Cal Seerveld’s…
The Anabaptist-affiliated Meeting House church pastored by Bruxy Cavey in Ontario has become a rise and fall saga and stands now at the point of closure – without full closure for its members.In June 2024 attendees were told by the Meeting House Transition Board of Overseers that even though TMH has changed leadership and implemented…
“Can you tell me your greatest legacy as an evangelist?” an aging Billy Graham was once asked. His answer: “Lausanne.” From September 22-28, over 5,000 Christian leaders from more than 200 countries gathered in South Korea for the 50th anniversary gathering of Lausanne. It was a rich variety of nationalities, traditions and languages (even though…
“Never question a man of God.” That’s how Emily*, 42, summarized the Word of Life church. She was working as a Youth Pastor in her early 20s when the first scandal broke. Her pastor had sexually abused a staff member – was literally caught in the act in his church office – and faced zero…
Summertime is the season for boats, or at least boating analogies. Angela Reitsma Bick and I have a book (to be released this September) that features boats as a spiritual analogy for the deconstruction and reconstruction of faith. We write mostly about canoes that run aground or get capsized. That’s how it feels in the…
This Reformation Day, I’m thinking about reformation as a form of deconstruction. “Always reforming” can too easily feel like it’s about re-shaping something, renovating it, giving it a make-over. It sounds too clean, maybe even bureaucratic — like a policy change. But “deconstruction” suggests that reformation first requires some division and a little subtraction. It…
I was carpooling a long distance with a university administrator, and as the hours passed, she shared details with me about her recent difficult divorce. “I gave myself to that marriage,” she said, her face getting dark. “I trusted the notion that you give yourself to the relationship. But I got badly burned.” She paused,…
“The Word of God is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. And when he was about eighteen years old, he grew a beard.” This is one of Dr. Brad Jersak’s favourite provocative lines, which he uses to expound on a key text: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it…
When a random intruder left newlywed Jessica Ziakin-Cook with a severed femoral artery and nearly took her life, some people at church said it was a lesson to increase her dependence on God. But Jessica drew theological conclusions from a deeper well. I met Jessica Ziakin-Cook at the University of Victoria last December, and she…
Fred Reinders is a man whose work has blessed the lives of thousands of Christian Courier readers, and he did this by creating shelters for their study, work, worship and play. Philosopher Calvin Seerveld, who was born in the same year as Reinders, wrote that “God’s firm covenantal grip . . . has provided society…
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