In Prime Minister Mark Carney’s famous Davos address, he offered up a phrase that deserves reflection beyond its political moment: “Nostalgia is not a strategy.” For churches shaped by deep memory and long tradition, the line names a familiar temptation: the quiet drift from faithful remembrance into paralyzing idealization. That is, trying to do what…
Harry Plantinga, a professor at Calvin University in Michigan, is designing a chatbot that acts as a spiritual director. His web-based Journee app is part of a study group on centring prayer. New users are greeted with a friendly message and an invitation to describe their personal prayer habits. “There’s no right or wrong answer…
As of January 28, the new Archbishop of Canterbury is the Reverend Sarah Mullally. She is the first woman to lead the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion, as is her charge. Anglicanism has often served as an ecumenical bridge between Catholicism and the Reformed tradition, as it has for my wife, Brenda,…
Historian Keith Sewell (my neighbour and colleague at Dordt University) once argued that the decline in church attendance, especially in England, began with the Billy Graham crusades, which emphasized a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. One could experience this outside the church, making church attendance unnecessary. Many contemporary Christian worship songs reflect this shift as…
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in…
Based on my experiences in Christian leadership over the past 30 years, I am confident that one of the clearest indicators of future organizational success is the qualitative experience you provide to currently serving or soon-to-depart leaders. If departing leaders are speaking well on the way out, your future looks bright! For example, in both…
If your church died, would anyone in the neighbourhood notice or come to the funeral? That’s the question being asked by Laurence East and Brian McKenzie of Reframe Concepts in Kelowna, B.C. “If your faith community vanished from the neighbourhood map, would your city feel the loss in its gut, or just notice a fresh…
Growing up, like many Christians, I attended worship services with my family. Church was never something I did alone; it was a shared rhythm of life, deeply embedded in family routines. When I began studying at a Christian university, I either returned home on Sundays to worship with my parents or attended a local church…
Susan met me online for a leadership consultation. We spoke about the Christian charity she used to work for, one of my clients. “How are you doing now that you are done with your role as Director?” I asked. “How is life outside of the ministry? Enjoying yourself? What’s keeping you busy?” Susan glowed. The…
Growing up, I was somewhat sheltered from more extreme forms of purity culture. I dated, I showed my shoulders in public and, with extreme gratitude, I can say I never even knew about the bizarre world of purity balls. The extremes of American evangelical purity culture didn’t creep north of the border much, and even…
“What gives us permission to disregard Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17:20-23, and to split and start yet another denomination?” Recently, I have been asked this question and variants of it. Christian Reformed (CRC) churches and folks are wrestling with questions of disaffiliation and forming a new denomination or network of churches. Given the…
The 2025 election of Pope Leo XIV has renewed audience interest in the recent film Conclave. When the film was released in late 2024, the last papal conclave had happened twenty years earlier and wasn’t the result of a papal death. The exteriors shot in Rome, the detailed costuming and the strong performances give Conclave a vivid sense…
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