Along with many other people whose lives he touched, I owe a debt of gratitude to the Rev. Timothy Keller, who died in May at age 72. Keller was the long-time pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the author of many books, some of which became best sellers. Born in Allentown,…
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…
For most of their lives, Roger and Evelyn* never called a single place home. Instead, they traveled from place to place on trains that ran across Canada, where they worked on track repair crews. Then in 1960 they finally settled in a secluded home in the woods of northern Alberta. During their retirement years, Roger…
Rather than “Tiptoeing through the TULIP(s),” I prefer to snip the TULIP. The acronym TULIP is an oversimplification and distortion of the nuanced teaching of the Canons of Dort. Despite the impression of a venerable Dutch heritage, the acronym TULIP makes no sense in the Dutch language, which spells the famous flower as tulp. TULIP…
Would you like to take a survey? Please check all the boxes that apply. I check the last box in the age category now, ouch. At least I know that answer. We do not fit as neatly into other categories. Contrary to the individualism of our age, we are defined by our connections. Categories keep…
The Reformed Hispanic community celebrates that our beloved denomination has appointed Jose Rayas as president of Synod 2022. Our joy is not selfish, but a necessary motive to embrace the hope of ethnic unity. Before Rayas entered the ministry and joined the CRC, he lived eight years in Mexico. Upon returning to the United States,…
It’s been three years since Synod last met in-person. Since Synod 2019, a tremendous amount of change to ministry has occurred while we as Christian Reformed Church (CRC) members and leaders all waited for the day when we could have Synod together again. Such change has left the CRCNA in a state that eerily echoes…
It had been another frustrating day in the lab, and I just wanted to get home. To grab a beer, drop onto the couch and watch another few episodes of Vikings of Valhalla on Netflix. A perfect segue to the weekend. “How many times can an experiment fail, anyway,” I thought to myself as I…
“Man is born broken,” playwright Eugene O’Neill once wrote. “He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” Mend was an important word in our fall campaign last year. But the truth is, mend has always been vital to our work. Christian Courier is a small publication with a huge vision. That’s why the…
Four delegates representing every Christian Reformed classis in Canada, along with Canadian CRCNA staff, Canada Corp Board members and observers, met online on Saturday, January 29, via Zoom, for a meeting dubbed Canadian Catalytic Conversation 2 (CCC2). The stated purpose of the meeting was to “wrestle with the options put forward for ministry in Canada,”…
Two decades ago, I immigrated to Canada from the United States. And for the last decade I’ve been researching the power dynamics and structures of the institutional church within the (Kuyperian) Reformed tradition. One piece that seems to be missing in current discussions of the Christian Reformed Church’s binationality and the SALT report is this…
I’ve fallen in love with this binational denomination, warts and all. I’m a dual citizen (Canada/U.S.) and have served at Dordt University (Iowa) for 10 years while spending most of my life in Canada. I’ve worked for the Christian Reformed Church the past nine years in two binational roles: Director of Faith Formation Ministries and,…
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