“I believe that the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) is at a pivot point,” declared General Secretary Zachary King in his opening address at the denomination’s annual meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 13. As King called the church to renewal, he also acknowledged the disunity the CRC has experienced in recent years. At least…
From scheduling facilities to doctrinal clashes, the pitfalls of communication can cause a host of challenges. For Pastor Ryan Chau and the staff of three congregations at Edmonton Chinese Baptist Church (ECBC), these challenges are written in triplicate for their trilingual church community. “Complex theological concepts can be really hard to communicate,” Chau explains, noting…
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…
I was ordained as a Minister of the Word and Sacraments over 45 years ago. It happened on a Thursday night because of Halloween, of all things! The elders of the rural Southern Alberta congregation that had called me, a 25-year-old seminary graduate, to be their pastor, had first scheduled the event for Friday night….
Contentment. That seems to be the church’s greatest sin. We’re content to sit in our usual seat during worship, content to celebrate the status quo when it comes to worship style, preaching style and a gradually declining church attendance. We’re content to coast. For many of us, when we think of church growth, we think…
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…
“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…
Our church is in the middle of a library renaissance. It began when my wife and I were going through its books and found that 80 percent no longer served our congregation. After much sorting and recycling, we are learning that physical books – paper and ink, words and images – still have a big…
I love my church. Every Sunday service begins with naming the First Nations people of the land we’re standing on. One of the first pieces of art a visitor will see is a painting of an Indigenous mother holding her child. Another one is of a dark brown Jesus, holding out communion bread and a…
This October, representatives from more than 300 denominations, all members of the World Council of Churches (WCC), will gather in Egypt to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. The creed this council produced in 325 AD begins, “We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things…
The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) held its annual general assembly in Canada last month, the first time Synod has met north of the 49th parallel since 2012. In his opening address to the delegates and guests gathered at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, the CRCNA’s General Secretary Zachary King said that 34…
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