When prompted to think of someone with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder), most people imagine an overly active child, usually a boy, bouncing off the walls in class, unable to retain any bits of information. When prompted to think of someone with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), most imagine a quiet, perhaps non-verbal child (also usually…
When Liz Straiton, a member of Redwood Park Church in Thunder Bay, Ontario, was asked to make reusable communion cups to replace the disposable plastic ones in use, she accepted the challenge. She glazed and fired over 500 dishwasher-safe cups over eight weeks. Each individual cup is small and lightweight, similar in size to the…
For the past three years, I have been on a journey of deconstruction – disillusioned by the command-and-control nature of denominations and the modus operandi of the local church. At times my questioning has felt perilous. Should I be feeling this way? What would the faithful generations in my family tree think? Am I losing…
CC: How would you summarize the key decisions made at Synod 2024? What was the overall mood (or tone), in your impression? Rev. Al Postma: Summarizing is difficult as there were many items on the agenda. Specifically regarding the discussion on sexuality, my impression is that Synod 2022 was primarily about the Christian Reformed Church’s…
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…
“Fittingness,” surprisingly, is in the dictionary. I learned the word five decades ago in Dr. Nicholas Wolsterstorff’s Aesthetics course. It was key to his definition of beauty. Beauty and society are based on fittingness. We are defined by our relationships; our relationship to God, the world, and each other based on being in the image…
On June 14th, almost 200 pastors, elders and deacons from across Canada and the U.S. will gather in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Synod. Jim Poelman, a retired pastor from Morpeth, Ontario, says he and his fellow delegates will need the wisdom of Solomon to keep the denomination together since “The…
Arise Canada, a new non-profit in Hamilton, Ontario that began in the Fall of 2023, is testing a unique approach to congregant care. Two churches are engaged in the 12-week pilot program while Hildy Sloots, the founder, introduces the program to other churches. The response from church leaders and congregants so far has been overwhelmingly…
There are people and moments that leaders should have etched in their minds as part of their framework for how they make decisions. For me, one of those moments and individuals came halfway through my first ministry assignment. I was a seminary student trying on the clothes of a pastor in Edson-Peers, Alberta. Ten weeks…
It’s a contentious time in the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC). I believe the stand the denomination has taken with regard to human sexuality is a necessary one. But that doesn’t mean I’m indifferent to the grief many are experiencing as a result. In the interest of mutual understanding, I’d like to do…
A curb, door and stairs are all barriers. The Americans with Disabilities Act sought to make us barrier free, but people complained about the ADA regulations. The real barriers are in hearts and minds. The walls A man came to worship, but he could not go all the way into the Temple because of his…
I received my first Bible when I was seven years old. It arrived book by book as each volume was produced in Braille. The first were the Gospel of Matthew and Acts of the Apostles, and I read them voraciously until the next ones arrived. When they did, I stood back and gazed admiringly at…
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