I have purposely not written a column expressing my opinion on the 2022 Christian Reformed Synod’s Human Sexuality Report, and specifically not about the report’s recommendations concerning same sex relations. My reason is that, from the outset, I judged the entire process to be disingenuous. Handcuffing the committee members with a mandate that forced it…
Lead Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Commissioner Murray Sinclair is known for speaking in memorable one-liners. Seven years after the TRC’s release, two of these have stuck with me: “education got us into this mess and education will get us out” and “reconciliation is a generational project.” Both of these zingers have inspired our long-term…
I recently walked into a doctor’s office where I saw a sign that read, “This is a place of healing – no forms of aggressive behavior will be tolerated.” While I grieve the fact that the sign was needed, what impressed me was the clear recognition on the part of the medical establishment of why…
This beautifully designed volume presents a collection of 22 sermons, delivered by Christian Reformed Church Pastor Herm Van Niejenhuis during his 37-year-career serving congregations in Lethbridge (Alberta), Kingston (Ontario), Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), Willowdale (Ontario), and Sioux Centre (Iowa). Who would dare to publish and expect to sell a collection of sermons in 2022, you might ask? The…
“You don’t belong” is a spoken and unspoken message most of us have heard at one time or another. We’re all familiar with that sinking gut feeling when we’re told that we don’t fit in. For many Indigenous people, this experience has been true even in the church, where they have received the message to…
I recently resumed pastoral ministry in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) after 10 years with the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC). During those years, the matter of human sexuality dominated the denominational agenda. The engagement was serious, intense and divisive, with each side endlessly quoting their chosen Bible texts. When I attended my first Classis…
When diaconal coaches Helen VanBeilen and Alicia Hamming Navarrete reached out to the deacons of Jubilee CRC (St. Catharines, Ont.), they were delighted to be invited to one of their upcoming meetings. The deacons there were struggling with their benevolence ministry and hoped the coaches could help. Essentially, they were asking “is the help we’re…
One night, in the midst of the CRC’s Synod, I awoke with a word in my head. Vivisection. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this early morning revelation. Some folks dream lucidly, others sweat through nightmares. Me? Apparently I receive ten-dollar words. It might be just the peculiarity of my own gray matter…
From grief to relief; from shock to anxiety; from weariness to embarrassment and many points in between. For this editorial, I asked members of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), “Now that the Human Sexuality Report has passed, with a good majority, how does it feel?” While the theological and biblical reflection has been intense, this…
This article isn’t ultimately about conversations inside the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) right now, but that’s where we’ll start. Weighing in on the recent decision of the Synod of the CRC to elevate the condemnation of “homosexual sex” to confessional status, Rod Dreher focused on the consequences for Calvin University in a recent article for…
The Three Forms of Unity is a collective name for the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and the Canons of Dort (1619) which reflect the teachings of Calvinism and which are accepted as official doctrinal statements by many Calvinist churches, including the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). Anyone seeking an official position (minister, elder, deacon) in the CRC must…
For months now there has been a polite rumble among Canadian members of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) about an obscure report called SALT. The Structure and Leadership Taskforce report (SALT), adopted by the CRCNA Council of Delegates (CofD) in May 2021, is on its way to Synod 2022. It is not headline news. It…
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