denomination
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Posted on May 16, 2012, 4:15 pm
Topics: Classis Structure
We need to talk! Talk as never before, talk as family, bound together across our differences by His blood and Spirit and love. We need to relearn to speak the truth in love, to engage each other with patience, with good listening, with thoughtful discernment, with humor, with...
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Posted on April 17, 2012, 2:46 am | 2 comments
Topics: Community
As the church we have the responsibility to act justly - yet we often shy away from complex justice issues. In Canada, a new initiative is seeking truth and reconciliation for those Aboriginal persons and communities that have been affected by attending residential schools. How should we respond as individuals, churches and a denomination?
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Posted on February 24, 2012, 1:54 pm | 1 comment
Topics: Classis Health and Renewal
Feeling like denominations are a waste of time? I'd argue that it's tough for a Christian to "think global, act local" without a glocal ecclesiastical space, and your classis or a cluster within it might be the perfect place to start.
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Posted on November 14, 2011, 7:00 am
Topics: Youth
This is a question for which there are an endless number of opinions and answers. There isn’t even agreement on how involved the CRC is at this point. Some believe there is sufficient leadership and resourcing for congregations around youth ministry. Others believe it should be...
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Posted on August 10, 2011, 2:23 pm | 11 comments
Topics: Classis Structure
The denominational structure is a drama queen that too often distracts Synod from where its focus should be. Let's trying thinking outside the box. What if we got Synod out of the agency management business? Could shifting resources from the denominational to the classical level better serve the church by reinvesting in local ministry? Would local ministry flourish if your classical budget were two to three times its current size?
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Posted on July 6, 2011, 1:12 pm | 9 comments
Topics: Synod
For me it’s time to say farewell. For you who’ve read any of the posts about Synod 2011 it’s time to give The Network and the Board of Trustees some feedback. Was this blog helpful? Did it give you a broader understanding of what Synod 2011 would be addressing? Should the Board do something similar
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Posted on June 20, 2011, 2:24 pm | 7 comments
Topics: Classis Structure, Mission and Vision
No more "exceptional gift" entry for Ministers of the Word (Article 7) by Classis. In 2010 Synod discouraged affinity classes. In 2011 Synod didn't like ratifying confessional changes at Classis. It's not difficult to see within these debates the tension between uniformity and diversity, between trust and control.
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Posted on June 17, 2011, 8:22 am | 4 comments
Topics: Synod
In one of my pre-synod blogs I asked, “Does the recommendation of the Board of Trustees about future hires of the CRC’s senior leadership ensure greater diversity or does it set us up for another failure? Now that synod has adopted that recommendation, the same question can be asked.
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Posted on June 16, 2011, 8:09 am | 2 comments
Topics: Leadership
It’s time we talked about one of the most agonizing experiences of preparing for ministry: that of waiting for a call. Seminary graduates who are declared by synod as candidates for ministry enter into a period of searching, researching, and waiting. For a number of years they have been dreaming of serving
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Posted on June 14, 2011, 11:28 am
Topics: Church Planting
Can you imagine being a motivational speaker named Boring? Christian Reformed Home Missions hosted an event on June 6 in which Nick Boring spoke of his journey from a career as a corporate executive into ministry, and his passion to help churches plant churches. This event brought together
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Posted on June 14, 2011, 10:21 am | 12 comments
Topics: Classis Health and Renewal
Reformed polity locates authority in three different assemblies: the local council, the synod and the classis. It is my assertion that the classis is the least valued, the most neglected, the most poorly resourced and the least utilized level of the three.
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Posted on June 7, 2011, 9:29 am | 2 comments
Topics: Classis Health and Renewal
We need denominations and yet they are flawed human creations. Bullard does not think that we can exist as churches without the denomination around us because “without them and without the ways they allow us to be people of faith together, we have no access to a God any larger than the God of our self.”
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Posted on May 31, 2011, 10:19 am | 2 comments
Topics: Classis
The local church's need for classes and the denomination is a bit like a believing family's need for a congregation. A believing family should not just be content with worshiping and studying together, they need a church to attend, a gathering of other believers where they can worship, study, learn and hold each other accountable together. The same is true for churches.
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Posted on May 23, 2011, 8:21 am | 4 comments
Topics: Synod
Will the new hymnal cooperatively published by our denomination and the Reformed Church in America (RCA) include the Heidelberg Catechism and the rest of our creeds and confessions? Initially, the answer was “yes.” Now Faith Alive Christian Resources is asking Synod 2011 to say “no.”
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Posted on April 27, 2011, 8:31 am | 16 comments
Topics: Synod
Recently, our denominational Board of Trustees (BOT) told us, "Rev. Jerry Dykstra informed the CRC Board of Trustees of his desire to resign as Executive Director of the CRCNA for personal and family reasons." However, in an interview with the Grand Rapids Press Rev. Dykstra said "the BOT made the decision
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