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This fine article gives ideas for thinking broadly about building accessibility. Becoming an accessible church involves far more than installing a wheelchair entrance.
The Leadership Paper defines “character” as that which generates trust on the part of followers. As you read this article, ask yourself, “How does that definition of character affect the following building project and my own work?”
Our name, Breaking Barriers, takes on new meaning with this issue as Disability Concerns of the Reformed Church in America and of the Christian Reformed Church publish this newsletter together.
El Salvador is experiencing an average of thirteen homicides a day. These homicides are visible symptoms of a society and church deeply fractured along economic, political and religious lines. Yet it was not “death” but “life” that I will remember from my visit to El Salvador.
If you don’t have a written policy regarding how expenses are reimbursed, you will have a hard time enforcing accountability for reimbursable expenses.
At the Disability Concerns Canada Spring Conference in 2010, featured speaker, Barbara Newman, shared great ideas for including people with disabilities in the full life of the church. Much of what she talked about can be found in the Church Services division section of the CLC Network website. Here are a few examples.
The website is separated for Deaf users and hearing users. Not only does the site give a good introduction to Deaf culture for ministry leadership, DOOR produces materials for Deaf ministry.
"THROUGH DEAF EYES is a two-hour HDTV documentary that explores 200 years of Deaf life in America." Though not produced from a religious perspective, it gives ministry leaders a good understanding of Deaf history, culture, and language.
Including thoughtfully-chosen images in worship may minister to certain people in ways that the rest of the service does not.
Calvin Seerveld, whenever he can, urges worshipers to build a scriptural vocabulary of lament. When offered in genuine humility and trust, lament in worship need not be the last word.
Now that so many church members have digital cameras and so many congregations can project images, the possibilities for using photography in worship have soared. Here are tips from congregations that use photography to build community and to picture the entire world as belonging to God.
The following six principles appear and reappear in Scripture, in the history of the church and pockets of current missional practices.
As a youth pastor or worker, you are a shepherd! How do you handle biting sheep? Here are seven suggestions that may help.
A virtual study desk for students, teachers and preachers to a wide variety of contemporary and historical resources for study and liturgy for each lectionary week and pericope, or check out the scripture Index to locate links to study resources relating to specific passages.
Let's take some time and space to define what we mean when we say “cluster" and some of the terms used in order to create clarity and focus. Here are 12 terms that must be clarified.
Last Saturday I attended a Disability Concerns conference in Kitchener, Ontario, called, “Helping People Include People.” The featured speaker, Barbara Newman, did a wonderful job helping those in attendance with great ideas for including people with disabilities in the full life of the church.
Since the time we do have with Sunday School kids is so small, we need to make each minute count. We need to do two things: connect with families and connect with kids. Here’s how.
We often look around for material on leadership that might inspire us our imagination. Reading Moses Pava helped me, in part because he used two words hardly ever used at the same time as the word leadership, namely, covenant and holiness.
What’s to debate? Isn’t it a given that congregations be healthy? The issues are complex and crucial. At stake is not merely survival of local congregations, but also the direction of the CRCNA in the 21st century.
Since ministers are not allowed to deduct church related business expenses from their local church employment as self-employed workers, often ministers and other church employees pay unnecessary income taxes on legitimate business expenses.
People with disabilities tend to be highly creative, since they have to find workarounds to do things that cannot be done the way most people do them. A kludge is a workaround using adaptive equipment or household items so that people can do what they want to do.
Do smaller churches measure up? “Often, size becomes a major diagnostic tool for churches,” says Rev. Paul Van Dyken, pastor of Grace Christian Reformed Church in Burke, Vermont. “People think that if you’re not big, you’re not healthy.”
Choosing a domain name is an important choice for a church's online presence. Following are guidelines and unspoken conventions for choosing a domain name for a church.
I believe that the work of the elders can be enhanced by deliberately using different processes in our meetings. Let me mention a few and I encourage others to add to the list.
What does it mean to be a faith model? Can we really model faith for kids and teens if we still struggle to understand God's plan, to see the way forward, and to deal with pain and shame of our failures?