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Signed up!  I bought this book and while I haven't read it yet I am looking forward to reading it and will now make sure to have it done by October 14.

This sounds like a wonderful inclusive idea. I doubt though that many churches will actually acknowledge it. The question asked is Who’s missing in my church? I can think of one person and he is my son and he isn’t missed. When I used to bring it up I was told to check out another church (not a CRC church) that had a program for kids like mine.

I just found this when I was reading the article posted by Youth Unlimited.  Is this something that is still being offered?  If yes, this is definitely the time to be promoting this type of workshop. 

Last week was our first try to have any kind of gathering in the church building and we offered it on a Saturday night but we didn't get enough people signed up.   This week we are trying for Sunday morning and the numbers are better.  We are limited to 50 people including any volunteers.  It won't be a live service - they will be meeting in an area to watch the livestream.  The volunteers from the creative team put together a wonderful cafe in our multi purpose room with comfortable chairs and couches. There are rules they have to follow: pre-register, if they want to sing they have to wear a mask, social distancing, hand sanitizer,  answer health screening questions. 

This is how it is advertised:

"These services will be what we are calling a "Message Cafe." [Think "Drive-in-Theater meets Coffee Shop."] Here, people can come to watch the service and have a time of fellowship before, during, and after the service. It will be a more relaxed, casual environment, for people to mingle, enjoy a hot beverage, pray, and listen to the service."

I enjoy Sovereign Grace music.  I found them when Covid shut down churches and we had to go 100% online and Sovereign Grace gave permission for churches to use their music in their livestream for free until a certain date.  

This week our Worship Pastor is introducting a new song of theirs: How Great (Psalm 145)

How Great (Psalm 145) 

 

Everything about this is heartbreaking made worse by the fact that these schools were still open when I was in school and I learned nothing about them.  Growing up I learned a lot of negative things about Indians which I still hear about today within my Christian circles.   This needs to stop.  
 

We as a church need to step up even if it is just simple things like at at the beginning of a church service we honour the land our church is built on. Want to know how your church really feels about indigenous people? Mention making that part of the service and people will let you know.  Racism may not always be obvious but mention something like this and it is much more obvious.

In Canada, how many churches did anything for Indigenous Sunday (June 20)?  
 

More graves have been discovered and more will be discovered.   What will we as a church do?  Sadly I am guessing the usual which is nothing.

There are so many to choose from but these are the ones I am reading or are on the pile to read next :)

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Book by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth
Book by Beth Allison Barr

The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended
Book by Joanna Sawatsky, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Sheila Wray Gregoire

Brave Church: Tackling Tough Topics Together
Book by Elizabeth Hagan

A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing
Book by Laura Barringer and Scot McKnight

The fact that this is even an article tells you far we have come in women's ordination.  It is appalling that it wasn't until 2020 that the question was asked "Does your church allow women to serve in the office of commissioned pastor and minister of the Word?"  made even worse by the fact that over half the churches who responded didn't even bother answering that question.  I was born and raised in the CRC but question raising my daughter in this same environment where she is welcomed to be a Sunday school teacher and preach to the next generation but not welcomed by many in the denomination to preach to the adults.  I am thankful to be part of a church that has female elders and deacons but it still stings that when looking for a new person for a leadership role to be told that our church isn't ready for a female to be in that role.  

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