Paul VanderKlay
For me the CRC has always been a place of diversity. I grew up in an urban church plant while attending Eastern Christian in New Jersey. I got my BA in History at Calvin College and an M.Div from Calvin Seminary. After Calvin I worked with Christian Reformed World Missions in the Dominican Republic.
After the DR I took a call to the Living Stones CRC in Sacramento CA and have been busy with my buddy Kevin Adams and others helping to plant churches, do a Leadership Development Network and wreak as much havoc as I can in Classis Central CA. I've was a member of the Board of Home Missions for almost ten years.
Posted in: Distinguishing Forgiveness from Reconciliation
Nice piece Rich! Thanks for this.
Posted in: Talking About Privilege and Justice With Kids
The proper response to original sin is to embrace the teachings of Jesus, although one will remain always a sinner nevertheless. The proper response to White Privilege is to embrace the teachings of—well, you can fill in the name or substitute others—with the understanding that you will always harbor the Privilege nevertheless. Note that many embrace the idea of inculcating white kids with their responsibility to acknowledge Privilege from as early an age as possible, in sessions starting as early as elementary school. This, in the Naciremian sense, is Sunday school.
Think of it. A certain class of white person, roughly those who watched 30 Rock and Mad Men, lustily pumps their fists at the writings of a Coates who says that he is surprised that white people—i.e. ones like them—are interested enough in black people and racism to even bother reading his work. Coates is telling these people that they are sinners, in a sense, and they are eagerly drinking in the charge, “revering” him for it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is worship, pure and simple.
from http://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion
Posted in: Every Pastor in the CRC Should Hear This
I'm just trying to follow the thread here. Yellowbox Church uses Orange, the negative example from the article. https://communitychristian.org/resources/kidscityparentresources/
So the point of this comment contradicts the posted article's point.
I'm just trying to understand. pvk
Posted in: Our Confessional Crisis
Thanks Jeff for your comment.
When I talk about confessional growth and development you're very much on the same page with your metaphor. In the Karin Maag article she pretty clearly illustrated how the Belgic confession was forged as a way to communicate and defend the Reformation to their Roman Catholic overlords. The document reflects that purpose.
Our present Form of Subsription tried so give latitude for this by having us subscribe to the doctrines, not necessarily the wording of the doctrines found in the actual documents. It's an interesting distinction really in that it gives leeway but what it doesn't necessarily do is create a path to improve our confessions.
Even though at this point we're not facing a threat like Guy De Bres did, we still have a vital need to communicate our profession to the world and attempt to do so as a community. This has been expressed more recently in the Contemporary Testimony of course.
Confessions are in a certain sense a way of crowd-sourcing our witness. We probably can't crowd-source writing, but the Christian church has long been about the community figuring out its faith together.
The recent push for the Belhar has activated this because now the church is being asked to do this work again, and in some ways we're still stumbling around as in a sleepy stupor. We haven't done it for 400 years and the world has changed considerably.
I'd like to have us find a way to make this a regular part of the church and do so in a healthy way.
Two Calvin profs were recently "dismissed quietly", like Joesph tried to do with pregnant Mary. The issues they raised are real and have confessional implications. The issues don't go away just because they do. We need to figure out how to process these hard questions over long periods of time just like we've done with Women in Office.
The church is a very long term project, theology sometimes takes hundreds of years to sort through and come to consensus on. This is difficult to do with a community of persons who live less than 100 years, but this is our calling. We are stewards of the message and when applied there is real work to do. pvk
Posted in: Our Confessional Crisis
On my personal blog I created a page of links to blog posts on this debate that I've discovered to date. You can find the post here: http://paulvanderklay.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/link-list-of-the-blog-discussion-on-the-crc-confessions-and-form-of-subscription/
Posted in: Begging, Borrowing—But Not Stealing
I think I've read this article before... :) just kidding
Posted in: Faith Modeling
Nice piece. I think we also have to calibrate "it will be OK" by the cross and the resurrection. "It will be OK" is a common refrain in most American movies and that means some emotional settling or something vague like that. "Success" in the Christian life easily slides into the shiny, happy faces deal.
The core message of the gospel is that following Jesus is designed to lead us to the same places it led him, to the cross, tomb and out again. Christianity wasn't designed to sit next to all of the other self-help books offering good advice in "making life work" but rather to be the only path that actually results in Creation 2.0. This reality is best communicated as you said through watching people actually do it and it won't usually look like a script about adopting some poor child who will grow up to be an NFL millionaire.
Thanks for your piece. pvk
Posted in: Pastoral Care, Homosexuality and the Elder
Neil I think this is a very helpful post on a very difficult subject. Thanks for taking the time to write and to help lead the church.
Posted in: Pastoral Care for Those "Living Together"
Excellent excellent excellent! If the network continues to put out stuff like this I think it should become a very valuable resource for the CRCNA and the broader church as well. Thanks for taking the time to treat this subject with wisdom and credibility. pvk
Posted in: What are your thoughts on the Title of Commissioned Pastor?
I think it's the right choice. the RCA West has been using the term and I think it's worked well for them. This will help us collaborate more closely with them. Dual terminology has been frustrating.
Posted in: How has the Article 7 change affected those seeking to become Ministers of the Word?
Article 7 is in the church order. It allows someone to become a "Minister of the Word" because of "exceptional gifts". There was an increasing number of "exceptional gifts" coming through the classes. Synod determined that the article was being abused. The notion of "exceptional" was a victim of "grade-inflation". In order to reinforce Article 6 the candidacy committee (mandated by Synod) essentially "shut the door" on article 7 and there have been very few coming through. Word has gotten out to the classes (where the process generally began) that the door was closed. This didn't slip under any radar, it was publicly debated at Synod and it is enforced by the Candidacy Committee. Maybe David Koll could give more background on the subject.
I think Synod swung too far in the opposite direction on this. In the debate it was noted that historically Article 7 had been used by people like college professors to obtain a credential because they wanted to serve more broadly and freely in the church, traditionally in a day when barriers to the pulpit were higher than they are today. In my opinion Article 7 is not an article that affords opportunity to individuals but is rather a tool that the church needs to recognize individuals whose exercise of their gifts is needed by the churches.
Was there abuse? Yes. Is it also abuse to impoverish the church of ministers who are truly exceptional by refusing to render them a credential that would bless the church? Yes.
What has happened as a result of Synod "closing the door on Article 7" is that many who would have previously entered ministry by that path now become Ministry Associates (Article 23) and hold a classical credential. This opens up yet another conversation about office and "equal in honor". pvk
Posted in: How has the Article 7 change affected those seeking to become Ministers of the Word?
The concern that lead to the closing off of Art. 7 was maintaining a standard of an educated clergy. Currently if you want to be a Minister of the Word in the CRC and you are not already ordained in another denomination (Article 8) you need a college education and an M.Div from CTS or an M.Div from another accredited seminary + fulfilling requirements set by the Credential committee. It's a high bar compared to many evangelical churches. We hope that this high bar creates a better church but there is also a recognition that there are many people who might not have an M.Div but with education and life experience can function well as a Minister of the word. The difficulty is figuring out how a system can figure this out.
A seminary education is a terrific preparation for ministry, but it is not the only way. If you go through CTS the faculty gets to have a multi-year look at you and they can speak to the church. There is a situation of "quality control" that hopefully helps the church. At the same time the church needs leadership and how do you process the "exceptions"? There was a feeling that the number of persons brought into ministry through Article 7 was making it a "rule" rather than the exception. pvk