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Interesting. Is there a reason in this sample that the President and Vice-President of Council must be an elder? (Interestingly, in my congregation, the President of Council may be an elder or a deacon, but the Clerk of Council must be an elder.)

Here's an option: sing a doxology after the benediction, during which the pastor has the opportunity to walk out of the sanctuary and get out into the lobby before being cornered. Note that the same people will probably rush to get to her or him. Before doing this, though, ask the pastor what she or he thinks about this (or any other) plan - remember, the pastor has just expended a ton of energy and may need some time to decompress with closer friends/family.  

Hi, Pastor Gil--

No good advice here, except to say that I wish I were closer to St. Louis--I'd drop in and buy some from you!

I'm as much of a bibliophile (or book hoarder!) as my dad was. Not sure what I am going to do if I ever need to downsize. Shalom, and best wishes on your retirement.

One of your former catechism students,

Chuck Adams

Agreed. There was a very brief discussion on a side issue that briefly touched on the existence of the report in my congregation's leadership meeting, but we are (properly) so focused on issues like keeping people safe in worship and in the community, helping those who cannot leave their homes, providing for significant needs in our community, and figuring out the role of a significantly changed congregation in a new era--not to mention our core focus on Word and Sacrament--that these issues get short shrift. This leads to only those with the loudest and most opinionated voices being heard, and ends the possibility of dealing with the issue with grace and nuance. So I applaud the effort, but worry that--especially in these unusual times--there is little opportunity for a a truly deliberative and careful process.

I've never been a huge fan of mainstream CCM (back then, I liked the more hardcore stuff like Death Before Dishonor, Dig Hay Zoose, Undercover), but Jars of Clay was one huge exception--I still listen to them regularly. I saw them in the early 2000s at the Weill Center in Sheboygan, WI. My double-take moment was when "Flood" was used as bumper music going to commercial during an NFL game where the rain was coming down so hard it was impacting play. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. 

The fiction book club that meets at my church finished "Mila 18" by Leon Uris. We were going to read "Joy in the Morning" (also known as "Jeeves in the Morning" by P.G. Wodehouse, but the library has insufficient copies, so we are all reading different books from the Jeeves series.

 

My morning book club with some local guys (mostly CRC) is reading "A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story" by Michael Goheen. I've enjoyed it tremendously, and it gave me an idea for a sermon I am preaching later this month.

 

Another morning book club with local friends is reading Ibrem Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist." I also highly recommend this one.

 

My theological/philosophical book group just finished "The Cambridge History of Philosophy in the 19th Century" and is now moving to "Creative Minds in Contemporary Theology" by by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes. Probably not most people's cup of tea, but the books in this group have been very important in helping keep me thinking and engaging the mind.

 

On a lighter note, I just finished "Cutting for Stone" by Abram Verghese and enjoyed it very much. I have moved next to "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri, which is book of short stories. If you like Lahiri's novels, these stories will be up your alley. I always have a sci-fi book on hand when my brain needs a rest, and I am reading "Now, Then, and Everywhen" by Rys Walker, and it is a fun read.

 

A more difficult piece of fiction is "The Kindly Ones" by Jonathan Littell, which tells the story of World War II from the perspective of an SS officer and explores how a person can sink to the depths of evil required to serve the Nazi regime. I'm about a third of the way through and thankful my library allows me to renew books remotely, as I can take only so much at a time, and yet it is a worthwhile read. 

 

I've got several more going and a pile next to my chair waiting to start...yes I have a problem. I remember being a kid and gazing up at my parents' shelves and asking my dad if he had read all those books, and him telling me, "No, most will wait for retirement." Clearly bookaholism is genetic. :-) Retirement is still more than a decade away for me, d.v., but I know what I'll be doing then!

 

 

 

Did anything ever come of this request? I am interested in hearing what kinds of systems are out there, and how (or if) they considered church order when creating the systems. 

Let's set aside for a moment the specific agencies with changed names, because there are some specific factors there that don't necessarily fit in with the big picture that we are really dealing with in these discussions--that being our Christian Reformed identity.

What is that identity? There was a time (in some places in the not very distant past) where the identity was CRC=Dutch. I can tell you that as a child I was thrilled to see the Banner cover with the burning wooden shoes, as I was sick of having to explain why I wasn't Dutch, and why not being Dutch didn't mean that I was not much. I think tossing "Dutch-ness" as an identity (rather than just an item of historical interest), was a good thing. In fact, it is something we need to keep working on. 

But, I do think that in jettisoning our Dutch-ness, we may have thrown out the beautiful baby with that dirty bathwater. Throughout the CRC, we are losing touch with something very unique--our desire to be a "properly confessional community." (I use "properly" because there is a tendency among other Reformed bodies to use the confessions as a weapon or a fence rather than a guide and a teaching tool.) 

Rather than focusing on the words "Christian Reformed," I'd like to see us focus on how we can remain confessional in a proper way, and in the context of community--our local communities, our classes, and throughout North America.

I will say, I don't think we haven't lost this altogether. When my family goes on vacation, we try to attend CRC churches, and I preach in CRC congregations around Wisconsin as a "licensee." In those travels, I still see a sense of CRC confessionalism and community. As an example, my family visited Willowdale CRC in Toronto during a trip we took in the summer of 2016. We ended up staying for over an hour after the service talking about all sorts of CRC community matters (local and binational) with people who clearly understood CRC identity in a way much deeper than ethnicity. It helped that we sang many of the same songs, that the worship leader read from the catechism, that the liturgy was clearly Reformed in its focus on worshipping a God who meets with his people and speaks through the word and then responding in gratitude and service, and that the sermon was eminently Reformed in its content and style. We've had similar experiences in other places, as well.

I'd be interested in hearing from others on how we can retain, recover, rediscover, and revitalize an appropriate CRC identity. Perhaps if we do that, we will no longer see the names of our agencies as a key issue, but just a side distraction.

Chuck Adams

Sheboygan, WI

Having served six years on CRWRC's board, I fully understand that our binational structure can seem like a burden. But as a U.S. member of the CRCNA, I am thankful for our strong Canadian contingent. Wherever I have gone in CRC circles, I have constantly been reminded of the amazing contributions of our Canadian sisters and brothers. (One of my proudest moments during my service on the CRWRC board was being declared an "honorary member" of the "Canadian Caucus.") Rather than thinking of the red tape and additional structure that occasionally annoys us, I hope we instead think of how much being a binational organization has helped us. We U.S. folks need the Canadians. I hope they feel the same about us.

I have an even better idea--let's find ways to make sure that the Christian day schools we support (whether in Grand Rapids or out here in the provinces) are capable of admitting children from every ethnicity, race, and income level. That way everyone has access to a Christ-centered education.

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