August Guillaume

The change in the three documents was to simplify the common hymnal that is to be published. The CRC requested the inclusion of the three documents; hence the attempt to find common wording.

You may like to check the Belhar confession, also before the churches for comment. This document is certainly about how to love our neighbour.

The three documents were written in the time when detailed theological statements were thought to be very important in the Western Church. I doubt they have the similar impact today.

I believe that the jump to LDS is quite large. See Heidelberg Catechism #24 for example:

http://www.crcna.org/pages/heidelberg_spirit.cfm#QandA 62  

I believe that the phrase Judeo-Christian is possible because we both consider the Old Testament to be the Word of God and use it to understand how to love God and neighbour.  

Any group that considers Jesus only as a great prophet but no mediator between God and man is actually quite far away from Christianity even though they may agree with many of the practises how to love our neighbour.

"Proper thinking about theological propositions" may have been very important during the Reformation for protestants to distinguish themselves from Catholics . However to claim that as the only 'goal' of Christianity goes a bit too far since the mandate of Christians is to love God and neighbour. 

The Catechism builds the argument carefully right from Sunday #1 to #52, answering most of your questions.

Discipline needs to be done prayerfully, and very carefully since all we do is stained with sin. If a member needs discipline it is likely because the person does not seem to be bothered with his/her sin and the sin may be very difficult for others.

There are quite a few problems in trying to have an 'objective' test. 

for instance http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Matthew+25 (vs 31 etc)  shows clearly that Christians will not know about the "good works" they did.  Our problem is that once we think we know we did a good work we then tend to be quite proud of it which could actually nullify it all.

How can we tell the real reason a person did something well.  Was it due to thankfulness or spite? And then we realize that we can hardly do anything 100% and so the Catechism builds the argument that any 'objective' test will not work; That all is a gift - even all the good works.

We can then live and be thankful for such gifts we receive and try every day again.

Now and ever the common assumption is that if someone does something that is considered right or good  the person who is dead will go to heaven. 

When Jesus showed what is important  He seemed to turn everything around and upside down but not completely!

The end result of all our figuring should to leave most of the figuring out and leave everything up to the Lord.

That means leave heros heros, be happy with what seems to be good, and stay away from evil, and whatever seems to be bad without needing to know exactly what our Lord would say about it every time.

I appreciate Ken's statement.  It is true, however, that police see many horrible activities and situations which may make their lifeview different from 'ordinary' folk who may hardly, if ever see these situations first hand.  Questions such as can God forgive this?  Could God not have prevented this? may well be a daily experience for many police.

Could the only way out be daily prayer where the police can honestly express his/her feelings to God, and let God show the police his love in some meaningful way?

Since our church is small, I have been managing membership records instead of one of the elders. I have also seen the change. When older members change membership in the appropriate way, I try to welcome them even though they may hve been quite active already. This happens so that the younger set gets the idea that membership is appreciated. When a baby is born and wish to be baptized, membership papers are requested. However, since this younger set can be very committed we have not put any artificial barriers between members and non members. Our directory which comes out every two years is a good way to find out who is or is not committed by inviting people to add their names to the directory or e-mail list we have.  I have consoled myself to this view by thinking about Jesus' church as one church and not be too concerned if we have a lot of 'ex members' on our list as long as we know from family members that they are active members of another church or have moved away to another town.  It is always a challenge for elders to know who to include in their list and who have in effect transferred membership without letting us know officially.  There is always sufficient to deal with the members and others who do attend let alone all those who are no longer attending.  

I used to be a member of CRC voices, but the messages were way too much and often went nowhere changing topics without changing headings.

I would like to see the discussion via a web service, but in no way i want any e-mails.

How can I do that?

Granted - a smaller mission force is not what we want - neither is a model where missionaries have to be salesmen better than the staff in GR, attempting to raise ministry shares! Financing local missionaries in foreign countries is another model, having staff in GR paid on the same basis as missionaries - raise your own funds - then come to work - is another model to use.  A shrinking money pot is what all of us have to face - why use the services of front line staff - the ones that actually bring the WORD to others - to raise money may not be the solution everyone is looking for. Missionaries can now shop around for the best deal, since many missionary organizations use the same model. Since there is only so much CRC based money around, who can prove more money will flow into CRC related organizations using this model? 

Are we merely competing for the same pot among ourselves?

Thanks for reminding me to work on the book I am writing regarding my mom and dad's story.

When I was in Synod in 2010, there was some discussion about  churches who wanted to change classis for the same reason. So why not have another classis?  We should be agreeable and only argue heavily on what separates Chirstians from Non-Christians. I feel sorry for the women in the new Classis as well as all the men.

August Guillaume

I appreciated Synods actions very well. Many texts show different positions on the same question. It is only a Greek view that wants to enforce one position only. I am sure that every text in the Bible was well meant. Whether each statement mentioned in the Bible is of the same force today depends on a lot of factors, not just what some people wish or not.  Prayerful deliberations, listening to the Spirit is so important.  Realizing that not anyone has a full grasp of the full truth in all its detail means that Christians have to try and see how we can work together even if there are differences. Only our stubborness has forced various denominations and have thrown others out. Each church community has been guilty of this sin and we should confess our short comings. In heaven there will not be any denominations, I am sure. 

Sphere Sovereinty to me indicates that members of the CRC church must get involved in the other areas in order to influence society.  For education, we do that by establishing schools, with labour we do that by suppoerting Christian Labour associations, in politics and social justice we do that by supporting various groups who wrestle with the situation. If the results of these deliberations indicate that churches should manage their affairs differently, by going green etc. so be it! However many churches do not have such a model and they are stuck with getting the church leadership to pronounce various concerns properly dealt with in other ways.  Perhaps it is time for the church leadership to be more vocal about the members actually getting involved with Christian organizations and groups dealing with the issues to help us all understand our world better.

The Alpha model must be a US invention!  The map ignores Mexico (does not even show it) and considers 'Canada' as a whole.  The classifications (North East etc) is US only.  To us 'west' is Alberta, BC,  Mid West is Sask, Man, Central is Ontario and Quebec, with the rest of the provinces 'East'.  Anything called North is the Yukon, North West Territories and Nunavit.

Church Plants used to be chosen by places where Reformed Christians were living or moving to.  World Shaking mandates were also given to Christian Organizations in education, politics and labour. 

Now that we have come of age and wish to plant churches where any US and Canadian person is moving to (that is growing cities) we need to work together with any church planting initiatives of any denomination, not to overlap, and not be too quick to discount small beginnings, or are we to assume that the alpha cities are big enough, and that we can do our own thing without regard to anyone else?