Randy Blacketer
AKA Dr. Raymond A. Blacketer. Reformation scholar, sometime professor, native Californian, lover of the Reformed confessions, brought into the Christian Reformed Church through evangelism. Formerly pastor of Neerlandia CRC in Northern Alberta, Canada, and First Cutlerville CRC, Byron Center. Currently working as a theological editor and translator.
Posted in: Why Denominational Leaders Need to Address Clergy Mental Health Issues
Thank you, Larry, for this important article.
Posted in: You Write the Caption!
Job's three friends?
Posted in: Long Goodbye
Precisely.
Posted in: Time-Regulated Worship
Excellent article; thank you for your thoughtful reflections. We just talked about this in our PM teaching service last Sunday. I'll have to check out that book by Allen Ross; it sounds like it might have some good sermon fodder in there.
There is one small typo in the list, #1: "subordinated" should be "subordinate."
Posted in: CRC Church Order Commentary
I just got my shiny new copy!
Posted in: Planning an International Move
This article is not encouraging:
http://www.thebanner.org/news/2011/01/us-immigration-delays-pastor-s-call
Posted in: Planning an International Move
Thanks, Pete. I already read your saga, which put the fear of God (or the Department of Homeland Security) into me. Our situation is different, in that most of us are US citizens, and Sandy is not applying for that religious workers visa (though as a youth director for over 20 years, that could be a possibility). We have contacted an immigration lawyer in Grand Rapids. I am a bit timid to ask whether we or the calling church are responsible for legal costs, however, and I don't know if there's any denominational policy in this regard.
I would like to see more resources and help from the denomination, particularly because we are a bi-national church. Pastors and people with other church-related vocations are regularly moving across the border. It could be that there are more resources from the CRCNA that I dont' know about, but everyone is on holidays this time of year, and I'm getting piles of "out of the office" responses to my emails. One immigration lawyer who specializes in pastors and religious workers hasn't even responded to my emails. I wonder if there are resources like: recommended moving companies who have lots of experience with international relocations (I think the CIA calls this secret renditions or something, but they are not for hire). Lists of dos and don'ts. Helping children transition to a new home and school. How should a pastor transition from one congregation to the next; should s/he take some time between ministries, etc. (If this were Facebook I would at this point "tag" Pastor-Church relations to alert them to my questions). There will also be a big learning curve financially, because taxes etc. are quite different between Canada and the US.
Time to call up the resources of our faith and rely on God's providence, but also to call on the Christian community to help each other out in our time of need.
Posted in: What Does It Mean To/For the CRC When WCRC Adopts or Declares Something — or Does Stuff?
I'm not aware of any "relatively new push" to participate in WCRC; I think we have been involved with its forerunners for decades. What does seem to be new (or maybe only recently more prominent) is an extremely politicized agenda on the part of the WCRC, which seems, at least, to be dominated by mainline liberal churches. The Accra confession is a very one-sided and extremely politicized (not to mention anti-American) document that has been subjected to some penetrating critique, e.g. by Calvin College Economics prof. Roland Hoksbergen ( http://www.calvin.edu/admin/cccs/rcc/chapters/Hoksbergen.pdf ) and South African economist Stan DuPlessis ( http://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers101.html ). I agree that ecumenical organizations are important; but I'm not sure WCRC is a healthy place for the CRC to be; I'm not sure our voice would be heard, and I wonder who would be presuming to be our voice within that organization. I am not confident that every denominational agency represents the full spectrum of CRC opinion. We don't fit into NAPARC (because of their regrettable decision to expel us over women's ordination), but I don't think we belong in an organization that officially (in the person of its general secretary) claims that John Calvin would support the Occupy Wall Street movement ( http://wcrc.ch/node/694 ) and pushes the confessionalization of socialism. I would equally recoil from any canonization of capitalism or right-wing politics. It's the princple of the thing: What unites us: The Reformed theological tradition or some politicization of the gospel? Persons in the CRC span the political spectrum; to exercise a "preferential option" for one side or the other will inevitably lead to schism and a skewing of the church's genuine mission.
Posted in: Article 59 Assent to Creeds
Has any progress been made on this issue?
Posted in: Triggered Spam Filter
It's all good now...I'm not blocked or anything, which means that your network is obviously not very discriminating and should probably have higher standards.
Posted in: Network Quiz
I'm devastated. I can no longer self-differentiate or act as a non-anxious presence because of this. You don't think I've earned it? Slaving away in the trenches of reading boring commentaries and visiting dysfunctional families and going to endless committee meetings? Have you ever been to a classis meeting? Let me tell you, I've earned it ten times over (background music: Battle Hymn of the Republic, to reinforce the heroic-martyr image).
Fine. I'll find someone in Jerusalem to acquire one secretly and surreptitiously from the hidden bunker at 2850. :p
Posted in: Network Quiz
Hmmm...option one is unethical, sneaky, deceptive, dishonest, fattening, politically incorrect and probably contrary to church order, so I'm really tempted to go with that one.
Number two is a better idea. I know we have a few more Network members than two here in Neerlandia (where we also barely have internet (we connect by smoke signals to our ISP, so wherever Crossroads is, we have it worse than they do). The temperature is currently -30, and the official boundary line of human civilization is one mile south of where we live. A trip to the city (Edmonton) is a good hundred miles on the way there, and a hundred and fifty on the way back, uphill on ice roads both ways, with moose hyped up on meth constantly running crossing the road tyring to commit suicide by minivan. We take our lives in our hands every time we need to go to Starbucks or Eddie Bauer. And we never complain about it because our grandparents who went through the war had it a thousand times worse, because they had to go church about fifteen times on the days surrounding Christmas, which is the real reason the Germans left Holland.
I know of at least two other Neerlandians who are on the Network (ecclesiastical spies, actually), who probably haven't completed their profiles (bad weather has been interfering with the high speed smoke signal connection and also with the sled dog mail service). I would expect that number to rise!
Glory, glory Hallelujah!....