We don't exactly have a choice between Buhari and Goodluck, but we know who Axelrod will be voting for (and maybe advising) in our own election.
In the end "God is the ruler, yet" and even though, "Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen." (Acts 4:27,28)
Thanks for the question about locating chaplains. We have provided two ways to find chaplains on our denominational web page (crcna.org/chaplaincy):
1) A directory of chaplains by category (Military, Hospital, etc.) and then by name -- look in the left hand column for Directory
2) An interactive map (good for looking in a geographic region) -- top left corner
Unfortunately we just did an upgrade to this map to make it work more quickly and I see that it is showing only a smattering of the 123 current chaplains. I will send a note to I.T. and hope that it is fixed soon. You should be able to zoom in to any area, click on any dot and learn who is there where they are employed.
I am responding from the Chaplaincy and Care office of the CRC. I certainly would encourage your interest in serving this motorcylce club. If you have some church leadership or pastoral care training (or just have a heart for serving people) this group will probably welcome you as a chaplain.
As far as official denominational endorsement as a chaplain, you would have to be ordained, then complete at least two units of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education). If you want to pursue that, please contact me at 616-224-0733 or [email protected].
Alan Hirsch argues that the term "missional" should be understood to refer to alignment with the missio Dei that is bigger than just the church. He likes to say that we should think in terms of the mission having a church rather than the church having a mission. In that sense, adding "missional" to "church" implies that the church recognizes and aligns itself with something bigger than itself, rather than simply assuming "missions" is a vehicle to grow itself or extend its reach into the world. This perception can accept that God might use (in addition to the church) individual Christians in their workplace, para-church groups doing relief efforts, or even talking donkeys (ala Balaam) to advance his kingdom. He loves and nurtures and sends His church into the world, but His kingdom is bigger than the church and the church must constantly align itself with whatever God is up to.
Maybe this is a paradigm shift like Galileo convincing the world that though the earth is very special, it is not the center of solar system. The sun (or, in this case, the Son) is.
I am highly biased (aren't we all?), but I would love to see more celebration of the impact we have on the secular and institutional world around us -- particularly the work done by our growing number of chaplains (nearly 150 endorsed, plus many campus chaplains and pastors serving part time as hospice, hospital or police chaplains). This is a significant missional aspect of the church influencing many institutions, agencies and individuals outside the church -- one that at times seems not fully embraced by the church. If 10 - 15% of our ordained clergy are finding their way into this arena that provides great opportunities for ministry at the "fringes," with very little cost to the organized church; might this not be something we wish to be more aware of and deliberate about?
Ron Klimp - Director of Chaplaincy and Care Ministry
Good thoughts -- and necessary re-evaluation of how we prepare future pastors. One thing not addressed is the power of positive models. We could talk about how to produce a great violin concerto for weeks, but one has to hear it to know what the goal is. If students never hear and observe a good sermon they may be frustrated in trying to produce one from a formula. One very effective and Reformed narrative sermon crafter (who also exegetes our culture well) is Alistair Begg in Cleveland, OH (daily podcast and sermon archive at truthforlife.com). I'm sure there are a few others who could serve as such models. If students were asked to listen to such models and evaluate what makes them effective I suspect they would learn more then they could acquire from many books and lectures.
Good thoughts all! This is a frequent issue in worship, partly because we think of the individual too much as doing something for the community, and the community as a receptor which wants or deserves better. If we think more of worship as all of us in community ("one body") doing something together for God, every member having gifts to add to the whole, never telling someone they are not gifted for this or that,but helping them find where their gift fits best, thus moving the whole body toward greater degrees of excellence; the dilemma of community vs excellence disappears. Excellence means getting all the instruments in the right place and performing together in the best possible way for the ultimate concert of praise.
Thanks for getting us thinking about the almost invisible Joseph. But emulate Joseph "in spite of the absence of drama and action in his life"? Do angel visits, a trip to Bethlehem for a census, delivering a baby in a barn without medical assistance, receiving Magi from the East with expensive gifts and strange devotion (though possibly later in the narrative), more travel to Egypt to flee the sword of Herod, then back to Nazareth not count as significant "drama and action"? We may not know much about him, and he may well have been a "quiet, caring and thoughtful man." But as we are reminded that "still waters run deep," I suspect he had more capacity to bend with and absorb and process currents of amazing drama than most of us might.
Joshua and Bonnie - It might be helpful to note that John's wife Stasi Eldredge wrote a sequel to Wild at Heart, call Captivating, in which she described her understanding of the nature of a woman in God's creation. Neither of these were meant to demean the other, but to push back against the egalitarian movement to erase any gender differences. Rather to see and celebrate the complimentary differences in design and role.
Thanks for re-publishing this from another source and thereby drawing attention to both Chaplaincy and Advent. As a cancer survivor can speak better than anyone else to a newly diagnosed cancer patient, so those who have fully felt the brokenness of sin and the healing grace of God can speak best to others feeling trapped in that brokenness.
Posted in: Ambivalent Political Introspection Syndrome (APIS)
Excellent thoughts!
We don't exactly have a choice between Buhari and Goodluck, but we know who Axelrod will be voting for (and maybe advising) in our own election.
In the end "God is the ruler, yet" and even though, "Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen." (Acts 4:27,28)
Posted in: List of CRC pastors serving as US military chaplains?
Jason,
Thanks for the question about locating chaplains. We have provided two ways to find chaplains on our denominational web page (crcna.org/chaplaincy):
1) A directory of chaplains by category (Military, Hospital, etc.) and then by name -- look in the left hand column for Directory
2) An interactive map (good for looking in a geographic region) -- top left corner
Unfortunately we just did an upgrade to this map to make it work more quickly and I see that it is showing only a smattering of the 123 current chaplains. I will send a note to I.T. and hope that it is fixed soon. You should be able to zoom in to any area, click on any dot and learn who is there where they are employed.
Blessings,
Ron Klimp - Dir. of Chaplaincy and Care
Posted in: List of CRC pastors serving as US military chaplains?
Chaplain (MAJ) InSoon (Gho) Hoagland is the only chaplain I am aware of that was stationed at Fort Hood.
She is in Korea right now. I'm sure she'd love to hear from them.
[email protected]
CH (MAJ) InSoon Hoagland
Division Family Life Center
2nd Infantry Division
Box # 1012
B CO 2ID, Unit 15041
APO, AP 96258
Posted in: What are the requirements for becoming a Chaplain?
fpackwook,
I am responding from the Chaplaincy and Care office of the CRC. I certainly would encourage your interest in serving this motorcylce club. If you have some church leadership or pastoral care training (or just have a heart for serving people) this group will probably welcome you as a chaplain.
As far as official denominational endorsement as a chaplain, you would have to be ordained, then complete at least two units of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education). If you want to pursue that, please contact me at 616-224-0733 or [email protected].
Ron Klimp
Posted in: Understanding Our Missional Identity
Alan Hirsch argues that the term "missional" should be understood to refer to alignment with the missio Dei that is bigger than just the church. He likes to say that we should think in terms of the mission having a church rather than the church having a mission. In that sense, adding "missional" to "church" implies that the church recognizes and aligns itself with something bigger than itself, rather than simply assuming "missions" is a vehicle to grow itself or extend its reach into the world. This perception can accept that God might use (in addition to the church) individual Christians in their workplace, para-church groups doing relief efforts, or even talking donkeys (ala Balaam) to advance his kingdom. He loves and nurtures and sends His church into the world, but His kingdom is bigger than the church and the church must constantly align itself with whatever God is up to.
Maybe this is a paradigm shift like Galileo convincing the world that though the earth is very special, it is not the center of solar system. The sun (or, in this case, the Son) is.
Posted in: Let’s Play “Banner Editor for a Day”
I am highly biased (aren't we all?), but I would love to see more celebration of the impact we have on the secular and institutional world around us -- particularly the work done by our growing number of chaplains (nearly 150 endorsed, plus many campus chaplains and pastors serving part time as hospice, hospital or police chaplains). This is a significant missional aspect of the church influencing many institutions, agencies and individuals outside the church -- one that at times seems not fully embraced by the church. If 10 - 15% of our ordained clergy are finding their way into this arena that provides great opportunities for ministry at the "fringes," with very little cost to the organized church; might this not be something we wish to be more aware of and deliberate about?
Ron Klimp - Director of Chaplaincy and Care Ministry
Posted in: Must Seminaries Change?
Good thoughts -- and necessary re-evaluation of how we prepare future pastors. One thing not addressed is the power of positive models. We could talk about how to produce a great violin concerto for weeks, but one has to hear it to know what the goal is. If students never hear and observe a good sermon they may be frustrated in trying to produce one from a formula. One very effective and Reformed narrative sermon crafter (who also exegetes our culture well) is Alistair Begg in Cleveland, OH (daily podcast and sermon archive at truthforlife.com). I'm sure there are a few others who could serve as such models. If students were asked to listen to such models and evaluate what makes them effective I suspect they would learn more then they could acquire from many books and lectures.
Posted in: Excellence vs. Community?
Good thoughts all! This is a frequent issue in worship, partly because we think of the individual too much as doing something for the community, and the community as a receptor which wants or deserves better. If we think more of worship as all of us in community ("one body") doing something together for God, every member having gifts to add to the whole, never telling someone they are not gifted for this or that, but helping them find where their gift fits best, thus moving the whole body toward greater degrees of excellence; the dilemma of community vs excellence disappears. Excellence means getting all the instruments in the right place and performing together in the best possible way for the ultimate concert of praise.
Posted in: Joseph - Our Man
Thanks for getting us thinking about the almost invisible Joseph. But emulate Joseph "in spite of the absence of drama and action in his life"? Do angel visits, a trip to Bethlehem for a census, delivering a baby in a barn without medical assistance, receiving Magi from the East with expensive gifts and strange devotion (though possibly later in the narrative), more travel to Egypt to flee the sword of Herod, then back to Nazareth not count as significant "drama and action"? We may not know much about him, and he may well have been a "quiet, caring and thoughtful man." But as we are reminded that "still waters run deep," I suspect he had more capacity to bend with and absorb and process currents of amazing drama than most of us might.
Posted in: Forming Men of Faith
John Eldridge has offered some good insights into this this in Wild at Heart.
Posted in: Forming Men of Faith
Joshua and Bonnie - It might be helpful to note that John's wife Stasi Eldredge wrote a sequel to Wild at Heart, call Captivating, in which she described her understanding of the nature of a woman in God's creation. Neither of these were meant to demean the other, but to push back against the egalitarian movement to erase any gender differences. Rather to see and celebrate the complimentary differences in design and role.
Posted in: Wounded Healer
Staci,
Thanks for re-publishing this from another source and thereby drawing attention to both Chaplaincy and Advent. As a cancer survivor can speak better than anyone else to a newly diagnosed cancer patient, so those who have fully felt the brokenness of sin and the healing grace of God can speak best to others feeling trapped in that brokenness.