Harry Boessenkool

“I cannot contribute to this topic.  It did occur to me….. How would the church react if the US congress or the Canadian parliament were to have a discussion on, say, how local churches should separate from denominations when they disagree on issues? 

The church polity that enables this type of overture to get to the highest level of the church hierarchy is interesting. Does the church not have checks and balances? Is there a reputational risk?

Has someone tried to determine how this topic when discussed in the public arena (synod) will be judged?”

What interesting way of putting all this. Like you, I grew up on farm in Southern Alberta and hoed sugar beets for seven years (spring and part of summer) between the ages 9 and sixteen. No ambiguity in hoeing 12 rows a day.  It was very fruitful in October when we harvested up to 50 tons of sugar beets per acre which would have produced 300 lbs of sugar per ton!

Show me the formal annual performance reviews of every senior person in the hierarchy of the CRCNA H.O and I probably could soon tell you  what fruitfulness or fruitlessness of the organization would be on a scale of 1 to 10.

The trouble with most jobs is the lack of unambiguous standards and or goals/objectives. Reading performance reviews (and I have read  thousands over my 40 year career ) I could soon separate  fluff from fact. 

I agree with  you it will extremely interesting how synod comes at this and who the presenters will be!

I believe the basic tenets of Christianity  are not as ambiguous as some people would like them to be.

I would like to enter this news release from The King's University in Edmonton Alberta.

FINAL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  November 19, 2018 New Statement on Inclusion for The King’s University Edmonton-----The King’s University has a new Statement on Inclusion, recently passed by its Board of Governors, after more than a year of work and discussion by faculty, staff, students, and leadership. The statement provides clarity on King’s unique missional Christian role in Canada’s higher education scene. 

Simply stated:  Everyone is welcome here. 

“Our broader mission, which opens our doors to students from any background, is a key component to the missional work we are doing. We try to and I think succeed at creating a healthy place for Christian students from every denominational background to grow and be challenged, and for non-Christian students to be introduced to the hope of the gospel” says Tim Wood, CRC ordained King’s Campus Minister.

“This statement is important for all students as they learn to navigate diversity in ways that will serve them well both in class and upon graduation.,” says President Dr. Melanie Humphreys. “More importantly, the statement provides those underrepresented groups in our student population with the security to engage in their academic studies to the fullest of their abilities.”

“We believe that the role of a Christian university is to engage in discussions on important topics and challenging issues, not to take political or doctrinal positions,” says Board Chair Harry Kits. “We do not have an official institutional position on many issues, such as marriage, divorce, sexual orientation, politics, and the like.”

In the 1990s the strategy used in response to the rise of human rights commissions was to develop extensive statements defining institutional positions on any number of issues. There is a growing sense in Christian Higher Education across Canada that this strategy is no longer effective. The strategy we are employing is to define ourselves as a Christian university by our mission, our statement of faith, our curriculum, and our hiring of Christians.  With this clearly defined, we commit to be engaged, to stay at the table, and to create space for dialogue on issues for which there are significant disagreement.

 “We recognize that committed Christians within our community have a wide range of views on many of the important issues of the day,” Kits continues, “coming from deeply held beliefs and their own experiences. This is also true at King’s, where Christian faculty, staff, and students similarly hold a wide range of views on many issues, including LGTBQ2+ concerns. We welcome dialogue on all views.” 

Recent media stories, (including references to King’s historical experiences with respect to LGBTQ2+ persons) as well as the realities of our diverse community, highlighted the need for the University to have a clear statement on inclusion, in keeping with its Christian identity and its role as an academic institution. The Board of Governors, recognizing strongly divergent views in its supporting community and within the faculty, staff, and student body, affirmed the inclusion statement to bring clarity to the position of the University.  The King’s University Statement on Inclusion The King’s University (King’s) believes that all people are worthy of respect. Our faculty, staff, and Board of Governors are committed Christians and affirm Christ’s call to love others as we love ourselves. Held by this strong foundation, we consciously cultivate a safe, inclusive environment of mutual respect, where all may belong and flourish.

We are committed to equity of access and opportunity for all our students, faculty, and staff in keeping with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Alberta Human Rights Act. King’s accepts all students who qualify academically and we are deeply committed to serving all students who attend our university.  For more information, please see our website at: www.kingsu.ca/about-us/about-king

This is a critical discussion in almost all denominations and many charities. In our culture of "selfies" it is difficult to find common pursuits. As the article mentions if it "touches me" I can support it.

In the area of religion, with its ever widening (in my view) liberalization this is a real challenge. I can only speak for my knowledge of the CRCNA.  It had an issue with “women in office” and lost some 20% of its members in the mid ‘90’s. As mentioned in synod (2018) this issue, mentioning just one, from a human resources, point of view was not well managed. There are now other issues on the horizon that give (me) pause….. Uncertainty.

The slide to more liberal interpretation of scripture is well under way. Those of us with more conservative (or narrow minded biblical views in the eyes of some) feel some pressure.

In government the secular (often liberal) always wins. What was illegal 20 years ago is now celebrated. The celebration is not a problem for me except I have very little room to object to participate. 

When this manifests itself in church denominations the easiest thing to do is say nothing but stop contributing or direct donations only to those parts that affect you personally.

In some discipline an Italian professor came up with a truism. It is called the “Pareto Rule”. It posits, among others, that 20% of people do 80% of the work; same with donations to any cause. Even in taxes this is true I believe.

This means that churches should try and understand this phenomenon in their own congregations.  If their ratio is in fact 20/80 they are in a danger zone should a major controversy arise. In economics uncertainty is a very tricky thing. It can cause unforeseen situations and very quickly.

Like the article I am responding to the diagnoses is much easier than the cure! Our prayer is for wisdom.

The article by Clayton Carlson in the May issue of the Banner is a clear indication of how the church ought NOT to be involved. 

The definition of the role of the church is interesting.  The article is happy that Syria, a most corrupt and totalitarian regime has signed on with the Paris Climate accord. And by contrast the USA (with a democratically elected government) has "vowed to leave the agreement"!  A comment like “churches need to educate members and function as examples of ecological stewardship” is not a role I would give to churches.  Does the writer really think that those of our church members charged with looking after our properties (just to narrow the discussion) are not up to the task?  And need to be provided with resources from the church (OSJ) to correct this?

We should give the same economic role to the folks who work for OSJ and the Centre for Public Dialogue as we do to missionaries in foreign countries. If you can find financial support for 90% of your salaries directly from churches you are welcome to carry on. 

The CRCNA (based on overture 18) is on track to loose some 8,000 members per year. IMHO this is a far more serious (ecclesiastical) problem to tackle than climate change (scientific and economic) problem.

What members of this congregation are doing is probably mirrored in many other congregations. Great.. keep up the good work. Let's not delegate that to folks employed by the church. None of whom are elected to  speak on my behalf.

Individual members of the CRCNA are welcome to join Franklin Graham in his political activities and I am sure his website will welcome them. From what I know Franklin Graham does not speak on behalf of any denomination. He is an independent Evangelical Christian.

This is a very interesting topic. Here is an email I sent to Craig Bartholomew a year or so ago which deals with the issue in reverse, i.e. the Qur'an being translated into English using scripture passages to justify the various statements. This is a very complicated issue and something scholars need to to help us with.

""Dear Craig,

Are you ever involved in reviewing a book like this? It seem to be an apologetic for the Qur'an.

I am grasping at straws a by asking this.  Your are a co- writer researcher with Michael Goheen and as scholars doing Missiology you might have something to say about how this book deals with scripture.

Comparing scripture to the Qur'an is not something that would be high on my list of discussions with Muslims. But a book like this which seems to ask Christians to do just that needs to be looked by scholars like you.

Harry Boessenkool

PS

For background I completed a trip to the Middle East last year which included Oman and the Al -Amana Centre in Muscat. We are looking at ways for our Pastor to go to Oman  and possibly Lebanon (the only Christian Seminary in the Middle East) and learn something first hand about the Arabian/Muslim culture to improve our discussions with Muslims coming to Canada ( Vancouver area in particular).

I came across this book at a friends home in Amersfoort Holland while here in vacation. 

https://www.google.ca/search?site=&source=hp&ei=Pz1aWZnlBcrewQLHo4roDg&q=The+Quran+A+contemporary+understanding+-+Kaskas+%2F+hungerdpford&oq=The+Quran+A+contemporary+understanding+-+Kaskas+%2F+hungerdpford&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.3..30i10k1.9446.60416.0.63416.65.64.1.1.1.0.424.7457.26j36j4-2.64.0....0...1.1.64.mobile-gws-hp..0.65.7251.3..0j41j0i131k1j0i22i30k1j0i22i10i30k1j0i13i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.kB-VDQyAtgc

"Recently at the Asia retreat in South Korea, World Renew and Resonate Global Mission international staff gathered together for a time of wonderful fellowship and sharing". 

These meetings appear to be organized so people from HO in GR and Burlington can travel to far away places to attend meetings that are organized around the globe.   I would far rather see our missionaries work with other LOCAL missionaries from other denominations (which I suspect they do anyway) . I get all the news releases from CRCNA and am surprised at the travel that goes on.  The if you think that the USA and Canada take in some 1,000,000 est. USA and 300,000 Canada new people every year! Japan is depopulating, Russia is depopulating;   a reasonable question is why is the CRCNA still there?

I have asked this question before.. How much does the CRCNA  HO staff spend on travel (include those trip where grants are provided because travel grants to not cover salaries) so we get a full picture of how many days people from HO are traveling around North America and the globe and the cost.