Shannon Jammal-Hollemans
Rev. Shannon Jammal-Hollemans serves as Racial Justice Team Leader for two ministries of the Christian Reformed Church: the Office of Social Justice and the Office of Race Relations. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Grand Valley State University (Allendale, Michigan) and her Master of Divinity at Calvin Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids, Michigan). She is ordained to her position by Oakdale Park Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Posted in: The Beautiful Mess of a Multigenerational Church
Thank you for sharing this, Jill. Your thoughts beautifully echo my experiences in an intergenerational church. We have so much to learn from each other, and there are so many ways that we can encourage each other. I think God teaches us best through our relationships with one another.
Posted in: Two ‘Back to School’ Ways to Encourage Children at Church
I love these ideas, Karen. Thanks for sharing them! I was just thinking last night about how to encourage my kids as one of them is going back to school next week. I was thinking of having a "prayer meal" where everyone has the opportunity to talk about what makes them anxious or sad about going back to school, and what makes them happy or excited about going back to school during dinner, and afterward we take some time to pray about them for each other.
Posted in: Are Millennials Looking Outside the Church to Serve?
Thanks for posting this, Staci! You bring up a lot of really good questions for those of us who love the church, and want to see youth be an integral part of it. A few years ago, as I started work on a project for the denomination that wrestled with this very question (it was called LEAP), a colleague told me that we need to start with how we think and talk about youth in the church. "Youth are not the future of the church," he told me, "they are the church." It has struck me since then that this is where we need to start. When we have conversations in our congregations about increasing youth engagement, we tend to talk about them like they aren't already there. That couldn't be farther from the truth.
For the LEAP project, we did some research and found that young people returning from mission trips in high school and college would love to be plugged in at their church afterwards, but don't know how. Congregations want to increase their engagement, but they don't know how to do it, either. So we tested a model where young adults could serve as a paid intern in their churches for anywhere from 3-12 months. During this time, young people were equipped and encouraged to continue their learning, to grow under a mentor, and to challenge their congregation to grow in their engagement of mission, community development, and justice issues.
We learned that both young adults and congregations appreciated this model. We are hoping to develop it into something that the denomination can offer small grants to congregations to try this model in their community. Stay tuned!
Posted in: Are Millennials Looking Outside the Church to Serve?
Good questions, Staci. The position descriptions were shaped by the gifts of the young adults, and the needs of the congregation. For some, it meant continuing their education on issues surrounding immigration, cross-cultural and urban ministry by participating in trainings to become a workshop facilitator (i.e. Church Between Borders and the Dance of Racial Reconciliation). Most interns worked to raise awareness and educate about issues of justice in their church community by speaking to different church groups and planning intergenerational service projects. The mentors met with interns weekly, ideally. They were church elders, pastors, and ministry leaders--all people with experience ministering in the congregation who were able to support and encourage the interns as they served and learned.
Posted in: Where Are the Women at Synod?
Thanks for posting this, Staci. In going through the Agenda, it looks like there will be 44 women delegates to Synod this year, roughly 23% of the delegates, which I am guessing is a record. Since 25 of the women delegates are deacons, it seems that the change we made last year to seat deacons at Synod certainly has made an impact. Rev. Chelsey Harmon is the only woman serving as a Minister delegate, but I know that there are women filling the "Other" slot who are ordained.
I am hopeful that some day soon we will not need advisors to Synod in any category, but the slots we fill with delegates to Synod will be more representative of our congregations by including the people of color, women, and young adults in our pews.
Posted in: “But It Wasn’t That Bad”: Confronting Rationalization and Denial
Thank you, Monica, for another really thoughtful piece on cultivating a church culture of grace. We can be so dismissive of each other's pain at times, that we fail to reflect the fact that we are part of God's Kingdom. So often people walk away from the Church because of what we didn't do, namely, having the courage to stand up for and protect each other, but that is where we find the abundant life in Christ that you write about--when we are Christ to each other. Well said.
Posted in: When Is It "OK" to Leave?
This is really beautiful, and bravely written. Thank you for sharing. When I was in Seminary, we were taught that divorce is "the murder of a marriage". I believe that when one spouse abuses the other, they have already "murdered the marriage" by failing to fulfill their vows. In cases of emotional and physical abuse, where the one who abuses will not change the that way God (and the Church) asks, filing for divorce is more about "pulling out the knife" so that the wounds can begin to heal.
Posted in: Prayers for the Unfaithful
Those are great questions, Mavis! I think similar situations are found in congregations across both the U.S. and Canada.
Congregations can't be expected to serve people like they are consumers and the church is a business. And people definitely place a lot of expectations on pastors to do the work that elders and others in the church are also called to do. So, how do we as congregations cultivate the kinds of communities where people know they belong and are needed, where everyone feels called and equipped to serve?
Last fall, Bob and Laura Keeley wrote an article about what they call the "Building Blocks of Faith." In it, they assert that people have four basic needs from their congregations: to find belonging, to know and understand God, a sense of calling and equipping, and hope. Many churches have used these four building blocks to look at the different groups in their churches to see how they are doing in each of these areas (for example, do senior citizens in our congregation feel called and equipped for ministry? do children find a sense of hope here? do youth feel like they belong?). It's a really interesting way to look at our ministries, and to help us figure out where there are gaps.
But as you point out, the burden does not all rest on the Church here. People need to commit to being part of church communities, in times when people disappoint them and maybe even infuriate them, because we recognize that we all belong to one body--the body of Christ--where we can't easily write each other off.
Syd Hielema and Mike Johnson, from Faith Formation Ministries, lead great workshops on how we can cultivate church cultures where people feel safe to express their vulnerabilities and needs, and are empowered to serve in ministry.
Posted in: Reclaiming Christmas for Abuse Survivors (Part 1): Leaning into Suffering
"the experience of Christmas is a bittersweet longing for hope"
This is a really beautiful meditation, Monica, with so much truth. I look forward to part two. Thanks for sharing.
Posted in: Reclaiming Christmas for Abuse Survivors (Part 1): Leaning into Suffering
I LOVE that, Bonnie. What a great illustration of the incarnation!
Posted in: Change the Conversation About Immigrants in the U.S.
I am so grateful that the CRC is leading this campaign! It is time for Christians to make their voices heard in national and local conversations about immigration.
Posted in: Can We Learn From Justin Bieber's Philosophy on Christians and Church?
This is a great piece. It touches on issues that a lot of young people today have with the Church, and gets people thinking about why its important. My kids are tweens and teens, and we talked about Bieber's "taco" comment once already. I think I will use this for our family's devotions one night this weekend. Thanks for writing it, Staci!