It’s common to speak of Luke’s Gospel as showing that God has a special preference for the poor, but it’s worth noting that Jesus is not saying this to the greedy brother who won’t divide the inheritance. He’s saying it to the greedy brother who's comparatively poor. In my own experience, some of the greediest people I’ve met have been the poorest...
The highway lays before me, curving off to the left over the bridge and I am nine years old, bringing my Schwinn Stingray bike to a sudden halt as I round the base of the hill. Slightly to the left of me is a red Honda 70. A blanket lies over a mound stretched across the centerline and perpendicular to the road. I notice the...
Are the Office of Social Justice, the Synod of the CRC, and other official organs of the CRCNA — whether intentionally or not — attempting to define Christianity in a way that excludes conservative political and economic views?
What do you think about the article "The Crisis of the American Intellectual" by Walter Russell Mead? Thoughts on how this impacts what we do as clergy generally and on the CRCNA in particular?
The church CANNOT make decisions outside its proper sphere, for outside its proper sphere it has no authority to make decisions. The Church cannot and does not decide what the nation's economic...
I find it strange that Dr. Boot should object to Synod debating the question before it - which was whether or not the Belhar should be adopted as a confession ("The debate was almost entirely...
It is provocative. I find it difficult, however, to square with the doctrine of total depravity. If everyone is morally ill - and it would seem that the Bible does teach just that - defining a...
Amen.
I prefer "Commissioned Pastor" to "Ministry Associate" or, frankly, "Evangelist". The last does not encompass all that those so ordained actually do and the one just departed ("...
What constitutes legitimacy in this context?
As for the various documents you mention, go ahead on - refer them to the EIRC to ask they be considered for inclusion, or see if your council...
Sounds like a distinction also made in the military among different officers.
There are officers who go through school (Academy, ROTC, or some other college program followed by OCS) who...
That depends on who is doing the constraining. Since the Belhar is in many ways a political document, I think it is appropriate to understand that statement in such a light. It is little...
Aaron V. - For what it's worth, Back to God Ministries are not at 2850 K-zoo in G.Rapids. They're in Palos Heights, IL.
Wonder if there's a connection between that fact and their relative...
It would be a whole lot easier to move the church forward if we could be certain about which direction is "forward".
And therein lies the pain of the original compromise. Synod essentially...
The confessional crisis is, in fact, a crisis of identity. Although ostensibly a confessional church from its inception, since the immigration to the U.S. (and later Canada) the CRCNA has defined...