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What I Learned from the Better Together Convening of Concerned Congregations

When I think about church ministry, I think about disaffiliation. At council meetings, we attend to the details of disaffiliation. When I gather with other pastors, we give updates on our disaffiliation process. If you’re a regular reader of the Reformed Journal, you’ve read quite a bit about Synodical decisions and disaffiliation over the last few months. None of this is what I originally wanted for myself or for the church, so I also get angry about disaffiliation and about…
October 21, 2024
Featured Articles
Featured

Make Truth Great Again

We face significant barriers if we can’t agree on the fundamentals of knowledge. Perhaps when (and if) the lair of liars is removed from media’s mainstream and extracted from public consciousness, we could begin to talk to each other again. But it is also possible that the damage has already been done. We have built the permission structures to allow truth to lose its meaning. But as Christians we must be truth-tellers above all else. In so doing we can…
Featured
October 7, 2024

What Doesn’t Kill You

Liminal spaces stink. They just do. No matter how much you squint you can’t see through the fog. But the more you take care of yourself, the more gratitude you have for being alive for another day. The truth is life isn’t always about thriving, it’s often about surviving.
Featured
September 30, 2024

Living in Disconnection: Sin, Shame, Trauma, and Healing What’s Within

Exploring our wounds is not merely a therapeutic exercise. It’s a theological exercise. If disconnection is the essence of trauma, then we’re invited to explore what our own lives look like - and the shared life of our churches and communities – when lived within the traumatic conditions of our exile from Eden.
Featured
September 23, 2024

Jack

I’ve been ruminating lately on the rejections, absurdities, and moments of grace that could make someone a poet. What forces send a person into this difficult art, where anonymity is assured and financial reward all but nonexistent? How does the stuff of life become this particular craft?
Featured
September 16, 2024

Going to Graceland (Again)

The takeaway is that the elder Paul Simon, the great music man of his time (move over, Bob), though now gray, half deaf, and of raspy voice, professes the mystery and allure of beauty amid the perplexing mystery of the human capacity to relish, exult, know, and express. Throughout Seven Psalms, in multiple forms ranging from chant to song story, Simon meditates on the strangeness of the reign (or rain) of the marvel of being alive in this resplendent cosmos.
Featured
September 9, 2024

For this Reformed Christian, Trump is an antichrist. Let me tell you why.

Trump is an antichrist because he seeks to put himself in the place of Christ and because his words and actions are a grotesque and demonic travesty of the real Christ. But there is a further reason that he is an antichrist: There are people, including Reformed Christians, who embrace him as their supposed Messiah, even if they do not all seem to be fully aware that they are doing so. Without their support – their discipleship – Trump would…
Featured
September 2, 2024

Seeking Justice in Schools: A Christian Call to Pursue Educational Equity

How did we get to a point wherein significant educational inequities – injustices – seem intractable? And why aren’t Christians shouting from the rooftops about it? Why doesn’t educational injustice seem to make the list of our primary concerns? Or maybe even our secondary concerns?

Latest from the Blog

Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.

  • Late Night with Jesus
    When I was six years old, my father offered me a dollar to stop talking, and he was the second kindest man I ever met. 
    October 22, 2024 Angela Townsend
  • Not Another Reboot
    It’s hard not to notice all the reboots in our popular culture. Sequels, prequels, origin stories, and updates to books,...
    October 21, 2024 Rebecca Koerselman
  • Thresholds
    I am writing this at midnight on my 29th birthday. October always stirs up bittersweetness for me. I grieve for...
    October 20, 2024 Alyssa Muehmel
  • I Got a Sunburned Nose for Kamala
    Kamala will bring “no drama mama energy” to the White House. “We are not going back!” (The crowd loves this one, of course—we chant it briefly.) Litany of issues we care about, importance of youth, we have to go forward, and of course a call to action. Yay!
    October 19, 2024 Debra Rienstra
  • Another Immigrant from Springfield, Ohio
    My grandparents contributed three builders, three farmers, a Calvin Seminary grad, a nurse, and an artist to this country’s economy, just in the first generation. 
    October 18, 2024 Linda Engelhard
  • One Thing
    The deeper injustice --the wealthy cumulatively and mostly caused the crisis and resist using their power and agency to fix the crisis.
    October 17, 2024 Tim Van Deelen
  • A Pilgrimage and a Resurrection
    In Norway there are nine different pilgrimage routes that converge on Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.
    October 16, 2024 David Hoekema
  • Outside the Walls
    I honestly don’t know that institutions are places we are meant to seek belonging, at least not an uncomplicated belonging.
    October 15, 2024 Bethany Cok

Poetry

Poetry
October 15, 2024

The Writer

Half-court. Dad said our perch from steep bleachers allowed us a good view of the players.
Poetry
October 8, 2024

Let the Party Begin

It's not always easy to carry good wishes and admiration in a see-through bag ...
Poetry
October 1, 2024

After the Thirteen Shock Treatment

I asked for two fried egg sandwiches and a blueberry milkshake. I got soup.
Poetry
September 17, 2024

What Depths I Pass Through Unknowing

Along our route to the sea laps low ...
Poetry
September 10, 2024

Setting Flagstones

First I place them in a line atop a narrow path along the side of the house ...
Poetry
September 3, 2024

God

So much depends upon a baby ...

Latest Podcasts

Podcast
October 15, 2024

“The Writer” by Olga Dugan

In this episode of the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Olga Dugan about her poem “The Writer.” Olga Dugan is a Cave Canem poet. Nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes, her award-winning poems appear in many literary journals and anthologies including Ekstasis, Spirit Fire Review, Relief: A Journal of Art and Faith, The Windhover, Agape Review, ONE ART, Litmosphere (forthcoming), The Write Launch, Ariel Chart, The Sunlight Press, Emerge, Kweli, Sky Island Journal, evolution: The Red Moon…
Podcast
October 1, 2024

“After the Thirteenth Shock Treatment” by Jack Ridl

In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Jack Ridl about his poem “After the Thirteenth Shock Treatment.” Ridl is an American poet and former professor of English at Hope College. He is the author of several collections of poetry, has published more than 300 poems in journals, and has work included in numerous anthologies. You can read the poem on at Reformed Journal.
Podcast
September 17, 2024

“What Depths I Pass Through Unknowing” by Katherine Indermaur

In this episode of the poetry edition of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma interviews Katherine Indermaur about her poem “What Depths I Pass Through Unknowing.” Katherine is the author of I|I (Seneca Review Books), winner of the 2022 Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize and 2023 Colorado Prize for Poetry, and two chapbooks. She is an editor for Sugar House Review. Her writing has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, Frontier Poetry, New Delta Review, Ninth Letter, the Normal School, and elsewhere. She lives in Fort Collins,…
Podcast
September 10, 2024

“Setting Flagstones” by Paul J. Willis

In this episode of the poetry edition of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma interviews Paul J. Willis about his poem “Setting Flagstones.” Paul is Professor Emeritus of English at Westmont College and a former poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California. Paul has published eight collections of poetry and the most recent is entitled Losing Streak, which was published this year. You can read the poem at Reformed Journal.
Podcast
September 3, 2024

“God” by D.A. Cooper

In this episode of the poetry edition of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma interviews D.A. Cooper about his poem “God.” Cooper is a husband and father of three children. He lives in Houston, Texas where he teaches political science and the Italian language at a local community college. He is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. You can read the poem at Reformed Journal.
Podcast
August 27, 2024

“The Woman at the Well Would Pay Any Price” by Matthew Miller

In this episode of the poetry edition of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma interviews Matthew Miller about hos poem “The Woman at the Well Would Pay Any Price.” Matthew teaches social studies, swings tennis rackets, and writes poetry - all hoping to create home. He and his wife live beside a dilapidating orchard in Indiana, where he tries to cut paths through the thorns for their four sons to hike through. His poetry has been featured in Whale Road Review,…