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Sick of God’s Name, and Using It Less: My Boss, the Van, the Bird, and Ron DeSantis

January 23, 2023
When football teams brag that God gave them the win, when musical artists sing about drinking and sex and then win an award and point to the heavens and thank Jesus, when people put silver fish on their cars amid bumper stickers about God and guns . . . I’m sick of all of it. Sick of tee-shirts with bloody images of Jesus on his cross and yards signs declaring Jesus is Lord of our county. Even Christian music, all…
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Featured

The White Conservative (Mis)Appropriation of Martin Luther King

Dr. King, the brightest light of the Civil Rights Movement, the descendant of enslaved people, is being appropriated by white conservatives for purposes which, if you peel back all the layers of rhetoric, are ultimately racist. On this day, of all days, it is time to repudiate this, in Ottawa County and beyond.
Featured
January 9, 2023

The Particular Sainthood of Eugene Peterson: My Recollections

Eugene was far more comfortable with ambiguity than most hometown believers I knew back then, and he generally assumed (a presumption many interpreted as naïve) that people of goodwill could arrive at vastly different conclusions but still, awkwardly perhaps, learn to live together.
James Schaap 7
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Featured
January 2, 2023

A Dark and Stormy Night: Drama on the Sea of Galilee

We need the stories of the Gospels more than ever as our churches bicker and break apart. We need to walk with Jesus and to hear his teaching. We need to know what love looks like, how to face the empires of our day, how to resist evil non-violently. Jesus is the Word of God written by the finger of God on the tablet of the earth. The acts of Jesus are our commandments and guide to the abundant life.
Tom Boogaart
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Featured
December 26, 2022

Gramps Walked with a Limp

Gramps should have known that there are some things you really can leave behind. Stale, smelly salmon, for one. Like you can leave behind shame, when fresh starts are possible. The latter took him years, forged by the forgiving love of his good wife, and the welcoming Gospel message he heard at their small Lutheran church. It was the hospitable warmth of the Gospel that drew him closer to Jesus and offered a way to leave shame in the past.…
Dave Larsen
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Featured
December 19, 2022

Two Responses to “The Church of Jesus in 2047”

Syd Hielema’s portrait of the future church a quarter century from now ends with the “NBY” expression of the emerging community around the Table celebrating the ancient practice of the church, the Eucharist. That’s a picture infused with hope. Even now, in a time when there’s an incarnational yearning to experience the integration of spiritual and material reality, and when participation in the self-giving love of God invites us into the transformation of all life, the Table centers us.  We…
Wes Granberg-Michaelson and Jason Lief
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Featured
December 12, 2022

The Church of Jesus in 2047: Life After the Decade from Hell

The NBY network also refer to themselves as “The Includers;” welcoming all into their fellowship; experiencing deep belonging is their highest value. They are Generation INC. They do not ground themselves in a statement of beliefs, but rather, in a set of values which they intentionally seek to embody together.
Syd Hielema
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FeaturedMemoir
December 5, 2022

Curiosity and How Listening and Learning Transformed My Life in Ministry

The more I listened, the less I injected my answers, and the more my empathic imagination began to grow. I had learned in seminary that “theology is application” (thank you John Frame), and that my theology “should be a home and not a prison” (thank you Richard Pratt), but it took years of listening to stories before I could actually be faithful to that training.   
Fred Harrell
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Latest from the Blog

Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.

  • Singing to See
    Why do we praise God? If you follow the psalm further, we read that “splendour and majesty are before him.” God already has all the strength and glory and honour. We can’t add to it or take away from it. He doesn’t need to be puffed up or encouraged or
    January 26, 2023 Laura de Jong
  • Mausoleum versus Obelisk
    The mausoleum dominates the space, but there’s that little white obelisk to the right and behind. Here lies C.W. Post and there lies Sojourner Truth.
    January 25, 2023 Al Schipper
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Opacity
    If you are Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, or a writer for Saturday Night Live, George Santos is your meal ticket...
    January 24, 2023 Scott Hoezee
  • Sometimes My God Seems Too Large
    God: sometimes you seem too large, so far away, so much more unimaginable than the God in cummings' poem.
    January 23, 2023 David Schelhaas
  • Holiday Memories
    There, off of Main Street, was a Chinese restaurant we would always go to for lunch. They had placemats on the tables that showed all of the Chinese Zodiac symbols and list of years.
    January 22, 2023 Thomas Goodhart
  • Chaptering Our Lives
    Best-selling memoirs tend to tell big, dramatic stories—getting sober, the messy divorce, the cancer diagnosis, the series of lovers, living through war, recovering from abuse, the woes of being famous. For most of us, the challenge is to perceive the contours of our ordinary lives lived on smaller, more private
    January 21, 2023 Debra Rienstra
  • In its own way
    Come January, what you’ve got to work with here is a snowy quilt, occasional azure up above, dusky grasses the...
    January 20, 2023 James C. Schaap
  • Hammer
    Mr. Aukeman was a builder and he hired me during summers to help build houses. It was among the most singularly valuable experiences I’ve ever had. I am forever grateful.
    January 19, 2023 Tim Van Deelen

Poetry

Poetry
January 24, 2023

Garden (Metaphysicals I)

This world is a garden fearfully made ...
D.S. Martin 3
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Poetry
January 17, 2023

The Soul of My Cat

The soul of my cat in the rise and fall of her breathing ...
Sara Kyoungah White 0
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Poetry
January 10, 2023

Did I Know?

Did I know, setting out, anything other than one foot after the other on this rocky landscape of twisted ankles and slithering snakes hiding?
Nancy Huggett 0
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Poetry
January 3, 2023

The Prism of Neat

Friendship is a reciprocal relationship characterized by intimacy ...
Micah L. McCreary
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Poetry
December 27, 2022

The Uncomfortable

This place is flushed with a friendly light on Sunday evenings when the days grow short, but not on this Lord's Day morning.
Calvin VanErgens
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Poetry
December 27, 2022

Failure and Saving Faith

I said I wouldn't do it, so how does it happen on a Sunday we took communion that I find myself staring at a glowing, naked image?
Calvin VanErgens
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Latest Podcasts

Podcast
January 24, 2023

Metaphysical Poems by D.S. Martin

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews D.S. Martin about his poems inspired by John Donne's 19 Holy Sonnets. These poems will appear on the 4th Tuesday of each month on The Reformed Journal Podcast. They discuss “Garden,” the first poem in this series. Don is a widely published poet and the Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College. He's also a series editor for the Poiema Poetry Series.
Rose Postma 0
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Podcast
January 17, 2023

“The Soul of my Cat” by Sara Kyoungah White

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Sara Kyoungah White about her poem “The Soul of my Cat.” Sara is a writer and an edtior, whose articles, essays, and poems have appeared in publications like Christianity Today, Ekstasis, and The Banner. She has a BA in English Literature from Cornell University and currently serves on staff with the Lausanne Movement as senior editor and content strategist. You can find her work at https://sarakyoungah.com/.
Rose Postma 0
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Podcast
January 10, 2023

“Did I Know” by Nancy Huggett

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Nancy Huggett about her poem, “Did I Know.” Nancy is a writer, caregiver, and settler descendant who lives in Ottawa, Canada on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people.
Rose Postma 0
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Podcast
January 3, 2023

“The Prism of Neat” by Micah L. McCreary

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Rev. Dr. Micah McCreary about his poem “The Prism of Neat,” a poem used as a eulogy for Anitra. Micah is the current president of New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He is also an author, as well as a licensed psychologist. He is married to Rev. Dr. Jacqueline E. Madison-McCreary, whom he has one daughter with.
Rose Postma
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Podcast
December 27, 2022

“The Uncomfortable” by Calvin VanErgens

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Derek Kuyper about his poem “The Uncomfortable.” Derek Kuyper is the creator of Calvin VanErgens, who tells the made-up stories of people from a church that may or may not look a bit like yours.
Rose Postma
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Podcast
December 20, 2022

“Mary Cradles Her Child” by Matthew J. Andrews

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Matthew J. Andrews about his poem “Mary Cradles Her Child.” Matthew is a private investigator and writer. He is the author of the chapbook I Close My Eyes and I Almost Remember, and his poetry has appeared in Rust + Moth, Pithead Chapel, and EcoTheo Review, among others. He can be contacted at matthewjandrews.com.
Rose Postma
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