How can we collectively move toward the goal of becoming more like Christ, not through manipulative or authoritarian tactics, but by embodying Christ’s patience, compassion,
What Burge sees in recent data is a deepening polarization with a diminishing basis in belief.
The Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) are close but different. The RCA seems to have more
Editor’s Note: In Part I of this series, Jon Witt presented evidence that the rise of those claiming no religious affiliation is related to the
Editor’s Note: We invited Jon Witt, professor of sociology at Central College, to share research he’s done on the connection between the rise of the
The Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimates that there are at least 45,000 Christian denominations in the world, with two new ones appearing
On a Saturday afternoon late last spring, the Des Moines Gay Men’s Chorus presented a concert in our church. For most of their performance, unstoppable
It’s Holy Saturday, the day before the Big Event, also known as Easter. I am with my younger daughter, who asks me over morning coffee
I am chair of our regional synod’s Judicial Business Committee. For the uninitiated, that’s a small team of pastors and elders who handle the business
A friend of mine here in Oman wears a T-shirt with a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, “Not all who wander are lost.” One of the
These are strange times for anyone in ministry. They’re especially difficult for people in youth ministry. Andrew Root’s The End of Youth Ministry?: Why Parents
In May, 1999, Lewis B. Smedes published an essay in Perspectives titled “Like the Wideness of the Sea?” The article made quite a splash in
Who remembers church on New Years Eve? In the Black Church, Watch Night celebrated the Emancipation Proclamation.
Moore’s critics (and some defenders, too) nearly melt down Twitter after pictures surface of her serving communion in her new church.
What informs today’s White Evangelicals? Theology or Culture? Scripture or Tradition? David French explores.
Among American pastors under age 45, 46 percent have considered leaving ministry in the last year.
In October, I was a delegate to the 2021 Reformed Church in America General Synod in Tucson, Arizona. It was my 30th consecutive General Synod,
A five-minute interview from On Point: a pastor shares on the divisions, friction, and toll to his church during the past few years.
What Americans hear about social justice at church — and what they do about it. From “The Conversation.”
The American church’s obsession with numbers — and how it distorts us, from The Presbyterian Outlook
At the end of 2019, the elders of the Third Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan, and I agreed that I would retire in July, 2021.
Check out this edition of a weekly blog coming out of City Church, Long Beach. This week Bill and Brenna discuss deconstructing.
The American Protestant church is losing “elasticity” — the ability to stretch across differences. Big tents are out. Purity and homogeneity are in.
Most churches have “re-opened” now. Is the aftermath more challenging than the first months of the pandemic?
I had an experience early in 2017 that still comes back from time to time to poke my worldview, my fragile hold on “things church,”
Meeting in Tucson, Arizona, the widest decision-making body of the Reformed Church in America is on the verge of fracturing.
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles highlighting the issues facing the delegates at the 2021 RCA General Synod, which begins
Editor’s Note: This is the second of three articles in anticipation of the RCA General Synod in mid-October. Throughout the summer I conducted a series
Editor’s Note: As the Reformed Church in America’s mid-October General Synod approaches, we will be publishing a series of articles that speak to issues not
My Reformed ancestors were iconoclasts, an established fact that became existentially real to me when my family and I moved to the city of Groningen,
Have you been baptized? What does your baptism mean to you? Did you do it or was it done to you? Were you baptized as
“If I went to church, I’d go to yours.” Many times I have heard people say something like this. They intend it as a compliment,
The Reformed Church in America has adopted various slogans throughout its history. “Guilt, grace, and gratitude.” “A people who belong.” “Reformed and ever reforming.” “Transformed
They were silent as Quakers, hunched over the words of Jeremiah 31 in the church youth room. “I will put my law within them, and
Each of us has our own pandemic story that intersects somehow with our culture’s larger story; our own micro-stories written on the margins of a
On Friday, June 5, a Justice Walk took place In Orange City, Iowa. Orange City is a rural Northwest Iowa community that is predominately white,
We live in suspicious times. I wore a mask during my most recent trip to the grocery store. As I was checking out, I noticed
On March 27, the New York Times reported that although in some respects COVID-19 was uniting Americans in a common experience, it was also exposing
CRC Synod 2019 meets June 14 through 20. One topic which is likely to command a great deal of attention is that Synod will discuss
My family lived in Southern Ohio when I was between the ages of five and ten, and after trying the local Presbyterian Church for a
Those of us in this little Reformed tribe: Do we, or do we not count ourselves as Evangelicals? Since the rise of the current American
There’s a story in Mark’s gospel about how Jesus tries to get away from the crowd, only to be found by an unnamed woman. Jesus
