Dec 1, 2012 |
By: Nobody goes to the store and buys a grape; they come in bunches. So too, nobody sings in a choir of one or plays ping pong by herself. These things make no sense. So it is with the Christian faith. It is, by definition, a team sport. Yet there is a growing...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: In 2005, the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC), its leading body, approved “creating and sustaining healthy congregations” as a denominational priority for the following 10 years. The decision’s rationale, in part, was that achieving...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: Go to the people, live among them, learn from them, love them; start with what they know, build on what they have; but of the best leaders, when their task is done, the people will remark “We have done it ourselves.” —Chinese Proverb George...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: Youth. Where are youth going and how does it impact the foundation? What are youth telling the church? Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, by Kenda Creasy Dean. Oxford University Press, 2010.Based on the National Study...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: In Matthew 22 we read these familiar words when Jesus tells us, You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole being, and with your whole mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You must love your...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rains fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: I have always considered the teacher/leader of a church school class or small group to be the most important factor for contributing to the faith formation of those in their classes or groups. The curriculum they use is important and necessary, but it is only a...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: By now you have almost certainly heard of the “New Atheists.” Their scathing attacks on religious belief have been making headlines regularly over the last few years. While a number of writers have published books that disparage faith and endorse...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: “Who are the seven deacons of the early church?” Beep! “Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas.” “Correct, you get the point.” When I was in fourth grade, my friend and I were chosen to represent our...
Dec 1, 2011 |
By: I was sitting across from her at her kitchen table when she said it. Staring at me with eyes full of passion and a smile that expressed her excitement, she said, “We want you to do relational ministry with these kids; we want you to be incarnational because...
