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Theses on Denominational Life
Posts related to life in the Christian Reformed Church (and other related thoughts).
THINKING THE FAITH: “WITHOUT RESERVATION”
“Without reservation” The church order of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in a supplement to Article 5 includes some instructions about what one should consider when signing the Covenant for Officebearers. The Covenant, for those of you who are not familiar with the CRC, is a document that office holders in the denomination are required…
BARBIE AND THE GARDEN OF EDEN: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN
The best biblical movie of the year is Barbie. An additional nod in the way of biblical movies should go to Oppenheimer. Together these summer blockbusters—they are jointly saving Hollywood—mine biblical themes to explore the human condition. They are secular sermons preaching to a secular audience truths the church too often neglects or buries under…
NOTES HERE AND THERE
As a change of pace, for this post I’ve collected a few thoughts and topics I have been thinking about. Random notes. If they coalesce at all, it’s around the thought that we live in a time of opportunity for the faith—opportunity to speak to the culture and to the church in new and compelling…
GETTING UNSTUCK: A WAY FORWARD
For the past month, we—you, my readers and I—have gotten distracted by another synod, this 2023 version of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), which doubled down on its opposition to most if not all expressions of LGBTQ+ sexuality. It’s important to keep in mind that the synod is not the church. And…
A MEDITATION ON TRUST: TRUSTING EACH OTHER IN A TIME OF DISTRUST
What you have done here by ceasing debate is incredibly harmful to what sense of trust the minority has in this body. (Cara DeHaan, from the floor of the synod of the Christian Reformed Church, June 2023) . . . [Vitalik] Buterin [founder of Ethereum and cryptocurrency theorist] argues that one of the most valuable properties…