Editor’s note: This essay came in first place by blind judging for the 2026 Young Adults Writing Contest on the topic of “Sustaining Faith.”In the summer of 2024, I interned as a grant writer at Kingdom Causes Bellflower, a community development nonprofit in Bellflower, Calif. Grant writing is not f
Editor’s note: This essay came in second place by blind judging for the 2026 Young Adults Writing Contest on the topic of “Sustaining Faith.”Has there been a time in your life when your faith was tested, when your heart was left broken, and the suffering seemed pointless? Many of us have been there
Editor’s note: This essay came in third place by blind judging for the 2026 Young Adults Writing Contest on the topic of “Sustaining Faith.”As Christians, we are often familiar with the concept of “the wilderness.” We easily see ourselves in the children of Israel, stumbling on our way toward the Pr
Editor’s note: This article won the honorable mention in this year’s Young Adult Writing Contest, sponsored by Plough Publishing House. This year’s topic was “sustaining faith.”When I started ninth grade, I expected to fit in with my peers immediately. Instead, I struggled to adjust and find my plac
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” —2 Timothy 2:2Paul, writing to his disciple Timothy, shows multiplication does not happen all at once but is passed, one person at a time. The following sto
That’s not the man I know.I remember thinking that after a prominent elder at our church was arrested for murdering his wife. When I was in high school, I had been a little hesitant to talk to someone so important. When the grisly details came to light, a secret life was exposed and a congregation w
It wasn’t Gutenberg’s press, but for almost 90 years the printing press had an outsized effect on the location and size of the Christian Reformed Church’s denominational facilities in Grand Rapids, Mich.After 50 years of publishing De Wachter (in Dutch) and The Banner (in English), the Publications
“I didn’t just lose my spouse; I didn’t just lose my marriage—I feel like I lost my church, too.” That’s the heartbreaking cry of many who’ve walked through divorce. The question we as the church must ask is, “How do we respond? How do we minister to hurting people well?”Twenty years of Christian co
“God should have a nicer house,” thought David as he admired his own upgraded cedar-built accommodations. He felt embarrassed to be living in a swanky new house while the ark of God’s presence still dwelled in a shabby little tent. After a long period of fighting battles and living on the run, David
When Synod 2025 met in June, one of its most-discussed decisions was a change in the editorial policy of The Banner. While many readers were shocked, even appalled, at the change, tussles over the balance between confessional boundaries and editorial freedom are not new. Last year’s decision is just
My wife of 49 years died about a year ago. I am often sad. But I am not going to come apart.Why?Because the story of my marriage is a subplot of the main plot of God’s story.My subplot’s chapter is closed. I am no longer married to Melanie. Yet I am still in a marriage. The grand story we’re in is a
During the past five years the CRC has invested tremendous energy in drawing clear boundary lines concerning human sexuality. We might call this “phase one” of working through the 175-page 2021 Human Sexuality Report. The report calls for much more than clarifying boundaries. Now it’s time for phase
I had traveled from Michigan to my Winnipeg hometown to help my parents move and say goodbye to the house I grew up in. My brother was hauling my childhood dresser down the driveway, where it was loaded into a stranger’s truck.“What are you doing?” I demanded hotly.“What?” He couldn’t fathom why I w
The Christian Reformed Church’s first denominational endeavors after its establishment were to publish a denominational magazine and open a theological training school, and for many years their financial fates were intertwined. The Banner of Truth (a monthly magazine in English) and De Wachter (in D
There’s so much I appreciate about the 2004 mewithoutYou album Catch for Us the Foxes that, although it's an obscure pick, I rank that sophomore release from the now-defunct, crunchy, hipster, at-one-time-Christian, post-hardcore band as my all-time favorite album.Known for its inventive instrumenta
I remember the days before each of our little ones arrived. Fresh sheets clung to the crib mattress, with soft blankets nearby. The musical mobile hung with anticipation over the place that would soon hold our little bundle. I stocked the changing table with newborn-sized diapers and laundered and f
Take my life and let it beconsecrated, Lord, to thee.Take my moments and my days;let them flow in endless praise,let them flow in endless praise.On Feb. 13 I walked through the front door of the cozy split-level home that hosted our monthly women’s book club, and I noticed the atmosphere was somber,
The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. — 2 Timothy 4:3-4As a pa
In John 7:37-39, it says:On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who
The books we read, the stories we listen to, the worlds we spend time inhabiting—these are the things that make us. Proverbs 18:15 tells us, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.” Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as saying, “I cannot remember the bo