On a Tuesday evening in Bellingham, Wash., the Bucket Boys—a band of friends from First Christian Reformed Church in Lynden, Wash., with additional community volunteers—distribute peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, socks, and bottles of water from five-gallon pails slung over their arms. It’s a wee
In the 2024 denomination survey, fewer than 30% of respondents (28.1%) selected “justice-seeking” as one of the top phrases to complete the sentence, “To me, the term ‘Christian Reformed’ means....” In 2023, 32.2% of respondents selected this term, and 32.9% did in 2022. The rest of the top 12 were
Amanda DeWeerd of Stratford (Ont.) Christian Reformed Church organized a regional training for GEMS—Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior, the ministry for girls offered in many CRCs—on Oct. 19. Leaders from 13 GEMS groups attended the event, along with GEMS executive director Wendy Hammond.DeWeerd, w
Two or three times each year, Christian Reformed churches each send representatives to its classes, a regional assembly of churches.Many of the actions taken by classes are governed by the CRC’s Church Order, the rules that govern denominational life. Here are some of the actions by classes in the p
The Banner has a subscription to republish articles from Religion News Service. This story by Genevieve Charles was published Oct 11, 2024 on religionnews.com. It has been edited for length and Banner style. The final paragraph, with context for the Christian Reformed Church, has been added.“I’m Exh
Jake Heerema, whose passion was being Jesus to everyone he met, was an ordinary man through whom the Lord did extraordinary things. “He was kind and would go out of his way to connect with people that most of us would overlook,” said his daughter. “Jake was a wonderful, caring brother in Christ,” sa
The second Pursuit Conference in Oshawa, Ont., on Oct. 26 started with the vision of one young man and his concern for young adults trying to navigate their way in a post-Christian culture.Adam Hoogsteen, 35, an elder and worship leader at Discovery Christian Reformed Church in Bowmanville, Ont., de
After a summer of discernment by a presidential search committee of 16 headed by trustee Perrin Rynders and including alumni, staff and administration, faculty, and student and denominational representation, Calvin University’s board of trustees announced its new president Oct. 21. Greg Elzinga, the
The Banner has a subscription to republish articles from Religion News Service. This story by Bob Smietana was published Oct. 17, 2024 on religionnews.com. It has been edited for length and Banner style. The final paragraph, with context for the Christian Reformed Church, has been added.On Oct. 13 w
For part of the time of the Oct. 16-18 meetings of the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates, the U.S. and Canada Ministry Boards met individually to cover their own more operational agendas specific to ministry in each country.The Council of Delegates is the ecclesiastical governance boa
Meeting Oct. 16-18 at Cascade Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., the denomination’s Council of Delegates welcomed new members, discussed the One Family Conversation approach to classis leadership, received updates on tasks from synod, appointed a new director of ecclesiasti
Based on experiences from Synod 2022 and 2024 the Council of Delegates of the Christian Reformed Church approved starting Synod 2025 and future synods with a virtual convening to elect officers. A proposal for this change presented at the October 2024 meeting of the Council of Delegates noted “the e
On Oct. 18 the Christian Reformed Church's Council of Delegates interviewed and appointed Joel Vande Werken, 49, as the denomination’s first director of ecclesiastical governance, a role that replaces the previous director of synodical services position. Vande Werken served as temporary associate di
“Here's some good news!” announced the stated clerk of Classis Hamilton in a mid-September email sharing an invitation from Hagersville Community Christian Reformed Church. The small, aging congregation with a weekly attendance between 25 and 35 was celebrating “the blessing of our new location”—a 1
Norman Jones was a humble man who served for God’s glory, not his own. He came to the Christian Reformed Church in his retirement years, having first been ordained in the Calvinistic Methodist Church of Wales and later served in the United Church of Canada. Norman, 93, died Sept. 25.Born and raised
The Banner has a subscription to republish articles from Religion News Service. This story by Adelle M. Banks was published Oct. 10, 2024 on religionnews.com.After 10 years of leading the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, Shirley Hoogstra has a new title: president emerita.One of her
After two hurricanes hit their region only 15 days apart, members of Bradenton (Fla.) Christian Reformed Church are cleaning up and thanking God for his protection.On Sept. 24, a 5- to 7-foot storm surge from Hurricane Helene flooded homes on Anna Maria Island (near Bradenton) and filled them with s
The Church Order Review Task Force in its report to Synod 2024 noted some big changes in the ways pastors in the Christian Reformed Church serve the denomination. The number of ministers of the Word serving outside of congregational ministry in 2023 is more than nine times greater than in 1950. Here
Emmaus City Church in Worcester, Mass., is in its second round of Surge School, an eight-month discipleship and spiritual transformation program that empowers people of all stages of Christian faith to seek shalom in every area of their lives.Emmaus City, led by commissioned pastor Mike Sullivan, wa
Bridge Church in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., celebrated moving its worship services to the gymnasium of Fort Saskatchewan Christian School in September, a step toward community-engaged ministry from a future site called the Bridge Commons. The first phase of construction for the five-year-old church p