The Banner

Music and books to enjoy yourself or to give to someone you care about.

I affirm that, indeed, God is love and that we come to know something of God through experiencing and witnessing love.

A country singer/songwriter processes her losses and traumas through the seven stages of grief.

This sweet and inspiring picture book is based on the true story of a school in India designed to teach illiterate grandmothers how to read and write.

A CRC elder from Muslim Iran reflects on how Persian poets such as Rumi have woven Jesus Christ into their art.

Because everything is so connected, each job is equally important.

With the flu season almost upon us, and predictions of tightening restrictions, how are we, the church, preparing for this Christmas season?

One hundred years ago, on Oct. 30, 1920, the Christian Reformed Church’s first missionaries to China left by ship from San Francisco.

A partnership between River City Church, a Christian Reformed congregation in Cambridge, Ont., and Trinity Centres Foundation, a group that funds and operates transformation projects, is reclaiming a historic church building.

Several reports received by the CRC’s Council of Delegates at its October meeting noted concerns of tension, stress, and struggle for pastors. The Banner talked to staff of the Pastor Church Resources ministry to find out where there is help.

Since May, several Christian Reformed ministries have united to send checks to churches disproportionately affected by the virus, shutdowns, and recession.

Obviously, church is much more than a building.

When the Great Depression takes almost everything they own, Ellie’s family is forced to leave their home in town and start over in the untamed forests of Echo Mountain.

Catchy, up-tempo pop tunes and ballads invite the listener to move closer to Jesus.

A superb narrator enhances this audiobook of the #1 New York Times bestseller about light-skinned Black twins and the divergent pathways they take.

A pastor and professor committed to a Kingdom-focused world-and-life view that proclaims the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every sphere of life, John Vander Stelt died Sept. 19.

One seldom hears or reads a news story without reference to a robust debate on some issue.

See how readers responded to recent Banner issues, articles, and columns.

Faith formation is more than just acquiring knowledge. It is about transformation.

My pastor-friend and his congregation have separated. But from the outside looking in, it seems to me that the process toward him, even from the Classis level, was unreasonable, punitive, and unkind.

A New York Times music critic offers “one of the most helpful podcasts for Christians to understand culture.”

Jenna Bush Hager lost three out of four grandparents—including former president George H. W. Bush—in 13 months. Here she remembers and grieves.

A British dystopian science fiction anthology television series examines the unanticipated consequences of new technologies.