January 2024
Download a full pdf of this issue below or find links to every feature, news, column, review, and Our Shared Ministry article included in this edition. Not the date you wanted? Find issues back to January 2016 here or use the search function at the top to find articles going back to 2005. To find something even older, The Banner archives are maintained at Calvin College's Hekman Library.
Features
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Every person’s journey toward healing is different. But church communities can have a significant impact on how the trauma from abuse affects a survivor.
They Disagreed Well
What the CRC Can Learn From a Standout Synodical CommitteeREAD MORECommittee 7 gave me a glimpse into a beautiful church: the Christian Reformed Church. These are people who hold a high view of Scripture and the confessions. These are people who love Jesus. They recognized that they have often failed to love as Jesus has called them to love, and by God’s grace they want to do better.
News
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A 2023-24 global partner with Princeton (N.J.) Theological Seminary’s Overseas Mission Study Center, Pastor Eric Sarwar is documenting a history of remarkable church growth in pre-and post-partition North India and Pakistan.
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All Nations Church in Lake View Terrace, Calif., hosted “Made to Belong” to equip the next generation of leaders in disability ministry in Korean American churches.
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Former executive secretary of the Council of Christian Reformed Churches in Canada, who also served for 20 years in parish ministry, Rev. Arie Van Eek died Nov. 7. He was 91.
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Christian Reformed churches meet together in regional assemblies two or three times per year. Actions of classes in the past several months include approving new ministers, recognizing retirements, establishing discernment committees and processing disaffiliation requests.
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All Nations Church in Lake View Terrace, Calif., hosted “Made to Belong” to equip the next generation of leaders in disability ministry in Korean American churches.
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From disagreements over the Christian Reformed Church's 2022 and 2023 synodical decisions on human sexuality to unsettledness over binationality, there are groups making cases for either separation or unity.
In Memoriam: Rev. Dale W. Vander Veen
1943-2023READ MORECampus pastor, preacher, pianist, organist and writer, Dale Vander Veen died Oct. 25. He was 80.
In Memoriam: Rev. John Gerrit Groen
1930-2023READ MOREA caring pastor and passionate evangelist, the ministry of John Groen, as one friend described, “centered around the truth that we are ‘dead to sin’ and ‘alive to God in Jesus Christ.’” He died Oct. 3, at age 93.
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Indigenous Christian Fellowship in Regina, Sask., remade an empty, contaminated lot into an enclosed outdoor gathering space.
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With the help of a church-funded grant, Stewards of Kleinstuck, along with volunteers from Third Christian Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Mich., planted 23 trees in a nearby preserve.
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The 10 most-accessed articles on thebanner.org between January and December 2023, in order of most views to fewer. For links and 15 more of our most popular articles from the past year, visit thebanner.org/2023-top-25.
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The 2023 fall youth retreat in Arden, Ont., attracted the largest number of teens since the retreat was started more than 20 years ago and prompted restarting local, combined youth services throughout the year.
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Seeking to help ethnic minority leaders feel less isolation and more belonging at regional assemblies of Christian Reformed churches, Thrive is rolling out the One Family Conversation project.
Columns
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La doctrina reformada sobre la claridad de las Escrituras enseña que lo que se necesita para la salvación está claro en las Escrituras. No enseña que todo en la Escritura es claro y fácil de entender.
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Once we arrived at the hospital, we were led to a large, dark, mostly empty room, where against the wall on a small rug a little Indigenous boy sat rocking back and forth. His name was Patrick, and he was 14 months old.
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The Reformed doctrine of the clarity of Scripture teaches that what is necessary for salvation is clear in Scripture. It does not teach that everything in Scripture is clear and easy to understand.
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Our telescopes create more questions than answers. But they certainly elicit a response.
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How should we read and find meaning in highly technical parts of the Bible, such as the laws presented in Leviticus or the censuses and lists of Numbers or 1 Chronicles?
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Is it OK to charge my adult children rent as a means of teaching responsibility?
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When I was first preparing to adopt 14 years ago, I cherished the idea that love was what was most needed. My heart fought back when the instructor of our pre-adoption classes warned that love is not enough.
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See how readers responded to recent Banner issues, articles, and columns.
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Should Christians support Israel no matter what it does to the Palestinians?
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God designed water to be a super dissolver! In fact, scientists call water a “universal solvent” because it can dissolve more things than any other kind of natural liquid.
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What does “going to church” have to do with being missional?
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Christian, oh Christian … What lies are you believing?
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The only way back to Eden was through death.
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성경의 명확성(clarity of Scripture)에 대한 개혁주의 교리는 구원에 필요한 것이 성경에 분명하게 기록되어 있다고 가르칩니다. 성경의 모든 내용이 분명하고 이해하기 쉽다고 가르치는 것이 아닙니다.
Our Shared Ministry
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Gratitude is the primary and default posture of serving in God’s kingdom. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy.
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After a tragic incident sent shockwaves through the Chinese-speaking community in North Carolina, ReFrame Ministries’ Chinese ministry team stepped in for support.
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Beginning in the summer of 2024, Calvin University will pilot a free academic transition program called Wayfinder in the 49507 area.
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“Probably the most difficult thing in my role is to decenter myself and to find the center in the other person and in God's work in them.”
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La gratitud es la postura principal y predeterminada al servir en el reino de Dios. Pero eso no significa que será fácil.
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Over our nearly 170-year history as a denomination, we’ve started several ministries to help us follow God’s call and serve as God’s ambassadors in the world. For those who want to know more—and those who sometimes forget which ministry does what—here is a helpful guide.
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감사는 하나님 나라를 섬기는 일차적이고 기본적인 자세입니다. 하지만 그렇다고 해서 그것이 쉬울 것이라는 뜻은 아닙니다.
