February 2020
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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Once, my mentee snuck out of our hotel in Washington, D.C., with her friends and proceeded to explore the city—without shoes on.
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Black History Month is an invitation and an opportunity to dig deeper into U.S. and Canadian history and the accomplishments of black people in North America.
News
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Students at Rehoboth (N.M.) Christian School created artwork representing happiness, peace, and friendship to share with Syrian children, who will send artwork back in exchange.
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At the “Safe Spaces” conference Nov. 16 the Safe Church Ministry partnership for the B.C. Christian Reformed churches welcomed author Jay Stringer to help ministry leaders and others face realities of sexual brokenness.
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After a year’s hiatus, a British Columbia convention for Reformed youth met in September, bringing close to 200 young people together at Willoughby Christian Reformed Church.
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First Christian Reformed Church in Bellflower, Calif., honored nine of their military veteran members Nov. 10, presenting quilts made by volunteer organization Quilts of Valor.
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Don Shaw, one of the founding members of the Christian Reformed church plant Destination Church in St. Thomas, Ont., doesn’t just listen to the friends he meets—he wonders what might happen if friends with differing needs meet one another.
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Meadowlands Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Hamilton, Ont., spread some love this fall—giving 25 people $100 each to bless the community in whatever way God led them.
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Pastor, theologian and professor, Paul Szto, died Oct. 22 in New York City. He was 95.
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Jacob Kuntz, who had a pastoral heart for people on the edge, served many Christian Reformed congregations in Ontario. He died Nov. 3 at 93.
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Bill Renkema, missionary, church planter and pastor, died Oct. 28. He had an unwavering faith and said of what he wished he could still do, “I’d tell more people about Jesus.”
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From profit-sharing farm enterprises to the recovery of non-marketable produce, organizations across the U.S. and Canada offer a Christian response to hunger.
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The senior boys’ volleyball team at Smithville (Ont.) Christian High School are 2019 Ontario champions, earning the Boys’ A title for the second time in six years.
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As a recognition of Peace Week in late November, the Sarnia-Lambton (Ont.) YMCA presented its Peace Medallion to Christian Reformed Church member Henny Drope, for 25 years of volunteer service in welcoming refugees.
Columns
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A self-described movie nerd picks five wildly divergent movies to watch for Black History Month.
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The true story of a woman whose unjust life sentence and presidential commutation made national news.
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El por qué y qué hacemos es importante, sí, pero el cómo lo hacemos también le importa a Dios.
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She deeply regretted not saying “I love you.” It was something they always did. But she hadn’t done it that one time.
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A stirring if safe biopic about the heroic slave-turned-abolitionist.
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It’d be an overstatement to say it has changed my life, but it certainly has changed the focus of my life.
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What do we do with all the promises for peace on Earth that got stirred up during the Advent and Christmas seasons?
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Jesus held his threefold office in perfect balance. We do not. In fact, we are prone to emphasize one of the offices at the expense of the other two. Each of us is lopsided. What’s worse, our lopsidedness does more than hinder our personal growth. It also causes us to discount other believers who do not share the same lopsidedness.
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I have gone from pulling weeds on Sunday to pruning back unruly shrubs and even, on occasion, to mowing the grass. After church we sometimes join friends for Sunday brunch at a restaurant. I do not wear a WWJD bracelet, but I do wonder how Jesus would react.
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He tried to say at the end that creation, like salvation, is all about grace, but it seems to me that environmental sermons are a bit fluffy and sermons instead should be about the gospel of the saving grace of Jesus
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Just as the addax was designed with special features for life in the harsh desert, we as God’s children are designed with a purpose in mind.
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When we are broken and humbled, acts of kindness convey God’s care in ways that spark and refresh our sense of being called to serve God.
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Can’t someone make commitments and keep promises to a church without being a member?
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Why and what we do matters, yes, but how we do it also matters to God.
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Her story dates back more than 350 years to the Spice Islands of the Indonesian archipelago and the wars that erupted over their control.
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물론, 우리가 왜 하는지, 무엇을 하는지도 중요하지만 어떻게 하는지 역시 하나님 앞에 중요합니다.
Our Shared Ministry
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It takes intentionality from everyone. Each leader takes responsibility for developing characteristics such as humility, good communication, respect, and trust. These variables are foundational in “wrestling through issues and supporting different opinions.”
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Five Calvin Theological Seminary professors gathered in November to speak about their recently published books.
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When I served as senior pastor in a local church, one of my favorite Sundays each year was “Friendship Sunday.”
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Cuando serví como pastor principal en una iglesia local, uno de mis domingos favoritos cada año era el "Domingo de la Amistad".
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Like Jonah, I thought I was in control, but really God let that little car swallow me up like a whale and carry me right to where I needed to be.
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“That’s the kind of impact the gospel has. It’s both immediate and eternal.”
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As the women grew older, so did their children, and soon the meetings were quieter—maybe too quiet. The women felt a need for something more.
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제가 한 교회의 담임 목사였을 때, 매년 제가 가장 좋아했던 주일은 “프렌드십 주일”이었습니다.