Isolation has crept in slowly—first through busyness, then through screens, and now through habits we don’t even question. It’s not just sad—it’s spiritually dangerous.
Columns
Read our regular columns on Faith Matters, Big Questions, Christian apologetics, Shiao Chong's monthly Editorial, the Discover page (especially for kids), the Vantage Point, the Other Six, and letters from Christian Reformed Church members and our readers. Our online-only columns are As I Was Saying and Behind the Banner.
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Healing is not linear; neither is grief.
Being Your Denominational Magazine
Responding to Synod 2025’s Banner decisionsREAD MOREMuch of the Christian Reformed Church’s mandate to The Banner, established in 2015, hasn’t changed, but here’s what has and what you can expect to read and not to read because of that.
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Christianity isn’t American or Ghanaian or Chinese.
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Assuming the driver had seen me, I pulled past the exit just as she drove onto the road, right into my path.
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As popular as it is, few people seem to know or even care about the origin and authorship of the Serenity Prayer.
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We were determined to find the ducks that were quacking in the middle of the forest. But that’s not what we found.
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Power-over is coercive, controlling, and manipulative. Power-with is collaborative and authoritative.
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We need not a new approach, but a return to the ordinary tools by which Christ has always formed his people.
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As I write this article, I’m wearing the handmade friendship bracelet Maddi gave me. She made it herself. She even tied it on my wrist for me. It’s been with me ever since.
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We must demand accountability for those who have been notified of abuse allegations, only to rationalize, cover up, and even deny them.
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You make one decision for biblical reasons, but then you might run into some contradictions.
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The purpose of church discipline is to restore to Christ those who are sinning.
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Do we choose God or does God choose us? Admittedly, there are Bible passages to support both.
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My parents need more support, but my siblings don’t want to help. How can I get them to step up and honor their father and mother?
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See how readers responded to recent Banner issues, articles, and columns.
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My lifelong Christian identity meant patriarchal Abraham had been my spiritual father. But now I realized l also had a genetic connection to him.
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While our national discourse rightfully condemns Islamophobia and antisemitism, the systematic persecution of Christians around the world receives only a fraction of our collective outrage.
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I need to spend more time on Bible study. Is there a best way to do that?
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Whatever it is you want to do someday—whatever it is, go home and do it today.
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How do these two things connect?
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It means a whole lot to us who are left behind if you take care of things beforehand.
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It was so natural to spoon nourishment into the mouth of a toddler. It was so strange to spoon food into the mouth of a 90-year-old man.
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Gravity is easy to observe and to measure, but we still don’t fully understand why it works the way it does.