News

When the Grand Rapids Public Schools opened with only online learning for the first nine weeks of this academic year, First Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., decided to support students in their community with an in-person daily homework club.

Several Christian Reformed congregations in Canada, seeking to deepen understanding and relationship with the Holy Spirit, have found help from Dunamis Fellowship Canada.

When Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., installed new office bearers in June, a woman who is in a same-sex marriage was among the candidates for deacon.

On Sunday, Aug. 16, a worship team made up of members from Willoughby Christian Reformed Church in Langley, B.C., and Gateway and Living Hope CRCs in Abbotsford, B.C. shared in worship from the peak of Vedder mountain in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.

John Tong co-founded the Chinese Christian Reformed Church in Monterey Park, Calif., and served there for 25 years. Known for his love and care for the lonely, forsaken, and outcast, Tong died June 20.

The Christian Reformed Church’s Youth Ambassador Reconciliation program, geared for young adults and focusing on an Indigenous perspective, took place this year as an online event.

While closed church buildings affected the typical distribution of print material in this COVID-19 time, one northern B.C. pastor had a solution. As an avid cyclist, Joel Ringma decided to deliver the magazines himself.

Instead of singing to fans on European stages this spring and summer, singer Ann Vriend in Edmonton, Alta., is building community from her front-porch stage every Sunday afternoon.

This summer, Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich., announced receiving an $11 million gift for its Institute for Global Faculty Development. Professor Matthew Lundberg has been named the institute’s director.

A Christian Reformed pastor for 36 years, Henry Dykema, known as a good storyteller, died July 12.

Members of the Neland Stitchers group at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, in Grand Rapids, Mich., are sewing and sharing face masks for use during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Calvin University is among many schools in the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities making statements and changes this summer.

Surveying pastors in the United States in April and July, LifeWay Research found an increase in the reporting of disagreement and conflict as high pressure points in ministry.

Christian magazine Sojourners has replaced founder and president Jim Wallis as editor in chief and announced a new policy of editorial independence from the organization's advocacy work.

Neal Rylaarsdam, an approachable pastor who loved blessing others, died June 4.

Amid concerns of “how the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic crisis have continued to destroy lives and livelihood around the world,” four Christian organizations propose economic changes for consideration at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November 2020.

As community health responses to COVID-19 impose restrictions on gatherings and border crossings, three examples from Christian Reformed Churches in British Columbia show how pastors have been a ministry of presence to families needing a different kind of memorial.

Some congregations in the Christian Reformed Church are finding creative ways to maintain contact with World Renew missionaries in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and its resultant restrictions on travel.

A life-sized statue of the evangelist Billy Graham will be installed in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall collection sometime next year, replacing the statue of a former North Carolina governor described as a white supremacist.

Churches blessed with families welcoming a new baby at this time have had to consider how to enfold the new child into community.

No camp? No problem. Two Christian Reformed churches and a Christian university share how they made meaningful connections for kids this summer.

Forty-two years since the Indigenous Family Centre opened in Winnipeg, Man., an Indigenous person, Shannon Perez, will serve as director of the organization.