A team of students from Chatham (Ont.) Christian High School accompanied Pastor Nate Van Denend of First CRC in Chatham to lead worship as Synod 2025 commenced.

A May classis meeting that saw 10 churches disaffiliate and more than 50 pastors leave the denomination also included unified worship that was “like an embrace within the departure.”

The supplement to the Agenda for Synod 2025 includes a Gather Initiative report, a new overture, updates from the Council of Delegates, and several comments on material already on the agenda.

Christian leaders stress that the council and its anniversary still have relevance in the modern day, despite theological divides.

Classis meetings throughout the spring have included the disaffiliation of 16 congregations, the release of 56 ministers of the Word, and the approval of eight commissioned pastors, four ministers, and two new organized congregations.

A chaplain who brought a sense of peace and comfort to patients and fellow chaplains alike, Marj Kooy died April 17. She was 75.

Nate Van Denend, pastor of First Christian Reformed Church in Chatham, Ont., welcomed the online assembly of Synod 2025 as pastor of the gathering’s host church.

Championing a Honduran coffee co-op, Roy Heerema arranged to bring along more than 50 pounds to the May Council of Delegates meeting.

Jerome and Ella Mae Cupido, members of West End Christian Reformed Church in Edmonton, Alta., are manufacturing hand-fed balers in Kenya, using “gifts of invention and craftsmanship not just for our own benefit but to benefit others.”

On a Tuesday evening in early April, an audience sat enraptured in Princeton Theological Seminary’s dining hall as, one by one, adults in their 20s walked up to a platform, took the microphone and shared a story.

The delegates to Synod 2025 of the Christian Reformed Church in North America elected four pastors as officers to this year’s meeting: two who served Synod 2024 and two first-time officers.

Since 1997 the Crossroads Community Ministries arm of Madison Avenue CRC in Paterson, N.J., has operated discipleship houses for residential-based recovery and transformation.

A GEMS Club in Kenya received notes and handmade gifts from Friendship Christian Reformed Church’s GEMS Club in Byron Centre, Mich.

Check out the numbers for this year’s agenda.

A little more than a month before synod convenes in Ancaster, Ont., the Council of Delegates of the Christian Reformed Church has finalized several things to include in its supplement to the agenda.

Cuts to Resonate Global Mission’s budget, in line with decreased revenue from ministry share giving, is prompting a deep look at the funding model for the vital function of church planting.

The Council of Delegates of the Christian Reformed Church in North America heard an interim report from its task force to tackle synod funding and governance cost.

Adopting a Statement of Appreciation for the Bi-Nationality of the CRCNA was one of the items on the agenda of the U.S. Ministry Board of the Christian Reformed Church as it met May 8.

The Banner is grateful for 2024 professional recognition: Awards of Merit from both the Evangelical Press Association and the Associated Church Press for TheBanner.org; an Award of Excellence in Convention/Meeting Coverage from the ACP; and nine other awards in various categories.

The CRC maintains a relationship of churches in communion with 23 denominations and of churches in cooperation with 21 denominations/partners.

After a formal act of repentance to its classis, Emmanuel Christian Reformed Church in Calgary, Alta., was removed from limited suspension in March. But 54% of voting congregants had voted for disaffiliation.

Chelwood Christian Reformed Church in Albuquerque, N.M., its local elementary school, and the neighborhood association are all working together to provide students’ families with a supply of food before summer break.

John Calvin CRC in Truro, N.S., had its final worship service April 27 but its facilities will continue to be used for ministry to hurting people through N.S.-based Souls Harbour Rescue Mission.