NewsConference To Explore 'Missional Living'"Missional Living: Touching Lives . . . Impacting Communities" will take place on Saturday, January 24, 2009, at Georgetown Christian Reformed Church in Georgetown, Ontario. New Church Hopes to Use Simple ApproachWhen Rev. Randy Ledeboer launches a new church near Cutlerville, Mich., sometime next year, he hopes to provide a simple approach to worship. "The world is very complicated, and people want something simple," he says. "We want to just focus on worship, small groups, and service in the community." Theology is "On Tap"Like most campus ministers, Rev. Michael Wagenman is always looking for new and compelling ways to make a case for Christianity to university students. That search led Wagenman to create an unorthodox event: a theological study group that meets at the local student pub. CRC Establishes Prison ChurchAfter many months of dreaming, planning, negotiations and meetings, the Ionia Bellamy Creek "Celebration Fellowship" Prison Congregation - the first of its kind in Michigan - has begun to hold Bible/book study and worship services. New Book Collects Calvin Worldview LecturesFor the past ten years, Christian Reformed Home Missions has partnered with Calvin College to send Calvin professors on speaking tours of secular university campuses. Now, many of those lectures are being published in a new anthology. Turning Disciples into Loving LeadersSeveral years ago, Michael Johnson was starting a church in Texas with Christian Reformed Home Missions. Things were going pretty smoothly. The church was growing, but after a while different people started leaving for different reasons. Youth Take Center Stage at Coit CRCThe future success and health of the CRC lies in engaging its youth in relevant ministries and in giving them ownership of those ministries, says Rev Jerome Burton, pastor of Coit Community Church in urban Grand Rapids, Mich. Home Missions Taps Interim Leader for CanadaHome Missions church planter Adrian VanGiessen has accepted the invitation to serve as interim Leader for Home Missions' Central and Eastern Canada Ministry Team. Beginning November 3, VanGiessen will assume the role previously held by Ben Vandezande, who is now director of Home Missions. New Wisconsin Faith Community Takes ShapeThe recently established Fond du Lac Christian Fellowship traces its roots to three couples ministering through a divorce-care program. Breaking Bread Before BreakfastConsidering that college students are notorious for sleeping in after late nights studying (and socializing), who would actually turn up for a eucharist service at 7:22 on Tuesday mornings? Home Missions Co-Sponsors Worldview LecturerSeptember 3, 2008 -- Calvin College French professor Otto Selles will be the speaker at this year's Calvin Worldview Lectureship, a lecture series that seeks to communicate a Reformed Christian perspective on academics and culture. Laotian Church Planter Finds 'New Life'Aug. 26, 2008 -- In the late 1970s, Phonh Sinbondit and his family were living in Laos when Communists took over the country. Home Missions to Fund 20 New ChurchesAugust 19, 2008 -- More than a dozen multicultural ministries are among the 20 new churches that Christian Reformed Home Missions will help to start in the fiscal year 200809. Chicago Pastor Offers New Approach To WorshipAug. 5, 2008 -- Pastor Ed Rockett has a vision of using music, dance, drama and theater as a way to address the needs of people attending Sunday worship at his new Christian Reformed Church congregation on the south side of Chicago, Ill. CRC Names Interim Director for Home MissionsJuly 25, 2008 -- The Christian Reformed Church in North America on Friday announced that Ben Vandezande will take over this fall as interim director of Christian Reformed Home Missions. Vandezande currently serves as Home Missions regional team leader for Eastern Canada. He will replace John Rozeboom, who has been director of CRHM for 22 years. Old Mission, New MinistrySusan LaClear grew up in a Christian home in Holland, Mich., and attended Christian schools from kindergarten through high school. But she never understood Gods call on her life until she went to a secular college, the University of Michigan. Urban Pastors Follow Jesus into the StreetsClarence Presley and Rik Stevenson are building their congregations by following the lead of Jesus who took his message to the people where they lived, worked and relaxed. The Spirit 'Rains' at Evangelism ConferenceIt poured rain all day this past Saturday outside of the conference center in Lombard, Ill., at which 500-plus people gathered for an event presented by Christian Reformed Home Missions. Home Missions Helps Conferees Fight Fuel CostEven though gas prices continue to climb at an alarming rate, plenty of people will still be heading to Lombard, Ill., next month for In Community, Christian Reformed Home Missions Small Group & Evangelism Conference. Brazil Natives Seek Connection in WisconsinYou might not think of an empty suburban movie theater as an uplifting place to spend a Sunday morning. But if you happened upon the AMC Theater at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on the first Sunday of the month, you'd step into a full-on, roof-raising, multicultural celebration of Jesus. Church Planter Starts Fresh in AlbertaJust over a year ago, Rev. Victor Ko was happily and faithfully serving Third CRC, the Kalamazoo, Michigan congregation he'd led since 1999. But then came the call. "I felt the Lord calling me to go plant a new church," Ko says. "He told me to gather people together in Jesus' name." Two CRC Congregations Win National GrantThe Fund for Theological Education has given a $12,000 leadership development grant to a pair of Christian Reformed Church in North America congregations that have been working together in youth ministry, according to a press release sent out this week by the FTE. |
