Aviles to Speak at Multiethnic Conference

Rev. Pedro Aviles, a former pastor and current professor of church and ministry leadership at Trinity Christian College, will be the keynote speaker at the biennial Multiethnic Conference for the Christian Reformed Church.

The conference is set to occur from June 12-14 in conjunction with the start of Synod 2009, which will be held at Trinity Christian College south of Chicago.

“God's kingdom is advanced by people of color who are led by people of color," says Aviles. “Or to put it another way ‘God's kingdom is advanced by people of the nations (ethnos) who are led by people of the nations (ethnos)’."

He says his goal in the speech will be “to illustrate through history, through the scripture … that the CRC's next major quantitative and qualitative growth will come by intentional pragmatic steps in obedience to the kingdom mandate for embracing people of the nations (ethnos) and releasing (ordaining) leaders of the nations (ethnos).”

The conference is sponsored by the CRC’s Office of Race Relations, and this year’s theme is “Embracing the Discomfort of Diversity.” 

Workshops will be presented by Ben and Eunice Stoner, who have worked and lived and worshipped among the Navajo people in New Mexico for nearly 40 years. Mark Charles, who lives on a Navajo reservation in Arizona, will hold a workshop on what it means to be Navajo and Christian.

Rev. Sam Hamstra, lead pastor of a new, multi-ethnic congregation southwest of Chicago, will hold a workshop at which he will discuss the challenges his church has had in establishing a vision “for a culture of worship that affirms diversity and variety.”

Dr. Nelvia Brady, a business professor and director of diversity for Trinity Christian College, will talk in her workshop about effective communication across cultures. Rev. George Cooper, a CRC pastor of Fox Valley Christian Reformed Church, Crystal Lake, Ill., will hold a workshop on learning how to bridge differences and see eye to eye. Rev. Denise Posie, a CRC pastor in Kalamazoo, Mich., will discuss the things she has learned as the African-American pastor of a predominantly white congregation.

Participants will have 25 percent of their travel costs paid for by conference organizers. The conference will also pay for participants’ meals and lodging while at the conference.

On the evening of June 13, the Rev. Jerry Dykstra, executive director of the CRC, will address conference participants, presenting his vision of racial diversity for the CRC as well as his five-year plan to accomplish this vision. There will be a Q & A session immediately after his address.

Synod 2009 will convene on Saturday, June 13, 2009, in Palos Heights, Ill., on the campus of Trinity Christian College. Elmhurst CRC, Elmhurst, Illinois, will serve as the convening church.

Contact Jan Ortiz at 1-877-864-3977 or at [email protected] for more information and to register. In order to plan effectively, all participants must register ahead of time. The registration deadline is May 1, 2009.