Chong Commissioned to Serve as Banner Editor

As evening fell and the weekend came to a close, people gathered inside Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Etobicoke, Ont., to mark a new beginning.

During a short evening service, several pastors laid hands on and prayed over Shiao Chong, commissioning him as the new editor of The Banner.

The service also included songs, congregational pledges of support, and a sermon by Chong in which he described his mission as editor of the CRC’s official magazine.

“We live in an increasingly polarized society,” Chong said, noting that more and more, we tend to surround ourselves with people who think like we do, and we use tools like social media to push away those who think differently. “One of my roles as Banner editor is to help readers get past this polarization and instead become ambassadors of Christ’s reconciliation, to meet each other, listen to each other, and learn from each other.”

Chong became editor of The Banner in August 2016 after being approved and appointed to the post by Synod 2016 in June. The service at Fellowship CRC on Nov. 27 marked his official installation as a commissioned pastor for this role.

Prior to accepting the position as Banner editor, Chong served as a commissioned pastor in the CRC as a campus minister for York University in Toronto for 15 years.

A commissioned pastor is someone who is ordained for ministry by their regional classis following a classical examination with a specific ministry objective in mind. The role does not require a Master of Divinity degree from an approved seminary but can, in some applications, include preaching and administration of the sacraments. Approximately 250 people in the CRC have been ordained as commissioned pastors.

While most previous Banner editors have been ordained as ministers of the Word, that office is not a requirement of the position. Lester De Koster, for example, served as Banner editor from 1970 through 1980 as a layperson.

Although Chong was already ordained as a commissioned pastor for campus ministry, his role and mandate changed when he began his role as Banner editor. The commissioning service on Nov. 27 therefore took place to officially install, encourage, and equip him for that role.

“In varying ways every commissioned pastor is a servant both of Christ and of the church, a steward in the household of God, a teacher to explain the mystery of the gospel, a shepherd who cares for the flock, and an ambassador and a herald of our King, proclaiming the message of reconciliation,” said Rev. Joan DeVries, interim pastor at Fellowship CRC, during the service.

“As editor of The Banner, you have also received a specific call, extended to you through your home congregation, Fellowship CRC, to form the faith of the CRC community through leadership in its denominational publication.”

This is a role that Chong looks forward to carrying out. He said he hopes to help Banner readers recognize the three-dimensional nature of God’s reconciliation. The first dimension is that each of us is first and foremost reconciled to God. We need to recognize that we are recipients of reconciliation before we can be reconciled to others, he said.

Second, we must work to be peacemakers with each other, said Chong. He described this dimension as “reconciled sinners in community together.” Only then, he explained, can we bring God’s reconciliation to all other aspects of our lives—the third dimension of reconciliation.

Chong concluded by quoting Lesslie Newbigin: “A gospel of reconciliation can only be communicated by a reconciled community.” That’s the type of community he hopes to foster through The Banner.