Bulletin Announcements

The Banner

Get the Denomination’s Award-Winning Magazine for FREE - The Banner, the magazine of the Christian Reformed Church, is free! Sign up for free print delivery and a weekly e-newsletter by visiting thebanner.org/signup. Given the Award of Merit (2018) for best denominational magazine by the Evangelical Press Association, The Banner offers CRC news; thoughtful articles; and reviews of books, movies, and music. TheBanner.org/signup

World Renew

Thank you for Freeing Families from Poverty on Mother’s Day - Your gifts and offerings for World Renew’s Free A Family® Sunday on May 9 are helping women like Nvou Gyang in Nigeria feed and support her four sons adequately. By remembering your Mother through your support for World Renew, you help families in poor communities worldwide realize the desires of their hearts. Thank you! Find out more or give anytime at worldrenew.net/FreeAFamily.

Thank you for Participating in Maternal and Child Health Sunday - Your gifts make it possible for World Renew to share the love and hope of Jesus Christ with mothers and their children who struggle with malnutrition, illness, and the risk of health-related death. Through your compassion and support, mothers are better able to survive childbirth and live to nurture strong, healthy children. If you would like to learn more about how World Renew is answering God’s call for justice and mercy, please visit: worldrenew.ca

VACCINE EQUITY WEBINAR - At the current pace of vaccine production, people in much of the world likely won’t have access to a COVID vaccine until 2024. How can we advocate for compassionate and just vaccine distribution? Join Ida Kaastra-Mutoigo, World Renew Canada Director, and Edgar Aguilar from our partner AJS in Honduras, for our Vaccine Equity Webinar on Thursday, May 20 at 8PM EDT. Register here: http://bit.ly/vacwebinar

Please help provide life-saving oxygen to India! - The ongoing COVID-19 crisis in India is made worse by a shortage of oxygen. Through a local partner, World Renew is funding Oxygen Generation Plants (OGPs) for local hospitals. The OGP is capable of supplying oxygen to an entire hospital and meets a highly-critical need for COVID patient care. Will you help? Your gift not only helps provide life-saving oxygen, but you also help World Renew, through another local partner, to address the emergency and preventative treatment needs of 123 rural communities, including hygiene kits for 5,495 families to protect their health and cash to help meet families’ medical and food costs. To learn more about our efforts or to donate go to: worldrenew.net/corona/india

Please help provide life-saving oxygen to India! - The ongoing COVID-19 crisis in India is made worse by a shortage of oxygen. Through a local partner, World Renew is funding Oxygen Generation Plants (OGPs) for local hospitals. The OGP is capable of supplying oxygen to an entire hospital and meets a highly-critical need for COVID patient care. Will you help? Your gift not only helps provide life-saving oxygen, but you also help World Renew, through our collaboration with Canadian Foodgrains Bank and the Humanitarian Coalition, to address the emergency and preventative treatment needs of 123 rural communities, including hygiene kits for 5,495 families to protect their health and cash to help meet families’ medical and food costs. To learn more about our efforts or to donate go to: worldrenew.ca/corona/india

Other

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN INFRASTRUCTURE CRUMBLES? - Join CRC campus ministers Rick Mast (University of Alberta) and Mike Wagenman (Western University) for our next virtual book club. We will be discussing Octavia Butler’s novel, Parable of the Sower, a powerful story of hope and faith when infrastructure crumbles. We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, May 30 at 8pm ET (7pm CT, 6pm MT, 5pm PT). Register at www.WesternCampusMinistry.ca.

GOT BIG QUESTIONS ON BIG ISSUES? - Join one of ICS's remote summer courses to think them through: Fashion Theology with Robert Covolo is a two-week intensive course running weekdays, 1-3pm EDT from May 26 to June 8. This seminar is for anyone who has wondered how Christianity relates to fashion or has suspected there is more behind fashion than meets the eye. Serve as fellow pioneers in the emerging field of fashion theology, the fascinating ways theology intersects with fashion’s social, aesthetic, linguistic, performative, narrative, ethical, etc., elements. Continuing learner or first-time auditor? Join for only $425. Learn more at www.icscanada.edu/summer-courses or email Eizabet Aras at [email protected] with questions or to register by May 21st.

GOT BIG QUESTIONS ON BIG ISSUES? - Join ICS's next remote summer course to think them through: Pragmatism, Race, and Religion: Du Bois, West, and Glaude with Ronald A. Kuipers is a six-week intensive seminar taking place Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-12pm EDT from June 8 to July 15. This course will explore the work of key Black thinkers in the philosophical tradition of American Pragmatism, paying particular attention to the unique way their reflection upon racialized experience shapes and augments key themes within this thought tradition, and to these thinkers' understanding of the relevance and complicatedness of Black religious experience in our racially divided era. First-time auditors can join this course for only $425 (registration incl.). Learn more at www.icscanada.edu/summer-courses or email Eizabet Aras at [email protected] with questions or to register by June 1st.

CAMP ROGER IS HIRING! - Immediate openings for part-time Maintenance Staff position, Outdoor Education Specialist, and Outdoor Education Staff. Be a part of a growing, ministry-minded team and GET OUTSIDE! Find out more at CampRoger.org/apply

ReFrame Ministries

GOD CREATED ME - Check out this week’s kids’ devotion at www.kidscorner.net. God deliberately designed each one of us. This means we fit together in God’s story like pieces in a giant puzzle. Being part of a huge family means we will always have someone we can help or someone who can teach us. Listen now at kidscorner.net and subscribe to KC’s weekly emails for all the new content.

GOD CREATED US - Check out this week’s kids’ devotion at www.kidscorner.net. We are created in God’s image. What does that mean? How can we think and act like God? How does this change how we look at other people? Listen now at kidscorner.net and subscribe to KC’s weekly emails for all the new content.

FAMILY FIRE - is an online community exploring Spirit-led family, marriage, parenting, in-laws, blended families, and intimacy. Find encouraging articles and devotions at familyfire.com. Subscribe for regular email updates and connect with our Family Fire community on Facebook.

GROUNDWORK: BE A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST - Many Christians have questions about following Jesus. Join Groundwork as we study 1 Timothy 4:7-8, 1 Peter 2:2-5, and 1 Timothy 2:1-3 to help us define discipleship, understand what this means for the lives of his disciples today, and discover the importance of community on our journey. Listen now at GroundworkOnline.com and subscribe to Groundwork's weekly emails for future episodes.

CRC Communications

WHAT AWAITS CHURCHES AFTER THE PANDEMIC? - Will our congregations come back? What will members be like if/when they do come back? How will society change, and what challenges and opportunities will this present for us? The Classis Alberta North Home Missions Committee is hosting a panel of experts who will help answer these questions so we can lead our churches out of and beyond COVID-19. The name of the conference is Reboot: Leading out of COVID and Beyond. This online event will take place June 10th, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. MTS. (The event will be recorded for those in time zones that make in-person participation difficult.) Pastors and church leaders are especially encouraged to take in the event, but everyone is welcome. For more information and to register visit www.classisalbertanorth.ca/home-missions

WHAT AWAITS CHURCHES AFTER THE PANDEMIC? - Will our congregations come back? What will members be like if/when they do come back? How will society change, and what challenges and opportunities will this present for us? The Classis Alberta North Home Missions Committee is hosting a panel of experts who will help answer these questions so we can lead our churches out of and beyond COVID-19. The name of the conference is Reboot: Leading out of COVID and Beyond. This online event will take place June 10th, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. MTS. (The event will be recorded for those in time zones that make in-person participation difficult.) Pastors and church leaders are especially encouraged to take in the event, but everyone is welcome. The event will feature an hour of panel discussion, followed by a half hour of Q&A. Panelists will include: Keith Doornbos (Executive Director of the Center for Church Renewal), Beth Fellinger (Resonate Global Mission’s Missional Leader for Eastern Canada), Darren Roorda (Canadian Ministries Director of the CRCNA), and Dr. Joel Thiessen (Professor of Sociology and Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta). For more information and to register visit www.classisalbertanorth.ca/home-missions

Faith Formation Ministries

At-home Faith Formation Tip - The Practice of Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer: An Intergenerational Event and Worship Experience is a downloadable free resource with which children, teens, and adults can gather to learn about and/or deepen their understanding of the Lord’s Prayer. Try it in your church! Find it at tinyurl.com/intergenprayer. (For more on faith practices from Faith Formation Ministries, visit crcna.org/FaithFormation/Practices.)

At-home Faith Formation Tip - The Practice of Prayer: Families, check out the free downloadable resource 5 Ways to Pray with Kids—tinyurl.com/5WaysPray. Here’s one of those ways to pray: Have each person create a shape that represents what they’d like to pray about. Lego bricks, play dough, or pipe cleaners work well! Then pray about those things together. (For more on faith practices from Faith Formation Ministries, visit crcna.org/FaithFormation/Practices.)

At-home Faith Formation Tip - The Practice of Prayer: When praying with children, try this kid-friendly version of the “ACTS” model, replacing Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication with these prompts: “God, you are . . . ” -- “I’m sorry for . . . ” -- “Thank you for . . . ” -- “Please . . . ” (For more on faith practices from Faith Formation Ministries, visit crcna.org/FaithFormation/Practices.)

Indigenous Ministry

2021 ICF Walk of Faith, Hope, and Love - Everyone is invited to support Indigenous Christian Fellowship by going for a walk on Pentecost Sunday, May 23. People are invited to pray and walk in a spirit of faith, hope, and love to bless the ministry. Walkers are encouraged to raise funds for the ministry by gathering pledges for their steps of support for ICF. Traditionally this 5 km walk has been based at the ministry’s location in North Central Regina. Due to the current restrictions on public gatherings, people are encouraged to walk a distance in a location of their own choosing across the country. Cheques can be sent by mail to: Indigenous Christian Fellowship, 3131 Dewdney Avenue, Regina, SK S4T 0Y5. Arrangements for e-transfers can be made by contacting Bert Adema at [email protected]

START A BOOK CLUB! - Introducing a new resource from the Canadian Indigenous Ministry Committee! Designed to fit into your existing small groups or book clubs, read Thomas King’s book "The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America." Your sessions will be guided by four videos. Each session’s video will feature a guest speaker touching on some of the key themes of the book, settler-Indigenous relations in North America, and our shared Christian faith. network.crcna.org/biblical-justice/inconvenient-indian-book-club

Office of Social Justice, Race Relations, ReFrame Ministries, Resonate Global Mission

CRCNA POSITION OPENINGS - The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) has the following position openings; Director of Social Justice and Race Relations (FT); Advocacy Specialist (FT); Resonate Global Mission Local Mission Leader - Great Lakes Region (PT); and ReFrame Ministries Church Relations Manager (PT). Visit https://crcna.pinpointhq.com/ for details and to apply.