Book Review – A Colorful Past: A Coloring Book of Church History Rev Phillip Stoffregen Rev. William Boekestein. A Colorful Past: A Coloring Book of Church History. Illustrated by Naomi Kamphuis. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018. Paperback. 88 pages Yes, a review for a coloring book! You may wonder how helpful a coloring book […]
Turning the Reformed Church Outward: The Potential for Side-Door Growth For years, North American churches have grown through what might be termed front-door growth. Churches worked hard on their street appeal and redesigned worship services that were welcoming and exciting to the unchurched. This approach proved extraordinarily successful with a large demographic of people who […]
Why We Work: What Is the Point? You shuffle into work. Clock in on the outdated computer. Report to your boss. “Morning,” you mutter; she grunts in reply. File. Arrange. Rearrange. Click. Shooo. “Ahggh.” Despite caffeine and a full REM cycle, your blurred eyes couldn’t distinguish the trash folder from the file folder on the […]
Faith and Fruit in a Post-Christian World: Hospitality One of the fascinating tidbits in the historical archives of my home church is a property map of the village of West Sayville, Long Island, dating from the year 1927. The recurring surnames of the property owners tell a story: Dykstra, Van Essendelft, Verbeke, Van Wyen. The […]
Practical Pieces of Advice Regarding Our Tongues 1. Acknowledge that you have a tongue that is prone to sin. One of my favorite hymns is “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written by Robert Robinson in 1757 when he was only twenty-two years old. Listen to what he says in the fourth stanza: O to […]
In a Few WORDS Deliberate Spiritual Starvation? Why would any reasonable person choose to bypass nutritious food readily available while slowly starving to death? It is almost incomprehensible. Just four miles from the rural Wisconsin home where I grew up there lived an unmarried brother and sister who appeared to be in nearly desperate poverty. […]
The Grace of Satisfaction The original Remonstrance of 1610 transitioned from eternal predestination to the historical work of Jesus Christ in its second article: “Jesus Christ the Savior of the world died for all men and for every man.” The elderly and respected Heidelberg theologian, David Paraeus (1548–1622), told the Synod of Dort this was […]