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Toward a Financially Responsible Indigenous Church

Thirty years ago the Christian Reformed Churches adopted an indigenous mission policy making it their aim from the beginning of work in each field to establish self-propagating, self-governing and self-supporting churches. Such an aim is easier to adopt than to realize. Today our missionary efforts face new pressures to have the churches in the various […]

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Mission Themes in the Heidelberg Catechism

Dr. Timothy M. Monsma, veteran of twelve years of missionary service in Nigeria and at present professor of missions at Grand Rapids, Michigan’s, Reformed Bible College, in this and a following article, calls our attention to the bearing of our Reformed creeds on our missionary activity. This material is also being published under a slightly […]

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This is the first article in a new series entitled From Maintenance to Missional. The title might perplex some readers, so allow me to state at the outset my intentions. Conversion growth in Presbyterian and Reformed churches is virtually nonexistent. In my opinion that should, can, and must change. Hence this call for reformation in […]

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Reformed Evangelism: Putting Wheels on the Cart

Last time, I tried to show that Reformed evangelism is simply biblical evangelism: It emanates from the church, is not necessarily a “pastoronly” job—since the Scriptures identify evangelism as a spiritual gift that’s correlative with but that can also be distinct from the pastor-teacher role—and its power is not in the evangelist, his methods, gimmicks, […]

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No area today figures more prominently and more significantly in the world‘s news than the Middle East. The three great so-called revealed religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—began and flourished in the Middle East, and all three are powerful factors in the conflicts and tensions there today. Historical Background – Christ’s earthly life and ministry were in […]

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Protestant Missions Before Carey

William Carey (1761–1834), English shoemaker and cobbler, is usually considered to have been “the father of modern missions.” Were there Protestant missions also prior to Carey’s time? It is to this question that Rev. Timothy M. Monsma addresses himself in this article. After a brief ministry at Chandler, Minnesota, Rev. Monsma served as a CR […]

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Lesson 5: THE SENDING SPIRIT (3) Scripture: Zechariah 4:6; Acts 2:1–4; I Corinthians 2:9-11; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 4:11–16 The great missionary holiday on the church calendar is Pentecost -and with good reason. The Holy Spirit came with the rushing of a mighty wind which filled the house where the disciples were gathered. Upon each of […]

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Evangelism Thrust – Strategy for What?

The question is this: Is Evangelism Thrust a strategy for something else, something in addition to or coincidental with evangelism? And what is that something else? That something else that seems to be an additional or related strategy is simply the remaking of the Christian Reformed Church. When the Consultant of Classis Florida for Evangelism […]

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Reformed Evangelism in the South

The Reformed faith has a great future in the South. Population and industry are moving in that direction. On the state and local level the Chamber of Commerce is going all out to attract new industry from the North. Low taxes, a labor force untouched by labor unions. and escape from big city problems are […]

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