Growing Interest in Synod 2007

It appears that Synod 2007 is generating a lot of interest around the CRC (and certainly in the West Michigan media). Not only will it be marked with the celebration of the CRCNA's 150th annivesary, several hot-button issues will be discussed, including paedo-communion, women's ordination, the Belhar Confession and so on. From reports of classes, overtures and communications are lining up on all sides of the issues. Please be in prayer for our denomination and pray that God's Word would prevail in all areas. Also pray that the protests and demonstrations that are sure to come will not develop into a power struggle, but that those who are involved will submit humbly to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

To keep folks informed, two groups have formed to promote the deletion of the word "male" from Church Order Article 3 and the seating for women as delegates to synod. You can learn more about these groups by going to www.synodcloudofwitnesses.org and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hearts-aflame/. If you know of other developments on this or other issues for Synod 2007, please post them here to help us all stay up to date on what's happening. Also, any comments on the above are welcome as well.

Upcoming Meeting

Elders and pastors are invited to a meeting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 19, 2007, at First Christian Reformed Church in Byron Center, MI. We hope to continue the conversation about bringing God-centered, biblical renewal to the Christian Reformed Church. There will be discussion of position papers, the “Year of Faith Formation” and also where we go from here. We need your help to broaden the conversation so please prayerfully consider attending. Please R.S.V.P. to returningchurch@yahoo.com or call 616-396-6230.

This meeting is being held just prior to the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (PCRT) to be held at First Byron from April 20-22 (see next posting on this blog). We strongly encourage you to take in the conference as well.

Further, you would help us greatly by publicizing the event with those you know who might be interested in such a meeting.

Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology

One of the goals of this site is to encourage CRCs and all Christians to stand firmly upon the Word of God. There is coming up soon a conference that will help do just that. The Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (PCRT) will be held in four sites around the U.S. this year: Sacramento, CA; Jackson, MS; Grand Rapids, MI and Philadelphia, PA. The theme is "The Word: Above All Earthly Powers" - what a fitting topic! Go to www.alliancenet.org for more information and click on "PCRT" on the left-hand side.