by | Jun 6, 2023 | Uncategorized
Merchant marines are still struggling, body and soul, after COVID-19 and supply chain disruptions.
Gary Roosma can attest to the challenges of organizing a worship service onboard a cargo ship.
It’s a complicated process, reaching out to the rotating cast of captains aboard the ships in the Port of Vancouver, for a congregation of sailors who may or may not even want to gather.
But experience has taught him it’s a worthwhile effort.
He remembers one officer who accosted him with a question.
“Where were you yesterday?” the man said. “We needed you yesterday.”
When Roosma asked why, the sailor explained there was a horrible storm at sea and the captain had sent him to do something on the deck as the waves crashed around them. As he held onto a rail, a massive wave hit the ship and carried the man overboard, out to the open sea.
“I knew I was dead,” the seafarer told Roosma. “All I could think of was ‘Lord, please watch over my family.’ And then I prayed, ‘It would be really nice if you would save me too.’”
At the instant he prayed, the man recalled, a rope brushed across his chest, and he grasped it and held on with every ounce of his strength. He dislocated his arm, but his life was spared.
“We need a service onboard this ship,” the man said, and Roosma, a chaplain at the Port of Vancouver with the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Ministry to Seafarers agreed to lead them in prayer and worship that day.
Roosma was reminded, yet again, of the point of this unusual ministry. As the psalmist said in Psalm 107, “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep” (vv. 23–24, KJV). Seafarer ministry chaplains are called to point that out to …
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by | Jun 6, 2023 | Uncategorized
Instructions for publishers.
Dear Publisher,
Each year, Christianity Today honors a set of outstanding books encompassing a variety of subjects and genres. The CT Book Awards will be announced in December at christianitytoday.com. They also will be featured prominently in the January/February 2024 issue of CT and promoted in several CT newsletters. (In addition, publishers will have the opportunity to participate in a marketing promotion organized by CT’s marketing team, complete with site banners and paid Facebook promotion.)
Here are this year’s awards categories:
1. Apologetics/Evangelism
2a. Biblical Studies
2b. Bible and Devotional
3a. Children
3b. Young Adults
4. Christian Living/Spiritual Formation
5. The Church/Pastoral Leadership
6. Culture and the Arts
7. Fiction
8. History/Biography
9. Marriage and Family
10. Missions/The Global Church
11. Politics and Public Life
12a. Theology (popular)
12b. Theology (academic)
Nominations:
To be eligible for nomination, a book must be published between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023. We are looking for scholarly and popular-level works, and everything in between. A diverse panel of scholars, pastors, and other informed readers will evaluate the books.
Publishers can nominate as many books as they wish, and each nominee can be submitted in multiple categories. There is a $40 entry fee for each title submitted in each category. To enter your nominations, please click on this link and follow the prompts. (Note: You will be directed to upload a PDF of each book you wish to nominate.)
Finalist Books:
If your book is chosen as one of the four finalists in any category, we will contact you and ask that you send a copy of the book directly to the four judges assigned to that category. We will provide mailing addresses …
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by | Jun 5, 2023 | Uncategorized
Hospitality demands that some things be clear from the start.
As Canadians living in Austin, Texas, my wife and I have a sign on our front door that reads, “Please take off your shoes.” The Northern experience of slush, grit, and mud, as well as a few years spent living in Japan, made us committed to the goodness of shoeless indoor living. (Slippers and indoor shoes allowed.)
We hung the sign several years into our time in Austin. After more than a few awkward greetings—an effusive welcome coupled with quick instructions about our footwear convictions—we decided that clarity was a necessary part of hospitality.
This same connection between clarity and hospitality has come to inform our practice in church as well, especially on the topic of marriage and sexuality.
As part of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), our church’s position is clear: We hold that God’s desire for faithful conjugal sexuality happens in the context of a covenant marriage between one man and one woman. But as a particular church in Austin seeking to embody the welcome of God in Christ, conveying that message is more difficult. Our community draws people who are surprised and even pained by this counter-cultural teaching.
I’m not totally sure why our small church often attracts people with more left-of-center perspectives. Part of it relates to the area of the city we’re in, where a lot of young families and professionals come to live. Part of it is simply generational, as these millennial and Gen Z Christians grapple with the legacy of their particular traditions.
For some in our community, the church’s teachings on marriage impinge on the most intimate and personal areas of their life. What does it look like for their own sexuality …
Continue reading…
by | Jun 5, 2023 | Uncategorized
Hospitality demands that some things be clear from the start.
As Canadians living in Austin, Texas, my wife and I have a sign on our front door that reads, “Please take off your shoes.” The Northern experience of slush, grit, and mud, as well as a few years spent living in Japan, made us committed to the goodness of shoeless indoor living. (Slippers and indoor shoes allowed.)
We hung the sign several years into our time in Austin. After more than a few awkward greetings—an effusive welcome coupled with quick instructions about our footwear convictions—we decided that clarity was a necessary part of hospitality.
This same connection between clarity and hospitality has come to inform our practice in church as well, especially on the topic of marriage and sexuality.
As part of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), our church’s position is clear: We hold that God’s desire for faithful conjugal sexuality happens in the context of a covenant marriage between one man and one woman. But as a particular church in Austin seeking to embody the welcome of God in Christ, conveying that message is more difficult. Our community draws people who are surprised and even pained by this counter-cultural teaching.
I’m not totally sure why our small church often attracts people with more left-of-center perspectives. Part of it relates to the area of the city we’re in, where a lot of young families and professionals come to live. Part of it is simply generational, as these millennial and Gen Z Christians grapple with the legacy of their particular traditions.
For some in our community, the church’s teachings on marriage impinge on the most intimate and personal areas of their life. What does it look like for their own sexuality …
Continue reading…
by | Jun 5, 2023 | Uncategorized
Ministers may now use the title “pastor” regardless of gender.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) has decided to ordain women and allow them to carry the title of “pastor.” More than 60 percent of the denomination’s delegates approved the two changes at the Alliance’s general council in Spokane, Washington, last week, after four years of official discussion and debate.
John Stumbo, president of the Alliance, supported the changes but also urged the gathered delegates to respect different interpretations of the New Testament verses on church leadership.
“Do not think that just because someone disagrees with your biblical position that they don’t love the Word of God, honor the authority of the Word of God, and hold true to its core teachings,” he said. “Everyone I’ve spoken to across the country has come with a thoughtful position. … We have the right, privilege, and necessity of having a mutual respectability for each other.”
Stumbo said the Alliance, which includes about 2,000 churches in the United States, needs unity, but not uniformity. Churches that accept the ordaination of women and those that don’t can work together to proclaim the gospel.
“A deeper life and missions movement—that has always been the Alliance at its best, experiencing the fullness of Jesus within us, the heart change of Christ within us, that sends us on mission to the world,” he said.
The denomination has trained both men and women for that mission to the world, but the women were previously “consecrated,” not ordained, and were told they should not use the title of pastor. Some women testified during the biannual conference that calling themselves “Consecrated Woman of God” and using the acronym …
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