Category Archives: Institutional Church

Developing a Culture of Clergy Self-Leadership: Ideal Classis Series

Posted on July 30, 2014 by PaulVK

Four Strategic Challenge Facing the Church Today In our context of deep and rapid chance the most important challenge the church faces is developing leaders in the church that can do the following: Discern the times: With multiple challenges confronting a … Continue reading →

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church, Pastoral Identity | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What Our Journey from Cold Warriors to Religious Consumers Means for the Church

Posted on July 29, 2014 by PaulVK

Mid-Century Modern The religious context for most North American congregations in the second half of the 20th century was fairly clear. Varieties of congregations that tried to live by the moniker “Bible believing”. Debates between them were seen as “intramural”. … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture commentary, Institutional Church | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why the CRCNA Should Consider Church Planting as Vital for its Strategic Development of Future Leaders

Posted on July 22, 2014 by PaulVK

The “Greedy” Church Plant Complaints I am often surprised when I hear resentment expressed at church planting. The statements usually come in rather sheepish form as complaints: church plants steal bright, energetic young people from established churches that did all … Continue reading →

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church | Tagged | 3 Comments

Can Denomination Be Helpful When Churches Are Dying Because We Don’t Understand What Church Is For?

Posted on June 30, 2014 by PaulVK

The Wrong End of the Tree My friend Pete wrote a response to my last structure piece. He noted, and I agree, that these structure conversations are starting at the wrong end of the church. The crisis at the denominational … Continue reading →

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Why Synods Make Me Cry

Posted on June 20, 2014 by PaulVK

Synods I got home late last night after making my way across the country through the storms. In this last year it seems like every time I need to travel for Synod (or ED search) storms disrupt my air travel plans. … Continue reading →

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The Modern Denomination Is A Cyborg. Can the Organism Live Without It?

Posted on May 22, 2014 by PaulVK

Task Force Reviewing Structure and Culture After the departure of the previous non-interim Executive Director the Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church together with the Synod wanted a more in depth examination of our own dysfunction in our denominational … Continue reading →

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church | 8 Comments

Large Church Lists

Posted on May 18, 2014 by PaulVK

Wikipedia Hartford Institute Outreach Magazine 2013 largest Outreach Magazine 2013 fastest growing

Posted in Institutional Church, Link Compilations | Leave a comment

How Does Size Matter: CRC Edition Follow Up Pt. 2

Posted on May 17, 2014 by PaulVK

Make sure you catch part 1 and Larry’s response in the comments. Structuring the Local Church When I read Larry’s tweets I was imagining he was primarily commenting on the CRC structure and culture above the local church. He first … Continue reading →

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church | 4 Comments

Plantations, Colonialists, and the Innocents who wander there

Posted on May 12, 2014 by PaulVK

  When Whitey Moves I’ve been playing “wanna read it, don’t wanna read it” with Christena Cleveland’s piece on “Urban Church Planting/Plantations”  It’s easy for me to retweet or “share” on something that with a minute’s reading I think “yeah, that’s … Continue reading →

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How Does Size Matter? CRC Edition

Posted on May 8, 2014 by PaulVK

Larry Doornbos commented via twitter on a point on the Thom Rainer post on changes in worship services. He had a bit of a conversation with church planter Dirk Van Eyk and YALT on the CRC and church size. Rainer’s comment … Continue reading →

Posted in CRC, Institutional Church | 16 Comments