The message never changes, but if we are ever going to reach our world, our methods must change.  But how can the church embrace change and still be itself?  The premise of Sweet's book, Carpe Manana, is that “for better or worse, a new world is no longer coming – it is here.  Our minds, our bodies, our professions, our morals, our relationships, our spirituality – our lives – are being radically reshaped by postmodernism.  What...

There is much happening at the moment in the world of church planting.  It is exciting stuff. In all of this a number of people have asked for clarification regarding the new church planting network called Geneva. People have wondered what it will be doing and what it might offer. Geneva will be run by a board of Australian church planters which will include Al Stewart, Andrew Heard and Mikey Lynch. It's purpose will be to...

An article by Martin Geluk was distributed through the CRCA general mailing list in which the fourfold task(FFT) adopted by the CRCA was discussed.  In this article Martin  made the following comments:  "I have found it both strange and sad that with the formulation and explanation of the fourfold task of the CRCA (pray, multiply, train, align) the task of preaching was excluded. Surely the New Testament emphasizes preaching as the most important task of the church. ...It is also surprising...

The CRCA Synod 2006 recognised that the task of alignment is a continual process. For this reason Synod decided to adopt TASK FOUR: “to reform continually the life of the denomination (including our church ethos, customs, church order, use of resources, denominational committees, support staff and agencies) to encourage and enable the fulfilment of the fundamental aim.” Synod 2006 further instructed the Ministry Formation Workgroup during the past Synodical period (2006-2009) “to continue to evaluate the...

What does it really mean for us as churches to "reach out"?  As I go around the various classes and churches within the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia, this is the question I raise.  From our statistics the facts speak for themselves.  We have not been "successful" in reaching the lost for Christ.  But the culture is changing, and more and more church leaders and members are asking all the right questions.  How can we as churches be more effective in fulfilling...