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May 13, 2024 | 
thebanner.org | Michelle Vander Meer |Matt Kucinski |Leah Jolly |Michael Wagenman
Stories are my favorite. They always have been, ever since the time my sister opened the land of fantasy and fiction by reading stories to me before I could read. She would entice me to keep walking on long hikes by telling fantastical stories of giant lollipops and a fountain of rainbows on the moon. Throughout my childhood we had regular read-alouds in the evenings instead of watching TV, and audiobooks kept the peace on long car trips.
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May 13, 2024 | 
thebanner.org | Michelle Vander Meer |Matt Kucinski |Leah Jolly |Michael Wagenman
To send letters to the editor, please see our guidelines at thebanner.org/letters. The Banner article “They Disagreed Well” (Jan. 2024) on the deliberations of a 2022 synodical committee puzzled me. The executive summary of the related report states, “All Jewish writings from the ancient world uniformly rejected gay and lesbian behavior.
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May 10, 2024 | 
thebanner.org | Matt Kucinski |Leah Jolly |Michael Wagenman |Karen Wilk
Over the next decade, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects there will be 193,100 openings for the registered nurse workforce each year. In Canada, a 2019 study forecast a shortage of 117,000 nurses by 2030. And a 2022 report by the International Council of Nurses estimates that 13 million more nurses will be required over the next decade.
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May 1, 2024 | 
thebanner.org | Leah Jolly |Michael Wagenman |Karen Wilk |Cassie Marcionetti
In February 2024, the Association of Theological Schools officially approved a partnership between Calvin Theological Seminary and Missional Training Center of Tempe, Ariz. The idea for Missional Training Center came from the Surge Network, a collaborative group of more than 100 churches formed in 2007 to plant churches, sponsor community outreach programs, and train lay leaders.
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Apr 29, 2024 | 
thebanner.org | Michael Wagenman
Many treat conversion as little more than a magic spell, like a “get out of jail free” card played at a crucial moment in a losing game. Many websites contain lists of people who are said to have converted to Christianity shortly before their deaths. Sometimes these stories are corroborated by relatives and friends. The truth of these stories are sometimes debated because believers and non-believers sometimes use them to advance a religious or philosophical agenda.
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Feb 12, 2024 | 
thebanner.org | Michael Wagenman
In the olden days, when you had a question and Grandma wasn’t around to ask, you asked Google. If you typed in “Is God good?” the first page of results would list Christian websites pointing to Bible verses that define and assert God’s goodness. So easy!Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage.
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Jan 24, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Michael Wagenman
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted CultureDirected by Sharon “Rocky” RoggioAcowsay Film Company, 2022. A distinguishing mark of Reformed biblical interpretation is the acknowledgement of context. The Bible is a library of texts, each of which arises out of a particular context. The collected, canonical Scriptures as a whole also arose from a context. Our translations come from yet other contexts. We read and apply the Bible to our lives in our specific contexts.
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Jan 12, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Michael Wagenman
When my local coffee shop advertised a summer book club featuring Jenny Odell’s Saving Time, it didn’t initially grab my interest. I did buy a copy, though, to support their post-pandemic effort to build connections in my community. And it became one of my best summer reads!Odell takes us on a tour of the region near her home in California. Beaches and hiking trails are explored in beautiful detail – as are also graffiti on rundown buildings and peeling paint on gridlocked interstate highway signs.
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Oct 13, 2023 | 
thebanner.org | Michael Wagenman
The Christian Reformed churches in Canada have publicly committed “to support healing and reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and non-indigenous people in Canada.” The first question I frequently hear is: “But where do we start?”Patty Krawec is an Indigenous Canadian Christian who offers us a place to start. Her book, Becoming Kin, is a clear, patient, and personal guide for those who want suggestions for how to take our first steps on the path of reconciliation.
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Aug 22, 2023 | 
thebanner.org | Michael Wagenman
There are times in life when we must face the truth of our experience. Often, it’s a truth we’ve been unwilling to acknowledge for some time, because the truth can be painful, awkward, and the “family rules” might be discouraging us from really being honest. And yet, unless we name our experience, face it, and deal with it, our life becomes stuck and we’re unable to move forward in a healthy and integrated way. Counselors and therapists walk with clients through these dynamics every day.
