New Hope Church

The August/September edition of Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought is now available online. This issue features:

• Story-Shaped Lives by Jennifer L. Holberg
• The Ordeal of the Sermon by Daniel Meeter
• Take a Poet to Lunch by Norman Kolenbrander
• Language, Justice, and the Christian Liberal Arts: Why School Isn’t Always Fair by Tom Truesdell
• Coming to the Table: Discussing Food in the Middle of Farm Country by Jason Lief
• To the Child I'll Never Bear, Should I Be Wrong by Wendy Shreffler
• Following Tracks in the Dark by Francis Fike
• Depth and Detail, Affordable and Accessable by Jennifer Soule-Hill
• The Doorway by Jon Brown

(from Earl James)

The three-day WCC consultation began Thursday afternoon. The 27 consultation participants are from all over the world: Bolivia (now living and ministering in New Zealand), Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, England, Fiji Islands, Germany, India, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States. Only the participant from Palestine could not make it due to difficulty getting a visa. Some of the participants knew each other well before the meeting began; others, like me, knew no one else and are newcomers to the global ecumenical scene. English is our conference language, but it is clear that a few of us struggle with it. For a number of the participants, English is the second (or third or fourth) language, although some are exceptionally fluent.

With all of that said, the conference planners were very wise in making the agenda of our first afternoon and evening together "us." Through various methods--small group, large group, worship, a walking tour, and sharing meals--we got to know wonderful things about each other as persons, about our various national and racial experiences, and about current situations. In addition to sharing some of my story, I asked questions and learned much.

• Read more.

(From RCA Today)

Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, New York, is celebrating its 325th birthday.

The church, the oldest church building in the state of New York, is part of Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, which holds summer services there. The church and its burial ground were immortalized in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a connection that is playing a role in the anniversary celebrations.

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by Wes Granberg-Michaelson

One thousand Pentecostal leaders from 74 countries arrived in Stockholm for the twenty-second World Pentecostal Conference from August 24 to 27, 2010. I was privileged to be present, having been invited by the president of the Pentecostal World Fellowship, Bishop James Leggett, in order to strengthen links within the Global Christian Forum. Bishop Leggett and I have worked closely together through our work with Christian Churches Together in the USA, where we both serve as presidents of our respective denominational families, and we've served together on the steering committee for the Global Christian Forum.

Why Stockholm? It turns out that the Pentecostal churches in Sweden are alive and growing--all 450 of them. Filadelfia Church in Stockholm, which is perhaps the most famous of Sweden's Pentecostal churches, hosted the conference. This church played a vital role in the beginning of the Pentecostal movement in Sweden in the early 1900s and still has a thriving ministry today. Its sanctuary barely held the 1,000 official participants plus hundreds of local Christians who attended the evening sessions.

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Andrew Yamamoto will serve with RCA Global Mission as its new supervisor of mission work in Asia and the Pacific, coordinating ministry efforts with RCA mission partners and missionaries located there. He will begin his new role October 1.

Yamamoto majored in East Asian Studies at the University of California, Davis, and graduated from Western Theological Seminary in June. For the last two years, he has worked with a ministry to Japanese people in Holland, Michigan, and he previously interned with City Church of San Francisco (RCA).

"I am pleased to welcome Drew to our staff," says Jhonny Alicea-Báez, director of RCA Global Mission. "He brings extensive cross-cultural experience to this role, and his fluency in one of the Asian languages, Japanese, is a real asset."

"The RCA has been a pioneer and committed to the Asia Pacific region since the beginning of the modern Protestant missionary movement, and as the Asia Pacific region grows in its love for Jesus, I look forward to working with our ecumenical partners and learning from them," Yamamoto says.

"As a first generation Christian, I am grateful for the grace and love of Christ that the RCA has shown to my people of Asia and the Pacific, and to be part of the RCA's work there. I look forward to working with the many gifted RCA missionaries in this vast and dynamic region and would appreciate continued prayer not only for me, but for all our missionaries serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Asia and the Pacific."

Yamamoto has participated in mission trips to Cambodia, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Brazil. He has also coordinated a course through the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement program, designed to help Christians understand and engage in mission efforts.

Yamamoto will work with missionaries and mission partners in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Taiwan.