New Hope Church

(From RCA Today)

Youth pastor Andy Vis wants to help high-school-age students "learn how to follow Christ in the way God has wired them."

One way he does this is through Leaders on the Horizon (LOH), a program that is designed to help young men and women become Christ-centered leaders in their church and beyond. Currently more than 60 young people take part in LOH at the congregation Vis serves, Meredith Drive Reformed Church in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Over time, we increasingly became aware of the need for youth to deepen their relationship with Christ in a more significant way," says Vis. "The LOH model's attractive. We liked the idea of small groups of committed teens sitting down with Christ-centered, committed leaders and ‘sharing life' together.

"Research shows that the more contact students have with different adults in the church, the more likely they will have faith that is sustainable after graduating from high school."

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(From RCA Today)

John Muñiz wants the RCA to know that inner-city churches can survive. "The secret has been the preaching of the gospel and welcoming everyone," he says. "And it begins with the leadership."

Muñiz speaks from his experience as pastor at Hudson City Second Reformed Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1992, when he came to the church, it was small--about 30 people--and full of first- and second-generation Germans. Jersey City, on the other hand, was rapidly becoming more diverse as an increasing number of Hispanic people and people from India moved into the area.

"The consistory made it clear to [church members] that if the church was going to survive, they needed to do something different to relate to the community," Muñiz says.

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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.

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(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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