By A. Donald MacLeod. A PC(USA) General Assembly decision about the “Re-Imagining” conference indicates that the center of the church has regained its voice and the right and the left have agreed to move on. … Read more
Renewing the Church: A Place to Begin
Jack Mills reports on Eugene Peterson’s talk at a recent Renewal Day. If God’s Church can become God-centered instead of man-centered, the opportunities in his ever-changing world will be obvious. … Read more
Daddy, I’m Pregnant, by A dad named Bill
Reviewed by Ronda Bosch. Premarital sex with someone you love is condoned by 80% of Canada’s teenagers, and on a first date 28% say yes to petting and 11% continue to sexual relations. Then what happens in your church or in your home when the word is out: “I’m pregnant”? … Read more
Speaking the Christian God: The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of Feminism, by Alvin E Kimel, Jr.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Greenman. In the face of rising feminism, Kimel provides an urgent call for the church to embrace anew the classical trinitarian theology that is truly good news. … Read more
Letters
Readers correspond with approval for the ministry of Channels. Greg Dallimore responds with an update on his previous Review … Read more
Bridlewood Spiritually Gifted
By Bruce Heal. A most exciting and spiritually encouraging class was taught by our pastor Dan MacKinnon on spiritual gifts, making use of the material in Chuck Congram’s course, Understanding and Using Spiritual Gifts, and Peter Wagner’s book, Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help your Church Grow. … Read more
Whose Dominion? – Christianity and Canadian Culture Historically Considered
By John G. Stackhouse, Jr., pictured on the cover. Canadian Christians sometimes look back with nostalgia to when Christianity was dominant in the country. "God" is in the national anthem. Is Canada a Christian nation? Is it more or less Christian today than previously? … Read more
Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry: An Integrational Approach, by Gareth Icenogle
Reviewed by J.H. (Hans) Kouwenberg. In the Old and New Testament context for small groups, community is found in the very nature and character of God and in the way God works to bring people into a new humanity that is learning how to care for one another. … Read more
Culture College
By Dwight Strain. Culture College is an imaginative program that involves the maximum number of youth and the minimum financial and human resources. This Waterloo North Presbyterian Church program targets different age groups with programs such as instrumental music, wood carving, baking, cooking, and model building. … Read more
The Church and the Parachurch, by Jerry White
Reviewed by Roman Garrison. Evangelical Christianity is a broken society with conflict, infighting, and competition rivaling that of the industrial world. Evangelical local churches and para-local church groups need to labor together and encourage one another. … Read more
Perspectives on the Church Doctrine Report on Human Sexuality
John A. Vissers urges the commissioners to the 120th General Assembly in June to adopt the report of the Church Doctrine Committee: it talks about God. The crisis of faith is that we are being asked to believe in ourselves more and more as sexual beings, and in God less and less. … Read more
Charismatic Renewal in the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
By Zeb Bradford Long. Over the last twenty years, there have been four streams of renewal and movements of the Holy Spirit bringing renewal to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, each with itsr distinctive characteristics but which are deeply interrelated. … Read more
How to Become and Be a Christian
By J.H. (Hans) Kouwenberg. It is important for people in a Christian church to know how to become and be Christians, because far too many people are too fuzzy about it. Too many people play at being Christians. … Read more
Rescue Us!
By Darrell Johnson. In the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer, the Greek word translated "temptation" can mean "test" or "enticement to sin". While God never entices us to sin, the evil one can turn a test, designed to prove and improve a person's character, into a temptation. … Read more
Idols of Our Time, by Bob Goudzwaard
Reviewed by Alex Zeidman. We know from Scripture that both persons and societies can put their faith in things or forces which their own hands have made. In their pursuit of prosperity, salvation, health, protection and so forth, people sooner or later create gods. But gods will ultimately destroy their makers. … Read more
Renewable Resources: Equipping Presbyterians for the 21st Century
Ian and Linda Shaw report on the Renewal Day in Selkirk, Manitoba, on May 1st. Dr. George Shillington held up the sole key renewal resource for us now and into the century to come as being the Jesus who came to reveal the Father and his will to us. … Read more
General Assembly 1994
Olive Regina Anstice asks whether we are a confessional church that is rooted in Scripture, committed to pray, and believes in the necessity of personal redemption. … Read more