Updated Ministry in Canada Website Available

The Christian Reformed Church Canadian Ministries has updated its website to offer a wider range of resources to help local churches reach out in a variety of ways to their communities, said Rev. Darren Roorda, director of Canadian Ministries.

“We’ve put this together with local church leaders in mind,” said Roorda.

“It deals with practical aspects of ministry in Canada, from the new Faith Formation youth ministry project, to linking into Aboriginal Ministries, to providing access to social justice issues.”

The website, which will continue to grow as more materials are made available, also features a ministry directory for the people, places, and organizations both within and partnered with the Christian Reformed Church in Canada for use by ministry leaders and others, said Roorda.

“This site is one way to answer the question, ‘How do we respond to the uniqueness that is Canada as part of a binational denomination?’” said Roorda. “This is one way we are working to create that unique voice for Canadian Ministries.”

In Canada, said Roorda, “we’re beginning to understand in the Christian Reformed Church what that means for Canadian Ministries, and over the past couple of years, ideas of bi-nationality and the ways in which to minister in Canada have been taking new form and shape.”

He said the site’s social justice page looks at social justice issues that are significant within Canada and are important to the Canadian church.

“This social justice page provides links to all sorts of resources from ministry helps, small group material, videos, information to read, sponsoring refugees, preaching challenges, articles of encouragement, and it goes issue by issue by issue,” he said.

One of the social justice pages, on refugees, for example, “is so well done that the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and the World Council of Churches recognized it and encouraged people to go to that page along with the website of the Mennonite Central Committee when dealing with refugee issues,” said Roorda.

The site offers links to various Canadian partners such as Christian Stewardship Services and Urban Aboriginal Ministry centres that occur only within Canada, the Centre for Public Dialogue, and others.

These resources are for churches from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island and are geared to help churches shape their ministry for answering the call of God to be involved in the world, especially with those who are in greatest need.

“This site will help to point the way and give a foretaste of where the church is going in Canada,” said Roorda.

“It will also help to give people a look at the cultural mosaic that is Canada and at the same time show how we have a solid binational connection with all of the brothers and sisters we have in our denomination.”