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When we reject God and follow our own purposes, ugliness results. These ugly stories hold up a mirror to show us how sin looks

Busy. Overwhelmed. Chaotic. These are the words I most often hear when I ask people to describe today’s families. Because of this busyness and the shifts in society and parenting, churches everywhere are seeing a decline in both attendance and engagement from young families.

When Dmitry heard a radio message that touched him, he decided to write a message of thanks to the program’s producers in Russia. He didn’t expect the conversation to go any further.

Millennials may find this album resonates with the common challenges of their generation, particularly around authenticity and love.

Khang boldly unfolds how having no space to speak is not only a justice issue but a limitation on what it is to experience the fullness of imago Dei—being an image-bearer of God.

Are commissioned pastors allowed to perform the same tasks as ministers, such as administering the sacraments and performing weddings and funerals?

The majority of us who read The Banner are not theologians, and we so appreciate a good, down-to-earth article. Keep writing, and thanks again.

It may be easy to shut our eyes and hearts to nameless throngs, but personal relationships make it much harder. 

Recovering hypocrite. That’s what my student leaders had printed on T-shirts for orientation days when I was a campus pastor. The point was that all Christians are recovering hypocrites. None of us has always been consistent in following Jesus.

Shorter speeches. More delegate and leadership training. More time for intentional dialogue. Those are some of the recommendations coming from the Synod Review Task Force appointed by Synod 2016.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and others are welcoming changes to the federal government’s summer jobs program that remove language interpreted by many to require support for abortion.

Since September, River Terrace Christian Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich., has offered free yoga classes. Pastor Ken Bieber reads psalms or meditations while a certified yoga instructor leads the twice-weekly sessions.

This captivating juvenile novel shows that ordinary people who aren’t making the headlines, many young girls among them, are nevertheless changing the world for the better.

An interview with VeggieTales co-creator Phil Vischer.

What do we do when our culture provides us with a counter-narrative to the one in Scripture, one that, on the surface, appears far more alluring, satisfying, and fulfilling than the one that Scripture offers?

In August, Calvin College professors Judy Vander Woude, Peggy Goetz, and Jill Bates traveled with speech pathology students to China to work with children with special needs at the GIFT Parents’ Support Center. 

In this fast-paced, adventurous, and thought-provoking juvenile novel, author Lauren Wolk has created memorable, complex characters.

We asked our reviewers to offer their five favorite titles of 2018 in a number of categories. 

We asked our reviewers to offer their five favorite titles of 2018 in a number of categories.

Using donated apples, Pease (Minn.) Christian Reformed Church has baked and sold thousands of apple pies over the last nine years as a fundraiser for participation in the Global Partnership Program with World Renew.

These news stories, features and columns from 2018 made the top 10 in reader engagement, as counted by The Banner’s web analytics software. Thanks for reading!

It sits prominently way up on the third shelf to the left of our fireplace. It’s a robin’s-egg-blue 1961 Chevy pickup truck and trailer with white trim made by Tonka at 1/18th scale. In the trailer is a plastic Black Angus steer with one horn slightly chipped.

Our churches are called to explore various ways to reach their communities through both evangelism and social justice.