Christian Reformed Home Missions (CRHM) serves the congregations, ministries, and members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America through partnerships that work to fulfill Christ’s mission.
Home Missions partners with local churches and classes (regional groups of churches) to support educational ministries, help churches become more mission-focused, encourage church planting, train leaders, and promote spiritual growth through prayer and small groups such as Coffee Break.
What’s New
For Home Missions, 2008 has been a year marked by answered prayer, lives transformed by the good news of Christ’s love, and excitement for what the furture holds.
Months of earnest prayer were answered when Home Missions announced the appointment of Ben Vandezande as interim director. Vandezande, who previously led the CRHM Central and Eastern Canada team, replaces director Rev. John Rozeboom, who retires this month after leading the agency for 22 years.
“I hope my service and leadership as interim director can be helpful at this time of transition in Home Missions’ journey,” Vandezande says. “I want to help Home Missions make a good transition to new leadership and discover creative ways for regional ministry teams together with others to walk with churches/ministries to embrace God’s mission in a fresh way.”
Another answer to prayer came in late summer, when Home Missions partnered with the CRC Loan Fund to provide funding for New Horizons (Nueva Horizonte), a new Hispanic congregation under the leadership of missionary pastor Rev. Marco Avila. The funding allowed the congregation to purchase a church and parsonage in Paterson, New Jersey.
Elsewhere, more than 200 Home Missions ministries, including 118 churches and 22 campus ministries, continue to share Jesus with people across the United States and Canada. And Home Missions announced plans to fund a record 23 new churches during the current fiscal year.
Looking to the future, the agency remains focused on using its 12 North American ministry teams to bring staff and resources closer to the Christian Reformed congregations and classes they serve. These teams will also continue to foster denominational diversity by working closely with local Asian, black, Hispanic, and Native American ethnic ministries.
Website: www.crhm.org
United States: 800-266-2175 or 616-224-0772
Canada: 800-730-3490 or 905-336-2920
E-mail: crhm@crcna.org
Quick Facts
-
Home Missions funds 221 ministries in the United States and Canada.
-
118 new churches currently receive financial assistance from Home Missions, with more in the early planning stages.
-
More than 500 Christian Reformed churches and nearly 400 congregations from other denominations are active in small groups ministry, thanks to programs and resources made available through Home Missions.
-
22 educational ministries (20 campuses and two New Mexico schools) receive Home Missions support.
-
13 Leadership Development Networks are training evangelists in English-, Korean-, and Spanish-speaking communities.
-
Home Missions provides funding for 25 internships to train leaders for outreach and discipleship.
-
Home Missions provides training for classis prayer coordinators.
