Christian Reformed Home Missions 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 classes and local 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
If you had to choose a word to summarize Home Missions’ work in the past year, “diversity” would be a good choice. From conferences focused on the concerns of Korean and African American church members, to the appointment of a new Hispanic ministry leader, diversity is the underlying theme of many unique ministries supported by Home Missions.
One highlight was the Korean Conference, sponsored by the CRC Korean Council and Home Missions’ Korean Ministry Team under the leadership of the Rev. Tong Park. The conference celebrated the fact that there are now more than 100 Korean congregations in the CRC. Home Missions also partnered with Rev. Park and the Korean Ministry Team to host the first-ever Korean language orientation for church planters and new mission-focused-church pastors.
The Black and Urban Team sponsored the Black and Reformed Conference held April 27-29 in Grand Rapids, Mich., and the Black and Urban Youth Conference held August 16-19 in Kalamazoo, Mich.
The Hispanic Ministry Team sponsored the Hispanic Conference in Grand Rapids from June 1-3. Home Missions also appointed Javier Torres as its new Hispanic ministry leader, effective July 17.
“Home Missions is very committed to starting programs that reflect the diversity of our culture,” says Bill Van Groningen, the director of ministry development. “We’ve recently begun a peer forum of ethnically diverse leaders to explore barriers to cross-cultural ministry, with a specific view to church planting.
“In addition, Princeton Seminary’s program to develop Hispanic leadership capacity has reviewed our Spanish- language evangelism training program, Adelenté, and is granting their certificates to our program.”
Educational ministries are playing an increasingly important role in Home Missions’ work. This past year, Joyce Suh began her work as the agency’s educational mission specialist in the United States, joining Peter Schuurman, the educational mission leader in Canada.
Home Missions also began to support regional “bootcamp” training opportunities for new church planters, and began offering an online course for pastors of smaller churches in cooperation with Kuyper College in Grand Rapids, Mich.
We thank you for your ministry shares, gifts, offerings, and prayers, all of which we accept with gratitude and dedicate to the glory of God.
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 183 ministries in the United States and Canada.
- In the past fiscal year, Home Missions funded 97 parent church, residencies, and new church starts.
- Among smaller CRC churches (150 or fewer members), 31 received technology grants, 29 received program assistance for outreach, and 18 received aid for continuing education.
- Twenty-one educational ministries (19 campuses and two New Mexico schools) receive support.
- Eighteen Leadership Development Networks are training evangelists in English-, Korean-, and Spanish-speaking communities.
- Twenty students are enrolled in online classes for new church developers in partnership with Kuyper College and Calvin Theological Seminary. The first students in this program graduated in May 2006.
- Home Missions provides funding for 20 internships to train leaders for outreach and discipleship.
- Home Missions funded 10 academic internships with Calvin Seminary and Kuyper College.
- Home Missions provides training for classis prayer coordinators.
