Reformed Church Center Events

Upcoming Events

Colloquy: “Demanding a King? An Inquiry Into the Permanence of the General Synod”

January 21, 2020 @ 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm

The Reformed Church Center Asks: Should the General Synod Be a Perpetual Body?

The word “synod” comes from Latin, and means “walking together.” For church bodies, it traditionally referred to representatives of various assemblies of the church who would meet together to discuss items of common concern, reach a consensus, and then go their separate ways. When everyone left, the synod no longer existed.

In 1884, the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, after some deliberation, declared itself to be an ongoing, perpetual assembly. For mostly administrative reasons—such as creating a corporate entity that could hold real property—the General Synod would be an ongoing entity, where the delegates would change at each stated session, but the staff and administration would go on. It would be “in charge” of the corporate entity called the Reformed Church in America, which might or might not be distinct from the church of the same name. Over time, some have argued, this has changed how local congregations and classes have related to the church. One twenty-first century US court ruling even said the RCA is a hierarchical, not a relational, church.

On Tuesday, January 21, 2020, at 5:30 pm, Matthew J. van Maastricht, the newest Fellow of the Reformed Church Center at NBTS, will present the paper “Demanding a King? An Inquiry Into the Permanence of General Synod” as part of a special colloquy celebrating his appointment to the fellowship. Responses will follow from Douglas Banks, Allan Janssen, Daniel Meeter, and Kathy Smith, and then everyone present will be invited to engage in discussion over dinner. We plan to conclude by about 8:00 pm.

Fellows of the Reformed Church Center are scholars who have made recognized contributions to the study of the RCA and its traditions, but who don’t have institutional academic affiliation. They are recommended for appointment by the Reformed Church Center committee and are then expected to be in regular contact with the Center and to make annual reports to the director about the nature and status of their research, and encouraged to visit the seminary during their terms of appointment. There is no stipend with this fellowship, but it can be helpful to scholars for access to research collections and for self-identification in scholarly communication. Anyone interested in applying or nominating someone else to be a Fellow may do so at https://www.nbts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/RCC-Fellowship_application-nomination.pdf.

Everyone is welcome to attend this special colloquy, The suggested donation for dinner will be $15.00, but everyone is welcome to attend regardless of ability to pay. There is no donation required from students enrolled at theological seminaries or from NBTS faculty and staff. RSVP by Thursday, 16 January. at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/colloquy-demanding-a-king-an-inquiry-into-the-permanence-of-general-synod-tickets-79062418823.

Participants:

Douglas Banks is the retired senior pastor of Grace Reformed Church of Brooklyn, New York, and a former stated clerk of the Classis of Brooklyn, RCA. He is dedicated to teaching the whole Word of God and committed to shepherding individuals to the love of God in Christ Jesus. His wife of forty-five years is Sheila; they have two daughters, one grand-daughter and one great grand-daughter. He is co-author of the soon-to-be-released book, Hear Me Now!

Allan Janssen is emeritus professor of Theological Studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and a General Synod professor emeritus of the Reformed Church in America. He has taught and spoken internationally on Reformed polity and doctrine, and is the author, editor, and translator of several books, most recently A Ministry of Reconcilliation: Essays in Honor of Gregg Mast (Eerdmans, 2017) and Constitutional Theology, second edition (Reformed Church Press, 2019).

Daniel Meeter is pastor of the Old First Reformed Church of Brooklyn, New York, with degrees from New Brunswick Theological Seminary and Drew University. He has published extensively, and his book Meeting Each Other in Doctrine, Liturgy, and Government (Eerdmans, 1993) is considered one of the most important modern works on the Constitution of the Reformed Church in America.

Kathy Smith teaches church polity at Calvin Theological Seminary, directs programs at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and teaches Christian leadership courses at Calvin University, all in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Kathy is a graduate of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary and is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church.  She is the author of Stilling the Storm: Worship and Congregational Leadership in Difficult Times (Alban, 2006).

Matthew J. van Maastricht is the pastor at Altamont, New York, and teaches Reformed standards and church polity for Western and New Brunswick Theological Seminaries. He is the newest Fellow of the Reformed Church Center at NBTS, and is a doctoral candidate at the Free University of Amsterdam. He also serves as General Editor of The Congregational History Series of the Reformed Church in America.

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2019-2020 Poppen-Young Lecture in Reformed Worship

February 12, 2020 @ 2:00 pm

John Bell Is Coming to the Reformed Church Center!

The Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Theological Seminary is thrilled to be able to announce that John L. Bell, internationally renowned author, teacher, worship leader, and congregational song enlivener from the Iona Community in Scotland, will be giving the 2019-2020 Poppen-Young Lecture in Reformed Worship on Wednesday, February 12. 

John Bell is a Resource Worker with The Iona Community, who lectures, preaches and conducts seminars across the denominations.  He is a hymn writer, author and occasional broadcaster, but retains a primary passion for congregational song.  John is based in Glasgow and works with his colleagues in the areas of music, worship and spirituality. He will be leading two programs during his visit on the 12^th: a lecture/conversation on Liturgy and Justice from 2:00-4:30 pm, and a Hymn Festival from 6:00-7:30 pm. There will be a simple dinner at 5:00 pm.

John writes is about his plans for the afternoon and evening:

My initial thoughts regarding the afternoon session are:

1) A Biblical background to Justice being at the heart of God’s purposes, noting the gradually evolving realisation that justice was not just the prerogative of the chosen race but for all.

2) An exploration of how, within the developing world (particularly nations like El Salvador and South Africa) the call for justice has been incorporated into their worship life, and the relevance of texts such as the psalms of lament has become very real.

3) A reflection on how justice ultimately is a threat to those who misuse power, in the church as much as anywhere else.

4) A questioning of why some western Christians balk at the mention of justice and see it as synonymous with left-wing politics.

5) The implications of all this for life and liturgy.

I would envisage interactive participation, group conversations and a break mid-way.

At the hymn sing I’ll use songs from all over the globe and will tell some of the stories behind them. This session will NOT be just for those who read music.

Because of the widespread interest in this speaker and the limited space available in Mast Chapel, where the program will be held, advance registration will be required, and will be limited to 150 for each event. Tickets for either the lecture or the hymn festival will be $20.00 each, plus $10.00 for dinner. Those who wish to attend both events may do so for $35.00, including the cost of dinner. Groups of eight to ten from the same church may attend dinner and the hymn festival for $200.00 or the entire event for $300.00. The event is free for seminarians (and other students by special permission of the director of the Reformed Church Center—contact him at jbrumm@nbts.edu), faculty and staff of NBTS, and anyone who is a “Friend of the Reformed Church Center” at the $25/year level or higher. Register below no later than February 1, 2020.

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Past Events

Ecumenical Discussion of Chaplaincy

December 9 @ 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Chaplains: How Do They Fit?

An Ecumenical Discussion Hosted by the Reformed Church Center

NBTS has been sending ministers into professional chaplaincy since 1812. Two centuries later, there are, arguably, more chaplains serving in more fields—including hospitals, hospice care, schools, prisons, military postings, and among first responders—than ever before.  Falling into what many denominations call “specialized ministry,” the question of how chaplains fit into the life of their denominations and their professional settings is an important one.

On Monday, December 9, from 4:30-7:00 pm, the Reformed Church Center will host “Chaplains: How Do They Fit?” Chaplains from Reformed, Baptist, Pentecostal, and Church of God in Christ faith traditions, with experience in hospital, hospice, prison, and military settings, will each address those questions of how they fit in day-to-day ministry and in relating to their sponsoring faith groups, and then we will all join in discussion over dinner.

	Alan T. “Blues” Baker is an RCA minister who served as a military chaplain—from Dean of the Chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis to Rear Admiral.  Dr. Baker is the only graduate of the Naval Academy selected to serve as a Chaplain Corps Flag Officer. In retirement from the Navy, he Strategic Foundations, where he consults with public, private, academic and not-for-profit organizations as educator, catalyst, and strategist, and serves the RCA as Supervisor of Chaplain Ministries, where he provides ecclesiastical endorsements for RCA chaplains in health care, industrial, educational, military and correctional organizations throughout and beyond the United States.  He is an Adjunct Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Wesley Theological Seminary, and Senior Fellow at the U.S. Naval Academy’s Stockdale Center of Ethical Leadership.
	John W. Redic, II, is Founder and Director of Pastoral Services at Isabella, a 705-bed long-term-care facility with a plethora of community services, in Washington Heights (northern Manhattan).   A native of Florida, he is a COGIC minister and a member of the NBTS adjunct faculty.
	Rita Milburn-Dobson is the Executive Director of Precious Gems Supportive Services; a non profit that provides grief counseling and support for children and teens.  She is a Palliative Care Chaplain and Thanatologist. Rita received her degree in nursing from LaSalle University, Master’s of Divinity from Palmer Theological Seminary and her Doctorate in Ministry from New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 2018.
	Myung Han is a a certified Pastoral Counselor and Pastoral counselor through College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP). He serves as a hospice chaplain in Nassau County, New York, and has been appointed to be the convener of chaplains of Oceanside, Long Island.
	Raynard Smith is the Associate Professor of Pastoral Care/Pastoral Theology at NBTS, where he chairs the Ministry Studies Department and oversees the Master of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling program. He has several years of experience as a certified chaplain and pastoral counselor working in the hospital, hospice, and medical clinic contexts. He is also an associate minister in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC); co-founder and coordinator of the COGIC Scholars Fellowship—a network of seminarians and academics within the COGIC and other Pentecostal denominations—and member of the COGIC Board of Education.

 

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Sent On Ahead: Looking at Groundbreaking Missions to India, Japan, and the Middle East

November 18 @ 9:30 am – 3:30 pm

Co-sponsored by RCA Global Missions and the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University

The Reformed Church Center Looks at Groundbreaking RCA Missions

The years 2019-2020 provide significant anniversaries for important Reformed Church in America (RCA) mission programs. It will have been 130 years since James Cantine left to start the RCA mission program in the Middle East in 1889 and was joined by Samuel Zwemer in 1890. The mission to Japan was started 160 years ago, in 1859, while Ferris Seminary began in Yokohama in 1870. And 2020 celebrates the 200^th anniversary of John and Harriet Scudder setting sail from New York; they would settle in India and start medical missions that continue to this day, including the Christian Medical College & Hospital in Vellore, started by their granddaughter, Ida. This also marked the beginning of an unbroken line of Scudder family missionaries that continued to the twenty-first century and encompassed over 1,000 years’ worth of missionary activity.

In recognition of these noteworthy mission milestones, the Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Theological Seminary is partnering with RCA Global Missions and the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University to host “Sent On Ahead: Looking at Groundbreaking Missions to India, Japan, and the Middle East” on Monday, November 18, from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. 

	Anderson H.M. Jeremiah, lecturer in World Christianity and Religious Studies in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, United Kingdom, is a theologian and priest from the Church of South India, who does research into the lived facets of global Christianity and its theological and missional engagement with other faith communities. He will speak on the impact of Christian missions in India.
	Eugene Heideman served as a Presbyter in the Madras Diocese of the Church of South India while a missionary of the Reformed Church in America, 1960-1970, then taught religion and Bible at Central College, Pella, Iowa, and then was on the faculty of Western Theological Seminary.  From 1982 to his retirement in 1994, he was on the World Mission staff of the RCA, and has authored three books in The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, including From Mission to Church: The Reformed Church in America Mission to India. He will give background on the Indian mission.
	Fred Mueller is pastor of Hillsborough Reformed Church in Millstone, New Jersey, and the 2019-2020 Albert A Smith Fellow in Reformed Church History at NBTS. He will be looking at the role of his congregation and its then-pastor, Edward T. Corwin, in bringing Japanese students to Rutgers, NBTS, and Princeton Theological Seminary in the late nineteenth century.
	Haruko Wakabyashi is Assistant Teaching Professor in the Asian Languages and Cultures Department at Rutgers. Her interest lies in the social, cultural, and intellectual development of medieval Japan (12th~16th c.), and the use of visual sources in the study of history. Next spring, she will be offering an Honors Seminar, “Rutgers Meets Japan: Revisiting Early U.S.-Japan Encounters.” She will be speaking on the effects of Christian missions on Japanese culture.
	Gordon D. Laman served as a missionary in Japan for forty-three years, working in partnership with the Japanese church. Subsequently, he served for twenty-one years as a member of the faculty of Tokyo Union Theological Seminary as director of field education, and teaching courses in Asian mission and communication, while traveling throughout Japan as an itinerant evangelist on weekends. He will be speaking on the history and background of the RCA’s Japan mission.
	Rev. Justin Meyers, Associate Director, Al Amana Centre
	En Young Kim, coordinator for the RCA Council of Pacific and Asian-American Ministries and RCA mission programs in the Pacific, will reflect on current mission programs in Japan and how western Christianity and eastern society interact.
	Douglas Leonard is the former director of the Al Amana Centre and of RCA Global Missions and current coordinator of the Ecumenical United Nations Office (EUNO), a joint working space of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ACT Alliance in New York City. He will address the impact of RCA missions in the Middle East and globally.

 

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Unfinished Business: Fifty Years After the Black Manifesto

October 3 @ 9:30 am – 2:30 pm

In May of 1969, Black activist James Forman, meeting with members of the Black Economic Development Conference in Detroit, Michigan, issued a “Black Manifesto,” calling on mainline White denominations to pay reparations and work actively in a restructuring to dismantle institutional racism and white privilege in the United States. The very next month, Forman and others staged a sit-in protest in several denominational offices housed at the Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive in New York, including the offices of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), which happened to be holding its General Synod meeting in New Brunswick at the time.  The RCA formed a small committee of Synod delegates and a few others and, by the time the Synod was concluded, issued a “Response to the Black Manifesto.”

It has been half a century since the Manifesto and the responses from the RCA and other church bodies. On Thursday, October 3, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm, the Reformed Church Center will host “UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Fifty Years Since the Black Manifesto”, a time to re-learn some of that history and the effects on the whole of the mainline Protestant church in the US, as well as the specific response of the RCA and how this denomination has done living up to the promise and addressing the possibility, as well as examining the possibilities and challenges that still lie ahead. 

The program will include:

	Moderator for today’s program:  Nathan Jérémie-Brink, L. Russell Feakes Assistant Professor of Global Christianity, NBTS
	Leonard V. Bethel, Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at Rutgers University and a PC(USA) pastor, who will speak on “Predestination and Slavery,” a background analysis and description of the Black Manifesto.
	James Hart Brumm, Director of the Reformed Church Center, who will look at the RCA’s “Response” document from 1969 in the context of the church at the time and what the Manifesto itself demanded.
	Earl James, Coordinator for the RCA’s African American/Black Council (AABC) and Coordinator for Advocacy in the RCA, who will look at the Council and other denominational responses and how they have both succeeded and failed.
	Dwayne Jackson, co-pastor of Second Reformed Church in Hackensack, New Jersey, and Kelvin Spooner, pastor of Cambria Heights Reformed Church in Queens, New York, both members of the AABC, who will discuss the potential futures for Blacks in the RCA and for a multicultural future for the denomination.

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400 Years After Dort: Owning It and Letting It Go

Thursday, May 9, 9:30 am

The Great Synod of Dort was convened in the city of Dordrecht, the Netherlands, in response to a national crisis precipitated in the young republic over the question of human free will. Meeting in 180 sessions between November, 1618, and May, 1619, the Synod not only addressed that question, but touched on issues of liturgy and government as well, and not only involved the Dutch, but also brought in theologians from across Europe. And the effects of wat happened at Dort and how the world understood Reformed thought have echoed through the Reformed world to this very day—and not always in positive ways.

On Thursday, May 9, from 9:30 to 3:00, the Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Theological Seminary will celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Great Synod of Dort by hosting a discussion: 400 Years After Dort: Owning It and Letting It Go. We will be led in our discussion by some leading Reformed thinkers as we look at the effects od the Synod and discuss which aspects of Dort should be kept, refreshed, and built upon, and which we might well let go of as we enter a new century. 

	Daniel Meeter is pastor of the Old First Reformed Church of Brooklyn, New York, with degrees from New Brunswick Theological Seminary and Drew University. He has published extensively, and his book Meeting Each Other in Doctrine, Liturgy, and Government (Eerdmans, 1993) is considered one of the most important modern works on the Constitution of the Reformed Church in America. One area of his concern is the texts and contexts of Reformed baptismal liturgies. And he will be looking at what Dort said about baptism.
	David D. Daniels III is the Henry Winters Luce Professor of World Christianity at McCormick Theological Seminary, having joined the faculty in 1987.  He is the author of over 50 essays, academic articles, and book chapters on topics related to African Christians in early modern Europe, Black Church history, Pentecostal Studies, and World Christianity.  He has served as a member of research projects funded by various foundations, including the Eli Lilly Endowment, the Luce Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust, and the Institute of Classical Christianity. His presentation will be “Prelude to a “Post-Racial” Future:  Interrogating the Baptism Debate at the Synod of Dort.”
	Allan Janssen is emeritus professor of Theological Studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and a General Synod professor emeritus of the Reformed Church in America. He has taught and spoken internationally on Reformed polity and doctrine, and is the author, editor, and translator of several books, most recently Confessing the Faith Today: A Fresh Look at the Belgic Confession (Wipf and Stock, 2017) and A Ministry of Reconciliation: Essays ion Honor of Gregg Mast (Eerdmans, 2017) as well as the upcoming revised edition of his classic work on RCA church order, Constitutional Theology. He will speak on Dort’s effects on public theology in the Reformed world.
	Suzanne McDonald is professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. She is ordained in the Christian Reformed Church, and has written books and essays on a range of subjects, including the doctrine of election, John Knox, and the theology of John Owen. In her presentation, “The Canons of Dort for the Church Today: Polemics, Pastoring, and Pulling up TULIPs,” she will argue that, once we have recognized the limits of what the Canons set out to do, and why they take their particular form, the theology of the Canons still matters deeply, and that they have a strong pastoral polemic.
	Matthew van Maastricht is the pastor at Altamont, New York and teaches Reformed standards and church polity for Western and New Brunswick Theological Seminaries. He is a doctoral candidate at the Free University of Amsterdam and General Editor of The Congregational History Series of the Reformed Church in America. He will be speaking about the impact of Dort on Reformed polity.

In addition to our presenters, we will have respondents who come from various non-Dutch backgrounds, yet who represent peoples who, by becoming part of the RCA, have been adopted into the legacy of Dort, including RCA pastors, Alfred Correa, Kent McHeard, Young Aie Na, and Imos Wu, and Janice McLean-Farrell, the Dirck Romeyn Assistant Professor of Metro-Urban Ministry at NBTS.

 

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Preaching in a Period of Polarization

Thursday, April 25, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Come join us for a Preaching Workshop at NBTS!

Preaching the Word, and doing so pastorally and prophetically, week in and week out, is one of the central callings for ministers. This becomes even more challenging in this politically polarized era, when so many listeners are looking for a subtext in support of one secular position or another, and will only listen to those that support them. On top of those weekly tasks, we have the duty of presenting the gift and the dare that comes with Christ laying down his life for our sake and how we present that to congregations in the charged climate.

To help ministers proclaim the Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost and move into a new electoral cycle under these circumstances, the Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, along with the school’s department of worship and preaching, will offer the workshop “Preaching in a Period of Polarization” on Thursday, April 25, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Gifted preachers and instructors representing the Episcopal, Baptist, ad Reformed traditions will discuss the challenges before us, then participants will each be able to take part in two small-group sessions on topics including “Justice and Lament: Unlikely Partners”, “Preaching the Liturgical Year”, and more!

	The Rev. Dr. Kara Slade serves as Associate Chaplain at the Episcopal Church at Princeton University and Associate Rector at Trinity Church, Princeton.  A native of Pensacola, Florida and lifelong Southerner, Kara holds degrees in Christian Theology and Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science from Duke University. Before entering ministry, she was a research engineer for NASA. She serves on the Committee for the Priesthood of the Diocese of New Jersey and the General Board of Examining Chaplains, and is also the chair of the Society of Scholar-Priests. She will speak on “What Is Preaching Today?”
	Anna Jackson is a native New Yorker who grew up at New Lots Community (Reformed) Church in Brooklyn and has served several RCA commissions, task forces, councils, and congregations, and is a past moderator for the Board of Trustees of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, her alma mater. She and her husband, Dwayne, are the co-pastors of Second Reformed Church in Hackensack, NJ.  She is an avid reader, loves jigsaw puzzles, social media, animals, traveling and playing her cello. She will speak on “What Does Polarization Look Like Today?”
	The Reverend Jes Kast is the Senior Pastor to Faith United Church of Christ in State College, PA. Before moving to Pennsylvania, she was a minister at West End Collegiate Church in NYC for 8 years, and she is a graduate of Western Theological Seminary. Her understanding of prophetic justice is rooted in Reformed theology guided by black liberation and feminist theologies.   She and her wife enjoy finding the perfect cup of coffee at unique coffee shops across the country. She is active on social media believing the congregation is more than who is just in the pews. Her topic for the morning session will be “Exegeting the Congregation.”
	Andrew Wymer is Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship, Director of Chapel, and Assistant Dean of Doctoral Studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He has taught in the Association of Chicago Theological Schools Doctor of Ministry in Preaching Program and at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and serves as a board member for The Liturgical Conference. He is author of numerous papers and journal articles, and lives in New Brunswick with his wife and children. He will be speaking on “Exegeting the Scriptures.”

This day-long workshop is open to everyone. The suggested donation for lunch will be $10.00; but everyone is welcome regardless of ability to pay. Lunch is free for all seminarians. NBTS is also able to offer .5 CEU to anyone who completes this program, at a cost of $25.00. Register via e-mail to jbrumm@nbts.edu by Monday, April 22nd^th. Please include your name, postal address, and telephone number; those applying for the .5 CEU must indicate the same in the e-mail.

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Reformed Worship and the Liturgical Revival

Thursday, April 11, 10:00 am – 2:30 p.m.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, both the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the Christian Reformed Church in North America undertook liturgical revisions that represented substantial shifts in how they lived out their liturgical and sacramental lives. While some of this was, no doubt, influenced by the work of Vatican II, nevertheless, two denominations that had historically leaned toward liturgical minimalism and Zwinglian memorialism in their sacramental understandings shifted towards much more Calvinian liturgies. They also engaged the growing ecumenical consensus on eucharistic celebrations and even suggested—at least in the RCA—that the Supper should be celebrated as often as the word is preached. What is even more remarkable is that both denominations found themselves with capable scholars to spark this revival when their life before then would not exactly have nurtured this sort of sensibility.

How did this come to pass? What are the continuing fruits of this liturgical revival, especially as both the CRC and the RCA become increasingly multicultural? These are questions which we explore in “Reformed Worship and the Liturgical Revival,” a program recorded on Thursday, April 11, 10:00-2:30 at New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Emily R. Brink, internationally-known liturgical and hymnological scholar and Senior Research Fellow at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Michigan, will share findings from her work at the 2018-19 Alvin J. Poppen & John R. Young Fellow in Reformed Worship at NBTS as part of her keynote address. She’ll be looking, in particular, at CRC and RCA parallel influences in liturgical renewal in the 1960s.

Gregg A. Mast is president emeritus of NBTS, and in his forty-year ministry served as a congregational pastor in Johannesburg, South Africa, Irvington, New Jersey, and Albany, New York; as  Minister of Social Witness and the Director of Ministry Services in the RCA; and as President of the RCA General Synod. A well-known liturgical scholar, he will address the development of what became the 1968 Liturgy for the Lord’s Supper in the RCA and its surprising sources.

Three pastors will share stories of adapting the RCA liturgy in their own varied contexts.

	Benjamín Alicea-Lugo is the Pastor of the St. Paul’s Evangelical Reformed Church in Perth Amboy, NJ, since 1986, and a Spanish teacher at Old Bridge High School since 2002. He and his wife, Irma, are Co-Editors of Praise y Adoración BilingualHymnal / Himnario bilingue.
	Ursula Cargill, a minister and educational administrator, serves Agape House, a new RCA ministry in North Plainfield, NJ, as pastor, planter, and ministries leader.
	Dan Joo is the lead pastor of Willow Grove, PA, Korean Reformed Church and current president of the Classis of Delaware-Raritan. His pastoral focus is on building a stronger community of disciples radically following Christ, bridging between the generations of Korean immigrants and raising the next generation leaders.

 

 

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The third annual Women’s Stories Day

Saturday, February 2, 2019

The third annual Women’s Stories Day at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, co-hosted by the Reformed Church Center and the RCA Office for Women’s Transformation and Leadership, will be held on Saturday, 2 February 2019 (snow date 9 February 2019). This year’s theme will be: “Taking a Stand,” featuring stories of RCA women advocating to change their world.

The day will feature the 2018-2019 Hazel B. Gnade presentation in RCA Women’s Studies.

	Elizabeth Colmant Estes, the 2018-2019 Hazel B. Gnade Fellow, is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York, where she won the Hitchcock Prize in Church History, the Muilenberg Prize in Biblical Studies, and the Union Traveling Fellowship. A chaplaincy resident at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, and an elder at the Reformed Church of Highland Park, she serves on the RCA Commission on Theology. Her presentation—part of her larger work on persons, office, and the local church—will focus on those who took part in a retreat at Stony Point, New York, in the early 1970s, committing to work together to open the office of Minister of the Word and Sacrament to women.
	Patricia Sealy is a graduate of New Brunswick Theological Seminary and pastor of Mott Haven Reformed Church in the Bronx. She is director of Children’s Haven: A Place of Healing and Hope, and will be speaking about ministry to and advocacy for children whose parents are incarcerated.
	Karen Jackson is a specialized RCA minister who serves as the Director of Recovery and Community Initiatives at Project Hospitality, an interfaith social service agency committed to feeding the hungry and housing the homeless. She also administers the Staten Island Long Term Recovery Organization, founded in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, and leads the Staten Island Inter-Religious Leadership coalition, organizing local clergy to respond to the social justice issues of our times. She will share her work with Project Hospitality in her address “Here I Am, Lord: The Call to Local Advocacy.”
	Liz Testa serves as the RCA’s denominational leader for Women’s Transformation and Leadership.  She is a pastor, creative innovator, visionary leader and community builder who is passionate about biblical hospitality, the importance of story sharing, encouraging, and equipping others to live into their God-given gifts and callings, and she will be leading all of the participants in a process of sharing their own stories.
	Anna Jackson, a native New Yorker who grew up at New Lots Community (Reformed) Church in Brooklyn and has served several RCA commissions, task forces, councils, and congregations, will be the worship leader for the day. Anna and her husband, Dwayne, are the co-pastors of Second Reformed Church in Hackensack, NJ.  She is an avid reader, loves jigsaw puzzles, social media, animals, travelling and playing her cello.

 

 

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HOW CAN WE RESPOND TO THE REFUGEE CRISIS?

Wednesday, January 30, 5:00 pm at St. John’s University,  St. John Hall – Room 304B

As the number of displaced people worldwide grows every day, and as more and more governments shrink from responsibility, Christian—followers of a refugee—are left wondering how to take up the challenge. The Reformed Church Center invites you to join JJ TenClay, Refugee Ministries Coordinator for RCA Global Mission, for Dinner & Discussion on Thursday, November 15, 5:00 pm at St. John’s University, as she shares stories of trauma, resilience and hope related to her work with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Italy, and why Christians should do more to care for those seeking refuge.

JJ TenClay spent four years in Italy as a missionary for the Reformed Church in America, providing for the social, emotional and spiritual needs of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. She returned to the United States in July 2018 and is now the Refugee Ministries Coordinator for RCA Global Missions.

 

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Looking at the Great Lakes Catechism

 Tuesday, January 15 2019, from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm

Reformed Church Center Looks at the Great Lakes Catechism

The RCA General Synod of 2018 voted “To commend the Great Lakes Catechism on Marriage and Sexuality for reflection, study, and response by the Commission on Theology and RCA churches and classes as a means of deepening our understanding of the biblical teaching on human sexuality and finding a pathway forward toward unity in mission and ministry” (OV 18-21, MGS 2018, p. 148). This action raises issues for the church and its assemblies, not only in the area of human sexuality, but over the theological and biblical integrity of this catechism as well as how and when we amend the Standards of the Reformed Church in America, which have only been changed once in the last 400 years.

On Tuesday, 15 January 2019, from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm, the Reformed Church Center will host “Looking at the Great Lakes Catechism”, a time to help office-bearers and congregations review this document and consider their responses to the General Synod in its ongoing discussions. We will have five presentations on the Catechism from experts within the RCA, looking at it from their own disciplines:

	Tricia Sheffield holds degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Drew University, and currently serves as pastor and teacher of Middletown (New Jersey) Reformed Church. She has taught religion and gender theory at the college level, and most recently was the Lilly Visiting Scholar in Religious and Gender Studies at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.
	Matthew van Maastricht is the pastor at Altamont, New York and teaches the Reformed standards and church polity for Western and New Brunswick Theological Seminaries. He is a doctoral candidate at the Free University of Amsterdam and General Editor of The Congregational History Series of the Reformed Church in America.
	Dwayne Jackson, Co-pastor, Second Reformed Church, Hackensack, NJ
	Christopher Dorn is a biblical and liturgical scholar who resides in Holland, Michigan. He currently serves as chair of Christians Uniting in Song and Prayer, an interdenominational organization in Holland dedicated to promoting and practicing worship that embodies the best of the catholic tradition. He preaches regularly at First Presbyterian Church in Ionia and Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Holland.
	Micah McCreary is President of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Virginia Union University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. A pastor and pastoral counselor, his areas of specialization include the integration of spirituality and psychology and the influence of culture upon health.

The rest of our time will be spent in conversation around the Catechism and issues raised by our presenters. Participants may prepare by reviewing the Catechism, which is found at http://images.rca.org/docs/synod/GLCatechism.pdf. 

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Remembering Who We Are: How Congregations Commemorate and Celebrate Their Heritages

Thursday, December 6, from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm

The Reformed Church Center Looks at How and Why Congregations Celebrate Their History

After the first Sunday, every congregation has a past. What we do with those pasts, how we remember and celebrate, is significant to understanding how we live out our faith, according to David Zwart, Associate Professor of History at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, and 2018-19 Albert A Smith fellow in Reformed Church History at New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Zwart will be the keynote presenter for “Remembering Who We Are: How Congregations Commemorate and Celebrate Their Heritages”, a program hosted by the Reformed Church Center at NBTS on Thursday, 6 December, from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm. His address—“An Obligation to the Past? RCA Congregations and History after World War II”—examines the ways Reformed Church in America congregations conceptualized and used the past in the second half of the twentieth century. By surveying congregational anniversary books, certain patterns and exceptions emerge in how congregations conceptualized and used the past. Congregations showed they felt some obligation to their history by commemorating anniversaries. They generally emphasized faithful forbearers and pastors. However, some seemed to use the past to constrain any innovations while others did the opposite. Historical variables may account for these differences. Studying the ways congregations in the RCA conceptualized and used the past sheds light on the historical process of memory formation. It also helps us understand how congregations navigate contentious issues by appealing to the past.

Other presenters will look at ways in which RCA congregations which are not ethnically Dutch remember and celebrate their identities.

Patricia Singletary holds Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from NBTS, and serves as pastor of Elmendorf Reformed Church in New York. She will share the story of how that congregation is leading its community in rediscovering an African Burial Ground in East Harlem and using it to strengthen the neighborhood’s knowledge of its roots.
Gerri Igarashi Yoshida is a member of the Japanese American United Church, also in New York City, and serves on the Pastoral Formation & Transitions Committee of the Classis of New York and the Executive Committee of the RCA Council for Pacific and Asian American Ministries. She will lead a discussion of how her congregation celebrates its identity.
Regina Robles Brannock, a mother, grandmother, and member of the Comanche Nation, has been part of the Apace Reformed Church in Oklahoma since 1971, and has served as Sunday School teacher, Deacon, and Elder, as well as serving on the RCA Council for Christian Education, General Synod Council, and Native American Council. A current candidate for ministry as a commissioned pastor, Ms. Brannock will examine the ways the Apache congregation remembers its history.
Russell L. Gasero, a graduate of Hope College and Rutgers University who established the RCA Archives in 1978 and continues as Archivist of the Reformed Church in America, will help us consider the importance of congregational histories for the ministries of local churches and denominations.

 

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The Reformed Church Center Presents:

Schism – and Reformed theology?

A Lecture and Panel Discussion on the issue of Schism.

Monday, November 5, 2018, 4:00-6:30 pm

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Dirk Smit, Rimmer and Ruth deVries Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life at Princeton Theological Seminary and principal author of the Belhar Confession

 

Struggles over maintaining a Christian witness in a society where our understandings of inclusion and personhood keep changing have driven many denominations, including the Reformed Church in America, to consider the idea of splitting apart. For Reformed Christians, however, there are fundamental ideas about the unity of the Church that are at the core of our ecclesiology and out theology.

On Monday, November 5, 2018, 4:00-6:30 pm, the Reformed Church Center will host a discussion on the New Brunswick Campus. Dirk Smit, Rimmer and Ruth DeVries Professor of Reformed Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and former Professor of Systematic Theology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, will be the principal presenter. He is a pastor from the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, and was primary author of the Belhar Confession, adopted by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in South Africa in 1982 and the Reformed Church in America in 2009.

Dr. Smit’s presentation will be responded to by Jaeseung Cha, Associate Professor of Foundational and Constructive Theology at NBTS and a General Synod Professor of the Reformed Church in America;

Janice McLean-Farrell, Dirk Romeyn Assistant Professor of Metro-Urban Ministry at NBTS and author of West-Indian Pentecostals: Living Their Faith in New York and London (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016); and

Jonathan Vanderbeck, pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Schenectady, New York, a licensed psychotherapist at Samaritan Counseling Center in Scotia, New York, and a dedicated advocate for those on the margins, particularly at the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality.

After the formal presentation and responses, everyone will be invited into a discussion with the leaders over dinner.

 

 

 

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“Send Them, Apostles”: NBTS As the Birthplace of RCA Missions

Friday, October 5, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Remembering New Brunswick’s Role in Making Missionaries!

Send them, apostles! Heralds of your cross,
forth may they go to tell all realms your grace;
inspired of you, may they count all but loss,
and stand at last with joy before your face.

—Denis Wortman, 1884

These words are part of New Brunswick Theological Seminary’s “school song,” the hymn written on the occasion of its centennial in 1884. The creation of the main student governing group at the Seminary, now called SSIM, was as the Society of Inquiry into Missions in 1812. The Bussing Museum, housed in Sage Library, was begun as a collection of artifacts sent from missionaries in the field to seminarians to encourage them to join in spreading Christ’s Good News to every land.

On Friday, October 5, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, as part of the Seminary’s Founders Weekend, the Reformed Church Center will host “Send Them, Apostles: NBTS as the Birthplace of RCA Missions”. Three scholars will look at origins and effects of the school’s missionary fervor, and we will consider the future of missions in the RCA and beyond and how this cradle of missions can cooperate with the larger church in this work.

	John W. Coakley is L. Russell Feakes Professor of Church History emeritus at NBTS and one of the pre-eminent living scholars of John Henry Livingston, founder of this school ad “Father of the Reformed Church in America.” He will look at “What Does It Mean to Say the Gospel Will Triumph?: John Henry Livingston on Missions.”
	John Hubers (NBTS 1982) is an RCA pastor of congregations in the US and a global missionary who pastored three congregations in Bahrain and Oman and supervised RCA missiond in the Middle East and South Asia. He recently accepted an invitation from Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addas Ababa, Ethiopia, to restructure and teach in their Muslim/Christian relations program. He will present “An Unexpected Harvest: Zwemer, Cantine, and What They Have Wrought.”
	Derrick Jones is the supervisor of RCA mission in Africa and Oman. He has served in this role for over ten years and is passionate about holistic mission principles, partnerships and opportunities that advance the missio Dei, and he will be sharing a Vision for Twenty-First Century RCA Missions.
	Eri Kitada is a third-year doctoral student who studies Women’s and Gender History and US History at Rutgers University. Her presentation, “Rutgers Foreign Missions and the Scarlet and Black Project”, discusses the ties of Rutgers students and alumni (many, if not most, NBTS graduates) to foreign missions and the Scarlet and Black Project, an effort to explore the African-American and Native American experience at Rutgers.

 

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Being a Reformed Church When the Church is Under Stress: A Conversation

Thursday, June 21, 10:00 am-2:30 pm

A few weeks ago, in the midst of a Facebook discussion over the state of the RCA and concerns over the coming General Synod, a side conversation opened up. It was about how some of us, while we are unsure of what is going to happen to the current denominational structure, are quite confident in local churches and classes and even a few regional synods, who, no matter where they are in the discussions of human sexuality—and many of them are mixed—are continuing to do good Reformed ministry. While the future of the RCA is in doubt, there are lots of Reformed churches in local communities who maintain a vibrant Reformed witness, and they need help and support doing that—help and support the denomination is having difficulty providing right now.

That led to the plan for this special conversation, which the Reformed Church Center will host at New Brunswick Theological Seminary on June 21^st. This event will not be live-streamed, because placing us in an informal setting where we can all share freely makes that much more difficult. Still, I hope many of us can be here, and the Center will do what it can to find low-cost (or free) accommodations for those who need to stay the night.

As our denominational structures in the RCA face conflict, stress, and uncertainty, local congregations still have the challenge of being Reformed and bringing a witness to their communities. This time of conversation will focus on how every congregation can keep doing that, no matter what happens at General Synod. Following a state-of-the-church presentation by Al Janssen (a General Synod Professor at NBTS), we will launch into informal conversations around four topics:

• We can be church together even when we don’t entirely agree—led by Abby Norton-Levering (Albany Synod Ministries Coordinator) and Thomas Song (pastor of Steinway Reformed Church, Queens, NY).
• We can be church no matter what happens denominationally—led by Rett Zabriskie (specialized transition minister) and Matthew van Maastricht (pastor, Altamont Reformed Church).
• We can be a non-anxious presence for our own congregations and the RCA—led by Linda Burlew Gold (pastor, First Reformed Church, College Point, NY) and Dwayne Jackson (pastor, second Reformed Church, Hackensack, NJ).
• We can be ecumenical on our own . . . and often are—led by Patricia Singletary (Pastor, Elmendorf Reformed Church, New York, NY) and Amy Nyland (New York Synod Executive Minister).

Everyone who cares about the lives of their congregations and about our call to bring a Reformed understanding of God’s Reign to our communities is welcome, no matter what your theological understanding of human sexuality might be.

*This is an over-and-above program for the Center at the end of the budget year. Anyone who has the means to give a little extra toward food, etc., is welcome to do so.

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Second Annual Women’s Stories Day Celebrates Those Who Came First

Saturday, May 12, 2018, from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm at the New Brunswick campus (35 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, New Jersey)

The year 2018 celebrates the confluence of important anniversaries for women in ministry in the Reformed Church in America. A century ago, the first overtures were sent to General Synod calling for all the offices of the church to be open to women. That same year, Ida Scudder opened Velore Women’s Medical College. The first woman was ordained to ministry of the Word and Sacrament 45 years ago, and, five years later, women were examined by classes for ordination for the first time. Three decades ago, the first African-American woman to be a minister of Word and Sacrament in the RCA was ordained, and this is the twentieth anniversary if the installation of the first woman professor of theology.

In celebration of this special year when the General Synod will be thanking God for the gifts and ministries of women in the church, the Reformed Church Center’s Women’s Stories Day, co-hosted by the RCA Office of Women’s Transformation & Leadership, will be sharing the stories of “First Women.” On Saturday, May 12, 2018, from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm, the Center will have its second annual Hazel Gnade presentation, with four of the first women sharing their stories.

Bernita Babb, the retired pastor of Mott Haven Reformed Church in the Bronx and the first African-American woman ordained in the RCA, is a graduate of Hunter College and NBTS, with a DMin from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She taught for 27 years in New York City Public Schools and, in retirement taught in the public schools of Prince George’s County, Maryland, while preaching and teaching in congregations in the DC metropolitan area.
Carol Bechtel is Professor of Old Testament at Western Theological Seminary and a graduate of Hope College and WTS with a Ph.D. from Yale University. She has published extensively, served as president of the General Synod of the RCA in 2009 and moderator of the General Synod Council in 2010, and was the first woman ordained by the Classis of Illinois in 1988. In 1998, she became the first woman professor of theology.
The first woman full-time faculty member at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, E. Elizabeth Johnson holds degrees from Ohio University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Yale University. She returned to Princeton to earn her Ph.D, was ordained  by the Presbytery of Greenbrier (PCUS) in 1977, and taught at Queens College (now Queens University) in Charlotte, NC, from 1979-83. From 1986 to 1998 she was on the faculty at NBTS, and, since 1998, she has served as J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA.
Joyce Borgman DeVelder has spent her life in the RCA. A native of Fremont, MI, she attended Hope College and Western and New Brunswick Seminaries, then served at the Delmar, NY, Reformed Church 1977-80, being examined by the Classis of Albany in 1978 and then, after spending a year at the center of a General Synod controversy, was ordained in 1979. For the last 37 years, she has been pastor of Old Saratoga Reformed Church in Schuylerville, NY. She and her husband, Davd, have two sons, Nathaniel and Mikael.
Young Na is the first woman of Korean heritage ordained as a minister of the Word & Sacrament in RCA history, and the first to earn a Master of Divinity degree at NBTS (1989). She earned her DMin at NBTS in 2002, and is the senior pastor of Forest Park Church in Queens, NY, and an adjunct professor of basic biblical language courses.

In addition to hearing those stories, we hope to hear from women who were the first to serve as deacons and elders in their local congregations. Go to http://www.nbts.edu/student-life/reformed-church-center/rca-first-stories-project/ to find out how your congregation can take part in the RCA First Stories Project.

 

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ISHMAEL AND ISAAC: Examining Interfaith Relationships

April 19, 2018 at 10:00 am at the New Brunswick campus (35 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, New Jersey)

This day-long program looked at the past, present, and future of interfaith relationships for Reformed Christians. Four Reformed Church leaders will share their thoughts and experiences in this crucial area of our common life.