I say "surprised" because I truly expected the Synod to retain the Herald at almost any cost.  That was the impression I had from the floor of Synod last year (2008). 

I say "surprisingly sad" because, although I have been a some-time critic of the assessment and every-member subscription, I found that I will truly miss the elements of the Herald I found helpful and encouraging. 

Here are some of the things I think the Herald has done well:

- Flak and Flattery gave us a place to sit around the table and talk (albeit over a several week lag time compared to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.). 

- Platform allowed for differing views to to be thoughtfully expressed. 

- A place for lay to share their own stories.

- Ads.  OK, I admit it.  I read the the classifieds first.  No, not to look for a new job.  But it was interesting to read the "help wanted" ads in our church staff meetings - we would often laugh at the over-the-top nature of who churches were looking (some who could walk on water and turn water into wine, of course).  But our family also used the ads to find out about vacation spots.  We have used the various condos to save significantly on great family fun. 

- These blogs!  I haven't written as much as some, but enjoy the conversation and reading other posts. 

So, I will miss many of the finer qualities, but I also am hopeful that the General Synod's desire to bring the best of the Church Herald and RCA TODAY publications together will work. 

Our own congregation's journey with the Herald is perhaps not unlike others:  in the first year of the subscription-only plan, we gave all members a chance to opt-in, with the church offering to pay the entire subscription.  About 25 (out of 300) families did.  In the second year, we simply allowed families to choose on their own.  Most did not renew. 

Why didn't they renew?  I think, in part, because there are so many Christian publications to choose from and so many Christian web sites to use.  And, as with most aspects of denominational identity, the people in the pew care less and less about the denomination.  Our younger members viewed the Herald more as a conversation between seminary-educated pastors and intellectually-inclined lay people, but that it was not so much for them. 

So, here we are.  I pray for the Herald staff and editorial council as they make difficult transitions.  I thank God for their dedicated service and faithfulness to God.  And I encourage the GSC to carefully consider how the best of the Herald can continue to be used in our communication strategy. 

I have been in the RCA my entire life (43 years), being raised in a home dominated by women (four sisters, no brothers).  Together with my mother, both as children and now as adults, these five women have been and are very active in their local churches (two sisters are now Baptists, two are in RCA congregations, and my mother has also served as an elder in her RCA congregation).  They have all taken various leadership roles, whether in ordained capacity or non-ordained lay leadership. 

I have also served on staff in three RCA congregations (one as seminary intern, two as minister of Word and Sacrament).  Each of these churches have women vibrantly involved in ministry - some as elders and deacons, some on staff, and many more in a multitude of ministries.  And, each of these congregations witnessed the decline of official RCWM involvement, even as the churches grew and as women were increasingly involved in all levels of ministry.  In each case the reasons were a little varied.  Sometimes it was because a new generation of women's lives did not fit the older RCWM model of circles, with more formal gatherings and traditions. 

But sometimes it was as much to do with the focus of RCWM's emphasis.  What was RCWM's goal?  My mother, for example, observed her perception of the RCWM's national body as mostly concerned about women in leadership roles.  Even though she would eventually serve as an elder, the emphasis seemed to her out of touch with where most of her peers were living life.  They weren't necessarily opposed to women in leadership.  They just weren't interested in making it a focal point of women's ministries.  The article in the Herald seems to confirm this focus.  That focus is a good and noble goal, but it is not necessarily likely to be attractive to all women as the focus of their women's ministries in the local church. 

Just because the national RCA denomination does not have a stated program for women does not mean that women are not active in the local church.  In our own congregation, there are a number of women involved in leadership (and we can do more, certainly).  But just as importantly, the women are vibrantly involved in varieties of groups and ministries: three bi-weekly English Bible study groups, one weekly Spanish Bible study group, a bi-lingual knitting ministry, a bi-monthly quilting group, creative memory group, and, yes, one monthly Bible study that carries on remarkably like the former "circles."  There are many more women involved today than 10 years ago under the last days of RCWM.  Their own sense of missional involvement continues with joy.  It looks different, but the fruits are nonetheless present. 

I do look forward to Synod's discussion of the future of coordinated work of women's ministry in the denomination.  I wonder, too, what others have observed over the last two decades.  Specifically, what should be the purpose of coordinated women's ministry in the denomination? 

Josh's piece is well written and helps identify why we feel awkward talking about declining churches. It also explains why I sometimes feel "beat up" when I hear the missional gurus talk (and I'm even in a congregation that most in our community would describe as missional, growing, and experiencing seasons of refreshing).

Perhaps a better place to begin (than setting new goals) is where Nehemiah did upon hearing that the people of Jerusalem were in great trouble and shame:

Nehemiah 1:4-10
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today....

The place to begin to change is first of all a place of repentance - and of mourning and fasting and praying.

I am moved by Nehemiah's first act upon learning of shame - he mourns. 

Perhaps one key for the RCA's continuing decline to be reversed is to begin with acknowledging reality: we are in decline.  Perhaps a second step is fasting and mourning and praying.  Nehemiah did so for four months before taking any action. 

I am all for setting the bar high and setting goals.  I think the RCA needs some.  They can offer challenge, inspiration, even hope.  But the goal is not the achievement of benchmarks, it is the increasing in our love for God and our love for others.  To that end there is always room for confession and repentance.  Even in Nehemiah, the goal was not the building of the wall, but the restoration of the covenenat, which takes place in the second half of the book. 

It will be wonderful if the RCA grows again;  it will be even more won if times of refreshing come by God through his Spirit and Word and the church is renewed to be the presence of Christ in the world. 

Thanks, Josh for your good work to stir the conversation.

Jon Opgenorth
Trinity Reformed
Orange City, Iowa

If we live long enough, we may very likely experience three births. The first birth is natural. A mother and father conceive a child. A baby is born. There are tears of wonder and delight from new parents.

As God lays hold of our hearts and draws us to himself, we experience a second birth. We call this being born again, as Jesus says in John 3:7,

Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Joyful tears of fresh forgiveness, new identity, unconditional love, and the hope of heaven flood our eyes as a spring of water to our parched soul. Every Word of God comes new and fresh.

But if we live long enough and follow Christ in authentic relationship, I am certain we will experience a third birth. The Bible does not call it being born again again, but we catch glimpses of it in sincere followers of Christ. I see it in David’s cry of Psalm 6:6,

I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.

I hear it in Jesus’ cry from the cross in Matthew 27:46,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

St. John of the Cross (b.1542) called it The Dark Night of the Soul in a poem he wrote from prison. About this poem Brennan Manning says it explains “the second conversion.” This birth in a person’s life is not marked by joy and enthusiasm but “dryness, barrenness, desolation, and a profound sense of God’s absence.” Yet, he writes, “The dark night is an indispensable stage of spiritual growth...” The kinds of tears in this birth, though painful, purify the ego and lead us on to a higher road to “Christian freedom and maturity. In fact, it is often an answer to prayer.”

Where do you feel the “dark night”? It may be in a sense of personal failure or spiritual emptiness despite your hardest efforts. But it could just as easily be in the staring down of overwhelming injustice and a sense of something that is not right in the world. The lesson I take from David, Jesus, and John of the Cross is not to give up, but to give in – give in to the sovereign work of God in this place we find ourselves. The dawn that comes after a dark night often is more brilliant than any we’ve experienced.

It is a third birth.

Even so, come Lord Jesus! Come quickly!