All Articles For Kortering, Jason L.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother and then...

The outreach we speak about in this article is mission work. It is hard work. It taxes our patience. It tries our commitment. And it stirs in us the deepest sense of helplessness. Having said this, we quickly add that it is right and beautiful for every congregation to do it. There are two reasons for this. First, it is the response of faith to obey the com­mandment of our Lord. Two passages from the Bible come to mind. Matthew 28:18-20: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing...

Welcome to a Reformed Church: A Guide for Pilgrims, by Daniel R. Hyde, 178 pages, paper. Published by Reformation Trust of Ligonier Ministries. Retail price is $12. Reviewed by Rev. J. Kortering. First of all, we say a word about the author. He serves as pastor of the Oceanside United Reformed Church in Carlsbad/Oceanside, CA. He earned his Master of Divinity degree from Westminster West and his Master of Theology degree from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI. His qualification to write this book is not limited to his formal theological studies. He became a Christian in high...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Previous article in this series: January 1, 2009, p. 156. His Labors in India The struggles that William Carey faced in England in trying to convince others that God had a work for him in India prepared him for the far more difficult work God had for him to do there. During their five-month voyage, Carey began his study of the Bengali language, with the help of Thomas, his colleague, who had labored in India before and motivated him to return with him. The captain of the ship was...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Previous article in this series: January 1, 2009, p. 156. His Labors in India The struggles that William Carey faced in England in trying to convince others that God had a work for him in India prepared him for the far more difficult work God had for him to do there. During their five month voyage, Carey began his study of the Bengali language, with the help of Thomas, his colleague, who had labored in India before and motivated him to return with him. The captain of the ship...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Carey Leaves England for India William Carey is known as the “Father of Modern Missions.” There are especially two reasons for this. First, he was one of the first pastors to heed the call to leave the comforts of a church home and to labor in a foreign land. He became a catalyst for foreign missions. Second, in his own work in foreign missions he developed a method of labor that others could emulate. Considering that this was pioneer work, work that was without a role model, it is...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Previous article in this series: October 1, 2008, p. 16. Money and missions is like mixing water and oil; they just don’t seem to work together. More problems arise from this need than from any other. Notice, I said “need” because that is what it is. You cannot do mission work without money, and the need to spend money in the mission field is only too obvious. God made man dependent upon the earth for his daily bread. All through history the tension between those who have and those...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Previous article: April 15, 2008, p. 322. John Nevius suggested that an indigenous church ought to have three distinctive characteristics: self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. In this article we focus on the second characteristic, self-propagating. We will do this from the point of view of the missionary’s role in this effort. If a mission church is truly going to stand on its own and be able to free itself from dependency upon the sending church, it has to have the desire and ability to grow in numbers. Self-propagating refers to...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Annual church assemblies give rise to public discussion on controversial issues. As the readers of the Standard Bearerknow well, women in office is such an issue. This year is no exception. Turning to the annual synod of the Christian Reformed Church, we learn that this issue has probably reached its climax with the inclusion of women delegates to synod and the election of one of these women delegates to serve as the vice-president of synod. True, they still await a woman president, and that seems likely to come in its...