On this Easter Sunday 2017, the following PRC congregational and mission news items may be noted:

Congregational news:

• Rev. S. Key (loveland, CO PRC) announced this morning his DECLINE of the call from First PRC of Holland, MI.
  
• Update: On Sunday evening, April 16, the congregation of SW PRC voted to extend a call to Rev. C. Griess (Calvary PRC, Hull, IA).
• The Council of Zion PRC- Jenison, MI announces a new trio of Rev. N Decker (Trinity- Hudsonville, MI), Rev. G. Eriks (Hudsonville, MI) and Rev. R. Kleyn (Covenant of Grace- Spokane, WA).
• The Council of SW PRC has drawn up a new trio from which to call a pastor: Revs. C. Griess (Calvary PRC, Hull, IA), W. Langerak (SE PRC, Grand Rapids, MI), and M. McGeown (Limerick Reformed Fellowship).

 Mission news:

• This morning Rev. B. Huizinga (Hope PRC, Redlands, CA) annnounced his DECLINE of the call from Doon PRC to serve as third missionary to the Philippines.
• From our sister church in Singapore, Covenant ERC, comes this note concerning a delegation to Kolkata, India this week:

• From the Maranatha PRC Provident Christian church bulletin for April 16 we learn this news:
  
  • Rev. Vernon Ibe will preach in our first service today and Rev. Holstege will preach in the second. Rev. Holstege will preach for the Bereans in their first service today, and Rev. Kleyn in their second service. Next Sunday, Lord willing, Rev. Holstege will preach in both services here at PCC.
  • Next Sunday, April 23, at 1:30 pm, Rev. Holstege plans to begin a Youth Fellowship and Bible Study here at PCC. All the young people are invited to attend. We hope to meet about twice per month, Lord willing.
  • Rev. and Sharon Kleyn will make the monthly trip to Negros Occidental this week.
• For pictures and information on the Phiilppine mission labors, visit the Kleyn's blog and the Holstege's blog. Below are two pictures of a new post on the recent delegation to the PR Fellowship in Leyte.
  

 
Rev. J. Flores preparing to preach.

Members of the PR Fellowship in Leyte leaving the worship service.

Save

Save

Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
Ballymena, NI
14 April, 2017

Dear saints in the Protestant Reformed Churches,

Local Press

Patrick, the great British missionary who preached the gospel of grace in Ireland in the fifth century, is probably the world’s most famous “patron saint.” Sadly, parades on St. Patrick's Day (17 March) are now being used to promote the homosexual agenda.

However, when he boarded a ship to escape from slavery in Ireland, the real Patrick did not comply with the request of the (male) sailors: “I refused to suck their breasts for fear of God, but rather hoped they would come to the faith of Jesus Christ, because they were pagans” (Confession 18). In fifth-century, pagan Ireland, sucking a man's nipple was a sign of friendship or of the reception of protection. Patrick “refused” to engage in it out of the “fear of God” in order to avoid any homosexual connotations. Instead, this faithful Christian, whose two writings are saturated with the authoritative Word of God (e.g., Letter to Coroticus 20) and who would later return to Ireland as a missionary, “rather hoped they would come to the faith of Jesus Christ.”

So I wrote a letter to the N. Ireland press, explaining from Patrick’s own writings, the earliest extant Irish literature, how he was sharply opposed to sodomy as anti-scriptural and sinful. The Belfast Telegraph and the News Letter published the letter in full on St. Patrick's Day or the day before, respectively ( www.cprf.co.uk/articles/ patrickandhomosexuality.html ).

Besides an earlier article in the Mid-Ulster Mail, the Tyrone Courier printed a piece I sent them about Rev. McGeown’s new book Called to Watch for Christ’s Return (22 February), as did the Ballymena Guardian (11 April). With the help of Marco Barone, a willing trans-Atlantic courier flying to and from Grand Rapids, our supply of this end times’ book has been renewed.

Our bookstore, filled with RFPA materials, is a great resource for building up our members, getting out the truth of the Reformed faith, and making our church better known. We love selling these wonderful books!

Ministry of the Word

The 34-sermon series on “The Life of Jacob” (Gen. 25-50) has concluded, with the third box set of the trilogy entitled “Jacob, Joseph and Egypt” (Gen. 37-50). Available on CD or DVD, it is listed with about 70 other box sets on-line ( www.cprf. co.uk/audio/boxsets.htm ).
A couple of weeks ago, we started a new series of sermons on “The Conclusion to Christ’s Farewell Discourse” (John 16). This beautiful chapter of God's Word deals with such themes as Christ’s bodily departure, the persecution of His saints, the work of the Holy Spirit, prayer, and peace.

The CPRC catechism classes concluded with an end-of-season test on Monday, 27 March. All the students in the 3 classes on Beginners New Testament, Juniors Old Testament, and Heidelberg Catechism Book 2 did well—a testimony not only to their hard work but also to that of their parents.

After 16 classes on the holy war, we have begun a study on the holy land in our Tuesday morning classes. It is a massive theme in Genesis, the rest of the Pentateuch, and throughout Old Testament history and prophecy, with important lessons for us New Testament Christians (e.g., Heb. 11:8-16).

Our Wednesday night study of the Belgic Confession is in rich ecclesiastical pastures. Our six classes on Belgic Confession 31, “The Ministers, Elders and Deacons,” looked at how Christ calls His officebearers: their qualification, nomination by the council, election by the congregation, and ordination. We also covered sinful motives for, and ways of, seeking church office, equality among officebearers, and “Murmuring, Strife, and Contention Against OfficeBearers.”

We are currently on Belgic Confession 32, “The Order and Discipline of the Church,” dealing with the whole area of church authority: its nature, source, parties, etc. Our Belgic Confession audio page includes some 215 audios of all of the classes from over the last six church seasons ( www.cprf.co.uk/audio/belgicconfessionclass.htm ).

The subject of my last lecture in South Wales was “The New Calvinism and the Reformation” (2 March). The speech contrasted the “New Calvinism” of John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, etc., with the old Calvinism of the Reformation and its creeds in the areas of the doctrines of grace, Charismaticism, worship, ecclesiology, etc. There were 17 of us present. The video of the lecture, plus the question and answer session, is online ( www.youtube.com/ watch?v=soWSTosMTsYp ).

Others

The CPRC YouTube site continues to grow, thanks to the work of Stephen Murray (www.youtube.com/cprcni). Our subscribers have increased to 770. Now all the sermon series, conference speeches, and debates that we have online in video are in handy playlists. Thus, for example, the videos of the 6 sermons in the 2010 series “The Outrage of Gibeah” (Jud. 19-21) are arranged one after another on a special YouTube page.

The CPRC main website (www.cprc.co.uk) is doing well. We average about 2,400 different people per day (excluding those listening to audios or reading pdfs). The last 2 months saw the addition of just 7 new translations (3 Spanish, 2 Hungarian, and 2 Czech), probably our worst haul ever! Though slow, our foreign section keeps growing ( www.cprf.co.uk/lan-guages.htm ).

This summer, Mary and I are taking our biennial holiday in North America, D.V. I am to preach 8 times: Spokane (23 July), Edmonton and Lacombe (30 July), Lynden (6 August), and Providence and Hudsonville (13 August). It will be good to worship with the saints in all these 6 churches again. I will also be giving a slide presentation after the Sunday afternoon/evening service in 4 of these churches. Rev. Brummel and I are to speak at an evangelism conference in Lacombe on Saturday, 29 July.

Our sister-church relationship is important to us, so we appreciate all these opportunities to maintain contact and strengthen our bonds in Christ. In our absence from Northern Ireland, Rev. Bleyenberg of Providence PRC will be preaching in the CPRC and the Limerick Reformed Fellowship (LRF) on three Lord’s Days (30 July and 6 & 13 August).

We appreciate your interest, support, and prayers for your sister church and its mission work on the island of Ireland.

May the Lord be with you all,

Rev. Angus & Mary Stewart

On this Palm Sunday 2017, the following PRC congregational and mission news items may be noted:

Congregational news:

• Last Sunday Rev. S. Key (Loveland, CO PRC) announced his decline of the call from SW PRC in Wyoming, MI.
• The Council of SW PRC has drawn up a new trio from which to call a pastor: Revs. C. Griess (Calvary PRC, Hull, IA), W. Langerak (SE PRC, Grand Rapids, MI), and M. McGeown (Limerick Reformed Fellowship).
• Last Sunday Rev. C. Haak (Georgetown PRC) announced his decline of the call from Zion PRC (Hudsonville/Jenison, MI).
• Rev. S. Key continues to consider the call from First PRC of Holland, MI. He plans to answer by April 16.
  

 Mission news:

• The congregation of Doon PRC voted to call Rev. B. Huizinga of Hope PRC, Redlands, CA to serve as third missionary to the Philippines. We remember him in prayer as he weighs this important call.
• From the Maranatha PRC bulletin for April 9 we learn this (Let us pray for God's blessings on this special young people's gathering):
  • FPRCP Young People’s Camp on April 12 – 14, 2017 at Paradise Adventure Camp, Tungko, San Jose Del Monte City, Bulacan.
    Theme: “Love Not the World” – I John 2:15
    “Youth and Money” – Rev. L. Trinidad
    “Youth and Technology” - Rev. J. Flores
    “Youth and Society” - Rev. V. Ibe
  • The 7M pastors classes met this past Tuesday, April 4 at 9:30 am, at the Maranatha PRC in Valenzuela. The next one is scheduled for May 9, 2017 in Provident CC.
• For pictures and information on the Phiilppine mission labors, visit the Kleyn's blog and the Holstege's blog.
  

Save

Save

On this first Lord's Day of April 2017, the following PRC congregational and mission news items may be mentioned:

Congregational news:

• This morning it was announced that Rev. Steven Key (pastor of Loveland, CO PRC) DECLINED the call to Southwest PRC (Wyoming, MI).
• Rev. C. Haak (pastor of Georgetown PRC) announced this morning that he was led to DECLINE the call to Zion PRC (Hudsonville/Jenison, MI).

• Rev. S. Key continues to consider the call from First PRC of Holland, MI.
  

• Special note: Providence PRC (Hudsonville, MI) has changed the time of their evening service from 6 p.m. to 5 p.m. starting Sunday, April 2.

 Mission news:

On Sunday, March 26, Rev. W. Langerak (pastor of SE PRC, Grand Rapids, MI) declined the call from Byron Center PRC to serve as home missionary.

• The congregation of Doon PRC voted to call Rev. B. Huizinga of Hope PRC, Redlands, CA to serve as third missionary to the Philippines. We remember him in prayer as he weighs this important call.
• From the Provident PRC bulletin for April 2 we learn this:
• Rev. Holstege will lead the first worship service today and Rev. Kleyn will lead the second. They will each lead one service next Sunday too, Lord willing.
• Last week Rev. D. Kleyn was in Leyte with the delegation from the PRCP – Rev. John Flores and Bro. Eric Mescallado. In the words of Rev. Kleyn, "The purpose of their trip was to visit the mission work of the PRC in Bulacan and to investigate the field in Albuera, Leyte.  The PRC of Bulacan has requested the Classis of the PRC in the Philippines to take over their work there." The pictures this week are of that trip.
• The 7M pastors classes will meet next this Tuesday, April 4 at 9:30 am, at the Maranatha PRC in Valenzuela, the Lord willing.
• For pictures and information on the Phiilppine mission labors, visit the Kleyn's blog and the Holstege's blog. Here are a few from the PRCP delegation last weekend to Albuera, Leyte:
  

The Protestant Reformed Fellowship in Albuera, Leyte.

Rev. J. Flores teaching the Essentials of Reformed Doctrine class to the PR Fellowship in Leyte.

The Friday night audience for the Essentials class.

Would we be willing to spend a Friday night doing this? We thank the Lord for the faithful labors of our missionaries and the pastors in the Philippines. Let us bring them to the throne of grace often!

Save

Save

"Covenant Keepers", the youth ministry of the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore (our sister church), has just released the March 2017 issue of "Salt Shakers" (#42),their youth magazine.

The March 2017 issue of "SS" is once again filled with interesting and profitable articles, and our PRC young people especially are invited and encouraged to make it part of their reading content.

Below you will find a note from the "SS" Committee introducing the contents of this issue and images of the cover and table of contents. The entire issue is also attached here in pdf form.

Beloved Readers,

 Professor David Engelsma (emeritus, PRC Seminary) was interviewed by Christopher Arnzen on his radio program “Iron Sharpens Iron” on March 30. The interview focused on the book The Sixteenth-Century Reformation of the Church (RFPA, 2007) edited by Prof. Engelsma.

The subjects covered in the book and interview are timely and significant, especially in view of the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation of the church under the sovereign direction of God through the work of such mean as Martin Luther and John Calvin.

UPDATE: Now that the interview is completed, Mr. Arnzen has graciously made available an mp3 file of this interview. You may also find the link at the RFPA blog here.

For more on Mr. Arntzen and his Reformed Christian radio program, visit the link above. Below is a brief description of him and his program as found on the website "Iron Sharpens Iron."

Chris Arnzen | Christian Radio Programming & Advertising Executive & Talk Host of Iron Sharpens Iron.

If you’re weary of the typical fluffy Christian radio broadcasts, you’ll find Iron Sharpens Iron addresses a multitude of topics from a distinctly Reformed Christian worldview. Chris Arnzen asks the right questions, presents guests who have the answers, and continually challenges Christians to apply their faith to every aspect of their lives.