Church Connection Initiative at Trinity

The Church Connection Initiative at Trinity is a catalyst for collaborative, cross-cultural learning that strengthens local church ministries and equips leaders and lay members with instruction, knowledge, and opportunities by offering resources focused in four areas:

• preaching
• worship
• leadership development
• service

Upcoming Events

Children and the Lord’s Supper

Saturday, May 11, 2013
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Registration and coffee begin at 8:30 AM; snacks mid-morning

Where:  Trinity Christian College, Van Namen Recital Hall in the Ozinga Chapel

Cost: $10 per person (checks payable to Trinity Christian College); no cost to full-time college students

Who: Pastors, elders, deacons, church leaders, parents, grandparents

Speaker: Dr. David Rylaarsdam, who is Professor of the History of Christianity and Spiritual Formation at Calvin Theological Seminary.  He is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church.  His research interests include the ways in which communities of disciples can be formed for ministry in the world.

Topic Description: Kids are Family Too: Welcoming the Entire Covenant Community to Communion

During the last few decades, many Reformed denominations have decided to invite all those who are baptized to the Lord’s Supper.  This may seem surprising to some of us who have grown up assuming that a person must make Profession of Faith before participating in the Lord’s Supper.  We can’t imagine it any other way.

But keeping children from the Lord’s Supper raises some troubling questions.  If the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace, why would we make our kids earn the privilege of participating?  If both baptism and the Lord’s Supper proclaim the same Gospel promises, why would we allow our children to receive baptism but not the Lord’s Supper?  Since the Bible says that all baptized are part of the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28) and that we who are one body partake of one bread (I Cor. 10: 16-17) why would we exclude part of the body from partaking?

Biblical, historical, theological, and practical issues will be studied and discussed.

Register: E-Mail – This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.       Phone – 708.293.4907                           

Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching

Tuesday - Wednesday, October 15-16, 2013
Oct. 15: 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m
Oct. 16: 10 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Grand Lobby, Ozinga Chapel

SPEAKER:   Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. is Senior Research Fellow at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church and has served as a pastor in Webster, NY. His Ph.D. is from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has been a professor of theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, its president for ten years, and the Dean of the Chapel at Calvin College. He has
published many essays, sermons and books.

TOPIC:   Preachers are hunter-gatherers: they search not only the world’s literary master works, but also contemporary middle-brow fiction, crime journalism, and biography, hoping to dig up fresh and angular illustrations. But preachers are not merely in search of useful stories.  This seminar will explore some of the sources, methods, and homiletical impact of imaginative reading for creative preaching.

COST:  $75 (checks payable to Trinity Christian College)

Download flyer.