Reformed Church Center – “Our Only Comfort: Belonging in the RCA.”

In the first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism, Reformed Christians say that our only comfort in life and in death is that we belong to Jesus Christ. In question and answer number 32, we say that we are called Christians because, by faith, we are members of Christ.

Membership and how we understand it is important to our Reformed understanding of the church and the world.

On Thursday, 6 October, the Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Seminary hosted “Our Only Comfort: Belonging in the RCA.”

Dirk Mouw, historian, translator and a fellow of the Reformed Church Center, presented the 2016-17 Albert A. Smith lecture in RCA History; his topic was how the colonial Dutch Reformed Church understood church membership.

Following that were presentations on the experience of becoming members of the RCA for Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans by:

• Irving Rivera–pastor of Meadow Hill Reformed Church in Newburgh, NY, and past president of the General Synod of the RCA
• En Young Kim–RCA Supervisor of Mission in Asia and the Pacific and Coordinator for Pacific and Asian -American Ministries
• Anna Jackson–pastor of the Reformed Church of Queens, NY, and moderator of the board of trustees at NBTS.

The day concluded with group discussion over lunch of what membership means in the modern RCA and how we grow into new understandings based on our experiences.