NBTS/RCA Month – March 2021
March 11, 2021
New Brunswick Theological Seminary is the Reformed Church in America’s first and oldest seminary, founded in 1784. Through the years, we have been an important part of each other’s legacies. Today, we continue to partner together to equip lay leaders and pastors for ministry.
Join us in the month of March for series of online events to learn more about the Reformed Church in America and how we are working together. We will be kicking off with a conversation between Eddy Aleman, RCA General Secretary; Micah L. McCreary, NBTS President, Jill Ver Steeg, RCA Chief Operating Officer; and Amanda Bruehl, NBTS Chief of Staff. The following three Wednesdays at 5:30 pm, RCA staff will be sharing about how they can support you in ministry. On Saturday, March 13, NBTS’ Reformed Church Center and RCA’s Women’s Transformation and Leadership will co-host Women’s Stories Day, featuring Rev. Anna Jackson.
All these events are free, but registration is required – see the registration link with each event below:
March 10 • 5:30pm (EST) – Global Mission
Strengthening and growing the global church through ministries of compassion, developing leaders, and sharing the good news, our goal is to provide opportunities for local churches to partner with global churches in ways that are collaborative and mutually meaningful, helping us all live and love like Jesus.
Learn about what is happening around the world through RCA Global Missions and how NBTS and RCA Global Missions are partnering together to equip people for work in the global church.
March 13 • 1:00 to 3:00 pm (EST)– Women’s Stories Day
Anna M. Jackson, co-pastor of Second Reformed Church in Hackensack, New Jersey, will be the featured speaker at the 2021 Women’s Stories Day, to be held on Saturday, March 13, 2021, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. Jackson, who is the 2020-2021 Hazel B. Gnade Fellow in RCA Women’s Studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, will present “Like Trees Planted By the Water: RCA New York City Black Women Lay Leaders of the 1950s-1970s,” her study of matriarchs in Black RCA congregations and the larger church in the 1970s and 80s. There were a large number of Black women, even more so than in other RCA congregations, who were not ministers of the Word and Sacrament but who took leadership for their congregations, in denominational settings, and even on the world stage—with the struggle against Apartheid—during these pivotal years. Jackson plans to look at the work they did, and conducting oral interviews with several of the woman and people who knew them.
Sharon Atkins, pastor of Bethany Memorial Reformed Church in New York City and the new president of the RCA African-American Black Council, will be our devotional leader. A native of Montego Bay, Jamaica, she was raised in Brooklyn and has been an active member of the RCA since her youth.
March 17 • 5:30pm (EST) – Transformed & Transforming
The RCA’s Transformed & Transforming team walks alongside churches, helping them take their next step toward fulfilling God’s vision for ministry. Our strategic priorities are to cultivate transformation in Christ and equip emerging leaders of today and tomorrow, focusing on discipleship, leadership, local mission, and next generation engagement.
Learn how the RCA supports leaders in seminary and beyond, as they lead in their congregations and communities.
March 24 • 5:30pm (EST) – Church Multiplication
The RCA’s Church Multiplication Team works with local groups of churches (classes), regional synod teams, and international partners to equip them to start new churches.
Learn about revitalization through multiplying ministry, including a new effort called “Fresh Expressions” – a new effort to help existing churches open themselves to help foster, support, and expand ministries that can take on various forms in the communities and neighborhoods in which they are located.
More information about these events can be found here: https://www.rca.org/nbts-rca-month/.