Tyrannus Hall Podcast

Mark Mulder served as vice principal in John Calvin Christian school in the Perth area of Western Australia. In this fascinating interview, we learn how Mark and his wife Liz exchanged their comfortable suburban life for a life in a foreign mission field. They sold all they had to follow the Lord's calling.

Mark was urged by several friends to apply for the position of Principal of The Reformed Churches' Bible College in Port Moresby PNG. At first he resisted  but on Liz's urging took on the challenge 

Mark now abounds in passion for the work of RCBC. Listen as Mark discuss the work of the Bible College and the lessons we can learn from mission in PNG 
 for our own evangelism in the west.

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If you know your church has great potential to impact its community and you believe you need a mission and vision statement written down before you get started, then this episode is for you.

Winston and Bill pick the brain of marketing agency owner Chris vanPopta to explore the question: Does a church need a mission or vision statement to be on mission for Christ? Somewhere during the interview, Bill and Winston have the tables turned on them and Chris asks them some great questions too! The ending may surprise you.

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Winston and Bill speak with Ben Westerveld to discuss the role of the seminary in promoting a missional mindset in the training of future pastors. Ben Westerveld is the new professor and principal of Farel, an institute for theological training to serve the ERQ (Église Réformée du Québec). How and should seminary training be adapting to our post-modern, post-christian, post-epidemic setting?

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Our guests today are accomplished musicians. Tim is a member of a jazz band, and Kent is a principal participant of an annual “Reformed Strings Camp”. Both have a love for Reformed worship and liturgy and lead the singing in their local church. Bill and Winston explore the intersection between music and the missional call of the church. What kind of music is appropriate for worship?

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Pastor Randall Visscher and two leaders of the relatively new Refuge Church, in Langley BC are the guests on Tyrannus Hall. Mike Vandergugten and Jerome Lenkeek joined  those who had a vision for a missional church. Launched in July 2020, in the middle of Covid restrictions and lockdowns, the Lord has blessed this new congregation with fields ripe for harvest. Listen to these men relate how the Lord opened a wide door for effective work among Indian and Pakistani immigrants in their local communities.

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In this episode we meet John Siebenga, a retired Christian school teacher and principal, a licensed Christian counsellor, and journeyman carpenter. He and his wife are members of Houston Canadian Reformed Church in British Columbia. They were wondering where they might be engaged in God’s kingdom work in their retirement years. They considered volunteering in overseas mission work, but then their attention was drawn to the work that the neighbouring Church in Smithers was doing in Prince George. John and Betty got deeply involved in the church planting that Pastor Tim Schouten was doing. In the very recent past, John who is a member in Houston, was leant by Smithers to be an elder in the Prince George church plant. He has a fascinating story to tell that demonstrates how retirees can be engaged in a meaningful way in the advance of the Kingdom and the upbuilding of the church.

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Our guest today is Pastor Greg Davidson. Greg very recently became co-pastor at  Blessings Christian Church working with Tyrannus Hall co-host Bill de Jong. Greg was the pastor at Central Presbyterian, a Presbyterian Church in Canada congregation in downtown Hamilton. While he still has many friends in the wider church, Greg shares some of his concerns about “the protestant movement” in general and some encouragement for the “confessionally Reformed movement” of which he is now a member.

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Is the Great Commission correctly used as foundational to the theology of missions?

Our guest, Kristen Johnson is Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, where she holds the G.W. and Edna Haworth chair for Education, Ministry, and Leadership.

Kristen has done extensive research on Matthew 28:16-20. This week we discover answers to questions we never dreamt of asking! When did the church begin to use this text to describe and underwrite the mission of the church? The early church did not use this text to motivate its mission mandate. In the 1500’s a new impetus to mission activity arose in the church. However, it is not until several centuries later that this text becomes foundational to a theology of mission. The Heidelberg Catechism references this text several times, but never connected to a missionary mandate. 

Bill and Winston interview Kristen with various questions in relation to her research:
1. Has the contemporary church made a mistake by using this text as foundational to a theology of missions?
2. Has Tyrannus Hall erred in using the tagline that "our mission is to make the Great Commission every church’s mission and every Christian’s passion”?
3. Looking at this text, what is the relationship between mission and discipleship?
4. Should Christians bear guilt for not actively engaging in bringing the gospel to our neighbours?
5. What does Eugene Peterson say about the missionary mandate of Christians?

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Pastor John van Popta, retired pastor of Fellowship Church in Burlington is our guest (John is the producer/director of Tyrannus Hall and does much of the background research and organization for our podcasts).

Our hosts, Bill and Winston, interview John about how best to welcome guests on “Communion Sundays.” Who should participate? Who should be withheld? John’s research into the Biblical data has convinced him to examine carefully the manner whereby we withhold communion from visitors. Does Paul’s rebuke of Peter, recorded for us in Galatians 2 speak to this matter. What about 1 Corinthians 11? Has the church misread Paul’s command to self-examination? 

He suggests that there are better ways than the traditional Canadian Reformed practice of having the visitor present a document from a sister church affirming membership in good standing. He suggests change is necessary if we desire to develop a missional model of the church, that we might welcome new people to church membership. 

John retired a few years ago due to his Parkinson's Disease. This disease has impaired his speech somewhat. And his medications, though they control his tremors, cause some dyskinesia (involuntary movements).  Please look (and listen) past these disabilities and be stimulated to “examine the scriptures … to see if what [John] says is true” (Acts 17:11).

Here is the link to Dr. NH Gootjes’ article on “the Reformed confession” cited by John: https://www.spindleworks.com/library/gootjes/articles.htm

Here is a link to an essay by John  where he discusses Paul’s rebuke of Peter in Gal 2, because Peter denied table fellowship with Gentile Christians: https://fellowshippastor.blogspot.com/2019/11/visitors-at-communion.html

Here  is a link to some notes by John on 1 Corinthians 11, where he discusses Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthians for causing division in the church at the Lord’s supper: https://fellowshippastor.blogspot.com/2022/01/1-corinthians-11-and-visitors-at.html

GoFundMe Update
Several weeks ago we opened a GoFundMe campaign to raise $ 3500 to cover subscription costs as well as to finance the purchase of new equipment. We thank the Lord for the generosity of our listeners who donated $ 3,720. Thank you for your generous support. Our next podcast will be recorded using new microphones and lighting!

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Request for Help: https://www.gofundme.com/f/tyrannus-hall-podcast-annual-fundraising

We have opened a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $3500 to cover ongoing software expenses and our planned hardware upgrades. If you find Tyrannus Hall to be a benefit to you and your church community, we would ask you to prayerfully consider helping us with a donation of $50, or $20, or even $10.

10 Principles for Local Mission
Pastor Winston Bosch, the Host of Tyrannus Hall was our guest for our previous episode and is again for this one. Earlier this year Winston was tasked by his elders to study and investigate how to improve Jubilee’s involvement in local mission. This study led him to write a document that would assist the elders and other leaders in the church to foster a love for the lost.
Winston wrote up 10 Principles for Local Mission. They are centred on The Great Commission. Winston has summarized Christ’s Great Commission for the church as GO! BAPTIZE! MAKE DISCIPLES!   In the first installment, we dealt with the first 4 principles, which cover GO! and BAPTIZE! In this episode, we will deal with the on-going mandate for the church’s teaching ministry under MAKE DISCIPLES. We will close off with 4 other essential principles of a more general nature. 

What does MAKE DISCIPLES look like?
III. TEACH: DISCIPLING NEW BELIEVERS
Principle 5: improve the second service
Principle 6: Use your small groups

Four other principles came to the forefront of this research:
Principle 7: we must be diligent in prayer
Principle 8: understand evangelism as healthy for the church
Principle 9: office-bearers play an important role
Principle 10: plan to plant new churches
 
You can find a link to Winston’s paper here: https://tinyurl.com/3kthykrb
You are permitted to download, print and share this document without making any changes to it. Please share it with your small group, your pastor and your church’s elders. It includes an interesting (though not annotated) list of books to consult.

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