ALLIANCE equipping ARTIcLeS
At its heart, the Alliance is a covenanted community of congregations rooted in Scripture and grounded in the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed tradition.
Well-meaning churches can’t establish a disciple making culture if people aren’t in sync. A failure of alignment has doomed many initiatives to the program graveyard.
Thus far we’ve seen that a disciple making culture can collapse when there’s a failure of theology, when discipleship is misconceived as an add-on or a passive experience.
Failed discipleship isn’t simply a problem of theology. A lack of intentionality is behind a lot of initiatives that end up in the ministry graveyard.
It’s been a strange start to 2026. I set out to study successful discipleship initiatives, but ended up running across a lot of failed ones. A lot.
It’s been a strange start to 2026. I set out to study successful discipleship initiatives, but ended up running across a lot of failed ones. A lot.
On a cold Sunday night in February, parents and teens walked into the sanctuary of Fellowship Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan ready to learn and engage in a conversation that is becoming increasingly important: how to support teens who are struggling with mental health.
Four years ago, Thorn Creek Reformed Church in South Holland, Illinois found itself at a crossroads. Nestled in a middle-class community outside of Chicago and yet…
A couple of weeks ago, we shared an email highlighting two churches impacted by the Iowa floods. As a follow-up, we’d like to tell another story of God’s provision.
n June 2024, devastating floods swept through northwestern Iowa. Just over a year later, the region is still in the process of recovery and rebuilding. Two Alliance churches, Faith Reformed Church in Rock Valley and Hope Church in Spencer, were directly…
Several years ago, the Consistory and leadership of New Life Church in Sioux Center, Iowa, felt called to cast a vision to become a sending church.
This week’s email is the second blog of a two-part series from Pastor Tim Lyzenga of Fellowship Reformed Church in Hudsonville, reflecting on the importance of soul care for those experiencing mental health challenges.
This week’s email is part one of a two-part series from Pastor Tim Lyzenga of Fellowship Reformed Church in Hudsonville, reflecting on the importance of soul care for those experiencing mental health challenges.
We’re excited to start highlighting creative ways our churches are living into their commitment to make disciples, equip leaders, and multiply ministries.
This dialog about the Covenant of the Ordained captures a conversation between two leaders in Pathways.
As a 17-year old kid who had recently felt God’s call into ministry, I remember sitting at a Mexican restaurant in Omaha, across the table from my pastor.
Pastors in the Alliance promise to stay healthy in their living. They make a plan to invest in their relationship with the Lord. They express how they will nurture…
When someone gets ordained as a Minister in the Alliance, that pastor signs three covenants: the Healthy Living Covenant, the Healthy Learning Covenant, and the Covenant of the Ordained.
The Alliance recently celebrated its 100th pastor being ordained through Pathways. That’s noteworthy, as the Alliance’s innovative ordination process got launched just a
Are you aware of and using your spiritual gifts like we are commanded to do in 1 Corinthians 12.1? Have you taken a gifts test or two… or more?
For many pastors in small churches, one word often describes their experience with church communications: overwhelming. The landscape is filled with countless options, each claiming...
One thing hasn’t changed and never will….we know who brings us tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. We know who created our world and everything in it.
There is a simplicity to prayer that many fail to grasp, it is just talking to God. For many the ways we are taught or have experienced have been formal…
As you think about this vital distinction between (a) the spiritual gift of leadership and (b) those who have a leadership effect through an equipping gift, here are a few more important considerations:
There are many in leadership positions who do not have the spiritual gift of leadership? Are they in the wrong role? Have we understood the nature of biblical leadership?
When it comes to ordination, do people go into ministry roles at predictable times in their lives? Not according to the Bible.
