E-Newsletter

April 2026

Greetings,

Please join us this month in praying that the Gospel’s message of renewal permeates ICS, Canada, and, ultimately, every aspect of creation. Your support, especially your prayer, allows ICS to reform, extend, and amplify the Reformational tradition, advocating for human flourishing in a world that so often diminishes human and creational life.

May God bless you and keep you.

Reflections from the President’s Office

Whatever Happened to Letting Go?

“Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
—Matthew 6:34b

The inner world of evangelical Christianity has always been somewhat opaque to me. I was raised in the 1970s by highly conservative Dutch Calvinist parents who carried memories of life under Nazi occupation, and a spartan faith that chafed at anything ornamental or ostentatious in worship.

My family was not happy when evangelical praise culture began infiltrating the Christian Reformed Church in the 1980s and ’90s. On holidays, if we entered a CRC church and spotted a drum kit or electronic instruments at the front of the sanctuary, we beat a hasty retreat. Sacred music could only come from a pipe organ, maybe a piano. I don’t need to tell you our reaction when fellow parishioners started raising their hands above waist level.

The only evangelical influence my parents tolerated in the 1980s was the ubiquitous and baleful parenting advice dispensed by the not-so-angelic Dr. James Dobson. Without getting into details, let’s just say I would have happily traded their Focus on the Family cassettes for a banal soundtrack of saccharine praise music from Myrrh Records any day.

From this background, I have observed a growing, increasingly troubling strand of evangelical Christianity from a concerned and confused distance. In his book The Violent Take it by Force, contemporary religion scholar Matthew D. Taylor dubs this strand “Christian Supremacy” (136-39). In his Substack column Reckonings, he succinctly defines it as “the idea that Christians are better than other people—more moral, more enlightened, more holy—and are therefore entitled to rule over everyone else.”

Christian supremacy, Taylor tells us, has risen to prominence in different corners of the evangelical Christian world. Its common denominator, however, is the ultra-Calvinist “dominion theology” promulgated by the theologian Rousas John Rushdoony in the 1960s and 70s. This theology informs Doug Wilson’s Christian Reconstruction movement as well as the accelerationist charismatic theology of “The Seven Mountain Mandate.”

Certain that they hear and understand the uninterpreted word of God directly from the pages of Scripture, this strand of evangelical Christianity starkly divides the world into allies and enemies of God, and sets to waging both spiritual and not-so-spiritual warfare against anyone they deem to be in the latter, ever-expanding handbucket.

This strand of interpretation relies on dubious dispensationalist theology and end times prophecy to support their invidious stance to the world God so loved. When I read journalist and sociologist Sara Diamond’s 1989 book Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right, I was horrified to learn how evangelical Christians influenced by this strand of interpretation were working feverishly to hasten Christ’s return by engineering an armageddon in the Middle East. I remember taking some comfort in the thought that this was a fringe movement, with no serious prospect of seizing real political power.

That was then. As Taylor demonstrates in The Violent Take It by Force, when it comes to the current political influence of this strand of evangelical Christianity in the United States, “the fringe became the carpet” (45). The United States now has a Secretary of Defense—a disciple of Doug Wilson sporting three tattoos praising the medieval Christian Crusades—uttering imprecatory prayers in the Pentagon, calling for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” and identifying the nation’s supposed enemies with the enemies of God.

Startled by this, I began to reflect on my earlier impressions of evangelical Christianity, and I found myself recalling with unexpected fondness the What Would Jesus Do? bracelets evangelicals were encouraged to wear. That is actually a great and profound question.

But my favourite evangelical slogan remains “let go and let God.” I pine for the days when it carried real weight within popular evangelicalism. Surely that slogan represented a spiritual sensibility utterly incompatible with the dangerous idea that Christians could force God’s hand by fomenting military violence, violence that would end or devastate the lives of millions of people made in God’s image.

It is a frightening thing to watch a militant movement commandeer a religion for the purpose of violent destruction, claiming its hot and horrifying theological take to be the only truly “biblical” version of Christianity.

As I was imagining what an evangelical recovery of “let go and let God” might look like, my thoughts turned to Matthew 6. What could have produced such consuming fear about tomorrow among so many evangelical Christians today, so that they would embrace such a violent vision?

Scholars like Kristin Kobes Du Mez and the aforementioned Taylor have helped me take that question more seriously. Fear deserves to be understood, not simply dismissed. But Matthew 6 shows us that the path out of fear and anxiety does not run through coercive power—it runs through faith, trust, and letting go.

Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Shalom, friends,

Ron Kuipers

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ICS Community

Prayer Letter

Monday, April 6 – Friday, April 10:

This week marks the last day of winter classes at ICS on Friday, April 10. As the term draws to a close, please pray for our Junior Members as they finish up their coursework and begin preparing their final papers and projects. We offer thanks for another semester of rich discussions and communal learning across time zones. Pray especially for those students who wish to convocate later this spring, that they would have clarity and inspiration as they bring their work to completion. Please also pray for our Senior Members as they engage with and evaluate student work, that they may provide meaningful feedback that serves each student’s learning journey.

Please also continue to pray for the ongoing preparation of the Courageous Faith in a Time of Fear conference, taking place on May 13–14 at Knox College and Knox Presbyterian Church in Toronto. Co-organized by the CPRSE and Knox College’s Ministry Forum, this conference will bring together pastors, scholars, and lay leaders to reflect on the responsibilities of Christian leadership in a time marked by political polarization and cultural anxiety. Keynote speakers include Kristin Kobes Du Mez and Joash P. Thomas. Please pray for the organizing team, for the speakers as they prepare, and for all who will register and attend, that these days would create space for constructive dialogue about faithful public witness. Visit the conference page to register and for more information.

Monday, April 13 – Friday, April 17:

This Saturday, April 18, we are thrilled to celebrate the book launch for Dr. Edith van der Boom’s Cultivating Learning Communities of Belonging, taking place at 2120 Itabashi Way in Burlington, ON from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM. Edith’s book considers school and classroom cultures with attention to social and cultural contexts, racial justice, Indigenous perspectives, human sexuality, and restorative practices, asking how educational leaders can nurture communities where learning is connected to communal flourishing. The launch will feature an endorsement from incoming ICS President Beth Green, along with responses from Lisa Devall-Martin (Associate Professor, School of Education, Redeemer University), Jason Schouten (Executive Director, Christian Schools Canada), and Traver Carlson (ICS PhD Candidate). Please pray for Edith, the respondents, and for all who attend, that this event would strengthen and encourage educators in their callings. Spots are limited, so please RSVP at icscanada.edu/evdb-launch.

This week is also the last day to register for several of our spring and summer MA-EL courses, with the deadline falling on April 17. Please pray that teachers and school administrators who would benefit from these courses may find their way to ICS. Courses on offer this spring and summer include Lead From Where You Are with Gideon Strauss, Christian Deeper Learning with Edith van der Boom, and What’s Christian About Christian Education? with Neal DeRoo. Please share news of these rich learning opportunities within your communities! You can find out more about these courses at https://education.icscanada.edu. You can also email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu to register or to ask questions about the courses.

Monday, April 20 – Friday, April 24:

This Saturday, April 25, the MA-EL program will host its online Spring Retreat via Zoom from 4:00 to 7:00 PM (UTC). This is an important time for our MA-EL students to gather, reflect, and encourage one another as they continue their studies. Please pray for Edith van der Boom and the MA-EL faculty as they facilitate this retreat, and for each student who attends, that the time together would be refreshing and renewing.

On April 21, the Institute for Christian Studies, through its Free to Be Faithful initiative, is hosting an online Pastoral Leaders Consultation on the theme of faithful leadership in a changing church. As denominational landscapes shift and new forms of fellowship emerge, this informal, listening-focused conversation will invite pastors and pastoral leaders to share their experiences and imagine new possibilities for connection and formation in the years ahead. Please pray for Héctor Acero Ferrer as he coordinates this gathering, and for all who participate, that it may be a space of honest conversation, mutual encouragement, and renewed hope. Pastoral leaders who would like to join can email Héctor at haceroferrer@icscanada.edu.

Monday, April 27 – Friday, May 1:

We also ask for your prayers for the ICS administrative staff as they look ahead to end-of-year events, including Senate and Board meetings and Convocation. This is always a busy time of planning and preparation, and we pray for clarity of mind and energy for all who are involved in coordinating the many details of these important gatherings.

Finally, please pray for ICS alumnus Dr. J. Richard Middleton as he begins a new role with Global Scholars Canada, helping Christian scholars in Canada and around the world ground their teaching and research in a Christian worldview. Pray for discernment as Richard takes up this calling, and for the financial provision and support he needs as he prepares to present a paper at the first international conference of the Society of Christian Scholars in Nairobi, Kenya, this August.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support as we navigate this season of transitions and new beginnings. We are grateful for the ways that your prayers sustain and encourage us in our work.

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