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It’s happened three times now this semester: I’ve been somewhere (a lecture, a volleyball game, a plane), and I’ve unsuspectingly sat next to strangers who then identified themselves as readers of blogs I have written on the Reformed Journal.

And each time, I’ve been first absolutely surprised and then, humbled and grateful to meet people who make this little endeavor work. We could not do it without readers.

When I teach writing, I ask my students to be cognizant of audience, but to be honest, it’s not a lesson I have learned very well myself. To ask someone to deliberately take time to read something feels like a big ask, an imposition. After all, who has time to read my small musings?

And yet, how blessed I feel that people do take time to read not only my contributions, but those of all of the writers who appear in the Reformed Journal. What a delight to have faces to fill the blank space I feel my words tumble into. It feels like a privilege to hang out with such smart, thoughtful people—and that’s on both sides of the keyboard.

There are too few spaces anymore where faithful thinking comes in contact with so many different topics from so many different perspectives, but all richly Reformed in their engagement with culture.

So I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you for the ways you support us: by reading, by encouraging. By your time and by your kind attention. And today, I hope you’ll consider supporting us with whatever financial gift makes sense to you.

And I’m so honored to have my forthcoming book as one paired with Kyle’s Meyaard-Schaap’s as part of the But Wait, There’s More deal.

It’ll be such a treat to meet even more of you next year!

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Your monthly financial contribution allows us to continue to express the Reformed faith theologically; to engage issues that Reformed Christians meet in personal, ecclesiastical, and societal life.

Click on the blue box above to make an online gift — either a recurring monthly gift or a one-time gift.

Or if you prefer to give via check, mail it to
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Grand Rapids, MI 49546

But Wait, There’s More is our really special deal. You may select one of three books by RJ authors, now. Then in 2023 receive both of these forthcoming books: Jennifer Holberg’s Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to Shape our Faith, and Kyle Meyaard-Schaap’s Following Jesus in a Warming World, along invitations to special author events. Click here for details.

Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash

Jennifer L. Holberg

I’ve taught English at Calvin College since 1998–where I get to read books and talk about them for a living. What could be better? Along with my wonderful colleague, Jane Zwart, I am the co-director of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, which is the home of the Festival of Faith and Writing as well as a number of other exciting endeavors. Given my interest in teaching, I’m the founding co-editor of the Duke University Press journal Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition and Culture (and yes, I realize that that is a very long subtitle). I also do various administrative things across campus. As an Army brat, I’ve never lived anywhere as long as I’ve now lived in Grand Rapids. I count myself rich in friends and family. I enjoy kayaking and hiking. I collect cookbooks (and also like to cook), listen to all kinds of music, and watch all manner of movies and tv shows. I love George Eliot, Jane Austen, Marilynne Robinson, Dante, E.M. Delafield, Tennyson, Hopkins, and Charlotte Bronte (among others). And I have a bumper sticker on my car that says: “I’d rather be reading Flannery O’Connor.” Which is true.

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