Annual Secretary’s Report

On behalf of the board of Reformed Believers Publishing (RBP), I intend to inform the association of the principal activities in which the board has been engaged this past year.

The year began last October with a board that we believed to be unified in the cause of Reformed Believers Publishing, which is to promote, defend, and develop the Reformed faith, as well as to condemn all lies repugnant to this truth. It soon became evident that we were not, in fact, united in that cause. In January our vice president, Mr. Elijah Roberts, published a document titled “A Call to Freedom and Unity in Christ,” in which he called members of the Reformed Protestant Churches to leave the denomination because of her acts of church discipline and her preaching regarding the antithesis that God has put between his church and the world. Mr. Roberts coauthored this document with one of our founding members and former board president Mr. Henry Kamps. The board of RBP judged this document to be antithetically opposed to the Reformed faith in Lord’s Day 31 and Belgic Confession article 28. Shortly after publishing the document and removing himself from the Reformed Protestant denomination, Mr. Roberts attempted to resign from the board. The board called for a meeting to deal with the resignation of Mr. Roberts. Mr. Roberts chose not to attend that meeting. After some discussion it became evident by their own admissions that Mr. Stefan Bodbyl and Mr. Doug Mingerink, two other board members, sympathized with the document. At that meeting all three men were removed from board membership. Ed Ophoff III was appointed to be the vice president, replacing Elijah Roberts; Brent Snippe was appointed to be the treasurer, replacing Doug Mingerink; and the undersigned was appointed to be the secretary, replacing Stefan Bodbyl. Also at that meeting, Mrs. Paula Roberts, our office secretary, was removed and replaced by Mr. Jason Cleveland. After considering its workload, the board decided to move forward with only six members until the regular election could be held at the annual association meeting.

As we have seen in the motion that was taken tonight to remove members of this association because of their failure to confess the truth, many have defected from the righteous cause of this association to defend the truth of justification by faith alone. Also, many people continue to cancel receiving Sword and Shield free of charge out of an admitted hatred for the truth. This ought not to discourage us. It is in this that we continue to see the twofold effect that takes place when justification by faith alone is confessed in the world and especially in the false church. This truth is received by those to whom God has given the Holy Spirit, and it is rejected by those to whom God has not given the Spirit. This twofold effect gives us cause to rejoice because in this we continue to see the coming of Christ’s kingdom.

It should be noted also that Mr. Jeremy Hilt informed the board this year of his resignation from membership in the association. The board has informed him of its acceptance of his resignation.

A highlight for the board this year was the addition of audio files to our website for every issue of Sword and Shield. Audio files of all past and present issues of the magazine have been uploaded to our website and are available for your use. This has been a time-consuming labor, and we hope that many of our readers benefit from it by being able to listen to the magazine if they so desire.

The board members are also excited to announce that in harmony with the purpose of this association to promote, defend, and develop the Reformed faith, we have recently purchased the inventory of and rights to both volumes one and two of the thoroughly Reformed book series Walking in the Way of Love, authored by Rev. Nathan J. Langerak. The board has made a decision to return the copyrights back to their rightful owner, Reverend Langerak. The board is intentionally setting a precedent in the decision to give the rights to this material to the author. We are convicted that the rights to these works appropriately belong to the author, so that they can be promoted and distributed wherever his doctrine is preached and believed. We intend to promote and sell the inventory of the books that we have purchased as well as to republish them when it becomes necessary. If anyone is interested in purchasing Walking in the Way of Love, the two volumes are available tonight in the fellowship hall. Currently, the board is pursuing a similar purchase of the rights and inventory to the children’s Bible storybook series that was authored by Reverend Langerak. It is the board’s intention to promote and sell the first two books and to publish soon the third book, titled Miraculous. These purchases have been made possible by the generous donations of members of this association who have expressed the desire to promote and publish these Reformed materials.

The board continues to see the Protestant Reformed Churches as the primary object of our witness. To that end we have started to regularly update the Sword and Shield mailing list with those who have joined the Protestant Reformed Churches, become married, moved, or have any other change that we become aware of. We have also recently started to add to the mailing list the members of any congregation that is directly charged or referenced in the magazine for a particular month, regardless of whether in the past they asked that the magazine not be sent to them.

The board is thankful for the continued labors of our full-time copy editors, Evelyn Langerak, Allyson Ophoff, Carrie Langerak, and Karissa Crich, as well as those who have provided part-time help. Without the tireless labors of these women to edit the magazine, it would be impossible for us to produce the clear, concise, and accurate magazine that we have.

The board also is thankful for the continued and tireless labors of our editors, as well as all those who contribute articles to the magazine each month. Reverend Langerak has faithfully served for over two years as our editor in chief, and he plans to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Reverend Bomers and Reverend Ophoff also continue to serve faithfully as rubric editors. It is our prayer that God gives our editors richly of his Spirit to carry on in these labors for such a worthy cause.

Typically it is the practice that the chairman will thank the retiring board members for their service. On behalf of the board tonight, I would like to thank our chairman, Mr. Joel Langerak, for his labors over the past three years. He has been an unwavering leader to the board throughout some very tumultuous times, especially in this last year. So, thank you for your service, Joel.

We also continue to be thankful for this association that God has given to us to be the instrument by which the office of all believers can continue to be exercised by God’s people and by which the world and especially the false church receive the faithful testimony of the truth of the Reformed faith. The board remains committed to the cause of Reformed Believers Publishing to promote, defend, and develop the Reformed faith, as well as to condemn all lies repugnant to this truth.