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Joyce Borger

Joyce Borger (jborger@crcna.org), an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church, is editor of Reformed Worship and Lift Up Your Hearts, and director of Worship Ministries of the Christian Reformed Church.

Articles by this author:

  • Christ Ascended into Heaven

    A Prayer for Ascension Day
    By Joyce Borger

    People often wonder what difference Christ’s ascension makes. The Heidelberg Catechism, written to answer this and so many other questions of the faith, teaches us about the ascension in Q&A 49. Though written in 1563, its summary of Scripture rings as true today as it did then, regardless of our particular denominational affiliation.

  • Ascension, Pentecost, Missions, and Justice

    By Joyce Borger

    Growing up we always celebrated Ascension Day on Ascension Day, which meant gathering for worship on a Thursday night. Interestingly, we did little for Pentecost and never even mentioned Lent. These days Ascension Day services during the week are fairly rare, and sometimes the ascension gets little more than a passing reference the Sunday before or after even while Pentecost has gained in significance. While I applaud the increased attention Pentecost receives, I think we lose out by lessening emphasis on Ascension Day. We need both, equally.

  • How to Make the Most of Your Subscription

    By Joyce Borger

    It’s here—the next issue of Reformed Worship is literally (or metaphorically) in your hands. Now what? We want to make sure you get the most out of your subscription, so we put together this list of suggestions.

  • Eight Creative Ideas for Thanksgiving Day

    By Joyce Borger
    1. Share stories of God’s grace: For ideas on how to do this, see crcna.org/FaithFormation/toolkits/faith-storytelling-toolkit.
    2. Symphony of praise: Invite children (and children at heart) to come forward and choose either a small percussive instrument, a flag, or a ribbon to use during a sung time of praise.

  • “What If . . . ?”

    A Reflection on the Flight into Egypt
    By Joyce Borger

    Voice 1: A reading of Matthew 2:13–14
    When [the magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

    So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt.

    Voice 2:
    What if . . . ?

    What if the angel hadn’t warned Joseph in a dream that Herod was seeking to kill Jesus?

  • Being Christ’s Incarnational Presence

    By Joyce Borger

    Lately I’ve been thinking about the scope of the incarnation. Jesus was born and dwelt among us. But who is the ‘us’? Were there ever any borders, either physical or metaphorical, that Jesus stayed within? Any study of Scripture is quick to show that Jesus made it a practice to cross as many borders as possible in his time on earth.

  • The Parable of the Mulberry Tree

    By Joyce Borger

    Last night I was offered mulberry sauce for my cheesecake and I felt myself recoil. It’s not that I don’t like mulberry sauce. I have never even tasted mulberry sauce. But I used to have a mulberry tree in my backyard—a lovely mulberry tree that dropped big, juicy, purple berries all over my yard and left behind a fermenting wasteland of purple juice. The mess—the stench! My daughter was six months old, getting ready to crawl, and I envisioned a future of purple handprints and footprints all over my home. Before the next summer that tree was down.

  • Ascension, Pentecost, and the God of Expanse

    By Joyce Borger

    “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
    and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
    and in all Judea and Samaria,
    and to the ends of the earth.”
    —Acts 1:8

    Our God is a God of expansion. Abraham was called in order to be a blessing to others. The nation of Israel was birthed so that all others could be blessed through it (Genesis 12:2–3). God pours into his people so they might share that blessing with others.

  • Seeing in the Dark

    By Joyce Borger

    “We pray for darkness so that we may see” is one of many provocative lines in Rod Jellema’s poetic litany “Praying for Darkness in a Year of Glare” (p. 16). I wonder about that line. Is it true? Would I ever dare pray for darkness so that I might see? It seems to me that we’ve been experiencing too much of this world’s darkness. We can’t escape it. It consumes news outlets and social media feeds. It fills our workplaces, our homes, our churches . . .

  • The World is About to Turn

    By Joyce Borger

    The World Needed a Savior . . .

    Call to Worship
    With two readers.
    People of God, today we worship a God of revolution;
    a God who is in the business of turning our lives—
    turning the world―right-side up.

    The prophet Isaiah says:
    “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”

    A branch, bearing fruit?

Blogs by this author:

  • “Even When Steeples Are Falling”

    Even in the midst of falling steeples, in the face of the crucified Messiah, in our own baptismal drowning we are assured that the church won’t fall.

    By: Joyce Borger
  • Introducing Reformed Worship Bloggers

    I am excited that Reformed Worship is beginning a weekly blog and absolutely thrilled at the group that we have gathered to write.  They are a diverse group of practitioners, academics, musicians, and theologians; what connects them all is their love for the church and worship that is thoughtful, relevant, rooted, innovative, global, contextual, creative, and disciplined. 

    -Rev. Joyce Borger, editor

    Kevin Adams​

    By: Joyce Borger