About Us
Reformed Fellowship is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the historic Reformed tradition of the Christian faith.
Our Mission
Our mission is educational and pastoral. Reformed Fellowship’s articles of incorporation list four purposes:
- To study the Reformed faith and to develop its implications as it relates to all of human life and activity
- To disseminate and defend the Reformed faith in opposition to all errors, heresies, and trends of thought hostile to the development of a full-orbed and fully committed Christian life
- To encourage and promote respect for the Reformed tradition by all lawful means
- To publish Reformed periodicals and literature
We carry out our mission by publishing a bimonthly magazine, The Outlook, and a variety of books, Bible studies, and catechism curricula. Our books have been translated into multiple languages and are distributed around the world, including college libraries, seminaries, prisons, and mission works. We are not affiliated with any particular church or denomination, but our board members represent a variety of Reformed and Presbyterian churches. All subscribe to the ecumenical creeds and historic Reformed confessions (Three Forms of Unity and Westminster Standards).
Our History
Reformed Fellowship was founded in 1951 by a group of ministers and laymen who were concerned about declining trends in North American churches and society. From its inception, the organization published a magazine, Torch and Trumpet, which was later renamed The Outlook. This magazine has been in print for more than 70 years.
In the first issue of Torch and Trumpet, the editors spoke of the need for “a more serious study of the Word and the Reformed heritage” in response to a “decadent” culture marked by “man-centered ways of life and thought.” The magazine drew its title from the story of Gideon in Judges 7; it sought to promote the truth with “clear, forthright language” for the average but “serious-minded man and woman in the pew.” Its bimonthly serial format made it particularly useful for adult education classes and Bible study groups.
Torch and Trumpet/The Outlook responded to a seismic shift in the Christian landscape of the United States and Canada in the last half of the 20th century, particularly in the context of the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA). The magazine repeatedly upheld historic, traditional interpretations of the Reformed confessions and argued against movements that sought to accommodate them to contemporary secular philosophy and morals. Torch and Trumpet/The Outlook reflected a conservative, though not fundamentalist, interpretation of the Dutch Reformed tradition in America, grounded in the Three Forms of Unity—the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, and Canons of Dort. In addition to the magazine, Reformed Fellowship also publishes a variety of Bible studies and educational materials that promote this continental Reformed tradition.
Editor John Vander Ploeg first articulated the vision of a “United Reformed Church” in The Outlook in 1977, and the discussions that took place on the pages of the magazine played a significant role in the founding of the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA) in 1995. Other notable magazine contributors have included W. Robert Godfrey, Simon Kistemaker, Meredith G. Kline, Henry Morris, H. Evan Runner, Herman J. Selderhuis, Cornelius Van Til, and Johannes G. Vos.
In a 2021 interview for Christian Renewal Magazine, Cornelis Venema, a contributing editor to The Outlook, described the founders of Reformed Fellowship as “a blending of the confessional wing of the CRC and those who were sympathetic to [Abraham] Kuyper’s emphasis upon a distinctively Christian and Reformed approach to serving Christ in various spheres of life.” W. Robert Godfrey, also a former contributing editor, documented a consistent “desire to speak broadly to the needs of the Reformed community” throughout the history of the organization. That blending of a specific confessional heritage with wide applications for the needs of ordinary Christians is a primary hallmark of The Outlook’s legacy.
Today, Reformed Fellowship’s desire is to honor the heritage of care for the church’s faithfulness that motivated our founders and to continue to hold aloft the precious truths of the Reformed faith for future generations.
Editors of Torch and Trumpet/The Outlook
1951–1957 John Piersma
1957–1963 H. J. Kuiper
1963–1970 P. Y. de Jong
1970–1977 John Vander Ploeg
1978–1990 Peter de Jong
1990–2001 Tom & Laurie Vanden Heuvel
2001–2016 Wybren H. Oord
2016–present Dan J. VanDyke
Contributing Editors
W. Robert Godfrey
Cornelis P. Venema