Discipleship and Mentoring in Youth Retention at Crosspointe Church

Leaders at Crosspointe Church in Monroe Michigan have identified a need to develop a more effective discipleship program to keep emerging adults involved in church after high school. Research shows that there is a growing trend of emerging adults leaving the church and the leaders of Crosspointe Church in Monroe Michigan have noticed this trend of emerging adults leaving the church after high school. It is hypothesized that a more effective discipleship program along with more parental involvement will positively correlate with Crosspointe Churches youths making the decision to stay in church after high school. This research utilized a discipleship program at Crosspointe Church which included the New Catholic Catechism, education on the importance of church membership and a parental mentoring program designed to increase youth commitment to church after high school. This study found that a focused discipleship program can increase youths’ decision to stay in church after high school. Other parameters measured in the study like parental involvement and youth commitment to church were less decisive. This study also includes two interviews with Crosspointe Church leaders used to identify key concepts in helping Crosspointe develop a more effective discipleship program

Court Reform

Three types of strategies have been common for court reform programmes: the ‘holistic’, the ‘tactical’, and the ‘strategic’ approach. This Research and Policy Note discusses strategic court reform and its underlying ideas. Its main intention is to alert those involved in judicial reform to some of the pitfalls and choices connected to particular types of interventions. The concluding remarks will comment on the political nature of judicial reform and on a model to design a proper sequence of interventions for judicial reform

Adat in Indonesian Land Law: A Promise for the Future or a Dead End?

At present the contestation of the Indonesian state’s dispossessory policies regarding land and other natural resources is dominated by a discourse based on adat. This situation is reminiscent of the colonial period, when invoking adat was a relatively effective means of protecting Indonesians from losing their land to plantation companies supported by the Netherlands–Indies government. However, adat lost its traction when Indonesia became independent and the new state started to vigorously pursue nation building and economic expansion. Only after the end of the New Order in 1998 did civil society groups revive the adat defence against dispossession. This article analyses current debates and developments concerning the place of adat in national land law and its potential for protecting communities against dispossession of their land by the Indonesian state. We argue that the promotion of adat has produced few concrete results and that it is unlikely to be more successful for this purpose in the future. Given Indonesia’s current social and political realities, any land rights strategy for protecting people against dispossession that is based on indigeneity is problematic, and alternative approaches are needed.Article / Letter to editorInstituut voor Metajuridic

Democracy, Human Rights, and Islamic Family Law in Post-Soeharto Indonesia

This article examines the developments in Indonesian family law in the aftermath of the political transition that occurred in 1998. Its focus is on the position of the Islamic courts and the role of the women’s movement as a driver of reform. Combining literature on gender, Islam, and the state in Indonesia with new material such as divorce rates, cases of the Constitutional Court, and law reform initiatives, the authors argue that the family law reform processes already underway before 1998 have not changed much and have continued to lead to more state control of Islamic family law. Yet, even though the reforms since 1998 have not directly targeted family law, they have unleashed processes of liberalization, democratization and decentralization that have emboldened Indonesian women in the exercise of their rights and have invigorated debates over further reform

Court reform

At present, virtually everyone working in the field of development agrees that reform of mal-functioning court systems is central in promoting good governance and rule of law. Unfortunately, however, the record of court reform attempts is not very heartening. Those who intend to reform must take into account a complex set of courts' relations with other state agencies, dispute resolvers, and actors in the state legal system, but they also depend heavily on the quality of legislation and legal education. In reaction to this complexity, three types of strategies have been common for court reform programmes: the 'holistic', the 'tactical', and the 'strategic' approach. This Research and Policy Note discusses strategic court reform and its underlying ideas. Its main intention is to alert those involved in judicial reform to some of the pitfalls and choices connected to particular types of interventions. The concluding remarks will comment on the political nature of judicial reform and on a model to design a proper sequence of interventions for judicial refor

Judicial Corruption: Some Consequences, Causes and Remedies

De rol van de rechte

An Elementary Approach to the Rule of Law

Rule of Law and Development: Formation, Implementation and Improvement of Law and Governance in Developing Countrie

Consequences of Decentralization: Environmental Impact Assessment and Water Pollution Control in Indonesia

Rule of Law and Development: Formation, Implementation and Improvement of Law and Governance in Developing Countrie

Over de grens tussen religie en wet: het Indonesische huwelijksrecht

Sociale cohesie: recht, bestuur en ontwikkelin

Rebuilding the Judiciary in Indonesia: The Special Courts Strategy

Rule of Law and Development: Formation, Implementation and Improvement of Law and Governance in Developing Countrie