Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/95

Contributor - Harry Frielink

Title - Lest We Forget

Topic - Reformed Church In Canada

THE wrecking ball hung dangerously over the church steeple, poised to bring the building to its grave. As the first blows reduced it to rubbish, I couldn't help but wonder why the "church" was vanishing before my eyes. The words delivered at the church's last will and testament the previous Sunday echoed in my head. Their business-like explanation seemed so hollow. They said their hope was to heal the remaining churches by remodelling its organization, its programs, its property, and its worship services. They preached a solution of a more "modern" and "Canadian" church. Recalling the gathering, it was not the faces of the churchmen sent from New York which I remembered, but the faces of aged members who made up the congregation. Their tears and faces told of the great immigration experience which they had braved. Their children and children's children had left their "Dutch" church. Now it was gone. As the wrecking ball came crashing down on what those aged members had so passionately built, it fell on something which had already been wrecked. No amount of tinkering with the church's externals could have saved it. Its only salvation could only be found in the same source from which those aged immigrants had begun their church.

The threat of RCA churches dying out in Canada is a gut wrenching reality. Yet even more alarming than the decline in numbers of our denomination is the fundamental internal problem behind our numerical ailments. The passion which drove the fathers of our faith was so vital and full of new life not because of numbers, buildings, or money but because their source was founded solidly on God's purposes and will. We must ask ourselves: What is God's purpose for a church today in Canada? As a member what must I do to fulfil this calling.

Somewhere along the line we have strayed from the very confessional standard which expressed lives so completely centred and dependent on God. The heart and core of our evangelical faith was lost in the wake of a more comfortable life. Churches and their members now seem more pressed by worldly success than by the challenges of God's Word. Preoccupied with the maintenance and growth of our denomination, we have compromised the real growth of the Body of Christ, which is eternal. When the internal matters of truly understanding God's Word and applying it to our lives and society are ignored, denominations become empty self-perpetuating traditions. Where is the soul of our churches? Do we hold to an empty form, denying the true power of the gospel message? (2 Timothy 3:5) Wrestling with these questions some have left for more "successful" denominations, while others have sought to turn our churches into reformed versions of "successful" churches. We must learn that only actively living out our faith will make our denomination a branch of the true Church, united to our Lord. If we should forget the faith which established our churches, we never shall be able to grasp the solutions we so desperately need.

Lest we forget the depth of faith and dedication of service so essential to the Church, we must revisit those years when our churches were founded during the post-war immigration. Like many other immigrants, Dutch immigrants formed very tightly knit ethnic-religious communities.

The church became the most influential institution for preserving old ways, and adapting to new ones. In their Calvinist world-view, religion was not merely one part of life, it was every part of life faithfully lived for God.

The RCA following the war made it their goal to challenge all of society with a practical faith, fully lived out. In an article on 'Church Life and Theology in the Netherlands", in Western Seminary's magazine, the RCA was urged to mirror its mother church by "addressing the whole nation with vibrant faith expressed in action." This impulse for a unique reformed presence of faith in North America resulted in the immigrants ignoring the instruction of the Hervormed Kerk in the Netherlands to join the United Church for both cultural and doctrinal reasons. Although the efforts of Rev. J. J. Stam, who was sent to Canada to oversee this transfer to the United Church, never accomplished much, the impulse to contribute to Canada as Canadian Christians did. In a New York Times article in 1948 he summed up this attitude saying, "We want to bring (the immigrants) into the life of Canada... not have them locked up in nationalistic groups."

The RCA in Canada was born as brothers from Hamilton wrote a letter stirring the RCA to action: "Come and help us. After all we are your own people and church. Thousand of Hervormden are walking around the streets in Canada like lost sheep." These immigrants were not content with a mere church building or Dutch organization; they were motivated by a deep faith and awareness of the need to hold firmly to the Word of God. For instance, in Milton, without a church building, they celebrated their first Lord's Supper on planks set on saw horses in a barn. It was in response to this faith that Domestic Missions Board of the RCA sent five ministers to organize the RCA in Canada. A whole network of "fieldmen" was established to meet immigrants at the ports and train stations with a house-trailer-like bus, and distribute clothing collected by RCA congregations in the States. Churches assisted in locating employment, purchasing cars, and acting as go-betweens with government officials, employers, and landlords. Meeting practical needs, especially spiritual ones, our churches ministered to hundreds of immigrants, some who had hardly set foot in a church in the old country.

"The Pioneer: Monthly for Netherlanders in the New World" was begun in 1951 as a similar response of faith. It too shows how central their faith was to all of life. For the first five years of the magazine the bulk of It, the articles sought to assist immigrants in all areas of life in the Dutch language. Each issue began with an inspirational poem and sermon, and a regular column called the "Letter from Holland". Series on Canadian geography, government, farming and employment served as useful instruction, as well as Christian counsel for everyday living. Regular columns, such as "Voor de Huisvrouw" and the "Youth Page" emphasized family values. Articles addressed issues such as dancing, drinking, faith and science, and capital punishment from a Christian perspective.

By 1953 the RCA's involvement in the immigrant churches revealed a shift from a church which simply looked back to its ethnic roots and soil to one which sought to impact Canadians. This began with the Americans perceiving our churches as a Canadian mission. The Church Herald article 'Help Needed in Canada" described the financial aid given by American churches who adopted Canadian congregations. It spoke of Canada as "unique responsibility and opportunity". A series in 1954 raised the critical question about how much the old ways had been preserved in the American denomination. In 1959 two articles recording the trip of Rev. Jacob Blaauw to the Netherlands to report their merger with the RCA, showed how our churches had become unique Canadian witnesses to the faith.

Since the late fifties our denomination has consistently sought to define itself as a Canadian church, During this time of finding, the subtitle of the Pioneer changed to "An Organ of the Reformed Church in Canada". A 1958 editorial asked whether the RCA was an intruder in Canada, where she had no business. The answer describes why immigrants could not be part of the religious life of the United Church, and why the RCA, perceived as a North American unit, had been the mightiest influence for integrating the new immigrants into Canadian life. Another editorial advised local ministers to join local ministerial associations. It strongly pleaded that the RCA in Canada should be considered neither Dutch, nor American, but as loyally Canadian. In 1959 the "Conclusions of the Board of Domestic Missions" concluded: "We must stay together. This is a good investment, and they are carrying more than their share. The future of the RCA in Canada", they said, "does not lie in being separatistic but in a wholesome participation in the life and activity of Canadian life on every level." Commenting on the growth of the Canadian churches Jacob Blaauw wrote: "We thank God for what we have been privileged to do and for His blessings upon our efforts. The gospel has been preached throughout our Canadian churches, and the Word has been blessed by the Holy Spirit to human hearts."

Now we must ask what has happened since then. Have we challenged our society with evangelical fervour by reaching out with the gospel message? Or have we strayed from deep faith and relying on God's Word and Spirit, being more concerned with maintenance and growth of a separatistic organization than with growth in souls. Let us learn from our past, recognizing that the Church only exists where faith is exercised. Our success as a church in Canada will be based on the quality of our faith. We need to ask how we can grow deeply in faith and service. The immigrant church of the fifties and sixties serves as a wonderful model of a mission where strong gospel preaching, fellowship, and material help nurtured a people of faith.

Today our mission is radically different; we must bring the Gospel to Canadians who have never heard it. We must challenge our own flock to grow and give in a way that is not just a matter of belonging to the Dutch Canadian community. The comfort zone of ministering to traditional Dutch families has been broken. If we are to be the Church we must offer to our children, families, and communities the same gospel preaching, fellowship, and material support as we did to the immigrants. If we don't our churches will cease to be the true Church. Perhaps there are no longer cold immigrants arriving at the docks, but our communities are full of hungry, sick, and needy people. We have family and neighbours sick with sin, spiritually starving without salvation. If our churches are to continue we must regain the depth of faith which brought our churches into existence. The Pioneer and preaching was thick with substance for souls to feed on. Articles on solid biblical doctrine seemed to be a staple. Where are we turning for such feeding today.

In 1959 the Executive Secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions prophetically noted: "our brothers in Canada are great theologians ... they let their theology govern their churchmanship." Do we still share this burning zeal for God's truth? Unless we do our churches have nothing to offer. We will suffer the blows of society's wrecking ball, each blow making our churches more and more irrelevant to Canadians and to God. We must offer a quality faith which can satisfy the deepest needs of our world; a faith which is bold enough to organize our lives around God; a faith which will not compromise Godly success in our souls for worldly success in numbers and style.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Imagine what could happen if we should lay aside our worldly concerns and sin, and devoted oiir lives to meeting the practical needs, especially the spiritual ones, of those around us. If we had the same conviction and fervor which the founders of our churches had, we could certainly be salt and light on our world. Therefore, lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight the paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed. (Hebrews 12: 12-13)

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