Steve Van Zanen

Hi Dan,

I remember you visiting in the World Missions offices a few years ago.  It would be good to talk again, especially given the very significant changes in CRWM in the intervening years.  Some of these can't be trumpeted due to security concerns, but lots of them can be seen on our website. 

I'm thinking of one of our West Africa missionaries, whose work in a Muslim context can't be posted on our website.  He had many of the concerns you have expressed about Land Cruisers, so he adopted a trekking strategy in which he walks to villages, meets with village elders to ask permission to share about Issa and has opportunity then to do pre-evangelism with people who have had no previous exposure to the Gospel.  Like many of our missionaries in Muslim contexts, he avoids the word Christian since it is associated with all the evils of Western culture.  They talk about being a Jesus' follower, instead.

Many people suppose that our agency is primarily involved in church planting in places where there are already lots of Christians, but very little of that is going on.  In addition to those doing pioneer evangelism among unreached peoples, the great majority of our missionaries in the "reached" world are involved in leadership training and resourcing national churches who have asked us for assistance.  One of the great new tools for this is Timothy Leadership Training.  It was developed by Harold Kallemeyn and others to bring just-in-time training to pastors in Africa where extensive in-residence training would be ineffective even if it were possible.  It focuses on an inductive approach and action planning which the participants hold each other accountable for.

We do also provide grants to partner churches to try to jump start new ministries.  At times we have provided as much as 80% of the funding at the beginning.  Going forward, with many mature partners that we work with, we would look for even more local initiative in most cases.  It has been a long and difficult process to shift from "mission driven ministry" to "coming alongside" ministry.  We are not there yet.  However, the focus in areas of the world where there are substantial numbers of Christians is more and more on the local vision.  As Fronse pointed out, that must be central to the conversation.

Now this may sound self-protective to you, and perhaps it is in part.  But the changes are significant, and one of our great challenges is helping the churches understand what is going on and how we are responding to the changing environment.  There are lots of models for how to engage.  I don't think we would want to say that ours is the best, and it certainly isn't the only way.  Mission India, headed by one of our alumni, has a different approach, Gospel for Asia a third.  So, let's keep up the dialogue.  Steve

I think John's approach to our relationship to the Belhar Confession make a great deal of sense.  I think it is important that we embrace it and best that we do so as a testimony subsidiary to the existing confessions rather than as a fourth document of the same kind. 

The issue of comprehensiveness does seem to weigh against not only the Belhar, but also the Canons.  Actually, Our World Belongs to God is the comprehensive statement of Christian faith that speaks to our environment and issues.  I have sometimes wondered whether we ought to have as our "Three Forms of Unity" the Heidelberg Catechism, The Belgic Confession and Our World Belongs to God.  We could then have issue specific statements on a subsidiary level like The Canons (election) and the Belhar (racial justice).  It seems to me that Our World is more useful, attractive and clearly Biblical than the Canons, which are more theological treatise than statement of faith.

I'm not hung up on the term testimony.  John Cooper offered the term declaration.  I used testimony because that is what we call Our World Belongs to God and it is simpler if we don't multiply terms.  I also don't see the word testimony as requiring the personal character that is mentioned just above.  If you spend some time with people who have been on the receiving end of racism, the idea that the Belhar's issues are "political" is pretty hard to swallow.  Watch the PBS special on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission sometime.  The systematic torture and murder used by the old regime in South Africa in order to maintain white privilege is truly incredible.  The fact that many of the perpetrators were attending Reformed churches at the time, should give us all pause. 

Discriminating against people on the basis of race, which is definitely not limited to South Africa, is a denial of the Gospel.  That is why I believe it is vital to adopt the Belhar at some level and with some terminology.  To just receive it as information will be perceived by many around the world as fudging on the issue of racism.

Hi Rob,

I certainly appreciate this concern.  This is one reason that I agree with John that testimony or declaration rather than confessional status is the best option.  The following text was adopted by Synod 2009 to say that the Belhar should not be interpreted to imply acceptance of same sex relationships.  It is found on p. 606.

As Synod 2009 brings the Belhar Confession before the

church for consideration, synod shares with the whole

church the profound nature of this moment in the life of

the church and therefore one that must not be entered into

lightly but rather with godly fear and trembling, humbly

trusting that we will be faithful to the gospel. With these

understandings

synod proposes to Synod 2012 the adoption

of the Belhar Confession as a fourth confession of the Christian

Reformed Church in North America.

Since Scripture is the only rule of faith and practice, our

confessions are and must be historic and faithful witnesses

to Scripture. Synod observes that the Belhar Confession

truly expresses the biblical goals of unity, reconciliation, and

justice; the church’s commitment to these goals; and the fact

that “true faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition for membership

of this church” (The Belhar Confession, Article 2).

Synod further observes that, as a faithful witness to Scripture,

the Belhar Confession does not negate the biblically derived

statements of synod on homosexuality, including those

of 1973 and 1996. Finally, synod recognizes that injustice and

enmity between peoples are two dimensions of all-pervasive

human sinfulness, for which every human being needs Jesus

Christ as Savior.

—Adopted

Dear Harry,  Your concern for our missionaries, missions and the Church are deeply appreciated.  I do have to agree that you are a bit behind on this topic.  Actually, Home Missions church planters have had to raise most of the financial support for their church planting for quite some time.  World Missions career missionaries have had a goal to gather the majority of the worldwide average cost of a missionary since 1992.  At that time the Ministry Share system yielded about $5.5 million for CRWM.  Now more than twenty years later the Ministry Share system yields about $5 million.  If CRWM is going to have a growing impact on the world which needs Christ, it must seek new ways of gathering the financial resources needed.

You ask how many young people will commit themselves to mission service given the increased emphasis on developing a network of support.  I believe the answer is many more.  For the past twenty years CRWM has often had to turn aside people who have felt God's call to mission service, because there was not sufficient funding for new positions.  Meanwhile, many CRC people have gone into mission service with other organizations which require 100% support raising, plus an administrative fee of 15% or more.  Denominations which have made this shift in the past have substantially grown their mission force.  The PCA mission agency, serving a similar sized denomination, has a mission force many times our size. 

This video is excellent.  I'll be the first follower and say the Brian has given us a gem. 

Mariology remains a big issue.  We shouldn't dodge that reality.  So, I'm not saying that all is well.  I'm just observing that the amount of change in the last half century has been remarkable.

For more thoughts on the new Pope from retired missionary Adrian Helleman click here. 

 Here is something from Christianity Today on what can what cannot be expected from the new Pope. 

Just to clarify the Roman Catholic Church's position on this matter, the doctrine of papal infallibility only applies in very specific circumstances, and is rarely invoked.  Also, it is an innovation proclaimed by the First Vatican Council in 1870.  For a church that claims tradition as its authority, this is a big problem!  This is another important issue that remains between Catholics and everyone else, including the Eastern Orthodox, but this Pope is talking a lot about Jesus.