James Dekker
I've been a Christian Reformed pastor since 1977, raised in Chicago. In 1978 I first dragged my wife Rose and two children to Costa Rica for language training for work in Latin America. It didn't take too long for Rose to very seriously hear her own call. I thank God for that and for her daily. After serving for ten years as Refugee Coordinator for the CRC in Canada, working for World Renew in the Burlington, Ontario office. She is also a trained spiritual director.
We have three grown daughters, scattered from Ottawa, Ontario to Grand Rapids, now one in Washington, D.C. Missiouri.
Erika is a pastor/chaplain/mother. Her husband Tim Postuma works with CRCNA. Erika and Tim have twins, Lucas and Ella, plus Caleb JAMES!
Middle daughter Anna lives in Ottawa, now, She is lawyer working for the Department of Justice after delivering Adele during law school at the University of Western Ontario in December 2007. In September, 2011 she took maternity leave--a year in kindly socialist Canada--after giving birth to Japheth Adrian. Husband Jason Grootenboer teaches part-time at Redeemer Christian High School in Ottawa to take care of the children while Anna turned to full-time work early in 2013.
Youngest Jessica is a splendid knitter, ex-barista, English major (Calvin College, 2005) and dog lover. Her partner Sean works for a professional association/college of physics professors, though he claims to know zero about physics. Jessica still exports samples of warm goodies to family and friends regularly. Her adopted dog Darby is almost as lovable as was my German Short-Haired Pointer Dakota, but half the size, though Dakota shrank some over her last three years because of diabetes AND a hyper-active thyroid. (We put more $$$$ into that dog than into most cars I've driven.) Dakota now rests until Resurrection Day bundled in her pillow under an apple tree in our backyard, as a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary (wearing a colourful rosary) holds a permanent vigil.
I retired at the end of June, 2013 as pastor of Covenant CRC in St. Catharines, Ontario. So now, I ride my bike around the Niagara Peninsula more often than before, long to cross-country ski, which happens only rarely here. Canoeing happens regularly with hand-made double-bladed paddles, sometimes in wood-canvas canoes I've restored but haven't sold yet. My daughters are getting restored canoes when I get around to them.
Posted in: Practical Practices for Dismantling Racism
Thank you very much, Rudy, for this enlightening and challenging reminder. Continue to write, live and work with boldness, humility, candour, passion and Wisdom to disrupt, interrupt, erase racism. I continue to learn what to do and NOT to do as a privileged, retired white man, with much cross-cultural work and life experience that still sometimes does not inform me with God's Love and Grace. Blessings and prayers, Jim Dekker
Posted in: May 2020 Safe Church Webinar With Chuck DeGroat, Author of When Narcissism Comes to Church
Don't we have to register ahead of time for the webinar? If not, will we find out only on May 27 if it's full?
Posted in: Begging, Borrowing—But Not Stealing
Josh Benton wrote a good, thought-provoking response to the plagiarism article and I thought it deserved my own thought and a comment.
The main issue in preaching (or any writing) is not that we should be afraid to use other resources. There hasn't been a totally original thought around for a long while. That means we are, in fact, dependent on all kinds of on-going conversations about Scripture, church life, social issues and so on to keep ourselves up-to-date, interesting (we hope!) and useful as servants who, in the words of a long-time mentor, "always mediate the Word of God in some way or other."
What matters is HOW we use all that information and all those resources "out there"--whether "out there" means internet, books, libraries, newspapers, magazines, commercials or whatnot. It is certainly legitimate to get pushes and nudges from all the sorts of things that Josh mentioned. It equally illegitimate to fob that stuff off as our own work without attribution, acknowledgement, credit.
Funny--a retired preacher buddy read that plagiarism article a few weeks ago and said, "My pastor is always nipping other people's sermons, quoting from them, sometimes saying ahead of time, 'I can't say this any better than so-and-so.' But that's fine. He is scrupulously honest about giving credit to the authors."
I know we can overquote and bore people and even create a certain amount of distrust if ALL we do is quote. What is important is that we own, embrace, chew, digest the Bible passage so that the words of the semons are honest, resting on personal and Holy Spiritual integrity.
Jesus said some pretty strong words about the Father of Lies and his children. We are children of the Father of Truth, or the original and eternal WORD and in our own words are pretty strongly bound to honesty and integrity.
Posted in: A Final Question About Leadership: Are We Looking for and Developing Leaders?
You're welcome, Duane. And thanks back to you for your attentiveness. I was not aware of the addition of the fifth leadership characteristic of communication. If I'm not mistaken, Max DePree writes somewhere about that--or perhaps it filters into several things I've read by him. I'm not surprised that he and Mr. DeVos would agree, nor, for that matter, that Quentin Schultze would emphasize that as well.
Isn't the Good News ('euaggelion) actually the BEST communication ever--spiritually, morally, emotionally, intellectually? And isn't the Gospel dependent on good, communication--from God to humanity and back and forth in many forms for many years and beyond through eternity? Good thing the Word/logos originates with God. It is wondrous and fearsome that God entrusts this precious Story to people.
Let me toss out an offer or request to you: Would you like to add to my seven-part series on communication that I've updated here over the last months by writing an article on communication? If there's anything that helps hold the previous seven articles together is their dependence on both positive and negative stories. All were true and factual, though, as I mentioned, some were conflated and disguised to keep original sources anonymous. I'd love to see it. In fact, I'll pay you the same thing for your contribution that Network is paying for all of mine! (Regardless of the pay, the request is serious and I hope you can take it up.)
On to a related item in your response. I did not know that you were involved from the start with Network. Nor am I surprised that it took you so long to get in on the conversation. You hit on a very sensitive and important point about Network, the internet, blogosphere, etc.: all contribute to what seems to be an ever-growing endless flow of opinion, conversation and information. I eagerly take part in this and am honoured to be part of it, but I have the problem of information overload, sorting through what to read and what not to read, not knowing what I forget, trying withal to honour my calling, my congregation to do the best God wants for me to do. Sometimes I do want to crawl in a cave for a while--until I get another idea for a blog or a comment or an article or a sermon or a conversation with a parishionier.
Anybody else out there share any of this?
Posted in: Engaging God's Mysteries in Preaching—a Book Review
Thanks to Ken and Allen for the comments and responses to the book review on preaching. Since I'm moderately ambidextrous--or maybe slightly dyslexic, if you look at things judgmentally--I'll respond first to Ken's response to Allen and then make a couple of observations about Allen's initital comment. (Are you still wth me???)
Ken--I don't think Allen was talking about "holding back" or "coddling" anyone. I think he was responding to what it means to get out into the preaching world once one has left the somewhat hothouse environment of seminary (ANY seminary, not just Calvin). There's nothing wrong with hothouses. They give plants and preachers good starts or helpful, nurturing environments for producing fruit under supervised and controlled conditions.
Hothouses in the fruit and vegetable industry go wrong when farmers forget how to grow stuff in a natural environment. For example, one of the stupidest things I ever remember seeing was a greenhouse project in the highlands of Guatemala to grow tomatoes within sight of an ancient and successful outdoor market garden program by Mayan folks; it used local water, soil and air without modification. Meanwhile, the hideous greenhouses used imported metal frames, plastic sheathing, bottled fuel and who knows what kind of soil. I think it must have been old (or young) white guys trying to "help" smarter, more experienced brown people who could have stood some help in other areas but surely not in growing vegetables.
Now on to Allen's first comment: homiletics and church worlds go wrong when congregations become audiences or consumers and when what and the way one learns in seminary or continuing education classes is entrenched as the only mould for producing sermons. Paul Scott Wilson's "four pages of the sermon" is a splendid method, one of many helpful tools in a large, flexible, differentiated toolbox for preachers. Robert Farrar Capon's many books on preaching and the Bible are rich, never exclusive sources. For his part, Wilson never claims "four pages" is the only way to prepare or preach sermons. "Four pages" CAN deliver the whole goods at certain and many times and for certain and many congregations. Maybe "out west" academic stuff in sermons doesn't work, but I don't know that it works "down east" or "up north." I know nothing about what works "down south." But it's gotta be OK to quote Eugene Peterson or Marva Dawn to almost anyone with half-a-brain and a heartful soul.
If "academic," though, means merely citing sociology, statistics, recounting philosophical currents and arguments and quoting experts and commentors for the show-off quialit, that probably doesn't fit in too many places. If, though, "academic" means quoting from, reflecting on themes in contemporary or classic novels, songs or movies that echo or allude to biblical narratives, characters or themes, that not only fits; it also seems to me to be a rigorous and required way to engage culture and give the whole biblical goods. No coddling, no holding back. Rather, it's just "exegeting the culture along with the Bible" as my friend Dan Ackerman once said in a fine speech to Synod when he was a candidate; he urged all preachers to do both constantly.
So, friends, thanks for the topics, themes, conversations. Let's keep thinking, writing, listening, preaching--and going back to the Bible.
Posted in: How does a church keep staff leadership connected to elected church leadership?
Thanks, Tony, for putting this query on the Pastors Network too. It fits both places in Church Administration and here.
I'm not sure what qualifies as a "sizable" staff, but I'll respond from my perspective of a pastor of a church with two full-time ministry staff persons--lead pastor and youth ministry director--and a 15-20 hour a week music in worship coordinator. We also have a full-time treasurer-administrative assistant and a 25 (plus or minus) hour a week custodian. All five of us meet weekly for an hour to hour and a half for updates, prayer, coffee.
As lead pastor I attend our monthly leadership council, as does our youth ministry director. Neither of us votes there, but we contribute to and sometimes lead parts of discussions. The music in worship coordinator and I attend worship monthly committee meetings and take part in sub-committees regularly for planning specific worship services. That responsibility is also shared by other worship committee members who tap into resources and gifts from others in the congregation who are not always members of worship commitee. Ex officio I am also part of our consistory (elders), who meet monthly. For three years I was chair of elders, but was happy after that period not to let my name stand for another year. I don't vote at elders or full council meetings either--with the council meeting four times a year regularly with very occasional special and brief meetings.
Ministry staff members attend the complete meetings, except in instances where confidential personnel issues are dealt with. Our administrative assistant and custodian do not attend leadership meetings, though the admin assistant-treasurer serves on finance committee ex officio. Each staff member has a liaison from our personnel committee; that liaison is to meet monthly with her or his staff person, though that does not always happen. The efficiacy of those relationships often depends on personal chemistry and the membership and leadership of the committee. In other words, sometime we limp; sometimes we stride purposefully along!
This gives a fairly complete overview of our congregation's former staffing structure and relationship to leadership bodies. I believe there is a right amount of involvementand interplay which at its best keeps staff and elected volunteer leadership in generally good communication. Others might differ, but this is my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Posted in: Should church libraries be viewed as a ministry?
I just received this from Yvonne Van Tuyl, Librarian at Trinity CRC in St. Catharines, Ontario, in response to some private emails. I offer this to readers to see if you might pass this around to your own librarians. (And, since Yvonne notes that she's not too up to date with blogging, etc, maybe you can email her directly and encourage her):
I would be interested in a forum to discuss reading material for our library. Although I am not as suave as some when it comes to Blogs and such, I would be interested in how to equip and use our library to the fullest. We have many books in our library, of which only a few are used each week. A discussion of study material etc. would be most appreciated. I would also like to know what the other Churches are buying for their libraries and if we could facilitate an exchange. Yvonne van Tuyl – Trinity Christian Reformed Church [email protected]
Posted in: What has been your experience with Article 17 A?
Thanks, George. More Dallas Willard also, which is really helpful: Spirit of the Discplines; The Divine Conspiracy (more discipleship that soul/self care, but excellent and also preachable often!)
More good material that I have used to supplement or actually BE devotions (I know; it's not Bible, but this stuff is pretty good):
William Willimon--Character and Calling.
Marva J. Dawn--The Sense of the Call (sometimes a bit pedantic and preachy, often using personal examples that tend to pile up, but still a helpful, solid and realistic core of material for us types to check out and re-affirm our calls OR to change careers and callings.
NOT for devotions, but still old and helpful for insight into humanity and self: M. Scott Peck: A Road Less Travelled and also (for a study of negative examples and what to avoid w/ grace and prayer) People of the Lie.
Blessings and prayers always.
Posted in: Celebrating Our 35th Wedding Anniversary (and How My Husband's Faith Crisis Changed Us)
Thank you, Deb, for this valuable gift. 1998, eh? Rose and I went to a Marriage Encounter around that time in Thunder Bay. Very fine time; memorable and spiritually focussing. Blessings, jcd
Posted in: A Lot Here That Just Isn't Right With My Soul
Thank you so much for this. We worked in L.Am. for 9 years and saw the tragic effects of years of US military interventions that produced civil wars in several nations and decades of untold suffering and death. Yet I love the US, my birthplace and place of my shared dual citizenship and pray for insights like yours about current inconsistencies and the imbalance of compassion to move the nation's leaders in directions of attitudes and policies that recognize the crimes of the past, hark back to the ideals of the Constitution about ALL people being created equal, though only whites were considered equals at that time. There is an admirable part of the American Dream, but there is also much history of nightmarish scenes in the dream. Thank you again and may many feel the unrightness of our souls.
Posted in: Best Books You Read in 2021
Thanks, Friends. I MUST start reading more than Kate Bowler's blogs. We just gave a daughter Sarah Bessey's latest, but I should have read it before giving it to her. Anyway, here are my fave books I've read in 2021, though I have read a few stinkers too.
The Room Where It Happened, John Bolton (eyewitness account of a stormy time in the stormy life of a one-time Trump supporter who saw the dangerous caprices of his boss, finally resigning)
Hell and Other Destinations, Madeleine Albright (incredibly witty, often erudite memoir of this former US public servant
A Burning in My Bones, Winn Collier (biography of Eugene Peterson)
A Promised Land, Barack Obama
Requiem, Frances Itani (stirring novel about Japanese internment in Canada during WW2)
The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben
Diary of a Pastor's Soul, Craig Barnes
A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny (an older Inspector Gamache product, but the one that in my opinion explores the remarkable capacity of ordinary people besides the murderer to do astonishingly wretched and cruel things and astonishinly wonderful and kind things as well)
Posted in: Best Books You Read in 2021
Thanks, Friends. I MUST start reading more than Kate Bowler's blogs. We just gave a daughter Sarah Bessey's latest, but I should have read it before giving it to her. Anyway, here are my fave books I've read in 2021, though I have read a few stinkers too.
The Room Where It Happened, John Bolton (eyewitness account of a stormy time in the stormy life of a one-time Trump supporter who saw the dangerous caprices of his boss, finally resigning)
Hell and Other Destinations, Madeleine Albright (incredibly witty, often erudite memoir of this former US public servant
A Burning in My Bones, Winn Collier (biography of Eugene Peterson)
A Promised Land, Barack Obama
Requiem, Frances Itani (stirring novel about Japanese internment in Canada during WW2)
The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben
Diary of a Pastor's Soul, Craig Barnes
A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny (an older Inspector Gamache product, but the one that in my opinion explores the remarkable capacity of ordinary people besides the murderer to do astonishingly wretched and cruel things and astonishinly wonderful and kind things as well)