Karl Westerhof

A Personal Story of Faith by Neil Molenaar

One morning during March, 1972, after I had accepted CRWRC’s job offer and attended my first CRWRC Board Meeting, I was having my morning devotional time. I also was taking a few moments to reflect on the decision I had made. I remember asking the Lord “Where will we find a home in Grand Rapids ?” Suddenly, and to my surprise, it seemed like a voice spoke, “There is a man whose wife has just passed away and needs to move and that will be your new home."  “OK, Lord," I said, "let’s go for it.”

About a week after I arrived in Grand Rapids, I started to check the Grand Rapids Press and its listing of homes for sale. Staff at the CRC denominational buildinggave me leads as well.  As I had time, I traveled to several neighborhoods located up to four miles from the denominational building where I had my office. Wherever I traveled, the voice that I had heard during my March devotional time repeatedly came back to me.

One Sunday, during the month of May, 1972, I was invited to have lunch with a family I had met at church. I told my hosts that I was in the process of locating and purchasing a home. During our conversation, they suggested that I contact a realtor friend of theirs. I accepted their suggestion, but in the back of my mind I was pondering whether God would work through a realtor in finding a home congruent with the March voice and instruction.  I remember sitting down with him to establish a list of criteria that we wanted in our new home. He proposed several that met our criteria.  We found some great homes, but I was unable to select any of them, as none involved a man whose wife had just passed away.

When we returned to the realtor’s office, we made a few changes to our criteria, and visited more houses for sale. Again none of these great homes involved a man whose wife had recently passed away. As we were about to return to his office, he said “Hey, there is one more listing that just came to my office this morning. Let’s take a look.”  As I walked with the realtor down the front lawn of this home, I asked him why this home was up for sale. He told me that the home owner’s wife had passed away during the month of March, 1972. Wow, this was approximately the same time that I had heard the voice during my March devotional time. Right on target, Lord! What could I do but let the realtor know that this was my choice for our new home. I called mywife Kay, who was still at our Washington home. She asked me to take her sister, who lived in Grand Rapids,  to view the home. If she considered it to be a good buy, my wife would accept her opinion and recommendation.

We purchased the home. It became a blessing for the entire family for the next eighteen years during our journey with CRWRC and DRS. It also introduced us to a great community of neighbors whom we came to love and continue to stay in touch with to this day. Whenever we have traveled back to Grand Rapids since 1990, we always take a few moments to drive by the home that, without a doubt in my mind, was orchestrated by the Lord. It was a great lesson that it is our responsibility to be faithful to the prompting of God’s Spirit.

Another dimension of this discussion that occurs to me is that Christians in North America may have lost our radical understanding of evil.  We don't have very good emotional or theological tools to deal with real evil.   We identify it in all sort of other ways, and we really do fail to see / discern what is just plain real evil.  When it strikes us in the face, we are numb or paralyzed.  

Wow, Mark, thanks for this.  It is provocative!  How easily in recent decades we have slipped into seeing sin as mental or emotional problems.   Surely this is one dimension, but it's not the whole story, and I wonder if we've come to act as though mental or emotional illness explains everything, and then we design our prescriptions accordingly...  I want to wonder here whether Holmes and I are alike in experiencing temptations in our early years - temptations to harbor anger, or pride, or hate, or some craving for power....   Were we alike in our longing to find significance, meaning, love?   And then by God's grace, and the presence of the Christian community, and a loving family, I began to learn NOT to indulge those thoughts, but to look in other directions to fulfill my cravings.    Holmes on the other hand, and here I'm speculating wildly, might have spent more and more time and energy fueling the thoughts that lead to idolatry, destruction, delusion, and sin.     Some of us nurture our worst inclinations; others of us by God's grace starve them.  This I think is an important part of having Christ be formed in us.   Was Holmes ill?   I think so.  Was he evil?   I think so.  And by the time he had entered the theater he had submitted himself virtually totally to the patterns and the beliefs and the behaviors that he had been practicing for years.  I'm very interested in hearing others comment on my thoughts.   Am I making bibical and common sense?   

Brother Mark, 

You said this so well.  Discerning what is best in the midst of today's complex systems is harder and harder.  THANKS.

Doug, I can't tell you all the thoughts that are wandering through my mind after reading this series of posts.  Thanks so much.  What you are saying is a story that is very dear to my heart - God's people committing to neighbors, neighborhoods, for the sake of the Gospel.  I love your story.  I love it that you decided to stay, and figured out how to use your resources for the sake of the neighborhood.  I love it that you invested - in many ways.  I love it that you love "stuff" so much, have so much fun with it, and get such a kick out of using it to express your deep inner Dooyeweerd.

I'm wondering if you and Bev would be wiling to share some of this exchange in other ways?   It would be a great story to accompany the Faith Alive book Don't Invite Them to Church.   Makes me wonder if there are others who've committed to neighborhoods as you have, and especially whether there are congregations who have committed to support members who've made this kind of commitment.  

I have a hunch your story resonates with many of the CRC church planters who are working in the city of Seattle too!  

Again, thanks for telling your story, and thanks for being "there" for your neighbors for Jesus' sake!

Classis as a COOPERATIVE (AD)VENTURE!    Classes on the move have figured out how to handle the routine classical business with new efficiency, and so create space for the VENTURE.   Venturing out.   Classes on the move have spent significant time building an exciting, shared, galvanizing vision.   That vision then helps shape the machinery, the agenda, the priorities, the prayers.   Renew that mindset!    and how to do that?   There has simply GOT to be some leaders in the classes who are determined to raise the challenge, raise the questions, raise the stakes at the meetings.   Start out with gentle, patient persistent reminders of what COULD be, by God's grace.   This is how classical change agents work.   Their stories are out there!   It's happening.   Don't miss out!  Let us stir one another up, and encourage each other.  And get in touch with a Classical Coach who can reenforce the encouragement, and help with the stirring.    

In response to the blog I posted above on December 13, I received an email from an old friend, a pastor for many years.  He wanted to be hopeful, but he sounded discouraged.  I asked him if he would share some of his observations and thoughts here on the Network.  He was reluctant... said he was not convinced there was any value to doing that.  I pushed on him a little, and he agreed to let me share some of his thinking, but he just didn't want to have his name out there.  So I offered him that I would share his thoughts here as an anonymous friend.  He agreed.   As you read, I hope you can hear his longing for vibrant dialog, his love of the church, his rich experiences in varied classis situations.  I think listening to him is helpful.  What follows are his words.....

     Thanks for your thought provoking article. I agree that Classis is a potential key to balance -- but how to get there? Much of our denomination’s history can be reviewed in terms of the cross currents of centralization or decentralization. So in a sense there is nothing new under the sun. Now it’s like we have two systems: the denomination with a large (and growing) structure fed by ministry shares and often focused on the Greater Grand Rapids area for various reasons, and on the other hand we have the congregational dimension of our life together. Most agencies gain a life of their own; the shift to smaller boards and more at large members has furthered the disconnect between agencies and the broader church.

     One of those who responded to you indicated that the trend towards decentralization is good but there should then be a shift in ministry shares as well to a local level. While ministry shares have not increased significantly when one figures in cost of living, there is in addition much more local fund raising e.g. by world missionaries raising support from local churches as well as more local support of church plants. Little wonder then that people are desirous of decentralization. However, this apparent shift toward congregationalism is not as simple as it may seem.

     Our covenant as a denomination operates on local, classical and denominational levels in more ways than just financial dealings. Much of that is codified in our Church Order. The CO is more and more being side-lined locally and classically by a spirit which often views the CO as antiquated and stilted, and which desires to be much more open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  However, as Acts 15 seems to indicate when it says, “it seemed good to us and the Spirit,” these two need not be set in opposition to each other. 

     There is indeed a fresh wind that comes in with new faces from different places, and yes there is energy and hope as well in new church plants and an openness to new ideas. But we have some old systems that are in place such as the Church Order and the processes it outlines. In 2002 Synod adopted a new Art. 23 process along with the alternate routes to ministry. Later changes were made on a local level in terms of seating ministry associates and others at classis in order to give them more of a voice. How these changes will all play out in the future is far from clear. Are we creating imbalances in how congregations are represented at classis?  

     And there are other issues: expectations regarding providing ongoing support of pastors including areas minister’s pension, health care and tent making ministry; the role of synodical deputies, and parts of the system that too often are or appear to be in conflict with the “new push” will also need to be resolved. Survival of the CRC may well take some drastic changes, but what will the “new CRC” look like and who will still be afforded a home there?

     As you indicate, there is no magic bullet; rather there needs to be rational, respectful, kind debates about these issues; but that is the very thing we can't seem to do well. Perhaps your blog will be a catalyst in this regard. I, for one, hope and pray that it will be.

Thanks for this, Melissa!  So counter-cultural I can hardly hear it over the hum of my busyness.   Makes me wonder whether the church - as congregation, council, classis, denomination - could be an arena, or a culture, that helps people find some balance in their lives...

And I even wonder: Could DEACONS, of all people, be the ones who help us find the balance between active obedience on the one hand, and schedules packed with activities on the other?   Does a life of service and caring necessarily result in over-commitment, harried busyness, and stress?   Could deacons be the ones who lead us into new thinking and practice on this?

So well said!   thanks, Melissa!

Very interesting link here to the discussion about asking the right questions....   What powerful influences we can have on each other's lives for good if we slow down, listen, reflect, probe gently, ask incisive questions....