Michael Vander Laan
I am married to Jana and have a daughter, Clara, and son, Nicholas. My wife and I serve at CrossPoint CRC in Brampton, ON. Jana is the Pastor of Congregational Care. I am the Pastor of Discipleship and Small Groups. I grew up in Hudsonville, MI, and graduated from Calvin College and from Calvin Seminary.
Posted in: Deck Chairs?
Kinda of funny you used the Titanic analogy. Looking at the Structure and Culture report, they cite handful of values: congregation-based (hey, you in the pew!), need to work within ecclesiastical structures (this is a church!), utilize a team approach (all together now), be nimble (turn! turn!), operate as a network (row! row!), apply a multidisciplinary approach (save the doctor, the scientist, and an artist first), and minimize institutional overhead (abandon ship!!!).
In all seriousness, I hear them working on the very concerns you mention at the end. The real question is execution, and that won't happen until someone takes the helm.
Posted in: Waiting Pastors, Counting Sheep and Counting Shepherds
Thanks for the article, David!
Overall, I agree with most of what you wrote, especially the necessity for some of our ethnic congregations. However, I have some concern with your third point.
There may be cultural issues that need to be compensated for. A clear example in the CRC is the requirement for male pastors in congregations where a female officebearers is not approved of. But there are cultural issues which need to be challenged and overcome. For instance, I don't think rural congregations should see themselves as needing a "rural" pastor (whatever that is). Nor do I think that urban congregations should see themselves as needing an urbanite as pastor.
About 2 or 3 Article 8 transfers appear on paper to be inviting pastors who will conform to congregation presuppositions rather than challenging them. I am afraid that these cases will stunt the Spiritual growth of these congregation and also marginalize them from the broader community of the CRC and Christianity at large.
Posted in: The Why in Synod
Well said, Ben!
Posted in: Delegates by the Numbers
John,
Synod is not a place for "representativeness" at all. Synod is a deliberative body which discusses issues of mutual concern. This means that the discussions themselves are very important. And for the best discussions, Synod serves best with multiple viewpoints shared, whether their viewpoint is informed by being a minority, a female, an elder, a pastor, or a white Dutch male. When viewpoints are missing, the discussion and decisions made will generally be lacking the Spirit-given wisdom and insight of the whole church.
So simply put, there IS something wrong with all the delegates being white Dutch male pastors....
Posted in: People of Color in Leadership Positions
Yeah, but Paul's rebuke demanded that Peter actually DO SOMETHING to change the status quo. We can talk all nicey nicey and misapply Gal. 3:26, but at some point we need to acknowledge that there are different ethnicities in the CRC and they don't all see the world through the Dutch CRC lens.
Yes, setting goals has the potential, probability even, of failure. But not setting goals means that we don't really care and we won't work on it (but we will talk about it, because that's what we're good at.)
Mike, who is feeling a bit synical today. ;)
Posted in: People of Color in Leadership Positions
I agree that Paul has a vision of the good news in Christ, as do we all in the CRC. But Gal. 3:26 is not grounds for ignoring ethnicity. Paul, of course, primarily saw himself as an apostle to the gentiles. Paul was very aware of others ethnicity, how God in Christ loves them, and his own ethnicity as a Jew.
I am not a fan of quotas either. But the goals set for Synod and, by extension, at 2850 are meant to keep our eyes open to including qualified persons who are also minorities. What gets me going in this conversation is that we think that by focusing on the gospel we think we can ignore racial/ethnic issues. I am a Dutch American. There is no getting around it. It influences how I think and act. But what about a hispanic? They think and act differently than I do. So do Canadians. And so on... These ethnic matters directly affect how various persons receive and respond to the gospel. The gospel should move us to want to grow in our listening to persons of various ethnicities. The gospel should move us to greater multicultural sensitivity grown through actual relationships.
I think that there needs to be an eye on ethnicity along with qualifications and other factors. Otherwise we are just asking for more of the status quo/maintance ministry.
Posted in: Why I Like Sermon-based Small Groups
Thanks, Allen (both for this post and you're previously promoting Sermon-based groups to me).
Our congregation has 5 new small groups this year (600+ member church). Two of the groups chose to do Sermon-based study guides. The other three groups have leaders who are also staff, so they each went their own way. Those groups did however put a much greater burden on the leaders.
Of the sermon study groups, one was initially hands-off about much of anything other than socializing. The sermon study guides have helped give the group a focus which they were still open to (no small thing!). The other group, which was very diverse in age and ethnicity, has also done well with the sermon study guides.
The challenge we face has been more in creating the sermon study guides, particularly because we have three pastors who are in the regular preaching schedule (and a fourth who preaches 2-3 times a year). The sermon study guides have a different tone depending on who is preaching, just like our sermons. I haven't heard any complaints about it, but I have noticed the difference in the questions. Sometimes I wonder if this is good or not.
In Christ,
Mike