Australian Gleanings/Letter From New Zealand On Vacant Churches

Preamble: This week we look at two items from December 1976: Australian Gleanings and its New Zealand equivalent under the heading “A Letter From New Zealand”. Although they mainly deal with general news items, it is of particular interest that they both mention a problem that is still very much with us today: Ministerial vacancies. Of particular interest was a “quite unprecedented step” adopted by the Hamilton church. One which vacant churches today could at least give serious consideration. It may not be suitable, or even possible in every situation, but is worthy of discussion within Sessions, Church Councils and by congregations of vacant churches. It would also be interesting to hear from anyone who was a member of Hamilton at the time, how it all worked out from their perspective.

Australian Gleanings, December 1976

Things do not look bright when we consider the number of ministers available to a growing number of vacant churches in our land. It was not only vacancies that made things difficult lately, as there were a number of serious illnesses too which hampered the work in some of our churches over the past few months. New South Wales is faced with an unusually large number of vacancies with the churches of Newcastle, Gosford, Wollongong all vacant, Sutherland about to become vacant, and the churches of Dee Why and St. Mary’s having to go without their ministers for some time due to illness. There was at least one more encouraging fact to rejoice in for New South Wales as the Rev. P.J. Berghouse has arrived from Dunedin, N.Z., to take up work as the second man for Blacktown.

Tasmania is also faced with a number of vacancies in particular on the Northcoast, although the South has its problems at Kingston which has still not succeeded in getting a second minister and the days of the Hobart church having their minister are numbered also. Next in line follows South Australia where the Adelaide minister received advice from his doctor that retiring quickly would be the only sensible thing for him to do, due to ill-health.

It is not hard to imagine how grateful the people in the West were upon the arrival of their new Home Missionary, the Rev. N. Teekens, to take up evangelism work at Bunbury and the counsellorship of Brunswick Junction. A Classis Contracta did not spend much time on letting him in with open arms!

In the meantime we pray that the ministers who suffer from ill-health may recover soon. We understand that one of them, the Rev. Keith McPhail, may have to travel overseas for surgery. We thank God for ways and means of healing and pray that medical assistance in whatever form may be used by God in answer to the prayers of His people.

We read in the Perth News that the Sunday school-materials of the Christian Reformed Church has been introduced again to replace the unsatisfactory MPA lessons. It would be a healthy thing if more churches would look into this matter and try to supply the Sunday school-teachers and pupils with the best materials available.

It was good to learn that our brother Rev. A.I. De Graaf returned from overseas. He has been a busy man while away, but he will be on duty overseas again before long by the looks of things. May the Lord God bless him as the representative of our churches on the Moderamen of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod for the inter-synodical period, in particular while the R.E.S. seeks to keep up fruitful contacts among the churches involved in the struggle in Southern Africa.

The churches in Classis Victoria will conduct a seminar early next year for the benefit of their Home Mission Committees and other church members keen to receive instruction in the area of evangelism. Rev. Gerald Hanscamp, director of the Australasia Home Bible League, and Mr. Harry Burggraaf, by that time, the Lord willing, full time worker with the Scripture Union in Victoria, made themselves available for leading the course which will cover a fortnight’s period, two or three midweek meetings per week in each participating church. The time for the seminar will be before all the engines start running again for the regular church work at the local level. The churches will receive a request not to commence with their regular functions for the year 1977 until after the seminar has been completed.

The Dandenong and Doveton Home Mission Committees are faced with the difficulty that more people are needed to staff the Sunday school and the club work among the unchurched children at Narre Warren and Rowville. It is most encouraging to have so many children coming to the Sunday schools, but once God starts blessing the church with more people needing instruction the church must take a hard look at itself and see whether it is ready for the blessings prayed for and obtained.

In November the year’s activities tend to come to a close for a while. Yet, we should not forget the churches that are engaged in holiday-activities such as Beach Missions. May the Lord bless all who are preparing for this work. And meanwhile let those who stop for some time think about and look for fresh opportunities and new means of outreach for 1977,

WILLIAM F. VAN BRUSSEL

Letter From New Zealand, December 1976

The Christchurch session has been spending a fair bit of time on the question: “Where are we heading” and as that church represents about one-fifth of our New Zealand denomination, the rest of us must be anxiously waiting for the cutcome. The session asked themselves these questions: “How effective are we as a church; how effective are we as individual Christians; and is any purpose served by having more preaching places? But as no clear answer was evident the Christchurch session decided to have another look at things again early next year, and then particularly at the last question. However, in the following church-bulletin I read that session decided to install judder bars on the church drive to discourage some of the members from driving too fast and causing near accidents. It seems to me now that, while the Christchurch session still struggles for an answer to their “where are we heading?” some of the members speed away already and the question becomes relevant: “Whither goest thou?”

While Christchurch contemplates expansion, further down South, the Dunedin church has become vacant as their pastor since 1969, Peter J. Berghouse, accepted the call from the Blacktown congregation in N.S.W., Australia, to be their second minister, With only one minister in the whole of the South-Island (the Rev. Bill Wiersma) this must be of deep concern to us all. Please, remember them in your prayers. But Dunedin was not alone in becoming vacant. Hamilton suffered the same hardship when Rev. Ken J. Campbell accepted the call from Bucklands Beach. In a way, it is a stopgap method where the cork of one bottle of the same row is taken off and placed on another bottle but that seems to be inevitable in our democratic Reformed system of calling. Still, there is some good news too. After a fairly short vacancy, Hamilton has been able to secure the Rev. Manfred Schwarz from Australia and we all rejoice in his accepting the call and coming over to work in this part of God’s vineyard. And so the bottles on our ‘row’ are being corked up again.

During its vacancy, the Hamilton church took a quite unprecedented step, by appointing one of their able elders Mr. W. Poot, as full-time elder’. This meant that Mr. Poot gave up his job temporarily and is financially supported by the church. For the congregation it means to have a full time man in the field of service, making sure that the work of the church be continued as well as possible. If no minister is available for preaching, this full-time elder will lead the services, teach the catechism classes and do all the general pastoral duties including visiting.

Elder Poot’s reaction to this new experience as a full-time worker in God’s Kingdom is worth noting: “It has been quite a change from cutting grass, and pruning trees, to take care of the pastoral duties of a congregation. And as I feel that it is a very responsible task I need your prayers and support. To select a sermon for reading in the worship-services is a major task. Not that I haven’t got enough sermons to choose from. But to find the message of which one believes that that is the one God would have you to read is sometimes very difficult.

Preparation for the catechism-classes takes a fair bit of time, and envy (in the good sense) any minister who has got all the information and answers at his fingertips. I realise already that it is not only the youth who are going to benefit from these studies. It helps me too to ‘swot up’ what should have known all along”.

This brings me to the Wellington Presbytery where it was decided to ask the Hastings session to prepare a study-report on “Preaching by Elders”. It is a pity that often worthwhile reports remain in the files and confines of the church-courts instead of being shared by all through publication in the church-paper. This Presbytery also published a report on “Whom our ministers may marry”. Good reading and worthy to be published.

The Reformed Family of Churches (or is it Family of Reformed Churches) has had its Ecumenical Synod recently in South-Africa and the Mangere pastor, the Rev. Arthur W. Palmer, as our N.Z. Delegate, ably represented our churches there. The Auckland-churches have already enjoyed a number of meetings in which the Rev. Palmer related his experiences at the Synod. He also visited Israel, the Netherlands and England. His preaching now has an outlandish flavour. While he was absent from New Zealand, the congregation added a large study-room to the church, not so much to house the minister but to find a storage-place for his numerous books. All four walls are covered from bottom to top with shelves and shelves of books and some shelves carry two rows of them, one behind the other. And he still knows where to find what!

It has been said that, no matter what his rank or position may be, the lover of books is the richest and happiest of the children of men. Erasmus once said: “When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes”.

After the Mangere pastor had shifted all his books from his house to the study at the church, his wife was overheard to say: “The Manse seems to be so empty now that the books are gone”.

DICK G. VANDERPYL