Reformed Church or Ref. Ghetto (2)

Rev. W. Vanderkolk. Trowel & Sword, Jan./Feb. 1965

Preamble: Following on from the previous article Rev. Vanderkolk presents us with some suggestions on how to avoid becoming a “Reformed Ghetto”. It is worth remembering that these articles were written sixty years ago so perhaps the suggestion of working among Dutch migrants may not be as relevant as it was back then. It may also be true that over the years many churches have had programs like those suggested here; but how long ago? If it was more than a generation ago perhaps it is time they were “Revisited”.

Reformed Church or Reformed Ghetto (2)

Our churches owe it to their very character to be aggressive, militant churches. This implies that we have to take Christ’s great commission ” Go ye therefore and teach all nations….” as seriously as the Early Church. It is our solemn duty to proclaim the good news inside the Church and outside the Church. The great problem is how to do it outside the Church. How are we to reach a largely pagan, post Christian nation?

There are leaders in the Church who believe in organised evangelism work exclusively. They seek the solution in the direction of impressive, well publicised, well organised rallies and crusades. There are also leaders in the Church, who denounce this method and who believe in unorganised evangelism exclusively. They reason that if every Christian makes it a point to speak a good word for the Lord in his own circle of friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbours a most effective work can be done. This indeed holds true. Generally speaking we can say that personal witnessing for the Lord among people we know intimately yields the best harvest. It is the Biblical method par excellence. However, in my humble opinion, this does not remove the need for organised evangelism work. Organised evangelism work may not be as effective as personal witnessing (but) it has its advantages also. To begin with it puts a great many people to work for the Church of Christ. In the second place organised evangelism work will make quite a few participants active witnesses for the Lord in their own environment. In other words it leads to personal witnessing. In the third place by means of organised evangelism work we contact people we would never meet with otherwise.

In this article we will discuss a number of possibilities which we have as Reformed Churches. Every congregation will have to work out its own programme. Circumstances differ from place to place. In the Sutherland congregation (a normal, average sized, suburban Reformed Church) we work as follows:

1. Work Among Dutch Migrants. This is a task not one of our Reformed Churches can permit itself to neglect. Do you know that many a migrant of Dutch extraction feels desperately lonely? Do you know that many of them long for a bit of help, encouragement, fellowship, and compassion? Admittedly, many of them live self-centred, materialistic lives and have no interest whatsoever in the gospel of our Lord. Yet the 130,000 migrants of Dutch extraction constitute a mission field we can ill afford to neglect. In Sutherland we are continually on the look out for Dutch families. Whenever we spot one we begin sending “Elisabeth Bodes” and pay a visit shortly afterwards. In this way we have led quite a few families to the Lord Jesus. We don’t say this to boast. Only to encourage others who do the same work. At times the work may seem fruitless, yet the Lord does provide us with openings.

This work is time consuming. If it is true, however, that one soul has greater value than all the treasures on earth, it is more than rewarding. On the whole Dutch people are quite happy to receive you. Once a promising contact is laid, it is a good thing if a very experienced member of the church or the minister does the follow-up work. Our follow-up work begins usually with a discussion of the first chapter of John.

2. Door-to-Door Work. About half a year ago we started this work, It began at an ordinary meeting of evangelism workers in our church. One worker was thoroughly dissatisfied with visiting Dutch people only. Why should he not visit the neighbours of the Dutchman also? The meeting felt the same way. It was decided to work in ever widening circles around the church. The World Home Bible League provided us with Bibles and New Testaments. We bought children’s bibles and bibles for young people.

We still happened to have thousands of Back to God Hour tracts. One Thursday night at 7.15 p.m. ten scared people met for a short prayer meeting. Immediately afterwards we went. We felt ill at ease when we knocked on the first door. However, things proved a long way easier than we thought. How are you to open a conversation after you have knocked on the door? The way which satisfies me most is to have a large New Testament in your right hand and to ask politely, “Did you ever see this Book before, madam?’ Usually the question is answered in the affirmative. It gives you a chance to raise the next question “Do you know what it is all about?” From that moment onwards the conversation can turn into every possible direction. You want to know whether this work is successful? Usually you have one or two good conversations per evening. Due to this work two Australian families receive Bible lessons. With quite a few we have established hope giving contacts. By now we have collected some forty addresses where we have to come back. We don’t know what the upshot of it all will be. It is our firm conviction, however, that door-to-door work is an excellent way to beat the ghetto character of our church. An added blessing of this work is that we shake up a great many church members of other denominations also. Of the original group no one has dropped out so far. On the contrary the team still grows.

3. Vacation Bible School. This year we organised our first V.B.S. By now we have a fair idea which mistakes to avoid. Our school was attended by between 60 – 80 pupils. The numbers varied a little from day to day. We met for ten mornings from 9 – 12. 50% of the children were unchurched, At least they did not come from Reformed homes. The great majority of the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves. So did the teachers. In many shops and petrol stations, and also in the Railway Station we had posters. Hundreds of handbills had been distributed. A vacation bible school is fairly expensive. Both the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Christian Reformed Church have published beautiful material. The material of the C.R.C. is nicer than that of the O.P.C. Where the latter is considerably cheaper, we used that. Our school worked out at 10 shillings/pupil. The question could be asked: Was it worth the effort? We think it was. Next year D.V. we hope to have a better and bigger V.B.S.

4: Special Drives. The ecclesiastical calendar provides us with a few good opportunities to do some special work for the Lord. Round Christmas and Easter people seem inclined a little more to listen to the good news. Six weeks before Christmas we started our campaign. Free of charge a member of the church printed beautiful Christmas cards containing a greeting from our church and giving all the particulars about the church. Together with the booklets of the British and Foreign Bible Society we offered these cards to over six hundred families in the district. On the whole people were quite happy to accept them. During the final two or three days before Christmas about 1/3 of the congregation was participating one way or another. Again it could be asked: Was this a worthwhile venture? It was for those who participated. It was an excellent preparation for a proper celebration of Christmas. It was also a worthwhile affair for the few who were very keen to listen to what we had to say.

5. Vicariate of Evangelism. Only because of the presence of a vicar we could do so much work during the summer months. It would be a healthy development if the committees of evangelism in the average sized and larger congregations would make an effort to avail themselves of the services of our students. It is good for the students. A new dimension is added to their studies. They begin to understand what is involved in being an evangelist. In door-to-door work they meet with the indifference, scorn, and contempt which many an Australian has for the Christian faith. They begin to realise what it means to do a work in utter dependence upon the Lord. They can conduct a V.B.S., a beach mission, or some sort of a special drive. It is good for the churches also. Our churches can do with the zeal and vigour of young men who want to revolutionise the established order of our church life within the compass of three months. We need these men who are on fire for the Lord, It does a world of good in our churches to have men at work who can look at things from an entirely new and fresh standpoint. In years to come our churches can only benefit from the training it has given to its leaders in earlier years. Of course there is the ever present, financial hurdle, I don’t think it is so very hard to take. If it is a real burden on our souls that so many people live as if Christ is dead and not alive, we must be able to find ways and means to employ a student during the holidays.

In conclusion we can say that the forms of organised evangelism work as we suggested are fairly easy to realise. What is needed is a committee of evangelism which consists of hard working, dedicated men and women, who have the trust and support of the session. In our congregation we find that this extra work results in more effective, personal witnessing; in greater giving; and in a generally speaking better church life.

It is our prayer that as our churches are becoming better established they may become better tools in the hands of Christ to do His work. If we don’t want to fossilise, we will have to evangelise. 

W. VANDERKOLK

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