By Abram Huyser-Honig
(First appeared in the April 12, 2004 issue of the Christian Courier)
Good pastors are learners as well as teachers. And sometimes the best people they can learn from—and with—are other pastors, as four groups of Canadian pastors participating in the Christian Reformed Church’s Peer Learning Group program are finding out.
In their monthly meetings, members of two Hamilton, ON groups alert one another to the Holy Spirit’s work. Pastors in a third Ontario group are sharpening their preaching skills. And pastors in Edmonton, AB bounce ideas off each other about how to include everyone from toddlers to senior citizens in worship. In all the groups, the meeting of minds sparks deeper learning and more urgent calls to action than individual study could.
The pastors have the time and resources to study together thanks to Peer Learning Group grants from the CRC’s office of Sustaining Pastoral Excellence. The one-year grants cover travel costs, study materials, workshop registration, and pulpit fees for substitute preachers.
Welcoming the Holy Spirit
The Hamilton-area groups tackle issues often left by the wayside in CRC congregations: How does the Holy Spirit work in a congregation? Does speaking in tongues fit with Reformed theology?
For Rev. Erick Schuringa (Immanuel CRC, Brampton, ON), those questions aren’t just academic. Several years ago, while doing personal devotions, he began speaking what he calls “a personal prayer language.” “I just let my tongue go and started speaking a language I had never heard,” he said. At the same time he felt a deep sensation of being in God’s presence and being loved by him, he said.
Monthly Peer Learning Group meetings help Rev. Schuringa put such experiences in perspective. For one thing, talking with other pastors who’ve had equally intense encounters with the Holy Spirit is a good reminder that spiritual gifts are exactly that—gifts—and not causes for undue pride, he said.
Discussing readings like the CRC’s 1973 report on Neopentacostalism, listening to guest speakers, and attending conferences together help the pastors locate their individual concepts of the Spirit within the framework of Christian tradition.
Group member Al Wolters, a religion professor at Redeemer College, says the charismatic movement’s “excesses and frequent theological misconceptions” should not keep Calvinists from embracing its strengths—both John Calvin and Abraham Kuyper, he notes, have been called “theologians of the Holy Spirit.”
“The more we study it, the less unusual it becomes,” said Rev. Schuringa. “The Spirit has been working like this through the ages; we’ve just been ignoring him.”
Hamilton pastors are remedying that ignorance in the sanctuary as well as the study. Rev. Bart Velthuizen, (Hagersvilles Community CRC, Hagersville, ON), a member of the second Hamilton Peer Learning Group, recently preached a well-received, two-month sermon series on what scriptures from Genesis to Ephesians say about the Holy Spirit.
Last summer Rev. Rich Grift and the elders at Hope CRC, Brantford, ON, led a healing service that was so popular it lasted over two hours. No one was healed immediately, but several reported complete or partial improvement in following weeks; another found a treatment that eased her chronic pain. And the “joyful spirit of peace and unity” pervading the service was a blessing in itself, said Rev. Grift.
To-the-Point Preaching
Friction is required to sharpen a blade. The five Ontario pastors in “The Preaching Group” want their sermons to cut to the heart, so as they critique one another’s sermons in their monthly meetings they give praise where it’s due, but don’t hesitate to point out faults.
Sometimes it hurts. “But we all know we love each other, and there’s a great level of respect,” said Rev. Peter Janssens (Lucknow CRC, Lucknow, ON). And it pays off. Rev. Janssens said that since he joined this Peer Learning Group he’s been more intentional about looking for the theme of each text he preaches on. “I think, from the comments people have given me, that the sermons are tighter,” he said.
The group also collaborates on sermon series. The pastors email outlines to each other, with the understanding that each is free to appropriate as much as he wants from his colleagues. “The key is that people get it, not that we get credit for writing it,” said Rev. Janssens.
In December they all preached from an Advent series they wrote together; later they submitted the outlines to the journal Reformed Worship so other pastors could use them too.
One happy result of preaching from the same series at the same time is that when members of one pastor’s congregation visit another’s—which happens often, since all five are within an hours drive of each other—they don’t miss a beat.
The Preaching Group has also shored up members facing tragedy in their congregations. This past year pastors in the group had to deal with a car accident that killed two teens, the suicide of an elderly person, and the drowning of a toddler.
“How do you give a good word from the Lord at times like these?” said Rev. Jack DeVries, (Bethel CRC, Listowel, ON). “We discussed the issue and even listened to and critiqued a sermon done at one of the funerals. It was encouraging and very helpful to have the peer support that helped us put into words God’s word for a hurting people.”
A Church for All Ages
3,500 kilometers west, members of Canada’s fourth Peer Learning Group have dubbed themselves “Joel’s Dream Team.” The moniker refers to Joel 2:28, “your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions,” and the group is dedicated to making the voices of the youngest daughters and the oldest old men heard in congregational worship.
These Alberta pastors have collectively read a small library’s worth of books on the subject, and they’re led by Karen Wilk, an expert on intergenerational worship and the coordinator of Children and Youth Ministry in the CRC. They’ve even led a conference themselves, and in July they’ll lead part of a Calvin Institute of Christian Worship conference in Denver, CO.
For Joel’s Dream Team, the occasional youth service isn’t enough. Unless attempts to include children and youth in worship are rooted in something central to their identity as church members, said Rev. Cecil VanNiejenhuis, of First CRC, Edmonton, AB, “some of it is really cosmetic.”
That’s why he’s focused on communion. In many CRCs children leave for church school before the part of the service when communion is celebrated. Some never even see the ceremony until they are eight or nine years old, and even then they may be excluded until they become “full” members of the church.
But, said Rev. VanNiejenhuis, “When a child knows the love of God in Jesus Christ, and loves him back, and when the child understands that we are all God’s children together, they should be joining us at the table.” Dream Team ideals have spurred Rev. VanNiejenhuis to invite anyone wanting to come to the table at the Lord’s Supper to make a simple, age-appropriate profession of faith—all that CRC policy requires. More than 20 people have already said they’re interested.
Refreshing the Soul
Doug Kuyvenhoven, an elder at Lucknow CRC, meets with Rev. Janssens once a week for coffee and accountability. But, said Kuyvenhoven, “Even though we are close, I know that there are things that he can only talk about with other pastors, and only they can truly understand.”
Pastors agree that the way they minister to one another in Peer Learning Groups is as valuable as their studying together.
“I have always felt that pastors need to get together with other pastors regularly for sharing, support, skills training, and some laughs,” said Kuyvenhoven.
The next application deadline is May 1. Applicants whose proposals are accepted will be notified by June 1. Peer Learning Groups may include up to eight people, primarily pastors, who share a common interest, ministry type, or geographic region, or have something else in common.
Visit www.crcna.org/pages/pastoralexcellence.cfm for a printable application, a completed sample application, and for more information about Peer Learning Groups and other SPE programs.
