Lessons Learned from Years of Church Planting

For 20 years now a peer-group of Christian Reformed church planters have been meeting to share stories and build on a friendship forged during what some call the “golden age” of church planting in the CRC.

They meet three times a year and recently they gathered at the home of Jul Medenblik, president of Calvin Theological Seminary and one of the church planters.

Before introducing all of them and offering some of their reflections, we’ll offer some background on what was happening in the 1990s when they began work. Knowing the context that helped shape their ministries gives us a window on the CRC and how it was reaching out beyond itself during this decade.

In the ‘90s, the United States and Canada saw explosive growth in suburbs, the expansion of sprawling shopping malls, and the birth of the Internet.

The U.S was seeing its first surplus in decades and in 1998, Canada saw its best economic performance in years. The Hubble Space Telescope was shot into orbit, and throughout the ’90s and into the year 2000 religion remained “very important” in the lives of six out of 10 people in the U.S.

During this generally upbeat time, this new generation of Christian Reformed church planters, trained and supported by Christian Reformed Home Missions (now Resonate Global Mission), spread out across the U.S. and into Canada to begin congregations.

Following the lead of such “seeker-friendly” church-growth models as those pioneered by Bill Hybels at Willow Creek outside Chicago and Rick Warren at Saddleback in Lake Forest, Calif., these CRC leaders aimed to reach out with church planting in areas and with methods that went beyond traditional CRC ministry.

They used contemporary worship styles to share the message of Christ in ways that didn’t dilute the Reformed perspective, but instead focused on sermons and contemporary songs with a practical, take-home appeal.

Although more than 40 percent of the new church plants in that period didn’t make it, several did. And in a few cases, the pastors and leadership teams launched churches with memberships growing to 1,000 or beyond. Some of these pastors also moved along to grow additional large churches. These are essentially the CRC’s answer to the megachurch phenomenon.

Among several success stories are those of five pastors who met recently. The group includes Rob Hogendoorn at Forest City CRC in London, Ont.; Larry Doornbos at Evergreen Ministries in Hudsonville, Mich.; and Kris Vos, who left his initial church in Indiana to “restart” a congregation in the highly diverse community of Lake Worth, Fla.

In addition, there is Shawn Sikkema, former pastor of Eastern Hills CRC in Aurora, Colo., who is now leading a ministry called Jesus on Colfax in Denver, Colo., and Jul Medenblik, who left the church he founded in New Lenox, Ill., to become president of Calvin Theological Seminary in 2011.

They first came together in the early days of their church when uncertainty was common, and now they use their time together for reflection. As a peer group, they share stories, offer one another support, discuss church matters, and grow their friendship.

They had a special role to play in the life of an expanding church, a church heeding a call that many denominations had already answered in the face of a culture that was, many thought, hungry for God.

Sitting in the living room of Medenblik’s home, the five recalled what church planting was like in the 1990s, the challenges they faced and the joys they experienced, and what pastors face in trying to begin new churches today.

They spoke of how the growth they experienced surprised them; how when people left, it could feel personal; how they would choke up to see someone baptized after coming sometime earlier to the church with no faith, and how again and again they were thrown on the grace of God to get through the ups and downs.

Here are some of their comments:

Joys

Larry Doornbos: “There was this sense of happiness and camaraderie of being part of this amazing new journey. Home Missions covered us as we became different kinds of churches. We had a vision of what the church could really be.”

Jul Medenblik: “I recall overhearing two women talking in the parking lot about it being ‘our church.’ It was their church and, really, I don’t think I even knew them. That was great when ‘that church’ became ‘our church.’”

Rob Hogendoorn: “It was good to be a church planter answering the compelling call to evangelism, to let others know we exist to be people of Jesus. We were all part of an amazing vision, and that was exciting.”

Larry Doornbos: “Seeing people come to God has been the highlight for me. When you see the smiles and hear the testimonies, you know the Holy Spirit is in it.”

Facing Fears

Shawn Sikkema: “I recall those moments of terror around key leadership moments [when he was at Eastern Hills Church in Aurora, Colo.]. Like the time when I, this farm boy from McBain [Mich.], got up in front of our church and asked for $2 million for a building project.”

Kris Vos: “We saw two key members of our core group leave just before we launched the church in Indiana. It was really devastating. We hit a wall, but we kept going.”

Rob Hogendoorn: “We had a different story. Three weeks before we opened, two great singers showed up. They are still with us.”

Jul Medenblik: “You bless them when they come, and you bless them when they go. You never knew when someone was going to come back.”

Moving ahead

Shawn Sikkema: “When we started, many of us were flying solo. We were making it up as we went. It was an era of imagination. Right now, the dreams of church planters are quite modest.”

Kris Vos: After growing the church for more than 20 years in northwest Indiana, “we decided to do this one more time. We are in the place of being dependent again. But it is a different animal this time. The culture is so different. We have to listen more and be more engaged with culture. Forty different languages are spoken in the local high school.”

Rob Hogendoorn: “When we first planted churches, we were focused on the suburban majority culture. We planted churches in our own indigenous culture. We intuitively knew it.”

Larry Doornbos: “It was a much more coherent culture when we started out. How do we speak into that when people today show much less commitment?”

Shawn Sikkema: “We have a niche culture today. New churches are starting to reach certain communities of brokenness. It is also difficult trying to figure out how to design music and worship for the various cultures.”

Jul Medenblik: “We are in a moment in which we need to challenge young people to be service-minded and to help them realize that starting a new ministry will take time — but has powerful, eternal rewards.”