Alberni Valley CRC Takes a Long-Distance Journey

Following the lead of one of the “Desired Futures” in Our Journey 2020, several members — from the oldest to the youngest — were involved in this year’s Christmastime  candle-lighting service at Alberni Valley Christian Reformed Church in Port Alberni, B.C., on Vancouver Island.

On Sunday, Dec. 17,  adults participated in sketches and readings and, at one point in the service, children brought various names of Jesus, written on placards, to the front of the church.

“Our service was very intentionally intergenerational,” said Curtis Korver, pastor of the church of about 100 adults and more than 25 young people.

Although the church has had a emphasis on being inter-generational, that focus came into sharp view a couple months ago.

“Until we met in a video conference (with CRC leaders), our intuition told us that intergenerational ministry is important, but we lacked a clear plan and tools for the work,” said Korver.

The pastor was referring to a meeting held one evening this fall with more than 20 members of his church. Joining these church members by video conference were Darren Roorda, director of Canadian Ministries, and representatives from various CRC agencies and offices, including Resonate Global Mission and Faith Formation Ministries.

“We are very grateful for the time and effort the denominational folks put into this,” said Korver of the first long-distance conference of its kind put on by the CRC.

“What we learned has been helpful for us, especially as we develop our mission and vision going forward over the next couple of years.”

Darren Roorda said the opportunity of linking denominational leaders and church members came up during Synod 2017 when he was having lunch with Korver and other delegates.

As they ate, Korver said his church had been working for nearly two years on church growth and renewal strategies with the Ridder Church Renewal Initiative based at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Mich.

As a result of working with Ridder, said the pastor, Alberni Valley CRC was at a point where it wanted to take some concrete steps in growth and renewal.

“Ridder helped us get a good sense of the current reality. We are able to name the struggles that lie before us as a church that is getting older and smaller,” said Korver.

Roorda suggested that they consider using the new ministry plan to help plot a way forward. He eventually proposed setting up a video conference between denominational leaders and the church to discuss this.

“I suggested that they lean into the ministry plan and learn from it and see if it would be useful for the church to link what they were doing with Ridder with Our Journey 2020,” said Roorda.

The CRC’s ministry plan identifies challenges that churches are facing and maps out five Desired Futures, including Church and Community, Discipleship, Leadership, Identity, and Collaboration.

After synod, Korver returned home, spoke to leaders of his church, and found substantial interest in participating in a video conference.

Reviewing the ministry plan, they decided they would like to know more about how to grow in discipleship, church and community, and leadership. CRC leaders from ministries that address those futures were included in the video conference.

“We used a video system that the CRCNA already uses for staff meetings but can also be used in many ministry settings to allow multiple users to connect at the same time,” said Roorda.

The conference began with prayer and an introduction and then participants divided into groups and went into three different rooms, each dedicated to one of the focus topics.

“The process went on for about two hours. It was a lot of information to absorb,” said Korver. “It was great to get acquainted with denominational staff — and it got us thinking, especially about information that Faith Formation Ministries gave us.”

Faith Formation Ministries offers a range of toolkits.

to churches to help them in such areas as building blocks of faith, becoming an intergenerational church, professing faith, welcoming children to the Lord’s Supper, and using storytelling to help link church members and give them a chance to talk about events and people that have shaped them and their faith.

“It was the toolkit about becoming a storytelling church and the one about being an intergenerational church that really helped us,” said Korver.

In recent weeks, Alberni Valley has focused on making disciples by setting set aside time for church members to share their stories — during services and at other times — with one another, and they have worked to do this in groups that include older as well as younger church members.

They have also thought — in terms of the Church and Community goal — about how they can become a stronger part of their community.

For instance, said Korver, the congregation plans to hold a carnival in February at the church and has also decided to take it to a local treatment center. As suggested in the FFM material, they have had members paste their favorite Bible verses, with a brief explanation of why the verse is important, on a bulletin board.

Their Christmastime candle-lighting service came out of this process as well. “We keep thinking of ways to involve everyone,” said Korver. “We’re not there yet. But the video conference taught us a lot and was very helpful.”

Kevin DeRaaf, the Canada East regional mission leader for Resonate Global Mission, participated in the video call and joined the conversation mostly because of his experience with Ridder Church Renewal as a local church pastor.

“Video technology has its limits, but it still allowed for a meaningful connection and conversation across the country,” said DeRaaf.

“It was very encouraging to connect with a group of church members and leaders keenly interested in exploring the next steps they could take to deepen their discipleship journey and discern God’s leading for their community.”

Roorda added that the video conference was successful as a pilot project that he hopes to expand it to other churches who might be interested in learning more about Our Journey 2020 and how to “live into parts of it.”