From Church Plant to Megachurch in London, Ont.

In June 2016 the Christian Reformed Church in North America released its new ministry plan, Our Journey 2020, which lays out goals for denominational agencies and congregations in their callings and ministries. As part of the ministry plan, the CRC is sharing glimpses of ministry occurring in and through congregations across North America. Recently CRC news reporter Chris Meehan took a short journey to see how the CRC is joining with God to do ministry in southern Ontario. His first story was about Destination Church in St. Thomas, and the second looked at three missional church plants. In this third report, he told the story of a campus ministry at the University of Guelph. In this final report from Canada,  he chronicles the growth of a megachurch.

 Before the sermon began one Sunday at Forest City Community Church in London, Ont., the praise band launched into a spot-on version of Supertramp’s 1979 hit single “The Logical Song.”

As the music filled the spacious sanctuary on this sunny morning in late February, worshipers stood, some clapping in time with the song, others swaying, while a few waved their arms.

“At night when all the world’s asleep, the questions run so deep, for such a simple man,” people sang, following lyrics displayed on a large screen.

“Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned. I know it sounds absurd. But please tell me who I am.”

When the song finished, Pastor Rob Hogendoorn left his seat in the front row, stepped quickly up the stairs, and faced the sanctuary of some 1,200 people.

Reflecting on the song that had just been played, he told his listeners who they were — or who they could be.

“It is confusing to know just what the life of a Christian is supposed to look like . . .  but basically, we are to look at Jesus and to copycat Jesus,” he said.

“At the core,” he preached, sweeping his eyes across the crowd, “when all the world is asleep and we need someone to tell us who I am . . . we are called to be like Jesus, who was the smartest, most loving person who ever lived.”

Week in and week out since he planted this church on the outskirts of London some 25 years ago, Hogendoorn has been finding different ways to share a similar message -- the call for Christians to follow in the path and to live out in their lives the messages and commands of Jesus.

For him and for members of this church, this has been a journey of seeking to extol the vital virtues of the Reformed faith -- and to do so in a way that uses elements of pop culture, such as the Supertramp song, to help people grow in a faith that is as relevant today as it was at the time of Jesus.

Forest City Community Church, said Hogendoorn, is a place where people from various walks of life gather to worship God and to learn how to integrate gospel lessons into their everyday world — lessons about forgiveness, dealing with depression, handling relationship problems, and opening up to grace. It is a church for today that is based on ancient truths -- a church about finding ways to copycat Jesus.

“I started coming here about three years ago after I met my husband, Dan, and I never miss a Sunday.” said Marlene Brintnell after the service.

“I had been away from the church for many years. Forest City has helped me reconnect with Jesus. The message you hear stays with you all week.”

Her husband, Dan Hasson, owner of a men’s clothing store in downtown London, grew up Baptist, went to a Presbyterian school, and spent time in Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, and nondenominational churches over the years.

But he always drifted away, never quite satisfied — until he met with a friend who attended Forest City.

“A few years ago, I was looking for a church and, over beer and wings, my friend told me about this church. I told him I’d love to go. I came here and realized this is exactly what I needed.”

As he considers the effect the church has had on him, Hasson said he sees changes in himself, especially in his work at the clothing store.

“I’m more peaceful, more kind. I have more humor. I look at people differently,” he said. “Even though it is a business, my customers have become my friends.”

Laura Sontrop, a psychotherapist, said she grew up Roman Catholic and still likes to attend the Catholic mass. But Forest City is the prayerful place where she can sing and hear good sermons and feel that her family, through worship and other gatherings, is being fed by God.

“This church is infused with love and a deep wisdom,” she said. “Being here has profoundly touched my family. This is where we are being held.”

Her daughter, Mia Bricker, a high school senior, said church is a refreshing place of respite for her from the demands of school and the wider world itself, especially as it is comes across on social media.

“This is my happy place,” she said. “I’ve brought my friends here. . . . You need to find ways to have fun together and yet also talk about spirituality.”

In an interview before the worship service, Hogendoorn said he came to London in the early 1990s from a congregation he’d been serving in British Columbia; the plan was to plant a church with the help of Christian Reformed Home Missions.

From the start, the vision was to provide a place of worship for Christians as well as for people with lots of questions, a fair amount of skepticism, and yet a hunger for the holy — and to invite people who rarely, if ever, attended church.

“We started out in a little elementary school gym with a few people.” said Hogendoorn. “As we grew, we used the arts, music, and drama to connect the Bible to people’s lives. Each of our services is thematically tied together.”

Every Sunday, he said, he gears his sermons to people who are solid Christians, to those who are new to the faith, and to those who have never been to church before. It can be a trick, but he strives to make the gospel clear and applicable without diminishing its content.

The vision of Forest City, he said, has always been to look outward, seeking to reach out to and invite the people living in the surrounding neighborhoods to church. At its base, this is a vision that promotes the belief that everyone feels the need for a greater connection in their lives.

“We don’t spend much time looking inward or trying to solve the world’s issues. We look prayerfully at what we can do, to where we can have a redemptive role in our own communities,” said Hogendoorn.

As part of this vision, the church has gone on many mission trips and has led leadership conferences all over the world. They helped to plant a church in Montreal and now also have a small campus on the north side of London.

“We believe people have to move from being receivers to being doers in every sense of the word,” he said. “We want to feed people from the gospel and to reach them with love so that they can become more Christlike and give to others.”

After the service, Hogendoorn stopped by and talked to a handful of people who wanted to know more about the church. He then spoke to a few stragglers milling in the large lobby.

When he left the church after officiating over two packed services of more than 2,000 people combined, Hogendoorn said Forest City is bursting at the seams and that soon they may need to add an additional service.

All that they have done and do, from the top-notch music to the small groups in which people really get to know one another, have helped make a difference. But it is something bigger, said Hogendoorn, that seems to keep people coming back.

“I think we have been successful because we have cast a vision in which people can see they are part of something larger. They are part of a movement of God,” he said.