Going on a Journey Together

Rev. Ken Baker recently began his sermon “Instructing One Another” by showing one of the videos from the Christian Reformed Church’s new ministry plan, Our Journey 2020.

In that video, titled Discipleship, a young man from London, Ont., talks about how the Heidelberg Catechism brought him closer to God and inspired him as a musician.

In the same video, a father from Port. St. Lucie, Fla., describes how the murder of his son led him to a spiritual awakening and to serve as a youth leader in his congregation.

Another video segment features a woman from a Hindu background who tells how she joined the CRC because Reformed theology made sense to her. She now helps to run a community health center in Chicago.

“I showed the video to set the context for thinking about discipleship,” said Baker, pastor of Third CRC in Kalamazoo, Mich., and a member of the CRC’s Board of Trustees.

“I also put the ‘desired future’ statement—‘Churches Nurturing Disciples’—on the screen because it is aspirational language, and that is the kind of church we want to be.”

The CRC’s new ministry plan, Our Journey 2020, uses stories, videos, and other materials to describe how the denomination is responding to the challenges posed by the fast-paced changes in today’s churches and society at large. Materials are available online and as an insert in the October issue of The Banner.

The plan emerges from an initiative that began more than four years ago when the CRC’s Board of Trustees established the Strategic Planning and Adaptive Change Taskforce (SPACT) to meet with church leaders and members across the United States and Canada to learn about the challenges their churches are facing.

The task force also sought to understand how the denomination can help churches develop their ministries in order to respond to the issues and needs they expressed.

The SPACT process revealed that churches across the U.S. and Canada are struggling with many of the same challenges, said Steven Timmermans, executive director of the CRC.

“From those challenges emerged the five ‘desired futures’ that are named in the pages of Our Journey 2020,” Timmermans said.

The desired futures are goals the ministry plan sets out for the CRC as its denominational ministries and agencies work alongside congregations in coming years. Besides Discipleship, the desired futures include Church and Community, Leadership, Identity, and Collaboration.

Each desired future focuses on specific goals, such as encouraging congregations to engage with their communities and to learn from their neighbors.

Other goals talk about placing “children, youth, and young adults at the heart of the church’s life” and learning to express, “in ways that are clear and compelling, the story of God’s grace and restoring love.”

Timmermans said that, at its heart, the ministry plan is about exploration. And, especially, it is about the church embarking on a journey.

“Some of the most interesting journeys happen when you know where you are going, but not exactly how to get there,” Timmermans wrote in the introduction to Our Journey 2020.

“It is a challenging undertaking, but our hopes are not tied to what we can do. Rather, in the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:24, ‘The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.’”

Colin Watson, the CRC’s director of ministries and administration, said the videos that accompany the plan illustrate, through testimonials and stories, how churches and members are addressing the challenges.

Watson said the plan “documents some of the best practices and shares with the broader church what is happening and what is working as people and congregations face different challenges and live out their faith.”

He also said the plan shows how the CRC is shifting in its emphasis and outreach; how the Spirit of God is at work in an era of substantial change; and how the denomination can work in concert with congregations to live into a future that glorifies and exemplifies the work of God.

Rev. Darren Roorda, the CRC’s Canadian Ministries director, said the plan “shows that the denominational leadership is listening.”

“The entire breadth of the CRC from pew to pulpit to the offices in Burlington, Grand Rapids, and Palos Heights are really beginning to understand each other and are heading in the same direction,” Roorda said.

“Collaboration is becoming a reality among all the partners. The activities of the CRC are more and more centered on the local church and ensuring its effectiveness and health.”

Rev. Paul Vander Klay, pastor of Living Stones CRC in Sacramento, Calif., said Our Journey 2020 comes at a crucial time as the CRC faces many issues and confronts various struggles, including how it sees its identity in an increasingly multicultural world.

But he said there is uncertainty about the ministry plan. Some people ask what it means to them; others seem lukewarm.

He said that when Timmermans presented the plan at a meeting of Classis Central California, “One person said they appreciated the fact that the denomination seemed to be trying to listen,” he said. Another responded to the focus on youth with the comment, “But are you going to forget about the older people?”

The Our Journey 2020 videos, on the other hand, received an enthusiastic response, Vander Klay said. When people watched the videos, they were intrigued and wanted to know more. Vander Klay said he was especially moved by the videos focusing on Discipleship and Church and Community.

“I think [the videos] are operating on a level deeper than people are realizing and are touching on issues beneath the conversation,” he said.

Ken Baker echoed that feeling, saying he is excited by the potential of Our Journey 2020 to inspire congregations and church leaders across the CRC.

“When I watch the videos linked to the Our Journey website, I find myself moved spiritually but also emotionally,” said Baker.

The videos show how the Lord is using the Christian Reformed Church to help people deepen their faith and inspire them to live it out in their daily lives.

“I believe [the videos] resonate in me, and will resonate in our churches, because they are the fruit of listening deeply and attentively to the longings and challenges and aspirations expressed by CRC members throughout the denomination,” Baker said.

In the coming weeks, CRC Communications will follow up with stories about the people featured in the videos.

For more information and to watch the videos, visit: crcna.org/OurJourney