Episode 121: Conversation with President Hoekstra & Todd Zuidema (Part 1)

"The churches that are growing are the ones who are doctrinally sound and the mainline churches are losing...If I go to church and nobody's challenging me in terms of how I'm living, then what's the point? I'm supposed to go there to have the gospel sort of shake me up and change me." -President Erik Hoekstra

Summary of This Episode

This week on the Messy Reformation, Jason and Willie are joined by Dordt University faculty, Rev. Todd Zuidema and President Erik Hoekstra. Dordt is not owned by the Christian Reformed Church but has historically been affiliated with it and had a great relationship with the CRC for 69 years. Prior to becoming Director of Church Relations back in 2020, Todd pastored CRC congregations for over 20 years in Michigan and Iowa. He grew up in Sully CRC near Pella, Iowa before attending Dordt University and later Calvin Theological Seminary. With the changing climate of denominations and churches as well as greater diversity of students coming to Dordt, his role is to maintain good connections with churches—something that Dordt has valued throughout its existence, bridging students to churches, and being an ambassador of the university. This is especially important work given the 40% increase in enrollment over the past 10 years.

Erik was baptized in Eastern Avenue CRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan (the same church Dr. Carl Zylstra, his predecessor at Dordt was baptized in), grew up in Chicago, and attended Trinity Christian College. He was asked to teach catechism and realized during that time he did not want to pursue seminary and becoming a pastor. So, he pursued business, earning a Masters degree, and entering the workforce. He returned to Dordt as a professor of marketing and overseeing internships for three years, which he also realized was not a calling, he then co-owned a local company, before returning to Dordt as provost in 2008 and becoming the fourth president in 2012. The group discusses that recognizing a passion for studying God’s Word and faith doesn’t necessarily mean a call to ministry. One of Erik’s loves that comes through at Dordt is it being a place where people are trained for their vocation with their faith and God’s Word in mind. 

Erik shares that he’s the first president of Dordt to not have a preaching license or to have gone through seminary. His father was licensed to exhort, and he takes very seriously that he should have that if he were to preach, not just that his role as president is enough. Whereas the previous presidents could go out and preach regularly in the CRC’s churches, having Todd in this full-time position helps keep up those connections. 

Todd shares how he’s been able to preach locally and regionally in not only CRCs, but also churches that were formerly RCA but have now become Alliance of Reformed Churches (ARC) and Kingdom Network. Dordt staff are required to be part of a confessional Reformed congregation and asked whether they ascribe to the Three Forms of Unity or Westminster Confession. The direction of these churches coming out of the RCA have a new willingness to partner with Dordt and align with its mission. As he travels outside the region, he’s finding churches and parents who are grateful to hear about an institution that has not drifted from the mission of providing Christian higher education and how Dordt prioritizes Scripture as foundational, including how God calls us to live in terms of relationships and sexuality. 

When asked about Dordt’s increasing enrollment since 2005, Erik notes that 80-85% of the student body was CRC, which is now about 36%. “Reformed theology has had a resurgence or a growth in non-denominational, Evangelical Free, Baptist, [even] a lot of other traditions…Reformed, in my mind, the essence of Reformed…is if you’re really interested in applying biblical truth in your faith in Jesus Christ rigorously to every area of your life…If we do our job right and be hospitably Reformed, absolutely committed to the Three Forms of Unity and confessional integrity and doctrinal foundations. We’re seeing kids thrive here from many other traditions, and that’s why we’re growing.” They see Dordt as offering “a world class education” and “a place where my faith isn’t constantly undermined but can be deepened.” Dr. Zylstra had shared with him, “‘We're just gonna keep doing this, and if nobody at the end of the day wants a four-year residential, biblically-infused, Christocentric education for engineering or nursing or anything else, well, then we'll just close the door and sell the campus because changing is not an option.’ But what we're seeing is people are very, very interested in that.” 

Part of their love is also supporting Christian day schools—in line with Church Order Article 71. Yet more and more congregations seem to be fairly ambivalent about that despite our denomination historically having a strong emphasis on them. Sending one’s kids to a day school or to Dordt is not to “shelter or protect them from the world, but to equip them well, to send them out, to be ready to engage in thoughtful ways to provide a Christian witness.”