Episode 144: Conversation with Drew Hoekema (Part 1)
“I think we're in a unique place in history as the denomination goes, the conservatives, I wouldn't say we're taking ground, but we've established that the ground here is ours, at least most of the way. But there are still areas of reformation that need to be done. And that's kind of why we started this podcast. It's not because of my Dutch Reformed history, because I'm obviously not Dutch. It's my love for the Dutch Reformed theology that keeps me here and keeps my purpose in this denomination at the forefront.” -Willy Krahnke
Summary of this Episode
Jason and Willy are back this week on the Messy Reformation with Rev. Drew Hoekema. Drew is the pastor of Platte CRC in Platte, South Dakota. He grew up in southwestern Montana in a Christian Reformed congregation and going to Christian day school. After a year at Dordt, he transferred to University of Northwestern, St. Paul (UNW) to complete a degree in broadcasting. While UNW helped show him the conservative, evangelical Christian landscape outside of the Dutch and CRC context, Westminster Seminary California (WSC) showed him the unapologetically Reformed world.
Jason and Drew reflect a little bit on their shared undergraduate alma mater before diving into Drew’s call to ministry and his view of WSC and the in-residence EPMC program at Calvin Theological Seminary (CTS). Drew sees himself as having tried to do anything else despite external encouragements to pursue ministry, but eventually realized that what he wanted to do was go to seminary and into ministry. He’s appreciative of the skills that a broadcasting background contributed to his ministry.
Despite being born and raised in the CRC in conservative/traditional environments, WSC gave him opportunity to see that he wasn’t the most conservative and caused him to learn a bit more of the history around our denomination. While it was a bit uncomfortable in good ways, he highly recommends it for those considering ministry. He was a bit surprised that those with a Reformed church upbringing were a minority. Going to CTS for the EMPC, was also a good experience. It helped give him a greater sense of how things work and why they are the way they are. He learned that not everything out of west Michigan is bad. That said, some of the classes were not helpful and there is a bit of a disconnect from the rest of the student body, which has given him a limited knowledge of other pastors.
Jason brings the conversation back to the different views of churches and their theology in our denomination, recognizing there’s often a difference between those who are lifers in the CRC and those who joined later in life pursuing Reformed theology. From the seminary side, Drew shares that CTS is often the completion of students going down the CRC pipeline, and he noticed a different attitude towards the confessions, denominational heritage, and our theology. He wonders if people are “trapped in this familiarity breeds contempt.” Have churches and leaders assumed we know what our theology and confessions are, so they have been deemphasized, and cultural things take precedence?
Willy shares a bit of his own story and why he’s in the CRC. He grew up in a family that took faith seriously. He experienced ordinary church life and Christian day school. He only began to take his faith seriously and appreciated Reformed theology when he was discipled in his teens. Once he picked it up, he couldn’t put it down. It truly is a love for Dutch Reformed theological heritage that keeps him and his purpose here.
Jason shares his approach to discipleship, which influenced Willy. “It wasn’t just, ‘We’re going to teach this to you because this is what we have to do or what we should do or this is what CRC people do.’ But we’re going to teach this to you because it’s beautiful and it’s good and it’s glorious and it helps you worship God and follow him more.” Drew agrees that there seems to be an unfortunate generational feeling that led to its deemphasizing. They received it as dry and loathed it because it was force fed, “And…what they did in turn was maybe throw the baby out with the bathwater.”