Episode 148: Everyday Discipleship and Formation - Dave Vander Meulen (Part 1)

“I know people in their 30s, 40s, 50s who are still seeking that moment…not realizing that those moments are very few and far between for the most part…The vast majority of the Christian life is not mountaintop moments, but [as] Eugene Peterson has made well known…‘A long obedience in the same direction’…[There are] some mountaintops that come…but most of it is just being faithful and putting one foot in front of the other and doing things that God has called you to do.” -Jason Ruis

Summary of This Episode

This week on the Messy Reformation Jason is joined by Rev. Dave Vander Meulen. Dave is currently in his 20th year of ordained ministry, all of which have been at Escalon CRC in Escalon, CA. For the first twelve years, he served as a youth pastor, and then transitioned to the senior pastor role eight years ago. Dave grew up in a Christian Reformed congregation in the western suburbs of Chicago and attended Timothy Christian School. He felt a call to ministry already in high school when he was invited to be a part of his church’s search committee for a youth pastor. At that point, he saw youth ministry as being something he could God using him in. As he matured, he had mentors who encouraged him to pursue seminary and ordination before taking a position.

As Jason shares in having made the transition from youth ministry to congregational ministry, they spend some time talking about what the transition was like for Dave. He feels like he was set up really well to step into that role at Escalon, and knew from when he entered the ordination process that he would likely one day make that shift. He enjoys preaching and intergenerational ministry, which he’s still able to do. The hardest thing to leave behind in his youth work is how much fun he had. Not that pastoral ministry isn’t fun or doesn’t have its joys, but youth ministry is different. He and Jason reflect on how teenagers tend to be more teachable and willing to experiment, while adults and older folks aren’t always so “thrilling,” presume to have their faith figured out, and are harder to continue shaping. Helping people grow old well is an important part of pastoral ministry.

From there, the conversation pivots to formation and discipleship. Dave attended Calvin Theological Seminary as a 4-year program. He notes it was academically rigorous, increased his respect for those who had gone before, and helped to show him he wasn’t the first one asking the kinds of questions he had. It was humbling and stressful in good ways. That experience was the culmination of what Jason goes on to identify as the three-legged stool. For Dave, Cadets, church leadership opportunities, youth group and service trips, Christian school, and growing in community at home and in each of these areas really were formative. Some of the principles, like “Living for Jesus” and John 14:15, sunk in, but he especially values the communal discipleship.

Jason pushes back some on Dave’s comment that he really didn’t know much about CRC or Reformed theology until studying in seminary. While he understands the feeling, he gives a nod to Rev. John Witvliet who has written about, “…the formative nature of worship.” Jason shares, “...Going through the practices, going through the motions…are shaping and forming how we view the world…When we do start diving in and…reading God’s Word and…wrestling through some of those things, we’ve been shaped to…understand it in a way…There probably has been more formation and more discipleship than we even realize as we were younger going through these processes.” Dave agrees, and they talk some about how this is seen in sermon-writing and preaching where a pastor can put so much into wording something just right but gets no response. It wasn’t a waste of time. Just because explicit things are forgotten doesn’t mean they haven’t formed people.

Jason wraps up the episode with the reality that ministry is often less about the mountaintop experience that so many are chasing, and more about faithful, chipping away, hundreds and thousands of moments. “I know people in their 30s, 40s, 50s who are still seeking that moment…not realizing that those moments are very few and far between for the most part…The vast majority of the Christian life is not mountaintop moments, but [as] Eugene Peterson has made well known…‘A long obedience in the same direction’…[There are] some mountaintops that come…but most of it is just being faithful and putting one foot in front of the other and doing things that God has called you to do.”