Episode 162: The Need for a Reformed Theology That Connects with Hearts and Minds - Nick Monsma (Part 1)
“The transformationalist emphasis doesn’t seem as deeply rooted in classical Reformed theology as Abraham Kuyper and his cohort were…[allowing] drift into a kind of generic Christian transformationalism and calling it Kuyperianism.” -Nick Monsma
“That’s one of the reasons why so many people grabbed hold of Abraham Kuyper and his engagement with culture…because he [offered] a hand-on way to engage culture and transform it…But we focused so much on that and we got disconnected from our theology, and that’s somewhat why the CRC has come to the point [of being] unmoored a little bit from our theology.” -Jason Ruis
Summary of This Episode
This week on the Messy Reformation podcast, Jason and Willy are joined by Rev. Nick Monsma, who is the chaplain and a teacher at East Palmyra Christian School in New York. Nick is from Hudsonville, MI, and he pastored at East Palmyra CRC as well as Fresno CRC in California before returning to New York. East Palmyra Christian School is a growing classical Christian school, which meshes well with Nick’s theological and philosophical passions.
Before they explore that, Nick offers the interesting insight that his wife, who also grew up in Hudsonville, did not know about the CRC before they started dating. Throughout their relationship and marriage, she’s been helpful to provide him with an outside perspective of things, including “a huge strength of our denomination [is] that we have a deep theological tradition that we still talk about, still love, still believe, [and are] still committed to.” Jason points out that our denomination has somewhat of a pendulum to it. It seems like some viewed our tradition as being “too theological” at some point, and we needed to get more practical. “That’s one of the reasons why so many people grabbed hold of Abraham Kuyper and his engagement with culture…because [offered] a hand-on way to engage culture and transform it…But we focused so much on that and we got disconnected from our theology, and that’s somewhat why the CRC has come to the point [of being] unmoored a little bit from our theology.”
Nick addresses that in the midst of this pendulum swing and the present state of the CRC, we’re wrestling with finding our identity. It’s been 70 years since a wave of Dutch immigrants came—which we relied on for much of our history, so we’re not just the American and Canadian home for them. In trying to find our identity, though, especially in a practical way, “the transformationalist emphasis doesn’t seem as deeply rooted in classical Reformed theology as Abraham Kuyper and his cohort were…[allowing] drift into a kind of generic Christian transformationalism and calling it Kuyperianism.”
From there, conversation turns to Nick’s call to ministry and his influences. He shares how in his senior year of high school, he began to wonder, “What if I just decided I was going to prepare to enter the ministry and started telling people that? And so I did, and it was the feedback that I got from people that really confirmed that sense of call…I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but I was trying to combine a sense of that internal sense of call with an external call.” That led him to Calvin University, where he majored in classical languages and philosophy, and then Calvin Seminary. He saw his majors preparing him by giving him the ability to “systematically dig into questions and think about them. [It built] the discipline of being able to ask a question and not just start defending an answer, but think about a variety of answers and…construct a conversation.”
Two of his heroes, especially with ministry in mind, are Wilhelmus À Brakel and Joel Beeke. Nick sees a pietistic influence from them that his experience in the CRC has really lacked—“this focus on the heart and…on the affections…Growing up…preachers…were trained to tell us a lot of facts, but not trained to connect them with our hearts very well.” Jason agrees and expresses part of his ministry is, “to reach through people’s minds and grab them by the heart.” Preaching involves teaching as well as affecting the way people feel, live, and are changed. “You can’t love something unless you know it…Your head has to be engaged in your emotions.”
As this episode wraps up, Nick shares some more about how his background has provided exactly what was needed at East Palmyra Christian School at this point, and some insight into their development and growth. He sees a revival or resurgence around Reformed theology in that area of the country, and credits the Holy Spirit as being at work.