Episode 214: Growing Disciples Through the Preached Word — Chad Werkhoven (Part 1)

“[We’re] not trying to be innovative; we’re very focused on what it means to be a church that really exercises…the ordinary means of grace. So that means we really focus on…corporate worship and the preached word…That’s what everything is pointing toward.” —Chad Werkhoven

This week on the Messy Reformation podcast, Jason and Willy are joined by Rev. Chad Werkhoven, pastor of Worthington Christian Reformed Church in Worthington, MN. While Chad has spent his whole life in the CRC, his life experience has been varied. He grew up in southern California, but later moved to Washington. He started out his working life in truck repair as well as fabricating custom utility trucks. He describes his call to ministry as “a long glide.” He taught Sunday School and would speak at Christian school chapels, during which time he recognized he was more passionate about those topics than what was needed to continue in his business. Chad sees God’s hand in developing him to enter into ministry later in his life. 

It’s clear from listening to him that Chad has a long love for learning. When he enrolled in seminary with Reformed Theological Seminary’s hybrid program in the late 2010s, he had been studying with them at his own pace for quite a while. He utilized RTS’ Virtual Campus, which essentially was an early form of distance learning by listening to lectures, filling out assignments, and emailing papers in. RTS provided someone like him the opportunity to not completely uproot their family to go to seminary. 

As he had to complete the EPMC program with Calvin Theological Seminary, Willy asks what was most beneficial from his seminary experiences. Chad shares how RTS was forming him with a lot of Scottish Presbyterian background, and to hear the similarities and differences to Dutch Reformed theologians was enjoyable. He also notes the irony that despite differences with her, he appreciated Kathy Smith’s CRC Polity course and that he learned how to write overtures from her. 

Jason invites Chad to share how he ended up in Worthington, and what he was looking for when it came time to pursue a calling in the local church. Chad shares that before Worthington, he got to serve as a Commissioned Pastor at his then-home church, Sunnyside CRC. This gave him the practical experience to help continue forming him. To take a call as an ordained Minister of the Word, he and his wife were looking for a smaller agricultural-based town, and by the providence of God, things fell into place a lot quicker than they expected. His love for the church and place he’s serving is evident. 

Chad shares how his approach to ministry is “not trying to be innovative; we’re very focused on what it means to be a church that really exercises…the ordinary means of grace. So that means we really focus on…corporate worship and the preached word…That’s what everything is pointing toward.” As the conversation goes on, that focus on giving people time and space to listen and explore and be in God’s Word comes up repeatedly. That people, men especially, have been willing to step up and be active in their faith is in response to the Word. One of the big changes he’s brought is discontinuing committees, and plenty of people step up when they see a need. When it comes to teaching, they’re not so worried about what curriculum to use–they read the Bible together and ask questions. If they need a curriculum, that’s what our Confessions are really proposed to be. They are teaching tools that point you back to God’s Word.

Jason points out, this is what we see in the apostle Paul’s ministry in places like Acts 20:18-21. He reminded the Ephesian elders, “...‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ…’” That focus on the ordinary means of grace, the ordinary works of ministry are what causes the church to thrive.