Episode 215: Charting the Next Century of the CRNCA with Vision and Hope — Chad Werkhoven (Part 2)

“We have this opportunity…to chart the course of…the next century of ministry in the Christian Refomed Church. What are we going to look like? How are we going to do that? It’s going to come up to us…in order to make those decisions. God has put this at our doorstep now, and what a huge and awesome and intimidating responsibility that is, but I’m so glad to be part of it.” — Chad Werkhoven

Summary of this Episode

Jason and Willy are joined again by Rev. Chad Werkhoven, pastor of Worthington Christian Reformed Church this episode of The Messy Reformation podcast. The conversation picks back up on the topic of the ordinary means of grace being utilized and essential in the Christian Reformed Church. As we hold the Confessions as faithful summaries of what we find in Scripture, these things go together. Chad shares how he sees the Belgic Confession answering the questions, “Who is God? Who are we? How are we saved? How should we live?” He cites Article 29 as explaining how ministry in our churches connects into life and evangelism. It captures the three marks of the true church–“...the pure preaching of the gospel…the pure administration of the sacraments…practices church discipline for correcting faults….” It then goes on to say that those who “...belong to the church [can be recognized] by the distinguishing marks of Christians, “faith…fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness…They love the true God and their neighbors…”  Chad summarizes, “The one creates the other.

As they talk about different aspects of their ministries, Chad shares how he really appreciates opportunities to minister to young people as their beliefs are being shaped, but they’re busy! He’s been able to do discipleship in his local Christian school, and finds the students very curious and interested. Jason shares that he found something similar when he utilized the Heidelberg Catechism in youth ministry. As he led students through those questions and answers, questions of their own came up. Feeding that hunger with the teaching of God’s Word enabled them to go deeper in studying the Bible together.

Chad recognizes there’s been a shift from older generations. “The boomer generation had been force fed the Catechism, forced to memorize it…without really understanding what it meant, and they reacted against that by going completely the opposite direction with the types of things that they presented to us. Now that pendulum…has swung the other way…where we’re starting to understand the value of confessional Christian education.” This renewed passion, though, requires making it “sticky” so that it’s not just a fad. They all agree–when you have a teacher who loves to teach it, it can be contagious. Plus “...When you have the type of source subject material that we have…how can you not love these things?”

Jason shares his hope that this isn’t just for our young people and ministry to them, but that this might also help our pastor shortage. Chad shares how one of the things he’s been learning from someone he’s mentoring with the Belgic Confession is the importance of prayer. Jason agrees–we need to be praying for the Lord to raise up leaders. Chad points out how sometimes we only send people who aren’t good at much to seminary, but we should be sending the best, brightest, and most successful. Willy alludes to Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones’ advice to not enter ministry if you can do anything else, but points out how the confessions can offer training and equipping to have a confessional identity and intentionally liturgical.

Chad wraps up the episode with the perspective that we–the CRC–are in or should be entering into a time of healing. After that, though, “We have this opportunity…to chart the course of…the next century of ministry in the Christian Refomed Church. What are we going to look like? How are we going to do that? It’s going to come up to us…in order to make those decisions. God has put this at our doorstep now, and what a huge and awesome and intimidating responsibility that is, but I’m so glad to be part of it.”