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A Reformed                     BcI\RER ,
Semi-Month/y
Magazine





                                  See "Missionary-At-Large" - p. 349

vol. 70, No. 25
May 1,1994


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                             May I, 1994
I                                                                                                                                                                                               I                         1 STANDARD
Meditation - Rev. John A. Heys                                                                                                                                                                                                    LHH!!
        Believing What God Reveals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
       The Nose of the.Camel(4)                                                                                                                                                      ' 341
                                                                 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .           ISSN 0362-4692
Special Articles                                                                                                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
        Missionaries Sent Out From Antloch - Rev. Russell J. Dykstra . . 343                                                                                                                         Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
       The Macedonlan Call - Rev. Car/J, Haak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346                                                                          4949 lvenrest Ave., Qrandville, MI 46416. Second Class
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Postage Paid at Qmndvllle, Michigan.
        Missionary-At-Large - Rev, Richard G. Moore . . . . . . . s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349                                                                                  Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
       Active Congregational                                                                                                                                                                         P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 49466-0603.
               Involvement - Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354                                                                                  EDlTORlAL  COMYlITEE
       A Crltlque of Modern Church-Growth                                                                                                                                                            Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Dqcker
                Evangelism - Rev. Charles J. Terpstra ..,....-....,...................... 357                                                                                                        Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin W'igger ,........,.............,.,...... 359                                                                                                                   DEPARTMENI EDtrORS
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Rev. Wilbur Brulnsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
I  iili-i?  nil/b  l!sm!B   `J",)                                                                                                                                                                    Decker, Rev. Arie denHartog, Rev. Barry Qrittera,  Rev. Carl
1                                                                                                                                                                                                    Heak, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Hey& Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting,
       This issue of our magazine is a special issue on missions. With the exception of the                                                                                                          Rev. George Lubbers. Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. Thomas
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Miersma, Rev. Audred Spriensma, Rev. Charles Terpstra,
meditation, the editorial, and the church news, all of the articles treat of some aspect of                                                                                                          Rev. QiseVsnBaren,  Rev. RonaldVanDverloop,  Mr. Benjamin
missions and evangelism -Reformed missions and evangelism.                                                                                                                                           Wigger,  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
       These articles were first given as addresses at an officebearers' conference held in                                                                                                          EDlTORlAL  OFFlCE             CHURCH NEWS EDlTOR
connection with the meeting of Classis  West in the fall of 1993. The theme of the                                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer           Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                                                     4949 Ivanrest                 6597  4OthAve.
conference was the same as the title of this special issue of the Standard Bearer,                                                                                                                   Grandville. MI 49416          Hudsonville. Ml 43428
"Reformed Missions and Evangelism."                                                                                                                                                                  q   USlNES& OFFlCE            NEWZEAtiDOFFfCE
                                                                                                                                                                                                     The Standard Bearer          The Stendard Bearer
       Two speeches given at the conference are left out of this issue on account of lack                                                                                                            Don Doezema                  c/o B. VanHerk
of space. Rev. Steve Key spoke on "Preparing to Give an Answer (I Pet. 3:15)," and Rev.                                                                                                              P.O. Box 603                 66FraserSt
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Grandville, Ml               Wainuiomata, NewZealand
Wayne Bekkering spoke on "Distinguishing Between Essentials and Non-essentials on                                                                                                                       49466-oMw                  NONTNERN  IRELAND  DFFICE
the Mission Field." Two articles that appear in this issue could not be published in their                                                                                                           PH: (816) 531-1460           do Mr. Jonathan McAuley
                                                                                                                                                                                                              (616) 636-1776       164 Church Rd.. Qlentienv
entirety on account of their length. These articles will be concluded, and the articles by                                                                                                           FAX:  `(616) 531-3033        Ballymene, Co. Antrim BT42  3EL
Rev. Key and Rev. Bekkeringwill  be published, in the next issue of the SB, God willing.                                                                                                                                          Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                                                                                                     EWTORIAL  POLICY
       By virtue of their subject, these articles are worthy of the careful reading and                                                                                                              Every ediior is solely responsiMe for the contents of his own
consideration of all our readers. As the writers point out, Christ calls the churches to                                                                                                             articles. Cuntributionsofgeneralinterestfromourreadersand
                                                                                                                                                                                                     questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
missions, and all the members of the churches bear responsibility for the faithful                                                                                                                   Contributions will be limited to approximateb  300 words end
carrying out of the charge.                                                                                                                                                                          mustbeneatfywrittenor.typewritten,andmustbesigned.  Copy
       The necessary zeal for missions by the congregation and denomination is one of the                                                                                                            deadlines are the fiirst and fiieenth of the month. All
                                                                                                                                                                                                     communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
main thrusts of the article by Rev. Russell Dykstra.                                                                                                                                                 edltorlal offlce.
       Rev. Carl Haak examines the "Macedonian Call" in missions. How is the church's                                                                                                                REPRINT POLfCY
mission labor today directed by God to certain areas?
       Rev. Richard Moore confronts the Protestant Reformed Churches with the need, as                                                                                                               magazinebyotherpubllcations,~: a)&auchreprinted
he sees it, to call a "missionary-at-large" to labor in North America. He offers some                                                                                                                articles are reproduced In fuH: b) that proper acknowledgment
                                                                                                                                                                                                     is made: c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
interesting, helpful analysis of past decisions of synods on this matter. His plea, "But                                                                                                             appear.3 Is sent to our editorial office.
call a missionary-at-large we need to do now," ought to be heard.                                                                                                                                    SUBSCRIPTION POUCY
       Rev. Ronald VanOverloop contends that every member is involved in the church's                                                                                                                Subscription prif~ $12.00 per year in the U.S., S15.00
mission calling and shows what this involvement is, and should be.                                                                                                                                   elsewhere. Unless a &finite request for discontinuance Is
       Rev. Charles Terpstra gives a timely critique of the modem church-growth                                                                                                                      received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                                                     subscriptiontowntinue,andhewillbebilledforrenewal. lfyou
movement, associated with the "contemporary" worship service and with huge                                                                                                                           haveachangeofaddress,pieasenotitheBusinessDfficeas
churches.                                                                                                                                                                                            early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
       The perceptive reader will note that none of the articles betrays the slightest                                                                                                               interrupted delhrery. lndude  your Zip or Postal code.
embarrassment at, or hesitation over, missions. On the contrary, there is enthusiasm                                                                                                                 ADVERTISING POLICY
for the work. Wholehearted commitment to the sovereignty of grace, necessarily                                                                                                                       The SfartdardBearerdoes  not accept commercial advertising
                                                                                                                                                                                                     of any klnd. Announcements of church and school events,
repudiating a love of God for all persons without exception and a desire that all be                                                                                                                 annhwrsarie8, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
saved, in no wise cools mission ardor or hampers mission work.                                                                                                                                       placed for a 33.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business
       These articles, and those that follow,  show that the confession made by the PRC in                                                                                                           ~wiceandshouldbeaccmpanledbylheS3.001e.  Deadline
                                                                                                                                                                                                     fof announcements Is at least one month prior to publication
the preamble of their "Constitution of the Mission Committee" lives in these churches:                                                                                                               date.
     The Protestant Reformed Churches believe that, in obedience to the command of                                                                                                                   BOUND VOLUMES
     Christ, the King of the church, to preach the blessed Gospel to all creatures,                                                                                                                  The Business Ww  will accept standing orders for bound
     baptizing, and teaching them to observe all things which Christ has commanded,                                                                                                                  copiesofthecuirentvolume. Suchordersarefilledassoonas
                                                                                                                                                                                                     possible after completion of a volume year.
     it is the explicit duty and sacred privilege of said churches to carry out this calling
     according to the measure of our God-given ability.                                                                                                                                              16mm  mlcrofilm,  35mm microfilm and 106mm mlcrofiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                     - D J E         article coplea are available through Univenlty MIcrofilms
                                                                                                                                                                                                     International.
33Wtandard  Bearer /May 1,1994


        Believing What God Reveals

    Who hath believed our report? and to    parted from the unbelieving Jews in          soul. As Jehovah, the I AM who
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?       Jerusalem. We find that in John 12:20-       changes notin thought or desire, with
                            Isaiah 53:l     38. In verse 38 John quotes these very       Christ Jesus, His Arm, our God brings
                                            words of Isaiah, and adds that these         us to a specific place in the body of
    How we answer the first ques-           Jews could not believe, and were not         Christ in that new Jerusalem. He
tion which Isaiah asks in this verse        those to whom the Arm of the Lord is         eternally decreed, and in time pro-
depends on how we answer the. sec-          revealed.                                    vides us and realizes for us, every-
ond.                                            What is more, we can understand          thing with a view to where we will be
    By that first question Isaiah asks      and appreciate these questions which         in the new Jerusalem, as members of
whether we believe what God has             our God presents through Isaiah, by          the body of Christ.
presented through him in the preced-        seeing and believing that His refer-             Still more, being Jehovah, the I
ing chapter. There is in Isaiah 52:9        ence here is to Christ Jesus. He is that     AM, His Arm by which He saves us
and 10 this glorious truth "Break           Arm of the Lord who saves us. He             doeshavealmightypower. Thatname
forth into joy, sing together, ye waste     delivers us from guilt and punish-           Jehovah does not merely mean that
places of Jerusalem: for the Lordhath       ment. And since that Arm of the Lord         God exists. It means that He never
comforted his people, he hath re-           saves us, we can be absolutely sure          changes His mind or will. It means
deemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath             that we are going to be fully and            that He most assuredly will do, and
made bare his holy arm in the eyes of       everlastingly freed from all our guilt       can do, what He promises us. He
all the nations; and all the ends of the    and punishment.                              presents that truth to us through the
earth shall see the salvation of our            Although it does not appear in           apostle Paul in Romans 8:28. There
God."                                       the Ring James Version of the Bible, it      we have that striking and comforting
    In that second questionIsaiahasks       does in the Hebrew. There He pre-            statement, "And we know that all
whether God revealed His arm to us.         sents this rich truth: "Who hath be-         things worktogether for good to those
Plainly the idea is that we cannot and      lieved our report? and to whomis the         that love God, to them who are the
will not believe what he, Isaiah, re-       arm of Jehovah revealed?" That name          called according to his purpose."
ported, unless we believe what He,          Jehovah means I AM. That name                    The question asked by Isaiah is
our God, revealed to us. And plainly.       gives to us the truth that our God           whether we believe that all is well,
the idea is that we cannot believe          never changes His mind or will. It           come what may, no matter how much
what Isaiah.presents unless God has         means that havingbegun a good work           we are afflicted, and suffer severe
revealed to us what He does by His          in us, He will every moment of our           pain. Do we, when a loved one who
Arm.                                        lives give us and do to us what is           is also a child of God dies, say with
    Now that Arm of the Lord is             necessary to bring us into a sinless         Isaiah that we believe what God re-
Christ Jesus, our Savior. He is the         and blessed life in the new Jerusalem.       portsinHis  Word, and that the arm of
Arm of the Lord that reaches down           It means that He will bring us to a          God has been revealed to us as mak-
from heaven andbringsus away from           specific and particular place in that        ing our salvation absolutely sure?
our guilt and punishment and into           new Jerusalem. Yes, it means that He             We must bear in mind that the
the coming new Jerusalem. In fact,          has eternally designed our place in          Arm of the Lord is revealed to us by
we find the apostle John quoting this       the church, that is, in the body of          God in His grace. In the Old Testa-
verse of Isaiah, after Christ Jesus de-     Christ. We are born at a divinely            ment dispensation that Arm of God,
                                            predetermined moment, we have a              Christ Jesus our Savior, was revealed
                                            life eternally designed, and with our        in types and shadows. But the day
                                            souls we enter perfect and blessed           came when ,that Arm of the Lord
                                            life, in the hope of Christ's return, and    revealed Himself, and, as Isaiah was
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the     ofourenteringwithHimintoablessed             moved by God to prophesy, He ap-
Protestant Reformed Churches.               `heavenly life with body as well as          peared as a tender plant, a root out of

                                                                                                   May 1,1994Wandard  Bearer/339


dry ground; having no form, or come-         promises and realizes through His          liar. He, Satan, made them believe
liness; with no earthly beauty; de-          Arm, Christ Jesus.                         that doing what God called sin and
spised and rejected of men; a man of             Let us bear in mind and maintain       commanded them not to do would
sorrows, and acquainted with grief           the truth that we do not decide what       actually benefit them. We hold on to
(Is. 53:1,2).  And indeed Christ Jesus       God is going to do to us. The Word of      the truth only when God causes us to
our Savior did come in our flesh, was        ourGodherepresentedthroughIsaiah           believe His report. We hold on to the
crucified and buried; but He was also        is not merely "Who hath believed?"         truth, and workinlove towards Him,
raised from His death and ascended           but also "To whom is the Arm of the        only when we by His Arm, Christ
up into heaven, from whence He will,         Lord revealed?" In Psalm 139:14 we         Jesus, are redeemed and born again,
in the day eternally planned by God,         readthisblessedandcomfortingtruti          with a new spiritual life whereby we
come back to bring us with body and          "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully    see Christ Jesus as His Arm whereby
soul into the new Jerusalem.                 and wonderfully made: marvellous           He saves us from Satan's lie, and from
    We must bear in mind that in the         are thy works; and that my soul            the everlasting punishment which we
dispensation in which Isaiah asked           knoweth right well."                       deserve.
these questions, God's Arm - our                 Yes, this  versification  of that          Adam and Eve did not believe
Savior - was present in types and            Psalm in our Psalter must be with us       God's report; and, believing Satan's
shadows. He was presented in the             every day, come what may:                  lie, they began to slide downinto hell!
temple by means of blood shed and                                                       NotbelievingGod'sreport,  they, and
sprinkled on the mercy seat. Believ-             All that I am I owe to Thee,           we, need God's Arm, Christ Jesus,
ing that required the grace of our               Thywisdom,Lord,  hath fashioned        revealed to us. And, believing then
God. Itrequiredanewspirituallifeas                   me;                                by God's grace what our God reveals
God's gift to His elect in the Old               I give my Maker thankful praise,       through Christ Jesus, we do believe
Testament dispensation.                          Whose wondrous works my soul
                                                     amaze.                             God's report. For that we need God's
    It also requires His grace for us                                                   Arm revealed to us. We do then
today, if we are going to see His Arm,           That awesome andbeautiful truth        believe God's report of our being on
Christ Jesus, revealed as our Savior.        we should cling to tightly, and hold       our way to everlasting holiness and
More than nineteen hundred years             before our souls every day, come what      glory.             '
have come and gone since He as-              may!, Not only should we sing that,            By God's grace we do have His
cended up to heaven, and none of us          and believe it, in that period of the      Arm revealed to us, and look for that
have seen Him with our fleshly eyes.         year when we have our attention            Arm to come and save us fully, and
Our God's questions through Isaiah           called to the suffering and death of       bring us fully into everlasting glory,
are therefore for us important ques-         our Savior (that is, of the Arm of our     causing us to love God and serve Him
tions. Do we believe Isaiah's report?        God), but, come what may, and every        fully in the new Jerusalem. 0
Has Christ Jesus His Arm been re-            day,believingwhatGodhasreported,
vealed to us?                                we should thankHim for the free gifts
    Isaiah is not in our text asking us      that He bestows upon us in His grace.
-and surely our God is not through               What we must believe and main-                     SALVATION
Isaiah asking us - whether we are            tainis the truth that Godbegins salva-     Salvation is God`s own design
fulfilling the condition of believing        tion in us, not only by causing us to          To save the poor fallen man;
what He revealed through His Arm,            believe that He is God, but also by        It is a wondrous gift Divine,
Christ Jesus. Our salvation does not         causing us to love Him as God in His           A gracious heavenly plan.
depend upon what we do. Our salva-           Son. Sin, in every form and shape in
tion is doing what God enabled us to                                                    Salvation is by blood aZone,-
                                             which it comes, always is an act of
do. Every bit of our salvation, cer-                                                        None can approach to God
                                             hatred against God. And before we          Except in Jesus Christ, and own
tainly including the desire for it, is       can be delivered from the punish-              `Tis through the poured-out blood.
God's gift to us. Not only all things        ment of sin which we deserve, we
material, but also all things spiritual,     must be given deliverance from that        Salvation is a work of grace
depend upon Him who is the I AM.             hatred and from denial that He is              Which God alone begins;
Every bit of our salvation, including        God.                                       Through Him Who took the sinner's
the desire for it, is God's gift to us in        Let it be borne in mind that in               place,
His sovereign grace. Salvation de-           every sin which we commit, we say              When lost and dead in sins.
pends upon what God does, not upon           with Satan that we as well as Jehovah
the fulfilling of a condition by a spiri-                                               Salvation is for those who see
                                             are gods (Gen.  3:5). According to             And know their lost estate,
tually dead man. All of us come into         Satan we, by sinning against God,          That Jesus Christ is all their plea
this life spiritually dead. All must be      become gods. In fact, he caused Adam           Themselves  they loathe and hate.
born again, if they are going to want        and Eve to believe that Jehovah is a                                Standard Bearer
any part of the salvation which God                                                                                 March 1,1938

34OlStandard  Bearer/May 1,1994


          The Nose of the Camel (4)

    The preceding editorials pointed        women to vote at the congregational         one-half chosen by it." And this is
out the danger that feminism enters         meeting. In connection with this ex-        just as much the case, when, as is the
the Reformed churches through the           planation, the Dutch Reformed theo-         usual practice in our Reformed
"softspot" of the congregationalmeet-       logian gives the Reformed concep-           churches, the consistory presents a
ing. This has taken place recently in       tion of the congregational meeting.         duo or a trio to the congregation for
the Reformed Churches in the Neth-              What now follows is my transla-         the filling of a vacancy of the office of
erlands ("Liberated"). Their General        tion from the Dutch of Bouwman's            preacher. Here, it is not a matter of
Synod of Ommen 1993 decided that                                                        advice, but of a decisive vote. The
                                            explanation of the congregational           members of the consistory vote in
women should participate in the con-        meeting and of the related Reformed         the congregational meeting then as
gregational meeting as voting mem-          refusal to permit women at the con-         fellow members of the congregation.
bers.                                       gregational meeting as voting mem-          Andwhennoerrorshavebeenmade,
    In order to justify this decision in    bers.                                       the brothers chosen in the con8rega-
the face of the apostolic prohibition                                                   tional meeting are also officially ap-
against women's rulingin the church,            If now the election (of a minister)     pointed by the consistory. Those
the Liberated synod declared that the         is an act of church-rule, then the        designated by the congregational
congregationalmeetingdoesnotgov-              participation of the members of the       meeting are recognized to be law-
em and that election of officebearers         congregation is also a cooperation in     fully chosen.
is not an exercise of authority.              church-rule. And it is also for this        This is also plainly expressed by
                                                                                        the Belgic Confession, which con-
    No doubt, the declaration was             reasonthat,accordingtoVoetius(one
                                              of the earliest, most respected, and      fessesinArticle31: "Theministersof
well-intended. But it changed noth-           most authoritative writers on Re-         God's Word . . . ought to be chosen to
ing. The fact remains that, in the            formed church government in the           their respective offices by a lawful
Reformed system of government, the            Reformed Churches  - DJE), the            election by the Church." The inten-
congregational meeting cooperates             woman may not vote in the election        tion of the words, "by a lawful elec-
with the consistory in the rule of the        of an officebearer, because this is an    tion by the Church," is not that the
church. This is how the congrega-             act of church-rule.... The election of    election would be by the consistory
tional meeting is set forth in the Re-        an officebearer is cooperation in the     . . . but by the members of the congre-
formed confessions, forms, and               rule of the church.                        gation....
                                                                                          From this viewpoint can an an:
church order. This is how the Re-               This lies.in the very nature of the     swer be given to the question, who
formed have always explained the             election itself. No one will deny that
                                              the election of officebearers by the      are qualified to vote?...
congregational meeting.                      consistory is an exercise of church-         (Some) who recognize the differ-
    Because of the danger that the           rule. When now the consistory calls        ence between male and female in
nose of the feminist camel enters the        together the members of the congre-        condition and task are of the opinion
Reformed tent through the opening            gation in order to vote with them,         thattheexerciseof theright  tovotein
made for it by an erroneous concep-          then it is not merely asking for ad-       the church is not forbidden in Scrip-
tion of the congregational meeting, I        vice, to which it does not have to pay     ture (to the women); that from the
                                                                                        information which Scripture gives
present the explanation of the congre-       any attention; but it then calls the       concerning the cooperation of the
gational meeting by the esteemed             congregation together, in order to         members of the congregation in the
Reformed scholar in the area of church       cooperate with the consistory. The
                                             vote of the congregation is then, in-      election of officebearers; one would
government, Dr. H. Bouwman. In his           deed, properly a valid vote which          sooner decide for the participation of
authoritative work on church polity,         has decisive effect.                       women in the election than the con-
Gereformeerd  Kerkrech t (Reformed             This comes out also very plainly in      trary; that from the indications which
Church PoZity), vol. 1 (Kampen: Kok,         Article22ofourChurchOrder,where            Holy Scripture gives concerning the
1928), pp, 386-394, Bouwman explains         it is stated that the consistory pre-      task and the place of the woman in
why the Reformed churches do not             sents a double number to the congre-       the congregation, it does indeed ap-
                                                                                        pear that the woman is unqualified
permit, and never have permitted,            gation "and thereupon installs the         to prophesy and to teach in the con-

                                                                                                 May 1,l QQ4JStandard  Bearer1341


       gregation,  but from this no argu-             the female is the heir of grace with       byGod(ICor. 11:12). Intherelation-
       ment can be derived against her co-            the male, that the liberty in Christ       ship of man and woman, therefore,
       operation in the election; that the            Himself extends as well to the female      the dependency and the similarity
       office of believer not only extends to         as to the male. With regard to the         belong with each other; and both are
       the male, but also to the female; and          benefits of grace, the female does not     from God.
       that therefore (especially because the         stand behind the male. But this re-          The intention of the apostle in I
       exercise of the right of voting has            moval of the distinction between           Corinthians  ll:l-16  is to show that
       merely the nature of giving advice             male and female applies only to the        the woman must honor her depen-
       and the women have interest in good            relationship with Christ. All believ-      dency upon the man, according to
       leaders of the congregation as well as         ers of whatever descent or sex they        the creation-order, in the gatherings
       the men, and they as well as the men           may be are members of the body of          of the congregation. She must con-
       canjudgethesuitabilityofapreacher,             Christ. But with regard to the social      form to the custom in Corinth, and
       an elder, or deacon) it would be an            relationship of the sexes to eachother,    appear in public veiled. In this, the
       offense and injury to the woman, to            Paul maintains the position of de-         dependency upon the man must be
       exclude her from voting-rights.                pendency of the female, established        manifested. If she appears in public
          Against these arguments, we place           at creation.                               without aveil, she presents herself as
       the following.                                   This appears from the well-known         a filthy hussy; and then one would
         It is true that Scripture does not           passage,ICorinthiansll:l-16,which          have to carry out the consequence,
       express itself directly concerning the         speaksfirstabout  thewomaninmar-           and shave off her hair, as one does
       right of women voting in church.               riage,  but, according to verses 4, 8,     withanadulteress.  Correctly,Calvin
       However, as is correctly said in the           and 13, also about the unmarried           remarks, that Paul here speaks dis-
       "Report concerning the Right of                woman, about the woman in gen-             approvingly of the desire of the
       Women Voting," presented to the                eral. The woman has been created           woman to violate the order estab-
       General Synod of Groningen, 1927,              outofthemanandthatnotbychance,             lished by God. Paul brings the rela-
       at the election of Matthias and of the         but because she has been created for       tionship between man and woman
       deacons (Acts 1 and 6) only the men            the man (I Cor. 11:8,9). The grace of      in Corinth in connection with the
       were called to the work of election.           Christ does not violate the order es-      creation-order, and says:  "Godis the
       This procedure is wholly in agree-             tablished by creation, but sanctifies      head of Christ; Christ is the head of
       ment with the place that the woman             it. For the man is the image and glory     the man; the man is the head of the
       has in Scripture. and with the rule,           of God; but the woman is the glory of      woman." If now the woman thought,
       that the woman not occupy a leading            the man (I Cor. 11:7).  Both, the man      "The order of submission holds in-
       position. The explanation of this              and the woman, are bearers of the          deed for the home, but not in the
       fact, thatonlythemanparticipatesin             image of God, but the man is above         congregation," then she  .would by
       the election, may not be sought in             thewomaninthis,thatheistheglory            this be overturning the order of natu-
       this, that the apostles then did not yet       of God, that he rules in the family in     ral life. And therefore Paul empha-
       have the right insight into the place          married life, and the woman only           sizes that also in the congregation of
       which is due the woman in the con-             exercises rule through him and in his      Christ the natural order of things
       gregation, and that the apostle Paul           name.                                      may not be neglected, but must be
       would first have received that in-               From the manner of creation of the       honored. Therefore, thewomarimust
       sight later, when he proclaimed the            woman, that she is everything that         notlay  aside the distinguishing mark
       great principle in Galatians 3:28, that        she is through the man, and from the       of dependency, as this is-valid in a
       in Christ there is "no male and fe-            Word of God, spoken at creation, it        society. She must do this because of
       male"; for then one would do injus-            follows that Adam  was.the  model          the angels (see I Cor. 11:lO  - DJE)<
       ticeto the word of Christ, who has             for which Eve was created as coun-         who are not willing to emancipate
       promised to His apostles that the              terpartandthatthewomanaswoman              themselves from God, but are will-
       Holy Spirit would lead them into all           (not only as wife) has her appointed       ing to occupy the place appointed for
       truth, and to the special grace of the         power, in being and existence, ac-         them, and who rejoice when the or-
       Spirit which the apostles received on          cording to body and soul, in the man       dinances of God are maintained in
       Pentecost.                                     as man (andnot only as husband), so        the congregation.
         It is then also granted that the             that, whenever the woman enters              This admonition applies first to
       apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28 does            upon the sphere of the man, she both       the married woman; but also the
       not intend the absolute equality               opposes the God-ordained relation-         unmarried woman must carry her-
       (geZijksteZ2ing)  of male and female,          ship between man and woman and             self virtuously, so that she presently
       but a similarity (gelijkheid)  in the shar-    becomes unfaithful to her own man-         can appear as a worthy wife. In this
       ing in the benefits of salvation in            ner of existence, or nature.               respect, this word of Paul applies to
       Christ. Scripture stands diametri-               Nevertheless, Paul does also rec-        all women; and it is of abiding sig-
       tally opposed to the principles held           ognizeanequalityofmanandwoman              nificance. Although in its form this
      by the modern feminist movement,                in a certain sense, because both need      word concerns the Corinthian and
       that the woman is in every respect             each other. To be sure, at creation the    Greek world, in its essence it applies
       the equal of the man and that she also         woman did indeed originate out of          to all times and to all places, because
I      has the right to carry out the same            the man, but after that the man is         it grounds itself in the creation-order
       spiritual functions. Indeed, the               brought into the world through the         ( w .   3,7-9,12,14).   0
       apostle here only wants to say that            woman; and that is also determined                                          - DJE

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  i  ;  1  a    -:,                                                                                                        -y  .y.  _:.  ._  ,.,

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   ~~~~,~~~~~~~~~~~                             .





                       Missionaries Sent Out
                                      From Antioch
                                                                                                          Rev. Russell Dykstra



Acts 13:1-4 Now there were in the church       and  chooses the missionary.  In addi-         Antioch in the Bible is in connection
-that was at Antioch certain prophets and      tion, what is preached is determinedby         with the appointment of the seven
 teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that        Him, and the Lord of the harvest               deacons in Jerusalem, one of which
was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene,        determines thefruit  of the labor!             was Nicholas, a proselyte from
and Manaen,  which had been brought up               The Scriptures emphasize Christ's        Antioch. The next reference is Acts 11
with Herod  the Tetrarch, and Saul. As         sovereignty in the whole work of               which describes the gathering of the
 they ministered to the Lord, and  fasted,     missions and evangelism. In Revela-            church in Antioch. One of the best
theHolyGhostsd,SeparatemeBamabas               tion 6,  for example, where the Lamb,          known things about Antioch is that
and Saul for the work whereunto I have         Jesus, opens the seals of the counsel of       the disciples were called Christians
called them. And when they had fasted          God, the first seal that He opens re-          first in Antioch, an early indication
and prayed, and laid their hands on them,      veals the white horse. This horse, rep-        that the Lord had an important work
 they sent them away. So they, being sent      resenting the progress of the gospel,          in store for them.
forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto         is sent here and there through the                 The young church in Antioch ex-
 Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to      earth, Christ determining the path             isted in a large city with a population
 Cyprus.                                       that the preaching of the gospel takes.        of about a half a million people-the
                                               AlsoinRevelation3:7,  Jesusdescribes           third largest city in the Roman em-
         One of the fundamental principles     Himself as "he that hath the key of            pire. The geographical position of
 of Reformed theology is that God is           David, he that openeth and no man              Antioch (located some 300 miles north
 sovereign. It is not surprising then          shutteth and shutteth and no man               of Jerusalem) gave the city great
 that one of the fundamental prin-             openeth." Jesus is sovereign over the          prominence in that day. It was athriv-
 ciples of Reformed missions is the            work of missions.                              ing center of trade, which perhaps
 same - God is sovereign. Since God                  While this sovereignty of Christ         explains why many Jews had found a
 has given all power and authority             is not the focus of this article, it rmder-    home there. It was a city accustomed
into the hands of His Son, Christ gath-        lies any discussion about Reformed             topower,beingaprovincialcapitalin
 ers,defends,andpreservesHischurch             missions. It must be assumed for a             the empire of Rome, and it was tre-
 from the beginning of the world even          right understanding of Acts 13:1-4.            mendously influenced by Greek cul-
 unto the end (Heidelberg Catechism,           This brief passage describes the call          ture. Antioch was the  stomping-
Lord's Day 21).                                and sending of the first missionaries          ground of the rich and famous in that
         Christ Himself determines every-      from the church in Antioch. A careful          day. It had a reputation for being able
 thing in missions. The Lord deter-            study of the passage will reveal pat-          to provide every kind of pleasure
 mines where as well as when a mission-        terns and principles for the church to         desired.
 ary will go. Not only that, but Christ        follow in mission work today.                      In such a city, God providentially
 SovereignlyaWoints  thesendingchurch,                                                        prepared a place for His church - a
                                               The Church in Antioch                          church favored with the distinction
                                                     The history of the church in             of sending out the apostle Paul on his
                                               Antioch teaches that God prepares a            missionary journeys, and the church
                                               church (either a congregation or de-           to which Paul would return at the end
 Rev. Dykstra is pastor  of  the Protestant    nomination) to work in a particular            of each missionary journey to report
 Reformed  Church of Doon, Iowa.               mission field. The first mention of            backto the elders of the church. It was
                                                                                                           May 1,1994/Standard  Bearer/%3


a great privilege for the church to be      ficult to see that part of that difference    must have been most conspicuous in
involved in this work, especially con-      was due to the location of the church         the city of Antioch.
sidering that God chose the church in       of Antioch. Negatively, the church                Their excellent spiritual condi-
Antioch over the church in Jerusalem.       existed in a city that was not the            tionis also indicated by the number of
Jerusalem had always been, up to this       center of the Old Testament worship           prophets and teachers who lived and
point, the center of the church. Evi-       as was Jerusalem. The people, even            worshiped with them in Antioch.'
dently there are reasons why God            the Jews who had maintained the Old           Why so many? Does it not indicate
used  this  congregation to send out        Testament way of worship, were not            something about the spirituality of
missionaries.                               accustomed to going to the temple for         the church? The prophets and teach-
     The church at Antioch started as       morning and evening sacrifices; they          ers felt at home in the church of
a result of persecution centered at         had no temple. Rather, the saints in          Antioch. These men of God enjoyed
Jerusalem. After Stephen's..death  the      Antioch inhabited a city in the main-         the spiritual life of the congregation,
hatred of the Jews burst upon the           stream of Roman life. Not only that,          indicating that the church of Antioch
church of Jesus Christ, Saul leading        but the members had a very different          was the kind of congregation that
the way, making havoc in the church.        background. The Jews were Helle-              supported and encouraged ministers,
The persecution was God's instru-           nist, that is to say, they were very          and even produced ministers from
ment, forcing the church to spread          much influenced by Greek culture.             her own sons.
outside of the walls of Jerusalem. Be-      They knew the Greek language and                  The spiritual life of the congrega-
lievers scattered into  Judea, into         were accustomed to rubbing shoul-             tion is also evident from the descrip-
Samaria, and even farther north to          ders with Gentiles from all walks of          tion given in Acts 13. At the time that
escape the murderous wrath of the           life in order to do their business.           the Holy Spirit came to them "they
Jewish rulers. Believers fled into          Added to these Hellenist Jews were            ministered to the Lord and fasted."
Phoenicia and the island of Cyprus          the many converted Gentiles who had           The word "ministered" is the word
and as far as Antioch.                      joined the church.                            ordinarily denoting a regular wor-
    Interestingly, as these believers           But much more important was               ship service in the church. These
fled for their lives, they witnessed to     the zeal and spiritual mindedness of          prophets and teachers were gather-
the truth of the gospel. Scripture (Acts    the congregation at Antioch. The con-         ing together with the church in wor-
8:4,11:19) uses the word "preached."        gregation demonstrated their zeal in          ship, indicating the significance of,
This means that the saints spoke the        many ways. In the first place, they           worship in their lives. They came to-
Word of God - they spoke of the             were ready to contribute money to             gether often and worshiped the Lord.
gospel. The result was that others          kingdom causes. Acts 11 relates that              Not only that, but they were fast-
believed, mainly-Jews at first (believ-     when the prophet Agabus prophesied            ing. Fasting, especially in the New
ers would go to their own people,           of a famine in Judea,  the church in          Testament, is most often associated
naturally), but later Greeks as well.       Antioch immediately responded by              with a spiritual time of prayer and
After the persecution stopped, the          taking a collection and sending the           refreshment. When His disciples
church at JerusaIem  heard of these         money back to Jerusalem with                  `couldnotcastthedeviloutofayoung
conversions and sent Barnabas to            Barnabas and Paul.                            child, Jesus said that this kind of devil
Antioch to guide the work and to                Their zeal was evident from the           "goeth not out but by prayer and,
preach on the mission field. Barnabas       fact that the community, this huge            fasting" (Matt. 17~21). Paulwrote the
rejoiced at the grace of God which he       city of half a million people, took           same thing in I Corinthians 7: "De-
saw; and many people were added to          notice of this group of believers. Who        fraud ye not one another," he said to
the Lord through his labors (cf. Acts       are these people who come together            the husbands and the wives, "except
11: 19-24).                                 on Sunday?' What are they doing?              it be with consent for a time, that ye
    In fact, there was so much work         What's different about them? The              may give yourselves to fasting and
that Barnabas could not handle it all.      unbelievers could only put their fin-         prayer." The purpose of fasting and
So he went to Tarsus, a city not very       ger on one thing- these people were           prayer is that the believer put himself
far away from Antioch, to get a man         followers of one called Christ. They          into a proper spiritual state of mind.
whom he had met some years before,          were "Christians." For that label to be       He puts aside everything that is
Saul (or Paul). Together they labored       attached to them, the believers' zeal         earthly and material, and he concen-
in Antioch for about a year, and that                                                     trates on spiritual things. Recogniz-
whole year they assembled them-                                                           ing his own spiritual emptiness and
selves with the church and taught                                                         worthlessness, he prays fervently.
much people.                                * A prophet is one who receives and               With the church inthat spiritual
    A thriving congregation was es-         speaks a direct message from God; a           frame of mind, the Holy Spirit came
tablished in the city of Antioch - a        teacher is one who does not receive           to the church in Antioch with instruc-
congregation plainly different from         direct messages but opens the Scrip-          tions to ordain two men to be mis-
the church in Jerusalem. It is not dif-     tures and instructs.                          sionaries.

344lStandard  Bearer/May 1,1994


    Notice how God had prepared                  ers be excited about sending these                 His church, God sometimes provi-
the congregation for the work. Even              men out?                                           dentially positions a church to be near
the geographic location of the church                From many points of view the                   a particular field so that they can do
was perfect. Antioch was a major city            Reformed churchtoday, inchulingthe                 the necessary work at the determined
in the Roman empire,                                          Protestant Reformed                   time. Additionally, the Lord gives
literally at the cross-                     I                 Churches, is in a situa-              freedom from persecution.
roads between the east-       The question is:                tion similar to that of                    Christ also gives to the church the
em part of the empire            Would we be                  Ant&h.  We are free from              right makeup for doing the work.
(of which theJews were           as excited as                persecution and at the                That latter is critically important be-
a part) and the western                                       same time have the mate-              cause mission workmust come out of
part, Europe. Since God          the church of                rial means for sending                the very heart of the congregation or
had determined that the            An tioch                   missionaries. Living in               denomination.Itisnotsomethingthat
gospel would be going            to send out                  the greatest nation on                the elders can decide to do and sim-
west into Europe, He            two ministers                 earth gives us the means              ply inform the congregation, or the
strategicallyplacedHis           to a faraway                 at our disposal for carry-            synod decides to do and simply in-
church where she                                              ing on mission work, the              forms the churches and then sud-
would best be able to                land?                    means of communicating                denly the members are supposed to
send the gospel to those L                                    the gospel, of printing               be enthusiastic and supportive. Mis-
Gentiles.                                                     materialinexpensively, of             sion workcomes from the heart of the
    But also the membership of the               recordingmessages and sendingthese                 members of the congregation. The
church itself had been perfectly de-             forth. And, besides all that, we have a            individual believers must be both in-
termined by God. The mixture of                  tremendous heritage in the truth.                  terested and involved. At the same
Hellenist Jews and of Gentiles formed                Indeed, from an outward point of               time, a church must have a readiness
a church better able to oversee a mis-           view, the situation of the Reformed                and ability to deal with others who
sionary work almost exclusively to               churches in the United States today is             may be- very different from them-
Gentiles, as it would become.                    strikingly similar to that of the church           selves, others who are of a different
    In addition, it was a church that            in Antioch. The question is: Would                 race, who have a very different cul-
had the material means able to send              we be as excited as the church;of                  ture, and a very different upbringing
out the missionaries. And, perhaps               Antioch to send out two ministers to               so that their life-style is at first a bit of
this is even more significant, it was a          a faraway land? Or would we be                     a shock. To "deal with" that is not to
church free from severe persecution.             selfishly concerned about our own                  accept sinfulbehavior. But the church
    Certainly, of greatest importance            pulpit supply and about catechism,                 must be able to deal with these things
was God's spiritual preparation of               and societies, not to men-                                          andtolaborinthatcon-
the church in Antioch. Part of the               tion the ,`%zanciuZ  cost of                 1.                     text. God prepared the
preparationwas thebirth  of the church           sending two ministers and                                           church of Antioch in
throughmissionarylabors.Themem-                  their families all the way        . . . mission work                this way so that she
bers knew from experience the im-                to Africa? And would the             must come                      could be a fit instru-
portance of missionaries going out to            ministers jump at the op-                    out of                 ment to send out mis-
preach the gospel. Besides, the Holy             portunity to go to a far-                                           sionaries.
Spirit had drawn many of them out of             away place? Or would               the ve y heart                      But, again, of critical
heathendom. They were still very                 they shrink back from the                    of the                 importance is the spiri-
much in their first love, excited about          hardship and the uncer-           congregation or                   tual condition of the
the truth, and wantingto publish that            tainty of such an en-              denomination.                    church. Recall that the
glorious gospel of salvation. Thus               deavor?                                                        1 congregation in
when the Holy Spirit said, "Separate                 Just as God prepared L                                          Antioch was not only
unto me Barnabas and Saul," they                 the church of Antioch for                                           spiritually. vibrant, it
were eager to take up the work. That,            this work, even so today God still                 was zealous for the truth. Likewise
mind you,`in spite of the fact that they         prepares a church in every way. God                today, a church's interest in mission
would be losing two of the best min-             puts a certain church (again, a par-               work will grow out of her zeal for the
isters that had ever preached in their           ticular  congregation or a denomina-               truth. Members must want other
congregation.                                    tion) in a position to work a particular           people to know the precious truth,
    The example of Antioch calls for             mission field. At the very least God               the Reformed truths that are pro-
a bit of self-examination. What would            gives, first of all, available men (as in          claimed in their own pulpits. God
happen in a church today if God                  Antioch). In the second place, God                 molds and forms His church with a
would come with a similar word, say,             gives the funds that are necessary for             view to this. Then the call comes from
to send two of the best ministers to             sending out missionaries. In the third             the Holy Spirit.
Africa? Would we Reformed believ-                place, knowing where He will gather                                 [To be continued.] 0
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                      The Macedonian Call
                                                                                                         Rev. Carl Haak


        InActslti9,lOwehavetherecord        cross the Rockies). They started a          Macedonian call. The warrant to en-
of the Macedoniancall. This occurred        mission to the Indians, Wallawalla.         gage in missions was given by the
duringPaul's  secondmissionaryjour-         They were killed in 1847.                   Savior in Matthew 28:19, the well-
ney. "And a vision appeared to Paul             I relate this to you because I won-     known Great Commission: "Go into
in the night; There stood a man of          der - is this the way we are to con-        all the world and preach the gospel
Macedonia, and prayed him, saying,          ceive of the Macedonian call? Are we        (or disciple the nations)." And again
Come over into Macedonia, and help          to conceive of the Macedonian call as       in John 20:21, "Even so send I you."
us. (In the original, the `Come' could      being a direct call for aid from a cer-     There is the warrant, there is the ba-
be translated literally, `Cross over,' a    tain group or area to the church to         sis, there is the authority upon which
word referring to crossing over wa-         come and evangelize them? Or, may           the church is to go forth and engage in
ter, Troas and Macedonia being di-          we conceive of the Macedonian call in       the mission work. AMacedonian  call
vided by water and being on two             a somewhat broader way than that? I         therefore does not initiate the work, is
separate continents.) And after he          believe the latter is true. Although the    not the warrant for the work, but is
had seen the vision, immediately we         Macedonian call also today can be           the direction of the work already be-
endeavoured to go into Macedonia,           very dramatic and vivid, the church         gun in obedience to that command.
assuredly gathering (or that could be       receiving direct appeals for aid, I be-         We may say that the Macedonian
translated'concluding') that  theLord       lieve that the Macedonian  callis larger    call is not merely a repetition or en-
had calledus for to preach the gospel       than just that. And this is a very rich     forcement of the call to go out, but is
unto them."                                 truth, a very comforting truth for the      rather God's sovereign direction of
        Here follow a few principles and    church.                                     the work already in process. That
lessons from the Macedonian call.               What I'd like to do in these re-        becomes plain in the context, accord-
In1832fourIndiansfrombeyond                 marks is two things: First of all, I'd      ing to which Paul is engaged in the
the Rockies appearedin St. Louis ask-       like to make a distinction; second, I'd     second missionary journey. He's al-
ing for teachers to instruct them con-      like to point out three of the most         ready out in the work. And it be-
cerning the white man's "book of            important lessons that I see in the         comes very plain that the central pur-
heaven." There was a Rev. Samuel            Macedonian call.                            pose of the Macedonian call is to di-
Parker in the Presbyterian Church                                                       rect the work of missions when we
who had a pastorate in New York             A Distinction that We                       take into account that in the context
who heard of this and believed that it                                                  Paul has twice been forbidden to go to
was a Macedonian call. Historians           Should Make With Respect                    other areas, first to Asia (the Spirit
believe that the account is probably        to the Macedonian Call.                     forbade him to go there) and then to
fictitious, that it never happened. But         The Macedonian call does not            Bithynia(theSpiritsufferedthemnot).
Parker believed it was a Macedonian         initiate the work of missions but di-       So that the point here is direction.
call. The result of it was that Parker,     rects the work of missions already              That means that we must not in-
who at that time was an aged man and        begun  in obedience to the command          terpret the Macedonian call to mean
not able to go beyond the Rockies           of Christ.                                  that before the church would engage
himself, .sent Marcus and Narcissa              BythisImeanthatwedonotwait              in a work of missions she must have
Whitman (the first white woman-to           until we receive such an overt appeal       a specific call to a specific area. To
                                            for aid before we engage in missions.       interpret the Macedonian call in that
                                            A.Macedonian  call does not initiate        way puts the command or the call to
                                            the work of missions. But it directs        engage in mission work which the
                                            the work of missions. The warrant to        Lord gave us into a straight-jacket
Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant       go out and evangelize, the command          and may actually produce in the
Reformed Church of Lynden, Washing-         to engage in missions, is not the           church idleness and put an obstacle in
ton.

346lStandard  Bearer/May I,1994


front of the work of missions which is           vinism. How is the Arminian going             instrumentality of His church is un-
already hard enough.                             to answer the question, Why has not           cooperative, is unfaithful. He would
       So, there is the distinction I feel is    the gospel gone to all of these other         love to have this Word get out, but
important. TheMacedonian call does ~ nations? They will have a hard time                       His abilities to get the Word out are
not initiate mission work but directs            answering that. But their answer will         limited. That is why many areas
the work of missions already being               probably be this: Because the church          never hear the gospel.                The
engagedinandbeingpursuedinobe-                   has failed in her task. The church has        Macedonian call teaches us otherwise.
dience to the command of Christ.                 not done the work as eagerly and as               Perhaps you remember that our
         Y  *  +  Y  w  Y  *                     energetically as she ought. We ought          Reformedfathersaddressedthispoint
       I find three lessons on the surface       to have more of aburden for missions          in the first head of doctrine of the
of the Macedonian call. Perhaps there            to get that word out to more of the           Canons, Article 3. "That men may be
are more, but three central lessons I            world. In response to that, we must           brought to believe God mercifully
will briefly go over now.                        not deny that as sinful church we are         sends the messengers of these most
                                                 not as zealous as we can be or should         joyful tidings, to whomHe will and at
First Lesson                                     have been in obedience to this com-           what time He pleaseth; by whose
                                                 mand. There is therefore an element           ministry men are called torepentance
       First, the Macedonian call teaches        of truth in that. But the answer of the       and faith in Christ crucified." So the
the church the vital need of acknowl-            Scriptures is: God sends His Word to
edging the sovereignty of God in di-                                                           Canons teach that the instrumental-
                                                 whomsoever He hath pleased. The
recting the work of missions, and                                                              ity that God uses to bring men to faith
                                                 sovereignty of God determines where           and repentance is the preaching of the
thus it teaches the church to labor              the gospel is preached. And if we             gospel. But the Canons add this im-
under the consciousness and under                follow this up in the passage here in         portant clause: "He sends the joyful
the realization that God sends the               Acts 16, God, of course, directs the
gospeltowhomsoeveritpleasesHim.                                                                tidings (the preaching) to whom He
                                                 gospel where it goes according to His         will and at what time He pleases."
       In general on this point, it is first     counsel of election. For God fore-            God is sovereign in the direction of
of all plain that God is directing the           knows. He knows His people. He                the gospel.
evangelizing of the churchwestward.              knows where they are, and therefore
This can also be seen as fulfillment of                                                            What are the implications of this?
                                                 He directs the course of the gospel on
the word of Noah's prophecy spoken                                                             Negatively, not indifference! As Cal-
                                                 to His elect so that not one of Christ's
to his sons in Genesis 9:27, when he                                                           vinists, as Reformedbelievers, we do
                                                 sheep ever perishes. That becomes             not sit down and say, ti Well, the gos-
said that Japheth's tents would be               clear in the account of the conversion        pel is going to go out, so let us just sit
enlarged and he would share in the               of Lydia.                                     here. And since God's not going to
blessing of Shem. If Japheth's descen-               There is a book,                          lose one of His sheep, we don't.need
dants generally settled in the Euro-                                      A Vision for Mis-
                                                 sion, by Tom Wells, the first chapter of      to worry about that." If that is our
pean area and elsewhere, we see that             which is entitled: "It Pleased God."          answer,Christwillsay,"Yehavebeen
the gospel is going towards those                He speaks of the sovereignty of God           unfaithful servants. You did not do
descendants, so that Japheth is now              in the sending of the gospel, and of the      what I called you to do. I said `Go
sharing in the blessing of Shem. What            Arminian answer and the Calvinistic           out.' " And we would be in disobedi-
I want to emphasize is that God is               answer. Later on he comes back to             ence. The implication, positively, is
sovereignly directing the gospel to              that when he emphasizes the self-
those to whom He is pleased to send                                                            this: Confidence and comfort (we
                                                 sufficiency of God. He writes:
it.                                                                                            often feel that we are groping, we
       This is tile answer to the question,                                                    wonder ifour workis effective, where
                                                     I fear that thousands of youngper-
Why_  do some have the gospel                                                                  do we go, what do we do, we stumble,
                                                   sons enter Christian service for no         we seek wisdom), behind it all is the
preached to them and others (lands                 higher motive than to help deliver          sovereign God who is directing the
and whole generations) never hear                  God from the embarrassing situa-
the gospel? That is a very practical               tion His love has gotten Him into           course in the stream of His Word, that
                                                                                               living water, exactly to the thirsty
question which the church must an-                 andHislimitedabilitiesseemunable            soul that He has made. He never fails,
swer: Why are there so many who                    to get Him out of. Add to this a            so we have great confidence 
have never heard the gospel? If the                certain degree of commendabIe  ide-                                          from the
                                                                                               Macedonian call, confidence rooted
gospel is true, if it is the only way of           alism and a fair amount of compas-
                                                                                               in the sovereignty of God who directs
salvation, why has not God gotten the              sion for the underprivileged and you
                                                   have the true drive behind much of          the work of missions, and the confi-
Word out, so that more of the people               Christian activity today.                   dence that God will give to us in the
of the nations would have heard the                                                            way of obedience. .We cannot have
gospel and have been saved?                      Arminianism goes forth, really, from          that confidence that God is sending
       Here we see the important differ-         the principle that God would love to          forth His Word to the salvation of His
ence between Arminianism and Cal-                have this gospel sent forth but the           church if we sit idly by and disobey

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His command to go forth. It is exactly             work of missions is to be directed, as     Third lesson
as Paul is diligently engaged in the               much of it is today, by mere feeling.          The Macedonian call teaches the
work, this second missionary jour-                 People say, "I feel led of God to go       church to practice the same immedi-
ney, that he may now have this confi-              here." Why do they feelled  of God to      ate obedience exemplified by the
dence that his steps are directed of the           go there? "Well, God has burdenedit        apostle Paul. His obedience was in-
Lord. We may have that confidence,
                       .                      uponmy heart." How did God bur-                 stantaneous. "And after he had seen
too.                                               den it upon their heart? U Well, I just    the vision, immediately we
                                                   feel...." No, I believe that the           endeavoured...." He went to work
Second lesson                                      Macedonian callbelongs to those signs      and he loosed from Troas, and came
        The Macedonian call teaches the            and wonders. It is not that overt. We      "withastraightcoursetoSamothracia,
church to develop a sensitive and                  must look for objective evidence. We       and the next day to Neapolis; and
discerning ear to hear the call of God's           must look for the best possibilities       from thence to Philippi, the chief city
scattered saints. To put .it another               and go there first. On the other hand,     of Macedonia." Here is obedience
way, the Macedonian call teaches the               that does not mean that objective evi-     that the Lord delights in. Practically,
church to discern the leading of the               dence must include the existence of a      we must render the same obedience
Holy Spirit, to be ableto  hear the cry            groupwhichisabletodraftusaletter.          when we receive indications of an
of God's people in distant lands.                  Ifthey are of such a knowledge that        opening of the gospel. The obedience
        When I began I said that I do not          they are able to draft us a letter for     must be there. We must not let the
believe that the. Macedonian call al-              help, and know how to go through           embers get cold.
ways takes the overt and dramatic                  the formal steps, we can almost ask            Interestingly, in verse 10, this
form that it took with the apostle                 the question whether or not there are      obedience of the apostle Paul did not
Paul. We must remember that, in the                more needy people than these for us        bypass his mind. It was something
book of Acts, we are dealing with the              to help. If these are so advanced in       worked by faith through his under-
age of the apostles, with signs and                church polity that they know enough        standing and reasoning. "Assuredly
wonders. We ought not to expect that               that they have to go through a signed      gathering," whichcouldbetranslated
the work of missions today will be                 letter to a Mission Committee and all      "concluding." This implies putting
directed by that same kind of vision               of these things; if this is what we are    pieces together, like pieces of a puzzle
.or overt call. Though sometimes it                waiting for, for such a group to mate-     are put together. Finally Paul, so to
does take on a dramatic form, this is              rialize, I would suggest that perhaps      speak, put the pieces together. If we
not the rule. Secondly, what we                    this is one group we should not go to      read that in the context, he had tried
ought to remember here is that Paul,               because they might be farther along        togotoAsia-theSpiritforbadehim;
when he received this call, was called             than others who might need our help        to Bithynia - the Spirit suffered him
to an area. He was                                             more.                          not; then the Macedonian call, "Come
called to Macedonia.                         -L                       So we must develop      over and help us" - Paul put the
Macedonia was not a                                            an ear. We must learn to
                                    We must learn                                             pieces together. He was sensitive to
city, but an area. God                                         listen for the work of the     the Lord's direction. He saw the
                                        to listen
did not inform him of                                          Holy Spirit in the hearts      reasoningandthewisdomoftheLord.
any specific group.                  for the work              of God's people. This can      And in obedience, he went forth.
When he came to the                      of the                mean that often we will            Icould  say, too, the apostlePaul's
area he went to workin                Holy Spirit              go into lands where the        obedience is seen in this, that he was
Philippi, the chief city             in the hearts             gospel has already been        not frustrated by having two good
of Macedonia. And he                                           preached, but not fully.       intentions of his turned down by God.
sought the places where             of God's people.           Mission work in its bare       He wanted to go to Asia, the Lord
most likely the Spirit of                                      bones, of course, is to go     said, "No." He was willing, but the
God would be at work                                           to a place which has never     Lord said, No. He wanted to go to
He went to a place, verse 13, where                heard of the gospel or the Bible. But      Bithynia, No. How many of us would
prayer was wont to be made. And he                 mission workis not restricted to that,     be turned down twice in good inten-
went on the Sabbath day. The callwas               because we can also go, on warrant of      tions. We feel burdened, this is where
to an area. And the call that Paul had             the Macedonian call, to those places       we ought to go. It doesn't work. We
to the area was now to engage.himself              where the Spirit has already worked        try again, it doesn't work. Then the
in the work of. missions in that area              in the hearts of the saints through the    Lord said, "Here's the door."
and to find the contacts. :' 1                     Word. They have heard something of             Paul, so to speak, jumped at the
        So.we must develop a discerning            the Word and they say, "We want to         opportunity. What obedience God
`ear for that call.                                hear more of it." When we hear that,       worked in the heart of His servant
        What do wemeanby that? On the              we ought to be sensitive to that and       Paul! Would we be as obedient as he?
one hand, we do not mean that the                  follow that up.                                                                  cl

348lStandard  Bearer /May 1,1994


                                                                                                                                                                         s



                      Missionary-At-Large
                                                                                                                                                   Rev. Richard Moore

                                            ."
                                             .     _:     i    I  ..,&,   `L$   :,;,L.l2  1.:  ."`,a..:'    :    ,    *.     .j.    :.:i  .T"n,,  _  ,:: <<,  ;:gyg&:  :pq  .;.;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .I



   ' In this article we set forth the       often been called a "home mission-                                                      sionary-at-large would investigate
theory that it is proper that we have a     ary." We have had in our past mis-                                                      and work in the surrounding area as
missionary-at-large, or even more           sionaries who moved from place to                                                       well; and he would be available for                                 _
than one. At the outset, let me say that    place preaching the gospel. They                                                        short periods of time tovisit any other
this article is written in the knowl-       would work one area and then move                                                       `areas that may express an interest in
edge that Synod 1988 rejected the           on to another area, and would do so                                                     our churches. However, these side
concept missionary-at-large. How-           when a church was organized or when                                                     excursions would have to be limited
ever, we believe that this was due to       an area in which they labored did not                                                   duringhislaborstoestablishafieldin
the fact that there were certain as-        bear sufficient fruit. They remained                                                    a particular area.
pects of this concept that the Mission      missionaries of our churches even                                                             As stated earlier, this seems to be
Committee did not or was not able to        when a certain field in which they had                                                  the direction that we are given by the
consider. This was true also of the         been laboring closed, and our                                                           WordofGod.  Inthefirstplace,weare
Synod, and this led, to some extent, to     churches found other areas for them                                                     given the commission to be busy with
a misunderstanding of some of the           in which to promote the gospel of                                                       the preaching of the gospel to all na-
former decisions of our synods. Some        Christ. Now usually this decision of                                                    tions, as is indisputably the calling
of the material in this article has been    where to labor was determined by an                                                     given us in Matthew 28:18-20:  "And
stated before, namely by the Mission        expressed interest in our churches by                                                   Jesus came and spake unto them, say-
Committee. However, the presenta-           some particular group of people.                                                        ing, All power is given unto me in
tion of decisions of former synods in       Certainly we today may also deter-                                                      heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore,
this article was made independently         mine an area to which to send our                                                       and teach all nations, baptizing them
of the report of the Mission Commit-        missionary-at-large on this same ba-                                                    in the name of the Father, and of the
tee in 1988; and the interpretations        sis. However, it need not be on that                                                    Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching
will be somewhat different. Some of         basis onZy,  as is evident from the "New                                                them to observe all things whatso-
the use of the decisions of synods will     Policy" of 1965 (hereafter to be re-                                                    ever i have commanded you: and, lo,
also differ, and the conclusions will       ferred to simply as our mission                                                         I am with you alway, even unto the _
be distinct.                                "Policy," as it is hardly new any longer,                                               end of the world. Amen" (cf. also
    It is our contention that the Scrip-    although it really has never been fully                                                 Mark 16:15-16).  The certain implica-
tures allow for and, even more, rec-        implemented).                                                                           tion of the text is that this is something
ommend having a missionary-at-                            I believe that the missionary-at-                                         we must be busy with until the end of
large. Further, we also contend that        large has the chief calling to establish                                                time. The fact is that we do not have
the decisions of our synods also allow      fields, and when they are established                                                   a man called to do this labor. And
for and even recommend having a             he will go on to the next area to labor                                                 while we may attempt to do this labor
missionary-at-large, as this writer         there to preach and to implement the                                                    locally to some extent, yet without a
defines this term.                          "policy" in order to establish another                                                  missionary we really are not heeding
    It is necessary for us to define        field. Once a field is established, then                                                this calling. Further, according to our
what is meant by the term "mission-         our churches can call a missionary to                                                   minor confessions, particularly the
ary-at-large."                              work the particular field that has been                                                 form for the ordination of mission-
    By the term missionary-at-large         established until such time. that a                                                     ary, we are taught that we should not
we understand what in the past has          church can be organized. The best                                                       attempt to do missionary work
                                            procedure would be that the "mis-                                                       through the labors of pastors of con-
                                            sionary-at-large" would spend his                                                       gregations. We quote a portion of the
                                            primary time on the field just estab-                                                   form:  U . ..while others are called to
                                            lished until a missionary for that spe-                                                 preach the Gospel to those without, in
Rev. Moore is pastor of the Protestant      cific field accept the call. While on the                                               order to bring them to Christ. And let
Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa.              field of his particular labor, the mis-                                                 each man (the missionary and the

                                                                                                                                                    May 1, i994lStandard  Bearer/349


minister of the Word in a congrega-         heaven is at hand. Heal the sick,            ingthis workmore specifically. In the
tion) abide in the calling wherein he       cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast     first place, we take note that there is a
was called by the Church of God and         out devils: freely ye have received,         harvest that we should be busy with.
consequently by God Himself and             freely give. Provide neither gold, nor       That we are presently laboring in few
whereunto each has received gifts,          silver, nor brass in your purses, nor        fields is not because there is no spiri-
until it please the Lord to lead him        scrip for your journey, neither two          tual grain to harvest. We read in John
along a lawful way to a different field     coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves:        4:34-36:  "Jesus saith unto them, My
of labor." Now understand that we           for the workman is worthy of his             meat is to do the will of him that sent
haveusedministersfromtimetotime             meat. And into whatsoever city or            me,andtofinishhiswork Saynotye,
throughout our history to go to vari-       town ye shall enter, inquire who in it       There are yet four months, and then
ous fields to labor briefly when we         is worthy; and there abide till ye go        cometh  harvest? behold, I say unto
had no missionary. But this was usu-        thence. And when ye come into an             you, Lift up your eyes; andlookon the
ally of an emergency nature, for in-        house; salute it. And if the house be        fields; for they are white already to
stance at the very beginning of our         worthy, let your peace come upon it:         harvest. Andhethatreapethreceiveth
history as Protestant Reformed              but if it be not worthy, let your peace      wages, and gathereth fruit unto life
Churches. But when this becomes a           return to you. And whosoever shall           eternal: that both he that soweth.and
standard way of working, as it has in       not receive you, nor hear your words,        hethatreapethmayrejoice together."
the past few years, I believe that it       when ye depart out of that house or              Secondly,letusconsidertheWord
becomes detrimental to the work of          city, shake off the dust of your feet.       of God as it speaks of the spread of the
missions which we are called to per-        Verily I say unto you, It shall be more      gospelshortlyafterthedeathofCh.rist.
form. Briefly, it leads our ministers       tolerable for the land of Sodom and          In Acts 8:4-5 we read of Philip's labor:
who receive the call to be missionary       Gomorrah in the day of judgment,             "Therefore they that were scattered
to reason that the work will be done,       thanforthatcity." Wenotethatinthis           abroad went every where preaching
at least in part, even if we do not have    first work of establishing the gospel        the word. Then Philip went down to
a missionary. Also, there can really be     of Jesus Christ the apostles were to go      the city of Samaria,  and preached
no true missionary work done by a           forth from place to place preaching          Christ unto them." Philip simply
minister who is on a field for only two     the Word. Where that Word was                went to the city of  Samaria,  and
Sundays. Certainly nothing of our           received they would continue for a           preached Christ to them. We do not
mission "Policy" can really be carried      time, establishing the faith of those        read of any special vision or direction
out. And it also causes our people to       hearing; and where the word was not          to do this, and since the Scriptures do
lose interest in mission work, for they     received they were to leave and go on,       record times when special direction
believe that we can carry it out with-      brushing from their feet the dust, leav-     was given, we are inclined to believe
out a missionary, assuming that we          ing the inhabitants of that city in their    that if it were so here we would have
are doing mission work without a            own condemnation. The disciples              been told. Further, when the apostles
missionary; or they become bitter to        did not know beforehand which                heardthatSamariareceivedtheWord
our mission workbecause it takes the        would be the case. They did not have         of God, they sent unto them Peter and
minister away from his God-given            a specific field established before they     John (cf. v. 14). Philip hadestablished
calling to minister unto their needs.       would preach, but through the preach-        a field by preaching and then others
One of the principal reasons for this       ing would establish the field, or serve,     came to work the field. That's the
manner of work is the fact that we          by their preaching, the greater con-         very idea of the labor of our proposed +
have taken the position, incorrecdy I       demnation of the unbelievers (cf. also       missionary-at-large. Still more, the
believe, that we must establish a field     Mark 6:7-13).                                apostles used the same method when
of labor before we call a missionary,           Our Lord Himself used the same           they preached the gospel to many
rather than have a missionary labor to      method. He went from town to town            villages of the Samaritans, as we read
establish a field. We need a mission-       preaching the Word, to gather the            in Acts 8:25: "And they, when they
ary-at-large.                               church. Mark 1:38-39: "And he said           had testified and preached the word
    Having a missionary-at-large is         unto them, Let us go into the next           of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem,
surely Scriptural, as is evident al-        towns, that I may preach there also:         and preached the gospel in many vil-
ready by the labor that Jesus sent the      for therefore came I forth. And he           lages of the Samaritans." Philip in his
disciples to do. In Matthew 10:5-15         preached in their synagogues                 labor was specifically directed to the
we read, "These twelve Jesus sent           throughout all Galilee, and cast out         Ethiopian, and so may we be directed
forth, and commanded them, saying,          devils." He did this throughout all          to labor in a certain area also. Yet, as
Go not into the way of the Gentiles,        Galilee, and did not limit His preach-       with Philip, this would be an excep-
and into any city of the Samaritans         ing to one specific city or another.         tion. For we read the following, after
enter ye not: But go rather to the lost         But of more direction to us as to        Philip returned to Gaza, Acts 8:40:
sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye     the mission labor we are to undertake        "But Philip was found at Azotus: and
go, preach, saying, The kingdom of          is the Scripture's testimony concern-        passing through he preached in all

350lStanciard  Bearer /May 1,1994


the cities, till he came to Caesarea."      the Jews: and they had also John to        tions wherever the Lord gives them
Again themethod was to go from city         their minister. And when they had          us.
to city preaching the Word.                 gone through the isle unto Paphos,                The Macedonian call is recorded
  In the third place, we find that          they found a certain sorcerer, a false     in Acts l&6-10.  once gone over to
certain men who had been qualified          prophet, a Jew, whose name was             Macedonia, Paul again was not di-
by Christ to preach were scattered          Barjesus."                                 rected to theparticularplaces or cities
abroad, and that these came to Antioch          Acts 13:13-14:  "Now when Paul         in which he was to preach, but contin-
andpreached to the Grecians. Of this        andhiscompanyloosedfroml'aphos,            ued to carry out his mission labors as
we read in Acts 11:19-22:  "now they        they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and       he had before. He went from city to
which were scattered abroad upon            John departing from them returned          city preaching the Word, establishing
the persecution that arose about            to Jerusalem. But when they departed       fields of labor and churches wherever
Stephen travelled as far as Phenice,        from Perga, they came to Antioch in        the Lord gave increase, and shaking
and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching          Pisidia, and went into the synagogue       off the dust of his feet against those
the word to none but unto the Jews          on the sabbath day, and sat down."         that did not receive the Word. The
only. And some of them were men of              Acts 13:49-52:  "And the word of       following texts make this plain. Acts
Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they         the Lord was published throughout          17:l: "Now when they had passed
were come to Antioch, spake unto the        all the region. But the Jews stirred up    through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
Grecians, preaching the Lord- Jesus.        the devout and honourable women,           they came to Thessalonica, where was
And the hand of the Lord was with           and the chief men of the city, and         a synagogue of the Jews." Acts 1715:
them: and a great number believed,          raised persecution against Paul and        "And they that conducted Paul
and turned unto the Lord. Then tid-         Barnabas, and expelled them out of         brought him unto Athens: and re-
ings of these things came unto the          their coasts. But they shook off the       ceiving a commandment unto Silas
ears of the church which was in Jerusa-     dust of their feet against them, and       and. Timotheus for to come to him
lem: and they sent forth Barnabas,          came unto Iconium. And the dis-            with all speed, they departed." Acts
that he should go as far as Antioch."       ciples were filled with joy, and with      l&l: "After these things Paul de-
Once again, when a field had been           the Holy Ghost."                           parted from Athens, and came to
established under the preaching of              Acts 14:23-26:  "And when they         Corinth."
missionaries, others were  sent to          had ordained them elders in every                 Paul went to Ephesus, and'we
preach there (see also Acts 11:25-26).      church, and had prayed with fasting,       know that he labored there abouttwo
    This same pattern was followed          they commended them to the Lord,           years. Acts 19:22: "So he sent into
by Paul and Barnabas and Silas, etc.        on whom they believed. And after           Macedonia two of them that minis-
Let us thenlookat several passages of       they had passed throughout Pisidia,        tered unto him, Timotheus and
the Word at this point to illustrate the    they came to Pamphylia. And when           Era&us;  but he himself stayedin Asia
fact that the labor of the missionaries     they had preached the word in Perga,       for a season." This text makes a point
sent out from Antiochinvolved going         they went down into Attalia: And           that, while it was necessary for Paul
from place to place establishing fields     thence sailed to Antioch, from whence      to continue longer in the area of
of labor under the preaching. With-         they had been recommended to the           Ephesus,. he sent others to continue
out any particular vision,. or without      grace of God for the work which they       on the fields that had been estab-
having indication of fields already         fulfilled."                                lished under his missionary labor in
established, Paul and Barnabas went             Now when Paul would continue           Macedonia. Acts 20:2: "And when he
from city to city preaching the Word,       his missionary work in this same           had gone over these parts, and had
staying long enough in each place to        manner, and was about to do the            giventhemmuchexhortation,  hecame
establish a congregation, or at least a     same thing in Bithynia, the Lord di-       into Greece."
field for further labor by the servants     rected him to another area instead.               Certainly our conclusion from this
of God. We quote the following, Acts        This, however, was an exception to         weight of the testimony from Scrip-
13:2-6: "As they ministered to the          the way in which Paul carried out his      ture has to be that a primary calling of
Lord,andfasted,theHolyGhostsaid,            calling. It must not become the rule       our missionary endeavors is to estab-
Separate me Barnabas and Saul for           for our mission labors, but, exactly as    lish fields of labor by the preaching of
the work whereunto I have called            it was with Paul, the exception, There     the Word. And this requires that we
them. And when they had fasted and          are times that we too will not be able     have a missionary-at-large to labor in
prayed, and laid their hands on them,       to labor in a certain area. The Lord       various places to establish fields for
they sent them away. So they, being         will forbid us. And there are times        further labors, either by another mis-
sent forth by the Holy Ghost, de-           that the Lord will make clear that         sionary, or by his own longer labor in
partedunto Seleucia; and from thence        there is a certain area in which we are    a field that he has established, or by a
they sailed to Cyprus. And when             to labor. But these are exceptions.        minister of the Word if a congrega-
they were at Salamis, they preached         The rule is to preach the Word from        tion can be established.
the word of God in the synagogues of . city to city, establishing congrega-                   Let us now turn our attention to

                                                                                                    May 1,1994lStandard  Bearwi351
                                                                    . .


  our own forms and decisions. We                 munity. ThistimeoutWesthewould              who executes the program which we
 willalsofindinthemthatthisconcept                try to open more than one field at a        are presenting.... This may require
 of missionary-at-large stands in com-            time (Art. 33).                             that a missiona y to begin with, andalso
 plete harmony with all that this au-                                                         at later times, will have to spend fimeaf
 thorhasbeenabletofindinrelationto                   Synod of 1942                            the home base, laying plans and prepar-
 this topic, with the possible exception             This Synod decided that the call-        ing material before he ever goes out to
 of the Synod of 1988, and this may be            ing church could be in the East, even       laborin   aspecificfield."  Herewemust
 due to several misjudgments of this              though the present work was in the          not understand this synod or this
                                                                                              document as saying that "specific
 Synod and the Mission Committee.                 West. A ground was given as fol-
                                                  lows: "We do so because it is our           field" means a field already estab-
      In the first place, in this connec-         opinion: That the field of labor of the     lished. It must mean that he goes to
 tion, there is absolutely nothing in the         missionary varies from time to time,        a certain area to labor. We maintain
 form for ordination that stands op-           - neither is it said that the Middle West      this because the document itself
 posed to this presentation of mission-           will offer the greatest opportunities       speaks several times of searchingfor
 ary-at-large.                                    from year to year, and with all this in     a field, or probing and investigating
      Next, it is also true that Article 51       view there is hardly reason to decide       fields, and of creating his
 of the Church Order, as well as the              the  question of the calling church on      (missionary's) own field of labor,
 comments under Article 38 of the                 the basis of a possible future field of     etc.In the section on the personal la-
 Church Order, have nothing to say                labor."
                                                    At this Synod our first Mission           bors of the missionary, we read: "It
 that would oppose this presentation              Committee Constitution was                  is not merely the labor of a mission-
 of a missionary-at-large,                        adopted. Under Article 21 it was            ary to sit back and wait for assign-
      This brings us to the decisions of          decided  that "The mission commit-          ment to a specific field. The day of
 our Synods on the matter of missions,            tee be empowered to engage in mis-         fields spontaneously presenting  fhem-
 I will quote pertinent parts of these            sionary activity according to its dis-      selves is largely over.  Besides, even in
 decisions, emphasizing in italics the            cretion."                                   the past, fields did not arise sponta-
 areas that are especially applicable,                                                        neously,  but through propaganda la-
 and make a few brief comments from                 Synod 1965                                bors.  " "Themissiona ymusf, inasense,
 time to time, after which we will try to           This synod adopted what has since        create his own field of labor." "Not
                                                                                              only should much propaganda ef-
 make some concluding remarks.                   then been called the "New Mission           fort be put forthwith a view to uncov-
 Thus, here follows the decisions that           Policy," or simply the "New Policy."
                                                    The whole of this document al-           eringpotentialfields of labor;  but once
 I have found to pertain to the matter           most requires a missionary-at-large,        a potential field arises, investigative
 at hand.                                        or possibly, using the same terminol-       andpreparatoryworkshouldbecare-
                                                 ogy of the past, a "home mission-           fully planned and patiently ex-
Decisions of Synod                               ary," whose field of labor is confined      ecuted." "This work of investigation
and Terminology                                  to the North American continent,            should not be hastily and generally car-
                                                 but who labors on the field from            ried out in a week or two without prepa-
     Synod of 1940:                              place to place. The "Policy" states         ration and planning. . ..The investiga-
     We note only that the missionary            as one of the means for our mission         tion should not only inquire as to the
   that was serving our churches at the          work, "Personal Labors of a Mis-            possibility of work, but  an attempt to
   time was called a "home mission-              sionary,whichincludehisactnalfield          do some work should be made,  in the
   ary." This meant that he was called           work (preaching, lecturing, personal        line of: advertising, radio, literature
   to labor in the continental United            contacts, etc.),  but also  the work of     distribution, personal calls if there
   States.. At the.time of this Synod his        seeking out and preparing afield. n         are leads, and lecturing and preach-
  labors were being brought to a close              One of the reasons given to de-          ing if at all possible." "In no case
  in Manhattan, MT and he was to                 velop a policy for work, including          must labors be confined to a  small
  investigate the area of Lynden,  WA-           pamphlets, radio, etc. is given as fol-     group of people once a nucleus is es-
  where there had been some interest             lows: "Moreover, while sending our          tablished.... The period of initial.la-
  expressed. In Article 47, as well as in        missionary to various areas in the          bor should  be definite and longenough
  theMissionCommittee'sreport,etc.,              past, we have not done so according         to come to a well-founded judgment
  we see the term home missionary.               to any plan; nor has there been much        as to the value of the field; at the end
                                                 preparationand unifiedplanningeifher        of that time a judgment should be
     Synod of 1941                               in searchingfor afield or in probing and    promptly made as to further labor."
     It was decided that the  missionary         invesfigafing potential fields.  "            As to general field of labor this
  (Rev. Kok) be located in Sioux                   To implement this "policy" the            synod re-emphasized the need to la-
  County, IA. It was noted that there           `Synod of 1965 said that "a future           bor in the line of the Reformed faith,
  would be a change in his method of            missionary should not only be                but also in other lines: "-Moreover,
  working. Up till then our missionary          charged with actual field work, but          our labors have in the past been di-
  had usually concentrated his labors           should be the agent who largely car-         rected chiefly toward the immediate
  in one particular community and had           ries out the entire Mission program,         Reformed community, that is, to-
  taken up his residence in that com-           who gives it material content and            ward those of a historically Reformed
                                                                                             positionandbackground-particu-

352lStandard  Bearer/May 1,1994


larlv, of course, the Christian Re-         only by the missionaIy's working in         read, "We extend to you this call to
fo&ed  Consti&ency." And synod              the North American continent, go-           serve the cause of denominational
stated, "This should still be one of the    ing from place to place preaching the       home missions in North America
main goals of our mission efforts.          gospel, staying long enough in one          without a specific field, as mission-
But this should  not be misunderstood,      place to establish a field there or to      ary-at-large. Your calling is to labor
as though this is our exclusive goal."      justify shaking off the dust of his feet    through the preaching and teaching
  In conclusion, the synod stated:          against the city.                           to gain and nurture mission contacts
"That unless we have such a definite                                                    with a iiew to the development of
program and plan of action, it is very        Synodof                                   mission fields." We contend that the
difficult for a missionary even to            This Synod adopted the new.conA           words "without a specific field"
consider a call,  especialZy  since at      stitution for the Mission Committee         should be replaced by the words,
present we  have  no definite  field for    and changed the wording of the de-          "laboring on the field."
himtoenter." Theimplicationis that          cisions of Article 38 of the Church           The synod disapproved the con-
we may indeed call a "home mis-             Order (cf. Art. 73, 74 Acts 1977).          cept of missionary-at-large. Acts, p.
sionary" in harmony with the                These decisions do not affect the con-      38
"policy," without having a definite         tention that we need a missionary-                Synod set forth as grounds the
place to send him, and this rightly so.     at-large.                                   following:
It is also obvious here that there was                                                  1. This position would involve pri-
in the mind of this synod a difference        Synod  of1988                                   marily administrative work,
between definite and specific. Spe-           The Synod of 1988 was faced with                whereas the heart of the labor of a
cific means that the missionary must        a recommendation of the Mission                   missionary is the preaching of the
go out and labor from place to place        Committee to establish a mission-                 gospel for the purpose of gather-
on  the field. He may not just sit in       ary-at-large. The Mission Commit-                 ing the Church from the dispersed
Grand Rapids and visit certain areas        tee made this recommendation as a                 and heathen.
from time to time. But the calling          means toimplement the"NewPolicy             2. Thelabor  proposed by the Mission
church and the Mission Committee            of 1965," saying that as of that date             Committee, namely contact with
send him to a specific area, in order       the policy had not been really imple-       , interested persons, can be and has
that there he may attempt to estab-         mented. The Mission Committee                     been given to local congregations.
lish a field, to "make his own field."      recommended that "the missionary-                 This allows the local congregation
By definite field I understand synod        at-large shall labor with a view to the           to be involved in its proper work
to mean an established field, where         development of mission fields." And,              of missions.
we would call a missionary, not the         "in the times of special need, the          3. In the decision of Synod 1972 (p.
missionary-at-large to labor.               missionary-at-largemaytemporarily                 30, Art. 108) it stated that a mis-
                                            be located on a specific field of la-             sionary "should make the goal of
  Synod of 1972                             bor." But the missionary should re-               his labors the preparation and lo-
  Synod spoke concerning the sug-           turn to fl the Grand Rapids area and              cation of a field, and that he, as the
gestions of Rev. Woudenberg when            his general labors as soon as pos-                very Form for the Ordination of
he was considering the call to be           sible." Now the Mission Committee                 Missionary requires, preach and
home missionary and had observa-            was mistaken here, I believe, in  set-            teach on any field in the US or
tions and suggestions concerning the        ting forth the concept missionary-at-             Canada which the Spirit gives
implementation of the "Policy": "but        large, and in holding to the position             through his labors."
Synodis of the opinion that he should       that the missionary be based in an                a. This decision was taken in full
make the goal of his labors the prepa-      area where there is no mission work                 knowledge of the "new policy"
ration and location of a field, and that    to be done. Indeed it is the calling of             of 1965 and was a modification
he, as the very Form for the Ordina-        the missionary to be on the field                   of it.
tion of Missionary requires, preach         laboring, going from place to place,              b. Synod insisted  that a missionary
and teach on any field in the US or         preaching the Word, promoting and                   labor on a specific field (making
Canada which the Spirit gives               establishing fields for further labor,              that the goaiof his investigatory
through his labors. And further, that       or shaking the dust from his feet                   labors) as the Mission Commit-
the synod refers the matter of the          against a city. His principal callingis             tee itself points out.
place of his initial labors to the Mis-     to preach the Word, as did the apostle            This Synod made several misjudg-
sion Committee and the calling              Paul, and in this way implement the         ments in my opinion in the advice
church." This Synod was correct, I          "Policy" to promote the gospel that         that they adopted. Let us try to point
believe, in this decision and certainly     he brings, etc.                             them out. Point one of the grounds
in harmony with this paper's con-             The Mission Committee recom-              had to be made, of course, because of
ception of missionary-at-large. But         mended changes in the call letter to        the position t&en by the Mission
this synod very obviously did not           accommodate this position, which            Committee in their insistence that
say that the missionary had to go to        involved the change of the name of          the missionary-at-large be located
a field already established, but that       the calling church, from that of the        and spend the most of his time in
he make the goal of his labors the          callletteradoptedin1974Acts,pages           Grand Rapids. Because of this, point
preparatioxi and location of a field.       80-82, the 4th paragraph: "Since it         one of the grounds was correct.  Synod
The mind of this synod was that an          appears, . . . you should move" to          of  1988  should have stopped at this
established field could come about                                                      point.

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     Ground two leads to the conclu-             ing the Word, and thus not sitting in          that the missionary who is called
  sion that allnew contact with inter-           a central location where there is no           must go to a place -where  there is a
  ested persons has been given to local          missionary work This  is the point             field,established.  Thisstandsconfrary
  congregations, so that theymayprop-            also of this paper, that the missionary-       to the Scripture's feaching  of mission
  erly be involved with the work of              at-large's calling is to preach from city      work, and to all the former decisions of
  missions. This simply may not stand.           to city, establishing fields for further       our Synods.
  Ifit were true, then whole sections of         labor or congregations, before going  on         That this is a decision of a Synod
  our country will never be possible             to the next place of labor. But their          may mean that it will have to be
 places for us to labor with the Word.           ground 3, a, that the decision of 1972         corrected before we call a mission-
  The local congregation is deeply in-           was a modification of the  lnew                ary-at-large. But call a missionary-
  volvedwith the workof the mission-             policy," is simply mistaken. There             at-large we need to do now. It is
 1 ary-at-large, as there is a calling           was no change incorporated into the            important to the calling that we have
  church that sends forth this mission-          "new policy" as a result  of, this             before the Lord of the church to do
  ary, and labors with the Mission               synod's decision. The policy still             mission work We need to send out
  Committee in all of the work If we             sfands unchanged. The "new policy,"            a man or men to labor, preaching the
  want to harm our congregations, then           by the terminology "specific field,"           Word from place to place, until the
  we will make them responsible for              as stated above, could not and did             Lord comes on the clouds of heaven
  going out to establish all of the fields       not mean established field, but that           to gather all His own to glory.
  in which we labor. For I believe it            the missionary would labor on the                This missionary-at-large will be a
  willlead  to the mirtisterbeingabsent          field, going from a specific place to          busy man. He will be preaching the
  from his own congregation, the el-             another specific place, to attempt to          Word. He will meet sometimes with
  .ders will be gone to supervise vari-          establish a field, or to shake the dust        great enthusiasm for the Word, and
  ous works, and the congregation                off the feet against that place to go to       he will have to shake off the dust of
  will fall to the side. Or all mission          another area of labor. And finally,            his feet against many. But through
  work will cease because a congrega-            ground 3, b continues with this same           this servant our churches will be
  tion will not be willing to send their         reasoning when it says that Synod              rightly busy with the missionary
  pastor all over the country.                   insisted that a missionary labor on a          work unto which we have been
     Ground three is, I believe, a mis-          specific field (making that the goalof         called. Through these labors, God
  judgment of interpretation of previ-           his investigatory labors). Now un-             willing, there will be fields estab-
  ous synod's actions. They rightly              derstand, if this point stood alone,           lished for others to labor in, and
  quote the synod of 1972's statement            that is, apart from 3, a, it would be          God's people will be blessed. And,
:, concerning the necessity of the mis-          absolutely correct. But the implica-           as the church is gathered, Jesus will
  sionary laboring on the field preach-          tion, because of 3, a, is that this means      come. 0


        Active Congregational
                                              Involvement
                                                                                               Rev. Ronald VanOverloop


     Every true church has a concern           Commission is not the responsibility           ways for the cause of denominational
forevangelismandmissions-agenu-                only of the consistory or of an evange-        missions or local evangelism. An-
ine, Scripturally-directed concern to          lism committee or society. It is the           other example of direct involvement
proclaim the gospel to others.                 church, as a whole, which must give            is the participation of individuals in a
     Every member of the church is             answer to God for its response to her          local evangelism committee or soci-
responsible for evangelism and mis-            Lord's Commission.                             ety. Still another example of direct
sion work. The Great Commission                    There are two ways in which the            involvement is participation in spe-
comes, not to missionaries, mission            membersofachurchbecomeinvolved                 cificeventssponsoredbyalocalevan-
committees, or evangelism commit-              in missions and evangelism work:               gelism committee or society. Indirect
tees, but to the church. The Great             direcfly  and indirectly. It could be said     involvement occurs as the members
                                               that direct involvement occurs at spe-         of the church pray that the Spirit will
                                               cific times, and indirect involvement          bless and apply the Word preached
Rev. VanOverloop  is pastor of Bethel          is always taking place. For example,           and practiced. But, especially, indi-
Protestant Reformed Church in-Elk Grove        direct involvement occurs whenmon-             rect involvement takes place every
Village, Illinois.                             eys are given in offerings or in other         day as the members of a local congre-

354lStandard  Bearer May 1,1994


gation and of a denomination estab-           definitely not limited to the publica-     text the two mighty works of God,
%sh and maintain by their conduct a           tion and distribution of a pamphlet        both of which are absolutely neces-
reputation in the local community             which describes their doctrinal posi-      sary for the effective witness of a
and in the ecclesiastical community           tions. Nor is the witness only what        congregation and denomination, and
in which they live.                           takes place at a worship service.          concerning which the individual
    Both direct and indirect involve-         Rather, the witness of a church con-       members do not take passive roles.
ment'are very important. It is my             sists especially in the conduct of its     The first work of God is the outpour-
judgment that the importance of indi-         members, both as they live with each       ingoftheHo1ySpirituponthechurcl-t.
red involvement of individuals in the         other and as they live and work in         The second is the preaching of the
work of evangelism and missions is            their communities.                         Word. Peter preached, and the Spirit-
often overlooked and understated.                 Do you want to be involved in          accompanied Word pricked 3,000
The example of the congregation of            missions and evangelism work? The          souls, bringing repentance and faith.
Christians in Jerusalem in Acts 2 is          most available opportunity for the         Thisactivityof God,throughHis  Spirit
convincing. Usually the members of            individual believer to be involved in      and Word, does not make the local
the church are told to become in-             a denomination's and in a                  churchinactive and passive, for Christ
volved in evangelism or missions by           congregation's witness is by living a      gives to the local congregation the
doing special activities, such as going       sanctified life, conscious that what       responsibility of preaching the gos-
door to door, handing out tracts, or          we say and do reflects on our church.      pel. He also gives the individual
attending special classes. These are          A godly walk with our fellow-saints        members the responsibility of receiv-
good things to do, and. they all have         and with our neighbors -is as impor-       ing the preaching "with all readiness
their time and place; But Acts 2makes         tantfortheestablishmentofachurch's         of mind" (Acts 1211).  Additionally,
it clear that these activities are neither    reputation and witness as any wor-         God gives to the local church the
first nor most important. Rather, this        ship service, lecture, or pamphlet.        responsibility of prayingthat the Spirit
passage clearly shows the great im-           Sometimes people cannot hear what          willbind  the Word upon the hearts of
portance of every member actively             we say in a lecture or pamphlet be-        elect individuals. Because only the
strivingfortwocloselyrelatedthings.           cause of what they see to be important     Spirit can make the preaching effec-
First, in the congregation they are to        in our lives and how they see us           tive, allbelievers are constantlypray-
labor for a healthy spiritual condi-          conducting ourselves toward. each          ingthattheSpiritwillblessthepreach-
tion. In turn, the spiritual condition        other. Thus also the young people of       ing. What would happen if no one
of a congregation is very important in        the congregation are actively involved     prayed? What could be said about
giving a church its reputation in the         in evangelism.                             preaching where those in attendance
community. So, secondly, everymem-                  Let us learn from the Spirit-in-     were obviously bored? The active
ber must actively strive to his utmost        spired description of the congrega-        involvement of the local congrega-
to establish and maintain his church's        tion at Jerusalem. This local congre-      tion consists not in gimmicks, in the
good reputation in the community.             gation of believers grew as the Lord       pastor'sormissionary'spersonalcha-
    The most effective tool for mak-          added to it daily those that He was        risma, or in relating the "four spiri-
ing and maintaining a witness in the          saving (Acts 2:47). But. it  .is most      tual laws." Rather the active involve-
community is the "con-                                      interesting and impor-       ment of the congregation consists first
versation" of the indi- .                                   tant to note that the        and foremost in preaching and pray-
vidual church members.                                      Scriptures present a de-     ing, in the demand for and the eager
The reality of the matter            It is never            scription of what had to     reception of pure preaching, and in
is that the local church           a question of            be the chief characteris-    fervent praying for the Spirit's bless-
does not begin to give a                when                tic of this congregation     ing on the preaching..
witness in its commu-               or whether              to which the Lord was            Observe now the three character-
nity, but, like that of the     we will witness,            addingmembers. From          istics of the life of the local congrega-
individual believer, the                                    the perspective of our       tion at Jerusalem. These characteris-
witness of the local                    but of              topic, these characteris-    tics also make clear the involvement
church is always going               what kind              tics are a description of    of the congregation in evangelism. It
forth in that local com-             of  witness            how all the members          is at the conclusion of a statement of
munity. It is never a             will be given.            were actively involved       the life of the congregation that the
question of when or                                         in the proclamation of       Scriptures speak of the Lord adding
whetherwewillwitness,  -                                    the gospelin  thebroader     to the church (Acts 2:42-46).  There is
but of what kind of wit-                                    sense, and thus were in-     a close and important relationship
ness willbe given, and of what kind of        volved in evangelism.                      between the Lord's adding daily to
witness is presently being given. And              Before we consider the three char-    the congregation and the spiritual
the kind of witness a local congrega-         acteristics of the Jerusalem congrega-     condition of that congregation. The
tion or a denomination gives is most          tion, we must note in the larger con-      church which grows possesses a nor-
                                                                                                    May 1,1994/Standard  Bearer/355
                                                                                                     ,


     mal, healthy, spiritualcondition. And       their attitudes of love. Thinking bet-      congregation is spiritually healthy,
     every member plays an active role in        ter of others than of themselves, they      and God has His people in that area,
     this healthy  spiritual condition.          cared for their needy fellow-saints, to     then usually He will bless that church
          What belongs to a healthy spiri-       whom they gave gifts as concrete ex-        with growth. It may be possible for a
     tual condition in which each member         pressions of their love and concern.        congregation or denomination with-
     can and must take an active role?           This fellowship was not without dif-        out a high degree of spiritual health to
          First, the congregation at Jerusa-     ficulty. Difficulties arose within each     grow, but this will be the exception
     lem "stedfastly continued in the            member and in their relationships           rather than the rule. Generally, God
     apostles' doctrine" (Acts 2:42). This       with each other. Therefore, it was          willnot be "mocked: for whatsoever
     means that they knew that doctrine,         with steadfastness that they contin-        a man (read, church- RVO) soweth,
     loved it, and lived it. The activity of     ued in their fellowship with one an-        that shall he also reap" (Gal. 67). As
     continuingsteadfastlyintheapostles'         other. The consciousness of being           withtheindividualChristian,  sowith
     doctrine is listed first because it is      one Body was and is part of a healthy       the local congregation and denomi-
     fundamental to the spiritual life of a      spiritual condition.                        nation, those whose salt has lost its
,    congregation. It is the basis for real          Thirdly, indirect, but most ac-         savor are good for nothing.
     and proper activity. This continuing        tive, involvement in evangelism and              Because a normal healthy spiri-
     in the apostles' doctrine was and must      missions occurs when it can be said of      tual condition is vital to evangelism
     be "steadfast." There must be no            a local church that it has the "fear" of    and missions, the indirect (but ever so
      departing from it nor any allowing of      God (Acts 243). If godly fear is lack-      active) involvement of every church
     it to be corrupted by heresy or by a        ing, then continuance in the doctrine       member in evangelism and missions
      sinful walk. The truth must be faith-      of the apostles is dead orthodoxy and       (in doing his part in developing and
     fullymaintainedintheweeklypreach-           mere formalism. The fear of God is          maintainingthehealthyspiritualcon-
     ing and teaching, and in the confes-        love for Him, for His Word, for His         dition of his own congregation) is
     sion and life of the congregation,          people, and for the cause of His            critical. Every member must pray for
     which is seen in the confession and         church. Godly fear is evidenced in          God's blessing upon his congrega-
     life of theindividualmembers. Stead-        doingeverythingonecanforthewell-            tion. These fervent prayers must be
     fast continuance in doctrine means          being of the church of Christ.              accompanied with diligence in doing
     that the whole congregation gener-              These three characteristics of the      one's part for the church's spiritual
     ally has a lively interest in the Word.     congregation at Jerusalem describe a        health, namely, receiving the Word
     The members gather to hear the pure         normal, healthy, spiritual condition        with all readiness of mind and living
     preachingof God's Wordeagerlyand            of a true church of                                       a life which shows the
     expectantly,notreluctantly.  Through        Christ. This healthy                                      effect of God's grace and
     the week they discuss the Word, read        spiritual condition re-                                   Christ's `blood. The
     it, and meditate upon it. And stead-        ceives God's blessing          A congregation             church members, includ-
     fast continuance in the apostles' doc-      and, from a human per-         whose members              ing the young people, are
     trine means that these doctrines are        spective, is greatly con-                                 to be conscious of the fact
                                                                               are not steadfast
     lived. Those doctrines arenotmerely         ducive to evangelism                                      ,that their godly walk re-
                                                                                   in doctrine
     read in the creeds of the church, nor       and proper church                                         flects well upon their
     spoken only by the older members of         growth. A congregation         need not expect            church and is a means
     the congregation, nor used merely to        whose members are not          anyone outside             God has often used to
     present a good argumentative de-            steadfast in doctrine                to Pay               bring others to the truth.
     fense, but the teachings of the apostles    need not expect anyone                                    The young people must
                                                                                much attention
     are the sphere of the life of the mem-      outside to pay much at-                                   be told that their sinful
                                                                                     to their
     bers. The doctrine of the apostles,         tention to their confes-                                  walk can blind some
     loved and lived, is the first part of a     sion, for they do not do          confession,             (rightly or wrongly) to
     healthyspiritualconditionofachurch.         so themselves. If others       for  they do not           all the lectures their
          Secondly, the healthy spiritual        see that our profession               do so               church may sponsor and
     condition of the congregation at            is more formality then                                    all the pamphlets their
                                                                                   themselves.
     Jerusalem consisted of the "fellow-         sincerity, and that the                                   church may produce.
     ship" which the members had with            Word does not have                                        While this is indirect in-
     each other. "And they continued             primacy at all times in                                   volvementinevangelism
     stedfastly in . . . fellowship, and in      our life, why would they want to join       and missions, it is very active in-
     breaking of bread, and in prayers"          our church? If others see that we are       volvement nonetheless.
     (Acts 242). This fellowship was ex-         lacking to some degree in fellowship             In addition to the indirect involve-
     pressedprimarilybytheirbeingoften           with and love for one another, then,        ment, there is direct involvement.
     gathered for worship and for the            from a human perspective, why               Often those members who are striv-
     Lord's Supper. It was expressed in          would they want to join us? But if a        ing most for the healthy spiritual con-

     366lStandard  Bearer /May 1,1!394


dition of their congregation will also             There are other ways in which            should keep the members up-to-date
be those who become more directly              there is direct involvement. There is        onwhatishappeningonmissionfields
involved. This involvement includes            the informing of friends and relatives       and in evangelism contacts. An in-
friendliness and hospitality toward            about an upcoming lecture. There is          formed constituency will more likely
visitors. It has been said that there are      attendance and conversation at a lec-        be more involved.
heresies of manners as well as her-            ture. There is the distribution of lit-              In conclusion, active congrega-
esies of doctrine. One heresy of man-          erature or tapes. There is service on        tional involvement in evangelism and
ners is the lack of greetings given by         an evangelism committee or society.          missions is of a direct and an indirect
church members to any attender they                It is essential for congregational       nature. Both are required for faithful
do not know. May it never be said of           involvement in missions and evange-          obedience to the call of our Lord to
your church that the preaching was             lism that the members be well in-            preach and teach the gospel to others.
excellent and biblical, but the people         formed. Bulletins and newsletters                                                       cl
generally were not friendly.



  A Critique of Modern Church-
                         Growth Evangelism.
                                                                                                      Rev. Charles Terpstra



INTRODUCTION                                   new methods of getting the gospel to               Majority; now it is on the .
         A relatively new and influential      people and people to the gospel; it has            megachurches.'
movement is sweeping through the               even coined its own modem phrases:
churches of this country and beyond            "third wave," "paradigm revolution,"                 The modern church-growth
-the modem church-growth move-                 "megachurch, " "target audience,"            movement's message and methods
ment. It purports to have a greater            "felt needs," etc.                           have found an attentive and recep-
passion for reaching the lost and get-             One recent critic of the move-           tive audience in much of Protestant
ting people to attend worship ser-             ment has called it U the most influen-       evangelicalismandinmanyReformed
vices, a more relevant perspective on          tial movement in the American                and Presbyterian churches. Even the
the growth of the church, and a better         churches in the 199Os," and has pro-         secular press has paid its respects to
way to evangelize than the church of           vided a succinct description of it in        the movement with  Time  and
the past. The movement has pressed             contrast to the 1980s movement of the        Newsweek  featuring stories on it. A
forwardwithitsownagendaofchurch                "Christian Right":                           movement with such notoriety and
growth and evangelism; it is serious                                                        influence deserves our attention -
about getting its message and meth-                Ten years ago the attention was on       andourcriticism,forwhenitis tested
ods out and about "awakening" the                the Christian right; today it is on        by our infallible guide, the Scriptures,
N slumbering" evangelical church-                church  growth. Then the ay was            it is found to be defective and de-
world. It conducts hundreds of con-              `Mobilize!`; now it's `Modernize!'         structive. It is a dangerous move-
                                                 Then the focus was politics and pub-
ferences and seminars each year to               lic life; now it is church and mission.    ment which must be rejected by those
train pastors and church leaders in its          Then the reliance was on populism          who would teach and practice true,
                                                 and political strength; now it is on       Reformed-biblical missions and evan-
                                                 entrepreneurialism and managerial          gelism.
                                                 strength. Then the orientation was
                                                 the past and the restoration of the
                                                 nineteenth-century consensus; now          1.     0s Guinness, Dining With the Devil,
Rev. Terpstra is pastor  of  the Protestant      it is the future and renewal. Then the     "The Megachurch Movement Flirts with
Reformed  Church of  South Holland, Illi-        attention was on special-interest          Modernity" (GrandRapids: Baker, 1993),
nois.                                            groups, epitomized by the Moral            22.

                                                                                                         May 1,1994lStandard  Bearer/357


-= I. ITS IDENTITY                             them into the church witi virtually               Though these two streams of the
      Though the modern church                 any modem means - modem mar-                  church growth movement are diverse
  growth movement is broad and di-             keting, modem psychology, modem               in their specific approach, they are
 verse, itbasically consists of two major      communications, modem entertain-              identifiedin their criticism of the "tra-
  streams, one characterizedby its char-       ment, etc. Douglas D. Webster lays            ditional church" and in their desire
 ismatic approach to evangelism and            out the basic concept of this view of         for change to bring about the growth
 church growth and the other charac-           church growth in his excellent book,          of the church. According to modern
  terized by its marketing approach.           SellingJesus:  What's  wrongwitk Mar-         church growth experts, traditional
      The first stream is related to what      keting the Church:                            churches are barren and irrelevant.
  has been called the "third wave" of                                                        Their worship services are boring,
  the Spirit, a special season of the              Today's ecclesiastical visionaries        theirpreachingisdull,theirbuildings
  Spirit's power and a special season of         come to the table with the latest           are drab, and their programs are out-
  church growth which is said to have            psychographics, opinion polls, and          dated. It is said that the church has
 begun through missionary activity in            market research. .They know what            not kept up with nor answered to
  third world countries and which has            the people want: high-tech conunu-
                                                 nications; high-touch pastoral care;        modern culture and the needs of
  now spread to the U.S. and abroad              laid-back, easy-flowing, eighteen-          modern'man; she is behind the times
  (the first and second "waves" being            minute messages; just the right com-        and needs to catch up. She is in a
  the Pentecostalmovements in the early          bination of anonymity and tender            "paradigm paralysis" and needs a
  part of this century and later on in the       loving care; great child-care pro-          major "paradigm shift." If she is to
  1960s). It emphasizes the use of spe-          grams; multiple  service options;           have any impact on people and so&
  cial gifts and powers to evangelize,           ample parking; an upbeat, positive,         ety, she will have to change. Whether
  such as miraculous healings, speak:            exciting atmosphere; no pressure;           that change is a fresh wave of the
  ing in tongues, words of knowledge,            plenty of meaningful intensity; and a       Spirit's power and gifts or an innova-
  and exorcisms. This type of mission            warm, winsome, engaging pastor
                                                 who can m&e you laugh and make              tive use of modern marketing and
  activity is sometimes called "power            you cry.3                                   technology, the church must change
  evangelism" or "signs and wonders"                                                         in order to grow.
  missions. Its main proponents are C.             This,aspect  of the church growth              Are the church growth experts
  Peter Wagner, a professor of missions        movement is represented by the best-          correct in their assessment of the tra-
  at the Fuller School of World Mission        selling writer George Barna, author           ditional church? Perhaps in many
  in Pasadena, California, and author          of such books as  Marketing  the` cases they are, and where they expose
  of the book The Third Wave of tkk            Church: What  They Never Taught               weaknesses we ought to listen. Are
  HoZy Spirit,  and John Wimber,               You About Church Growth; Tke Frog             they correct in proposing the above-
  founder of the Vineyard Fellowship           in the Kettle: Wkat  Christians Need          mentioned changes and methods? It
  churches, and author of suchbooks as         to Know About Life in the Year 2000;          is this especially which we need,,to
 Power Evangelis&  and Power Heal-             and, User Friendly Churches. The              examine and critique. But Douglas
  ing2  The popular televangelist and          marketing approach to church growth           Webster offers us an important pre-
  authorBennyHinnisalsoanexample               is also associated with the recent rise       liminarywarning:                   ,_
  of one whose use of "power evange-           of "megachurches," churches with
  lism" has led to the growth of a large       thousands of members, innovative                We do not want to excuse the tradii
  church in Orlando, Florida.                  worship services, multitudes of pro-            tional church from a true test of its
      The second stream of the church                                                          spiritual character, but neither do we
                                               grams, and sprawling campuses.
  growth movement takes on quite a                                                             want to transform the church into
                                               Willow Creek Community Church in
  different appearance and approach.                                                           something the world finds impres-
                                               Barrington, IL,  pastored by Bill               sive, like the Vatican or the Crystal
  It views the spread of the gospel and        Hybels; Wooddale  Church of Eden                Cathedral. Judging from the apos-
  the growth of the church as a matter         Prarie, MN, pastoredby Leith Ander-             tolic tradition, the church was never
 of using the best business marketing          son, and the Crystal Cathedral in               meanttocompetewithIBMorDisney
 principles and the latest technologii         southernCalifornia,pastoredbyRob-               World on the world's terms, but on
  cal tools of the modem world. It is          ert  Schuller  are three popular ex-            God's terms. The church that tries to
  concerned to reach the lost and get          amples of the use and "successes" of            impress the worldfallsinto the temp-
                                                                                               tation of trying to prove its identity
                                               this kind of evangelism.                        by changing stones into bread. It
                                                                                               bows before a secular standard and
 2 .   ForafuIlertreatmentofthisaspectof                                                       forfeits its true character.'
  the church growthmovement  consult the                                                                          to be continued Q
  chapter "In Search of Spiritual Power" in    3. Douglas D. Webster, SeZZing Jesus:
 Power Religion, "The Selling Out of the       What's Wrong With Marketing the
  Evangelical Church?" ed. Michael S.          Church  (Downers Grove,  E Intervarsity,
  Horton (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 61-88.        1992), 9.                                   I 4. `Ibid., 53.
  358lStandard  Bearer/May 1,1994


Evangelism Activities                        made to advertise these messages in       have need of it; and that in the follow-
        Rev. Mahtani, pastor of Trinity      the newspaper, as well as by way of       ing two years `$25,000.00  be given
PRC in Houston, TX, along with Mr.           personal invitations to friends and       each year from this same fund. This
H.ib Kuiper, a member of Hudsonville,        relatives.                                proposal passed.
MI PRC, currently spending his win-              Rev. S. Key, pastor of our                Rev. W. Bruinsma, pastor of the
ter in Houston, traveled in late March       Randolph, WI PRC, was given an            First PRC in Holland, MI, traveled to
to Versailles, Missouri, a city about        opportunity recently to preach the        Lynden, WA in mid-March to give,a
three hours' drive east of Kansas City,      Word in the First CRC of East             lecture to the congregation andfriends-
to meet with a family who has shown          Friesland, WI.                            of the Lynden, WA PRC on the sub-
interest in moving to Houston and                While  Rev. C. Terpstra, pastor of    ject, "The New Age Movement."
joining Trinity PRC. These emissar-          our South Holland, IL PRC was filling     While in Lynden, Rev. Bruinsma also
ies went with a good supply of mate-         a preaching assignment with the San       preached for Lynden the one Sunday
rial about our churches, including a         Luis Valley Mission in Monte Vista,       he was there.
Psalter, books about the faith and           CO, he was able to present a lecture          The Council of Grandville, MI
practice of the PRC, and 16 tapes of         for the enjoyment of the group as well    PRC recently received congregation
sermons by ten of our pastors.               as any friends or neighbors who might     approval to authorize their Long-
        We could also add here that          also attend. He spoke on March 24 on      Range Planning Committee to solicit ,_
Trinity's consistory has appointed a         the subject, "What Does God Require       funds in order to have workingdraw-
committee to plan and organize a             of the Church?"                           ings completed for Phase II of their
conference for 1995, D.V., with the              On March 19, Evangelism Com-          building program. Tentative plans
dual purpose of evangelism in the            mittees from many of our west Michi-      for this phase would include an all-
Houston area, and to encourage fel-          gan'area churches were able to meet       purpose room, two or more class-
low PR members in other churches to          together at our Southeast PRC in          rooms, and a pastor's study.
come and visit in Houston. More              Grand Rapids, MI. The idea of this            We also received word recently
information will be passed along to          meeting was to encourage a free ex-       that in March the congregation of
you as it becomes available in the           change of ideas from the different        Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Village, IL
weeks to come.                               committees. New ideas were pre-           celebrated their 5th anniversary as a.
        The Reformed Witness Commit-         sented and considered by the whole,       member of our  PR churches.
tee of Doon and Hull, IA PRCs,.along         as well as up-dates on each group's
with Edgerton, MN PRC sponsored a            current activities.
public lecture on March 25th in the                                                    Minister Activities
Bethel CRC in Edgerton, MN. Rev. M.                                                        Rev. G. VanBaren,  pastor of the
DeVries,  pastor of our Edgerton  con-       Congregational Activities                 Hudsonville, MI PRC, has accepted
gregation, spoke on "The Unbreak-                A choir made up of members            the call extended to him to serve in
able Bond of Marriage."                      from our Doon and Hull, IA l?RCs          that same capacity for the Loveland,
        Rev. A. denHartog,  pastor of the    presented their spring Easter Cantata     CO PRC.
Hope PRC in Redlands, CA, recently           on Sunday evening, March 27, in Hull          On April 7th the Council of
concluded a series of Lenten mes-            PRC.                                      Hudsonville PRC also formed a trio
sages. Beginning on Sunday, March                Immediately after the Good Fri-       from which their congregation was to
13 and ending on Resurrection Sun-           day service held in the Hudsonville,      call one to serve as pastor. That trio
day, he preached a series entitled, The      MI PRC, the men of the congregation       was, made up of the Revs. Bruinsma,
Amazing Cross.  A special effort was         met to consider a proposal from their     Gritters, and Haak. A congregational
                                             Council. The Council proposed that        meeting was scheduled for April 17.
                                             $50,000.00  be given to the newlyorga-
                                             nized Georgetown PRC in Bauer, MI                                                0
                                             (a- daughter congregation of
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant     Hudsonville) fromHudsonville's  spe-
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-       cial building fund, as soon as they
gan.

                                                                                                  May 1,1994/Standard Bearer/359


                                                                                                                                                                                                     I       SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Postage Paid at
                    P. 0, Box 603                                                                                                                                                                    I       Grandville, Michigan
                   Grandvile, MI 49466-0603


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                                    .TEACHER  N E E D E D                                                                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                     Covenant Christian High School                                                                                 The Junior and Senior Mr. and                           The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of
     is seeking.applicants  for a Choir Di-                                                                                       Mrs. Societies of Southeast Protes-                   Hope Protestant Reformed Church,
     rector. Applicants for this position are                                                                                     tant Reformed Church wish to extend                   Walker, Ml, expresses Christian sym-
     asked to call Agatha Lubbers at the                                                                                          Christian sympathy to Tim and Lois                    pathyto Michael and Brenda Engelsma
     school: 4535048, or home: 458-                                                                                               `Pipe, John and Ruthanne Flikkema,                    in the death of his father.
     2057, or write the school at                                                                                                 and Ed and Libby Ophoff in the death                       MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA.
                                            1401 Ferndale S.W.                                                                    of their father,                                          May they find comfort in the words
                            Grand Rapids, Ml 49504.                                                                                    MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA.                              of Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live
                                                                                                                                      May they be comforted by these                    is Christ, and to die is gain."
                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                                          words of Scripture: "For to me to live                            Rod Brunsting, President
                     On April 19, 1994,                                                                                           is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians                       Janice Kuiper, Secretary
                              MR. and MRS. DOWIE                                                                                  1:21).
                                            VANDER SCHAAF                                                                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     celebrated 45 years of marriage.                                                                                                 The Council of the Hope Protes-                       The class on Eschatology extends
     We,their children and grandchildren,                                                                                         tant Reformed Church, Walker, Ml,                     Christian sympathy to Prof. and Ruth
     are grateful to them and thankful to                                                                                         expresses its heartfelt sympathy to its               Engelsma in the death of their father,
     God for their love, their covenant nur-                                                                                      fellow officebearer, Elder Michael                         MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA.
     ture, and theirfaithfulnessto the truth.                                                                                     Engelsma in the passing of his father,                    "But thanks be to God, which
                     "The Lord shall bless thee out of                                                                                 MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA,                              giveth us the victory through our Lord
     Zion: and thou shalt see the good of                                                                                         who served his Lord faithfully many                   Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 15:57).
     Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea,                                                                                     years as an officebearer at Hope.
     thou shalt see thy children's children,                                                                                      May the comfort of the family truly be
     and peace upon Israel" (Psalm 128:5,                                                                                         in the words of Psalm 16:6, "The lines                   Divinely Directed to the              I.,".
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 `
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  j
     `3).                                                                                                                         are fallen unto me in pleasant places;                                  Truth                         :y
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ,`
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       :i
     0  PeterandDorothyVanDerSchaaf                                                                                               yea, I have a goodly heritage."                                 A message by                    1`.j
                              Jessica, Delia, Katie, Dowie,                                                                          Rev. James Slopsema, President                           Rev. Robert Hargrove,              `~  ;j
                              Audrey, Susan, Sara, Thomas                                                                                      Mr. David Moelker, Clerk                           pastor of the
     @ Gary and Karen VanDer  Schaaf                                                                                                                                                      Sovereign Grace Reformed                     ../
                              Joel, Alex, Glen                                                                                                                                                                                   :  ;
                                                                                                                                                                                                          C h u r c h ,
z                                                                                                   Hudsonvllle, Michigan                                                                                                         ;.  1
                                                                                                                                                                                                 Spokane, WA,                     :
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ):_i
                                                                                                                              "NIV or KJV?"                                              relating his, and his congre- .;:_' f
                                                                                                           A Comparison and an Evaluation                                                gation's journey to the Re-. ;,i
                                                    + What advantage does the NIV claim over the KJV?                                                                                    formed faith.                                 /., i
                                                    + Ought the NIV to displace the KJV as the version of choice?                                                                           Cassette tape available              .I
                                                    + Has the l$jV outlived its usefulness?                                                                                                               from:                         `3
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 `I,;
                                                                     For answers to these questions and more, come to:                                                                                                                   .`
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 .:,:
                                                                                                    Southwest Protestant Reformed Church                                                         Lynden PRC              . .     ;-,j
                                                                                                                  4875 Ivamest Avenue                                                     -. Extension Committee                 .,  :
                                                                                                                  Grandville, Michigan                                                         315 yorth Park St.                        ji
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ,_.i
                                                                                                               on Thursday, May 5,1994                           `.,                          Lynden,  WA 98264'                  `.2
                                                                                                                               at 8:OO p.m.                                                        Ca$  $3.00          `;".I.     :  d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ..j
                                                                     Speaker: Rev. Ron Cammenga,  Pastor, Southwest PRC                                                    a,
                                                                                                           Everyone welcome! Bring a friend!                                     -`.
                                                                                                                                                           1  1:-2 1
     3WStandard  barer/May  1,1994


