Church Life: Regional Ministry - June 2008
New Colorado Church Offers 'Direct Link'
The Father’s House in Cedaredge, Colorado, has been worshiping in its current building for only a year but has been putting it to good use in reaching out to the community.
After its success in February hosting a ministry conference simulcast—“Girls of Grace,” aimed at teen girls—the congregation continued this novel type of outreach.
The Father’s House hosted another simulcast in April—a leadership conference called “Maximum Impact.” The direct satellite video link came from the actual conference site in Atlanta, Georgia. “It’s geared toward bringing balance between professional and personal life,” said pastor Russ Ooms.
Ooms saw hosting simulcasts as a different way to serve the community. “After the Girls of Grace conference, this looked like a great opportunity for us as a church to be a positive influence,” Ooms said. The church has been able to build on its community connections—almost two-thirds of the cost was covered through business partnerships.
The connection to community works both ways. In July 2007 two families that live near the church lost everything in a forest fire, and the Father’s House swung into action. “As a church we put together a community BBQ a week and a half after the fire and were able to raise $10,000 for the families,” Ooms recalled.
In 2003 the pastor and his family moved to Cedaredge from a Langley, British Columbia, church where he had been serving as an associate. They began attending a church near their new home, and occasionally Ooms would preach there. But he was getting the itch to return to full-time ministry.
“We had a number of people asking, ‘Russ, when are you going to start a church?’” he said. And so he did, with encouragement from Rocky Mountain Classis.
“We were already here, and with our financial situation (Ooms is legally blind and lives on Social Security disability) it was a unique opportunity,” he said of the church plant.
The fledgling church held its first worship service a year and a half ago, meeting in Ooms’s home. After five months the developing congregation of nearly three dozen outgrew the house and rented an office building that had been built ten years ago but was never used. Attendance at this year’s Easter worship was an all-time high of seventy-four.
Cedaredge, in western Colorado, is more than 100 miles from the closest RCA church. To date the Father’s House has received little in the way of classis funding, but Ooms said offerings by his congregation will likely top $40,000 this year.
“We’ve had new people [visiting] every single week since last September,” said Ooms, who is described as a passionate but laid back preacher. “We wanted to be a church that’s different from what Cedaredge has seen so far. We’re seeking to be the presence of Jesus in this community in a new and fresh way.”
—Adapted with permission from an article by Kristin Otts
in the April 9, 2008, Mountain Valley News.
Regional Reports
Albany: Albany Synod’s workshop, “The Ministry of the Church Supervisor: Facilitating a Healthy Pastoral Transition,” encouraged twenty-six ministers and elders from Albany and Schenectady classes to renew their vision for supervision of churches without installed pastors. The six-hour interactive workshop follows a congregation’s journey from the announcement of a pastor’s departure, through the search process, to the new pastor’s start-up. One pastor said, “I now feel ready to supervise a church in vacancy. Until today, I had no idea what to do.” The synod’s Congregational Service Commission aims to hold this workshop in every classis in the regional synod. (albany.rca.org)
Canada: Forestview Community Church in Grimsby, Ontario, celebrated the baptism of six infants on April 13. Pastor John DeGiovanni addressed the children individually, pointing out the meaning of each of their names. He then shared a biblical passage that indicated how each name was connected to a promise God made to them in Scripture. Forestview, organized in 2002, has experienced growth and a sense of the Holy Spirit’s moving within the church, according to synod executive John Kapteyn: “They envision themselves as living out their fullest potential in Christ.” (www.reformed-church.com)
Great Lakes: Great Lakes synod teamed with RCA Global Mission for an “Equipping God’s People for Ministry” conference on February 23. The Rev. Jhonny Alicea-Baez was the keynote speaker and a wide variety of workshops were offered for pastors, elders, deacons, and other key congregational leaders. More than 225 people came to worship, learn, and network with other leaders. Workshop titles included: “What’s an Elder to Be?”; “What’s a Deacon to Do?”; “Accountable Leadership”; “How to Do Church for Millennials”; “Busters, Boomers, and Beyond”; “Enriching Prayer Life in Your Church”; and “Reaching Outside the Four Walls.” (www.rcagl.org)
Heartland: Thirty-nine laypersons from five churches in central Minnesota joined together in March for a Purposeful Living Retreat. A DVD of Reggie McNeal, speaker at the RCA’s recent One Thing conference in San Antonio, Texas, was used to give perspective on kingdom impact. Each participant worked through his or her personal timeline to consider how God has been at work in the past and to reveal lessons and developing values. Following an exercise of articulating biblical purpose and future vision, the three components of vision, values, and purpose were woven together into personal calling statements. “We believe personal renewal precedes corporate renewal for community impact,” said Heartland coordinator John Sikkink. (www.heartlandsynod.org)
Mid-America: The Synod of Mid-America expanded its annual business meeting and partnered with the Illiana Classis to sponsor an equipping event called “M3: Moving from Maintenance to Mission.” The featured speaker, Dr. Paul Borden, challenged those present to think missionally as leaders of their congregations. He stressed importance of the “working out” of a church’s vision. Some of the questions Borden posed: “To whom does your church minister, to those who are in the church, or to those who are not there yet? If the answer is both, who gets served first?” One participant commented, “I have gained better insight into what makes change possible.” (www.midamericasynod.org).
Mid-Atlantics: The forty-ninth annual men’s communion breakfast hosted by Community Church in Harrington Park, New Jersey, featured an address by Steve Spagnuolo, defensive coordinator of the NFL Super Bowl champion New York Giants. “He shared about the role people around him played in helping him to share his relationship with God amidst the unsettling lifestyle of an NFL coach,” said pastor George Kaden. After the breakfast, the coach stayed to sign autographs, each with the notation of Hebrews 11:1. “Over the years, this has become more than a breakfast,” said Kaden of the event held during Lent. “It has become a significant outreach activity for our church.” (www.rsmat.org)
New York: More than 500 people from the seven classes of the New York region gathered April 13 for the synod’s eighth annual Christian Service Awards Dinner. The event, created to recognize distinguished laypersons in synod congregations, honored fifty individuals for their dedicated and loving service. Held at the Sheraton Crossroads Hotel in Mahwah, New Jersey, the evening included musical presentations by the Klokken Ringers from New Hackensack Reformed Church in Wappingers Falls; the Brighton Heights Men’s Chorus and praise band from Brighton Heights Reformed Church in Staten Island; and Pure Joy from Hopewell Reformed Church in Hopewell Junction. The keynote speaker was the Rev. Dr. Louis Lotz.
(www.nysynod.org)
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