Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 17:05:25 -0500 From: Darrell Todd Maurina Organization: Christian Renewal/United Reformed News Service Subject: NR 99020: URC Classis Western Canada Asked Whether MARS is in Danger of Losing Dutch Reformed Heritage by Admitting Too Many Presbyterians NR #1999-020: URC Classis Western Canada Asked Whether Mid-America Reformed Seminary is in Danger of Losing Dutch Reformed Heritage by Admitting Too Many Presbyterians Is Mid-America Reformed Seminary in danger of losing its Dutch Reformed heritage by admitting too many Presbyterians to its faculty, board, and student body? Classis Western Canada of the United Reformed Churches will be asked to answer that question at its March meeting. In an overture submitted to classis' March 25-26 meeting, the Edmonton Orthodox Reformed Church expressed a number of concerns, and "in the hope that these concerns are shared by the churches of classisÉ overtures this meeting of classis to draft a letter of encouragement and challenge to the board of Mid-America Reformed Seminary, expressing the concerns [of catechism preaching, liturgical forms, and church order] cited above." The overture noted that developments at the independent seminary could have significant effects on the United Reformed Churches: "Peace and unity in our churches requires that pastors and councils share a high level of agreement in the above mentioned areas," wrote the church. "The seminary plays an important role here." Edmonton ORC pastor Rev. William Pols, himself a Mid-America graduate, emphasized that he wanted his church's overture to be viewed as positive encouragement rather than negative criticism of Mid-America. "Our concern is not that the seminary be devoted exclusively to URC concerns but that it serves our churches," said Pols. "It's not really so much a concern of Presbyterian students coming to the seminary, it's that we don't want the seminary to lose its distinctives. Hopefully the Presbyterian students come because they're impressed with the Dutch Reformed tradition, otherwise they can go to Greenville or Westminster." NR #1999-020: For Immediate Release: URC Classis Western Canada Asked Whether Mid-America Reformed Seminary is in Danger of Losing Dutch Reformed Heritage by Admitting Too Many Presbyterians by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (February 22, 1999) URNS - Is Mid-America Reformed Seminary in danger of losing its Dutch Reformed heritage by admitting too many Presbyterians to its faculty, board, and student body? Classis Western Canada of the United Reformed Churches will be asked to answer that question at its March meeting. In an overture submitted to classis' March 25-26 meeting, the Edmonton Orthodox Reformed Church expressed a number of concerns, and "in the hope that these concerns are shared by the churches of classisÉ overtures this meeting of classis to draft a letter of encouragement and challenge to the board of Mid-America Reformed Seminary, expressing the concerns [of catechism preaching, liturgical forms, and church order] cited above." "Peace and unity in our churches requires that pastors and councils share a high level of agreement in the above mentioned areas," wrote the church. "The seminary plays an important role here." Edmonton ORC pastor Rev. William Pols, himself a Mid-America graduate, emphasized that he wanted his church's overture to be viewed as positive encouragement rather than negative criticism of Mid-America. "Our concern is not that the seminary be devoted exclusively to URC concerns but that it serves our churches," said Pols. "It's not really so much a concern of Presbyterian students coming to the seminary, it's that we don't want the seminary to lose its distinctives. Hopefully the Presbyterian students come because they're impressed with the Dutch Reformed tradition, otherwise they can go to Greenville or Westminster." Mid-America Reformed Seminary, founded as an independent seminary in northwest Iowa and originally intended to serve conservatives in the Christian Reformed Church, later moved to metro Chicago and now serves a broader constituency. While continuing to enroll Christian Reformed students, the seminary in more recent years has provided a large percentage of the ministers for the United Reformed Churches and Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches. Dr. Cornel Venema, dean of the faculty at Mid-America, said he didn't object to the overture. "If they have questions, it's good they communicate to us," said Venema. "I have no problem with the overture's request to send a letter to us, it may help us to clarify any misunderstandings or misimpressions they may have." "We have not changed one iota in our commitment to the Reformed creeds and distinctives, we have not changed at all," emphasized Venema. "It's desirable that we have Presbyterian representation, and it's consistent with the desire to be a seminary that serves a range of conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches, and that includes the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church in America. I don't think that desire and tension is in any sense at odds with our historic commitments and distinctives in the Dutch Reformed tradition." Edmonton Church's Concerns The overture from Edmonton ORC cited a number of specific concerns as well as trends. "Over the years, the Presbyterian tradition has gained an increased representation on the board, faculty, and student body," noted Edmonton ORC. "We are not critical of this, but neither do we want to see the original character of the seminary changed for the sake of a broader vision. We hope that Presbyterians want to attend and serve Mid-America Reformed Seminary because of its focus on training preachers and pastors and the richness of its Dutch Reformed tradition." "Our concern is not with the size of Mid-America, nor its prestige in the eyes of Christian academia today," wrote the church. "Our great desire is that it will continue to train men who will be faithful preachers and pastors in our churches." Edmonton ORC noted that "at present [the United Reformed Churches] have no official seminary as a federation" but that "the matter of training men for the ministry is a common concern, and worth our joint attention," and that "Mid-America Reformed Seminary is the school with which we have the closest ties." "All of our congregations have benefited from its work, and many of them are served by Mid-America graduates," continued the church. "It is of great importance to the Orthodox Reformed Church of Edmonton that this seminary maintain its original vision and character. We do not say this out of suspicion or fear, but out of a desire to do what we can to ensure its continuation as a school that will serve the well-being of our churches." According to the overture, "it is of special importance to us that our students who go to Mid-America continue to be vigorously taught the distinctives of our tradition." "We want a genuine love and respect for our heritage to be inculcated by professors who are fully committed to it," continued the overture. "These include such things as catechism preaching, high respect for and commitment to our liturgical forms, and a deep appreciation for the principles and contents of our church order. We hope that the seminary will also continue to provide our students with a thorough knowledge of their own denomination's history." As a proposed solution, Edmonton ORC observed that "the number of Mid-America graduates serving on the board is rather small" and proposed that "having a number of former graduates on the board is one of the best ways to keep the original vision of Mid-America Reformed Seminary strong." As grounds for the proposed "letter of encouragement and concern," Edmonton ORC said that "such a letter would serve as a reminder to the board of the great interest we have in the direction and character of the seminary," that "such a letter would be an effective way of expressing the concerns we share," and that "such direct input is a responsible thing to do, given our mutual obligation to promote the future well being of our churches through a supply of faithful gospel ministers." Pols said his overture was submitted to Classis Western Canada rather than sent directly to Mid-America Reformed Seminary out of a desire to hear the input of others in the classis. "I'm looking forward to the discussion of these overtures," said Pols. "My opinions are tentative, I'm looking for the counsel of brothers, and that's why I'm bringing this to classis, and I'm a bit uncomfortable putting my own opinion out." "I don't want this to be perceived as reaction to a problem at Mid-America; I think that it's definitely intended to communicate our interest in the character of the seminary," said Pols. "Our concern is not that the seminary be devoted exclusively to URC concerns but that it serves our churches. When I was there, the high respect for our liturgical forms was in the curriculum. If that does not continue to take place on some meaningful level, we are concerned that graduates of Mid-America will come out with indifference toward our traditions and our liturgical forms. That can be very divisive in our churches where elders look to the ministers for guidance." "We want to see a positive zeal for these things taught at our seminary," emphasized Pols. Mid-America: Broadening the Base Doesn't Mean Diluting Distinctives Venema said he preferred to address the issue of broadening Mid-America's base rather than criticize the overture. "I do want to speak and articulate on behalf of the seminary, I think it's a misstatement if there is a suggestion that we have an inordinate number of Presbyterians on our board or faculty or student body," said Venema, noting that the only Presbyterian on the seminary's eighteen-member board is Dr. Norman De Jong, for many years a Christian Reformed professor at Trinity Christian College. DeJong, who already had a doctoral degree, graduated from Mid-America's shortened program in ministerial studies and was subsequently ordained as pastor of a suburban Chicago Orthodox Presbyterian congregation largely composed of former CRC members. The seminary board currently consists of five United Reformed pastors and four URC laymen, two Christian Reformed ministers and four CRC laymen, one pastor each from the Reformed Church in the United States and Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and a layman from the independent Seventh Reformed Church of Grand Rapids. Of the eighteen, two are Mid-America graduates: De Jong and Rev. Fred Folkerts of the Providence Reformed Church (URC) of Winnipeg. In addition, Elder Bill De Boer of Wyoming (Ont.) CRC is the father of a MARS graduate and Rev. Robert Grossman of the RCUS is a former professor at Mid-America. Venema also said that the seminary faculty is not becoming more Presbyterian. "The balance of our faculty is not changing," said Venema, noting that the seminary has only two Presbyterian professors: Dr. Joseph Hall of the Presbyterian Church in America and Rev. Alan Strange of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. However, Hall will shortly be retiring and will be replaced by Strange. "Dr. Hall has been here for about five years, we had one Presbyterian and we will now have one again," said Venema. "I'm very happy that Rev. Alan Strange has been appointed to our faculty, and he is a good addition to our faculty." The one area where the number of Presbyterians is increasing, according to Venema, is the student body. "We have nineteen students, we do have a fairly high number of Presbyterians in the [first year] class," said Venema. The largest number of students - seven - is from the United Reformed Churches, but three students are Orthodox Presbyterian, two each are from the Presbyterian Church in America, the Christian Reformed Church, the Reformed Church in the United States, and the Alliance of Reformed Churches, and one is from the Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches. "How would we program or maintain a distribution of students where the preponderance of students would be Reformed or even United Reformed, given the distribution of potential students in the churches that look to us?" asked Venema. "We take every URC student that we can possibly get, but we would not want to turn away a PCA or OPC or CRC student who wants to come." "Given the size of the PCA, it is entirely possible that we could have ten PCA students, but we wouldn't by any means be a PCA seminary because they have so many more students in seminary because of their much larger size," said Venema. "I could easily imagine a situation where we would have that many students who would want to have our distinctives in education. When you have a denomination of 70-some churches, as the URC has, you just don't have more than ten or fifteen ministerial students at a time." Venema said the seminary had decided several years ago to have a broader vision, and that having Presbyterian faculty and students was part of the outworking of that vision. "We made a decision to have a wider vision when we moved to Chicago, and that was offered as a partial rationale for our move to Chicago," said Venema. "We've never hidden our conviction that the Reformed faith is shared by people of both a Reformed and Presbyterian background." "I think we live at a time of unique opportunity for men who are Reformed and confessional to work in a spirit of compromise," said Venema. "There is a spirit of denominationalism that has marked our church life in the past, certainly in the Christian Reformed Church, that should not be continued, and I would hope that in the United Reformed Churches that would not be the case." Venema objected to drawing a strong distinction between Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed. "I'm happy to say that I grew up in a home where the men of Westminster Seminary were held in the highest regard as brothers of the Reformed faith," said Venema. "I think the fears are unwarranted, and I would regret the playing of the distinctives of the Reformed tradition too quickly off the distinctives of the Presbyterian tradition. One can have a high regard for distinctives of our tradition without losing regard for the traditions of others in the Reformed tradition." "Our distinctives are confessional and spiritual in nature, not in any way ethnic or cultural," said Venema. "It is always a struggle to distinguish between matters of a confessional nature and things that may be, in God's providence, matters of an ethnic or cultural nature." "Some of these problems may not be so much Mid-America's problem as the problems of denominations that need to decide how they relate to Mid-America," said Venema. Cross-References to Related Articles: [No related articles on file] Contact List: Rev. Richard Blauw, President of the Board, Mid-America Reformed Seminary 16248 South Park Ave., South Holland, IL 60473 O: (708) 333-8211 * H: (708) 225-1431 * FAX: (708) 333-6722 Rev. William Pols, Pastor, Edmonton Orthodox Reformed Church 11610 - 95A St, Edmonton, AB T5G 1P8 H/O: (403) 487-7189 Dr. Cornelis Venema, Professor, Mid-America Reformed Seminary 229 Seminary Dr., Dyer, IN 46311 O: (219) 864-2400 * H: (219) 322-7568 * FAX: (219) 864-2410 * E-mail: cornel@jorsm.com ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive99: nr99-020.txt .