Expansion versus continuity

I was rather sick this morning, so I didn't make it out of bed until close to noon. Thus, as I had missed church in the morning, I decided that I should head down south to the other PCA in the city for their evening service. I wound up arriving just before the listed time to spot an empty parking lot, and a bulletin board that no longer listed an evening service (even though the website still does). This lead me to thinking about the the need both for continuity in the church as well as expansion.

I don't believe that a greater number of services per day indicates a healthier church, but at the same time I find that if a church does hold two services members should be committed to attending both. I was at one of this church's evening services a few weeks back, and the attendance as compared to that of the morning was quite disappointing in my opinion. I think that the CanRC can be accused with some legitimacy of being an ethnic enclave with little emphasis on evangelism to the outside world, but at the same time I wonder if the PCA as a denomination overemphasizes external evangelism at the cost of discipling the members of the church. Just how deep are the roots that have been put down.?

Comments

I think that the CanRC can be accused with some legitimacy of being an ethnic enclave with little emphasis on evangelism to the outside world

I have to disagree with you on that. The CanRC has been working in Brazil for how many years now? Things are also progressing nicely here in the valley with the Chinese community, and not to forget Fort Babine or Papua New Guinea. Could we be doing more? Always. We certainly don't have the constant church planting like other denominations, but AFAIK we also have larger congregation sizes on average. Pick an area you'd like the CanRC to expand to. Chances are pretty good that we have a sister church there already. If federative unity with the URC goes through, we'll have quite the federation of churches.

Is the CanRC involved in evangelism? Yes. Similarly there is discipleship taking place within the PCA. But at the same time I tend to think that in the CanRC evangelism is underemphasized (as opposed to nonexistant).

Think of all the examples you illustrated - none of them are taking place within a local church but rather outside, and by and large there's little intermixing. Evangelism in the CanRC is something that seems to be the task of others rather than something conducted by the members of the congregation. Rev. Dong's efforts among the Chinese, and the outreach in Hamilton are about the closest evangelism is taking place to the local church. Even there these efforts remain distinct from the local church, and as far as I'm aware this is unlikely to change. I've heard talk on both the BC and Ontario ends that these people simply wouldn't "fit" in a CanRC. How is it that other denominations incorporate such people but the CanRC by and large doesn't.

Consider the membership of a CanRC - just how many people are not from a Dutch background? There are a few, but these seem to remain a tiny minority. Of the 300 - 400 people present at the soccer tournament in Edmonton, I only noticed 1 person who was visibly not of a European background, and in a typical CanRC church it seems that half the phone book still consists of names beginning with Van-. This could be compared to the PCAs here, both of which are under 10 years old from what I've heard, and each of which seems to draw people from a variety of backgrounds. Can you show me a single CanRC where at least 50% of the membership is not from a Dutch background?

Even there these efforts remain distinct from the local church, and as far as I'm aware this is unlikely to change. I've heard talk on both the BC and Ontario ends that these people simply wouldn't "fit" in a CanRC.

I can understand that Brazil became it's own federation because of geographic distance, but with regards to local evangelism I do disagree with the statement that people don't fit in a CanRC, so I guess that's something you and I agree on. I was under the impression that Rev. Dong was supposed to be evangelizing among the Chinese community, not starting a Chinese Reformed Church.

Can you show me a single CanRC where at least 50% of the membership is not from a Dutch background?

Nope. Although we're much older, we've only within the past few years started to focus on evangelism, so it doesn't surprise me that more than 50% is Dutch background. IMHO, what country people came from is not as important as the fact that they are Canadian Reformed. What I mean to say is, in a church of 300 members, whether 80% are Dutch or only 40% makes no difference; 300 members is 300 members.

I actually had the same impression Scott, about Rev. Dong. Then when the Chinese Reformed Church was created I realized that we'd be two separate churches.

I guess one of the reasons for doing that is the language barrier- they'd have a hard time with English sermons instead of Chinese sermons and obviously we don't know Chinese. But what about the long-term plans?

Thinking back to when our parents and grandparents came to Canada, they also had a hard time with English. There was an evening Dutch service for many years, but eventually everybody learned English and worshipped together.

I did a rather long response to your question on my blog:

http://lenscleanse.blogspot.com/2006/08/response-to-expansion-versus.html