Saddened

by Rick Veenstra

edited by Bob Terwilliger, summer 2023

Bob Terwilliger, whom I first met as a freshman at Hope College in 1965, asked me to write an article for In Touch. As it happens, I just began reading a book on leadership by Henry Kissinger, which was published in 2022 when he was 98 years old. I suppose that I should be able to write a short piece of reflection at age 75. I will let you be the judge.

At the point of my retirement in 2017, I had served the RCA for 45 years. As a regional leader from 2004 to 2017, the final years were challenging, to say the least. I recall agreeing to represent the GLR (Great Lakes Region) on “A Way Forward Task Force” in 2013. The group included one person from each of the eight regional synods and a former General Synod president to be a resource, encourager, and, I suspect, a referee to keep the peace. We were to meet together for a few days in an attempt to discern a way forward for the RCA in the light of our differences regarding marriage and human sexuality. The task force consisted of persons who were open and affirming, along with those who maintained that a gay lifestyle was incompatible with Christianity.

The meeting was unlike any that I had experienced as an RCA pastor. We expressed great differences, yet grew to respect one another. We studied the Bible together. We prayed together. We shared our stories. We wept together and prayed some more. We considered a variety of ways forward. In doing so, we found that our approaches to Scripture and its interpretation were fundamentally divergent. We also discovered that our perceptions of the nature of the gospel itself were incompatible with one another. A glaring lack of alignment on mission, vision, and values seemed insurmountable to us. After much gut-wrenching dialogue, we came to the unanimous conclusion that the best way forward was to give each congregation/minister the opportunity to choose grace-filled recovenanting or grace-filled and accountable separation. We believed that following such recovenanting and separation, almost surely new networks and alliances would have been formed. At least, that was my view then and remains so today.

In 2013, our denomination was not willing to face the depth of the division among us. Our report to the General Synod was movingly presented by two members of the task force with diametrically opposing views. The delegates gave little support to our recommendation and it was roundly defeated. It appeared to me that the leadership of the RCA wanted nothing to do with such a radical suggestion.

In retrospect, a proactive approach to the reality of our division in 2013 would have been healthier than the reactive, piecemeal approach that has ensued in the years since then. I certainly could be mistaken, but I don’t think so.

I was sad in 2013 and I am sad now. After 45 years of service to the RCA, I feel that our denomination has failed to appropriately lead us through this crisis. However, I remain grateful for the denomination of my birth through which I learned to follow Jesus and serve him for the bulk of my adult life.

Rick received his BA from Hope College and his MDiv from New Brunswick Theological Seminary and Western

Theological Seminary (bi-level multi-site program). He served Emmanuel in Paramount, California; Ross Reformed in Gary,

Indiana; and Fifth in Muskegon, Michigan. Rick then served as a specialized interim minister in 14 different congregations in the Great Lakes Regional Synod, and on the revitalization staff and as regional executive for the Great Lakes Regional Synod. Rick and his wife, Kathy, live in Spring Lake, Michigan. rickveenstra47@gmail.com