A special welcome to readers of the RCA's ReNew group.
It seems as though you've got some questions about the Greenpoint Reformed
Church. Well, lucky for you, we may just have some answers.
First, yes, we actually ARE the fastest growing church in the Brooklyn
Classis. And to spare you the time of checking your Orange Books, here
are some numbers. The 2004 Orange Book lists us as having 11 households,
12 confessing members, 0 baptized members and average worship attendance of
17. This year, our consistorial reports that we have 19 households, 26
confessing members, 10 baptized members and average worship attendance of
35. These are the numbers as of Dec. 31, 2006. Our latest new member class
begins on Sunday. Another seven people plan on joining the
congregation. On Easter Sunday this year, the church was filled to
capacity with over 90 people in worship. The last time we had an Easter
crowd that came close to this was long before I was born (in the mid 1960s).
Now, that's the growth by the numbers, but the real growth in our congregation isn't just about the quantity of the people in the pews. It's about the quality of our worship and the authenticity of our faith. You won't see too many "adult baptisms" listed among our numbers. That's because we haven't had any. You see, we don't rebaptize people. All of our growth has come from people who were baptized as children, but would have been considered "de-churched" before coming to Greenpoint. Perhaps our consistory should have listed these new members as having come by "reaffirmation of faith" instead of as "transferred" since everyone reaffirmed their faith when they became members. We take our commitment to liturgy so seriously that our Elders actually ask our new members to affirm the promises and statements in the RCA liturgy for receiving new members. (As an aside, you won't find this liturgy on the RCA website. You have to go to Worship the Lord in order to find it). You see, we take our Reformed roots very seriously, so our Elders wouldn't dream of rebaptising an adult. And, most of the adults in our area were baptized many years ago, but haven't gone to church in years.
Who are these new members that have been joining the Greenpoint Reformed Church? Well, you might be surprised. First, most are younger families or married heterosexual couples. We have a several single folks. Like me and my partner Jennifer, many were raised in theologically orthodox or more conservative traditions. And many continue to hold to what you would call an orthodox understanding of the faith. Colleagues in ministry will often note that my personal theology is far more orthodox than most RCA ministers. Greenpoint is a place that is willing to exist within a primary tension of the Christian faith – that not everyone sees and experiences Christ in the same way. We come from different places with different understandings of the gospel, but we hold to the motto “in essentials unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things charity.
Several of our new members were raised in the Southern
Baptist Church, one came from the Church of Christ (not to be confused with the
United Church of Christ) another hails from the Missouri Synod Lutheran tradition
and several others are former Roman Catholics. By a strange, but lovely,
twist of fate, several of our new members are preacher's kids or grandkids (two
different people are Methodist pk's, one woman's father is DoC, another
member's father was a Pentecostal preacher in South Holland, IL, and yet
another member's father serves in the PCUSA).
Our congregation consists of people who, for the most part, are looking for a
church that addresses with the tough questions of the Christian faith.
And these tough questions aren't about homosexuality. They are questions
like why would a sovereign and all-powerful God allow a natural disaster to
occur that kills thousands of innocent people. Or what does Christ's resurrection
mean to our every day life. Or why would God help one person to get
sober, while so many others are ravaged by addiction.
These are the big questions of life - and they require full-scale, head-on,
powerful engagement with the Bible. The Bible is at the center of our
worship, and we take its teachings seriously. This is a congregation,
which seeks to live out Christ's teaching to love our neighbors as we love
ourselves. These people genuinely care for one another, but they also
care for the folks who aren't yet a part of what theologians call the visible
church. What most folks do not realize is that the invisible church is
far larger than the visible church. There are millions of people waiting
to find a church that welcomes them just as they are, with all their questions
and their doubts. For too long, Christ's Church has been run by a bunch of
pious, finger-waving, sin-naming, blowhards who are about as nasty and mean-spirited
as they come. Such members of the visible church have done a significant
job of keeping people away from church. Why
would someone choose to join a church that is led by people who profess to have
the love of Christ and then go about bashing others with their Bibles?
Look at many of the messages you guys post, and you will see that there is a
tone of anger, judgment and supercilious condescension in what you write.
You would rather point out someone else's faults than extend a hand in
Christian love. Most recently, you did this with regard to our congregation. Instead of
saying "wow, isn't it great that we have a church that's growing,"
Look how you replied: Tom Stark said point blank that we weren't the fastest
growing church in Brooklyn (which is not the case), Doug VanAarsen pointed out
that according to the Orange Book our growth wasn't "the extension of the
Kingdom" but rather "the movement of the saints." And,
Mike Hayes implied that we weren't "orthodox" and that I have
"forgotten or have never known the gospel of Jesus Christ."
The first instinct of many in the RCA is to attack rather than affirm.
And it's attitudes like that that cause many folks to turn their back on the
church. They don't turn their back on God, but the church is another
matter. Such folks often pursue their relationship with God on their own,
in the relative peace and safety of their own lives. This certainly isn’t optimal, but it’s better
than having one’s spiritual life attacked by such mean vitriol.
In closing, while you might view the growth at Greenpoint as the "movement
of the saints" instead of "extending the kingdom," I see it as
reminding the saints-in-exile that they, too, are a part of the kingdom. Conservatives,
Fundamentalists and the men of ReNew don’t have a monopoly on Jesus, God or the
Christian faith. And for this, I, and
many others give God thanks and praise.
