Reformed Fellowship lost a dear loyal colleague when the Lord took Bert Sevensma from us a few months ago. Not that he was short-changed so far as length of days is concerned. He had reached the biblical “three score and ten” with a little to spare.

Bert lived a full life of Christian service.

He was born on the East Side of Grand Rapids in the old Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church area to spiritually distinguished parents. His grandfather, Dominie

S.B. Sevensma, had come to this country from Holland in 1900 to serve that large congregation. His father, Brant Sevensma, was a founder of what is now the prestigious Eerdmans Publishing Company. I remember his father: short, piercing eyes, an elder in Christ’s church in the best sense of the word, one of our finest catechism teachers, Bert and I were classmates in Baxter St. Christian School and in Grand Rapids Christian High School. After graduating from Calvin College, Bert went on to the University of Michigan to study law. He was a practising attorney the rest of his life.

To list all of Bert’s accomplishments and contributions in church and civic offices would take considerable space. He was with us in the work of the Fellowship as a board member from the beginning in 1951. He served more than a few terms as deacon and elder in his church. He was delegated to synod, the broadest assembly of the CRC, where he worked effectively. He spent several years on the Board of Trustees of the Pine Rest Christian Hospital Association, many of them as its secretary. He did not restrict himself to “church and kingdom affairs” (the quotation marks suggest criticism of such usage!). He was a popular, influential Third Ward Commissioner in Grand Rapids for many terms.

To know Bert was a real privilege. He was modest, thoughtful, steadfast. He loved the faith he had been taught by his spiritual forbears, and he stood for it.

He will be missed. To his wife, his children and grandchildren, his wider family and friends we offer our sincerest sympathy.

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on! Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them” (Rev. 14:13).