Long-time readers of The Outlook will be well aware of who Rev. Thomas C. Vanden Heuvel is. Rev. Vanden Heuvel and his wife, Laurie, served as editors for many years of this magazine. Rev. Vanden Heuvel passed away on July 7, 2021. A funeral service was conducted in the Seventh Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 13, 2021.
Rev. Vanden Heuvel grew up in a pastor’s home (that of Rev. Christian Vanden Heuvel). One might say that Rev. Tom came to the ministry naturally. Still, it is God who sovereignly calls his servants to the ministry; not all preachers’ sons enter the ordained ministry. Rev. Tom was ordained in 1961. He served the following churches: Bethel CRC (Waupun, WI); Brookfield CRC (Milwaukee, WI); Central Avenue CRC (Holland, MI); First CRC (Chino, CA); First CRC (Orange City, IA); First CRC (Byron Center, MI); and the Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) of Holland, Michigan, a church that began with Rev. Tom as the church planter.
Rev. Vanden Heuvel never retired in the traditional sense. Preaching the Word of the Lord he loved was his passion, and he preached with great conviction. He was not afraid of addressing current issues when such needed to be addressed. He was strongly pro-life; the sin of abortion was exposed in his preaching. Rev. Tom was strongly for solid Christian education; this was promoted in the sermons he delivered. Even when he officially retired, he still sought—and churches sought him out—to help churches. That list includes congregations such as First URC (Chino, CA); Zion URC (Ripon, CA); and Walker URC (Grand Rapids, MI). At the time of his passing, he had been serving the Seventh Reformed Church of Grand Rapids with duties including visitation, counseling, and preaching. Even in the assisted living location where he and his devoted wife, Laurie, were living in recent months, Rev. Tom was fully willing to lead a Bible study there. He loved God’s Word, and he loved preaching and teaching it.
Rev. Vanden Heuvel and Laurie were devoted parents as well. The ministry presents strong and pressing demands, but Rev. Tom and Laurie always found time to give to their children: Geoff, Jane, Joel, Jim, and Jon. This is no easy task: balancing the burdens of the ministry and giving adequate time and devotion to one’s family. They loved their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. So many of them are devoted to serving the Lord in the instituted church but in other endeavors of God’s kingdom. Soli Deo Gloria!
I came to know the Vanden Heuvel family when I moved to Orange City, Iowa, in June 1983, as I was beginning teaching duties at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. Rev. Tom had joined with others in the beginning stages of Mid-America and later the start of Westminster Seminary in California. He wanted men to be adequately trained for solid preaching and pastoral work in God’s churches. I shall always cherish the many times of fellowship and hospitality, of conversation and discussion that I experienced in the Vanden Heuvel home. I was a part of the Vanden Heuvel family, one might say, and I am thankful for the many expressions of Christian love that the family has shown me over close to four decades.
So, we mourn our loss of Rev. Tom. We express our deepest and heartfelt sympathy to his devoted wife and loving companion, Laurie, and to the entire family of Rev. Vanden Heuvel. He would want us to find it to be true for all of us what we confess in Lord’s Day 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism: our only comfort in life and in death, for body and soul, is that we belong to a faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
Mark Vander Hart After graduating from Calvin Seminary in 1980, Rev. Vander Hart served the Christian Reformed Church of La Glace – Grande Prairie, Alberta, from 1980 to 1983. He has taught in the area of Old Testament studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary since 1983 until the present. He also is the Associate Pastor of the Oak Glen United Reformed Church (Lansing, Illinois).