Most of us probably know someone who is involved in a local Christian parachurch ministry. These ministries are in just about every North American community. People might volunteer at a pregnancy resource center, food pantry, rescue mission, or another ministry that provides some type of service. Many of us support independent, Reformed parachurch ministries like seminaries (Mid-America, Westminster) or Christian publishers (Reformed Fellowship), or attend conferences of a ministry (Ligonier), and many others. But if we use the word parachurch, people may give one a funny look, a feeling that the ministry is not legitimate.

Denominations will often have committees and agencies working within their structures. This is the case for both the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) that many of us had been a part of had agencies and committees that worked across the denomination and internationally. Some of the old names would have been the Young Calvinist Federation (YCF) or the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). Another example is The Banner, the CRC denominational magazine. The Outlook (Reformed Fellowship) is not a denominational magazine.

When the United Reformed Church (URC) was formed, local consistories were going to have a much larger role in the broader church. Some of this was due to the concern that agencies and committees in the past didn’t seem to have much accountability directly to the churches. When the URC started, there were no agencies and few committees; some committees even had direct consistorial involvement. Local churches would oversee missionaries. There were questions about how URC churches would interact with local parachurch ministries. Each church had to make its own decisions and would answer those questions independently of each other. But questions about how we were going to work together, instead of having agencies work on our behalf, still needed to be answered.

It is interesting that in the Lord’s providence two fledgling ministries were starting and grew up with the URC. One is Reformed Youth Services, which has consistory oversight and a board, in the United States; the other, Word & Deed Ministries, with board oversight, is in Canada. The URC did not have a youth agency or a world relief and development ministry. Each ministry has a different type of oversight, but these ministries filled a void as the URC was beginning as a federation.

Organizational meetings forming Reformed Youth Services started just before the URC began. These meetings were attended by a group of men from the Chicago and Grand Rapids areas who were from churches that were Independent Reformed, Christian Reformed, and Reformed Church in America (RCA). They had one thing in common: to promote the Reformed faith to our youth. The Kyrie convention that was overseen by Seventh Reformed Church of Grand Rapids had laid the foundation for the idea. A board was established; a director committed to the goal of promoting the Reformed faith was found in Ed DeGraaf. Around thirteen different churches climbed on board right away to start this new endeavor. Cornerstone URC of Hudsonville has been the overseeing consistory since the beginning. Over time, more churches became members of RYS. Most of the churches were United Reformed, the majority from the United States. RYS has kept a multi-denominational membership.

The synod of the URC in 1999 was overtured (#2) by Classis Michigan “to encourage our churches to join the ongoing ministry of Reformed Youth Services to the youth of our denomination.”1 While there was a fair amount of praise for RYS from the floor of synod, the overture was defeated. One of the comments made during the discussion was something to the effect of, “Are we going to endorse every organization that comes our way?” The message was, we don’t want to do that; it would take too much time and effort. Each church would decide what it was going to do. After the vote, a pastor came up to me and said that the way youth ministry is approached in their region is different from the RYS approach. I realized that day that RYS may be viewed by some as a parachurch ministry. Maybe it is because a board is involved and the point is missed that a consistory has final oversight. Synod could not endorse the work of a URC consistory that was doing something for the benefit of the federation churches and beyond. Second, is anyone going to ask for synodical endorsement because if a URC church cannot get one, who can? Third, it is going to be hard for the URC to be united and work together on a large scale.

Word & Deed Ministries was started in 1994 and was modeled after a ministry in the Netherlands. Its mission is to help meet the spiritual and physical needs of people in the developing world in accordance with biblical principles for the glory of God. It began with a few board members from the Free Reformed Church, but soon others were asked to join. Representation from United Reformed churches were some of the first to join, as did many URCs in Canada. A few years later, Word & Deed expanded into the United States and again had early representation from URC churches. Now the majority of board members in the United States are from URC churches, including Rev. Dieleman from Trinity URC, Visalia. URC churches partnering with Word & Deed in the United States had a slower start than in Canada, but that is slowly changing as more churches become aware of and understand the ministry.

Word & Deed is viewed by many as a parachurch ministry. The question is, “Is this bad?” Is it bad that churches from smaller Reformed and Presbyterian churches, denominations, federations, or independent churches band together to make a greater impact than they could do individually? We have people from multiple churches working together for the same goal. Last year I was talking with a URC pastor about ecumenical relations with sister denominations and churches and what we could be done together. He surprised me with one of his comments. He said, “We don’t have to start anything new; we already do it through Word & Deed.”

The question often asked of parachurch ministries is, who is doing the spiritual work? How is the local church involved? Each Word & Deed project is tied to local churches. Often these pastors are involved with the projects at some level. Word & Deed has been helping and has had a relationship with churches in many countries, and it is through these partnerships that the work is being done. In India, we work with the Evangelical Reformed Church (ERC) through its ministry, Mission of Peace-Making (MPM). Rev. Anup Hiwale is the project director; his oversight previously had been through a URC church from Classis Central. Some years back it shifted to Word & Deed because of our specialization and experience. In Costa Rica, the project director of Education Plus (our partner) is Juan Carlos Ramirez, an elder in the church that Rev. Bill Green pastors. Lord Willing, Josh Vogel and his family from Covenant Christian Church (URC), Wyoming, Ontario, will be working alongside the indigenous leaders at the Word & Deed partnered projects in Quininde, Ecuador. Word & Deed works directly with the Reformed & Presbyterian Church of Northeast India;, in Malawi, the Central African Presbyterian Church; and the Sudanese Reformed Church. (Some of these churches the URC is just starting to have ecumenical relations with, but Word & Deed has been working with them in different capacities and some for many years.) We are helping these local churches do their diaconal and missional ministry in their churches and community. Many of the churches above received emergency food relief assistance from Word & Deed during the COVID-19 crisis so they could provide food to their hungry church members but also to the hungry in their communities. One example is the ERC/MPM, which received support to feed more than four hundred families for three months.

Is Word & Deed parachurch? The answer depends on one’s perspective. The North American answer is yes, but to the people who are served through food relief programs, theological training, or children’s projects through these local indigenous churches the answer is no. Word & Deed has no ownership of any building, and our name is not placed above the door of our partners. The ministry is local. We want it that way. One of the advantages of this is that in places where there is persecution, sometimes the law allows local indigenous Christians to function while prohibiting outside Christian ministries. Maybe in some way Word & Deed is a hybrid of a parachurch ministry.

Why do parachurch ministries start? From what I have seen, having been involved with several, they begin organically. By that I mean a group of people sees a need that is not being filled and work together to fill the need. How did Mid-America or Westminster seminaries start? There was a need for the proper training of men for the gospel ministry. Right to Life was started with the legalization of abortion. Christian pregnancy resource centers open as an alternative to abortion clinics, and so on. The saving of children by Christians goes back to the early church. Christians should always be trying to minister to people, especially in times of desperate need. Faithful churches can help them in their crises, point them to Christ, and nurture their faith.

Why is there a stigma that comes with the word parachurch? One of the main reasons is parachurch ministries can go far from their original intended purpose by losing the Christian aspect of what they were doing. Chasing after government funding can cause this to happen. When the government becomes a part of the budget, organizations open themselves to being told how to operate or what to say or not say. Another reason is as time goes on, new people, who don’t have the same vision or convictions, join the ministry and might want to be more inclusive of different religions or lifestyles. Sometimes the name changes, dropping the word Christian, or the ministry changes to do something in the name of Christ without uttering the name of Christ. The original purpose of meeting a need but with a Christ-centered message is lost. But this problem is not a unique parachurch problem. It can happen to churches and Christian schools as well.

Another reason why parachurch ministry can be stigmatized is that these ministries are viewed as competition to churches. Sometimes they do this to themselves by straying into areas that are specifically meant for the church. Parachurch ministries should not be holding worship services. Another reason is funding. If an agency (as in the CRC) does work and is paid through some sort of quota or ministry shares by the church, it is viewed as part of the work of the church. If there is no internal denominational agency, that same work can be viewed as less important and not part of the ministry of the church. It is no longer what we are doing together. It’s not “ours,” and this can lead to different ministries being pitted against each other. This can happen with seminaries, mission works, and so on. Our loyalties should be first to our local congregation, but that doesn’t mean we cannot work together as URC churches or alongside other like-minded Reformed and Presbyterian churches. It is through working together for the furtherance of the kingdom of God, as stewards of his good gifts, that we can have a greater impact with a common, united witness.

What is the problem if we don’t do something together? Nobody is compelled to work together. But it can show an attitude of the age we live in, one of independence and disconnectedness. The amount of work that can be done is diminished by a lack of cooperation, but also the spirit in which we work together is hampered. By not having agencies in the URC (something I am not necessarily arguing for) we have no obligation to work together. The common agency was “ours”; it was something to unite around as bigger than a single congregation. We don’t have that now. Was this an unintended consequence of the RYS decision of synod 1999, that we became too independent, and now we are hampered from working together on a large scale? We have to start thinking together. We have a common faith and profession. We are called to be united.

The first half of Ephesians 4 refers to unity in the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11–13a (English Standard Version) says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” According to William Hendriksen, “The important lesson taught here is that . . . the entire church should be engaged in spiritual labor. . . . And during the week, too, every member should equip himself to be engaged in a definite ‘ministry,’ whether that be imparting comfort to the sick, teaching, neighborhood evangelization, tract distribution, or whatever be the task for which one is especially equipped. . . . It is exactly unity that is promoted when all become busily engaged . . . each member eagerly renders service for which the Lord has equipped him.”2 Each of us has our place, our gifts to be used for the kingdom. Different Reformed parachurch ministries have their place in kingdom work. Hendriksen finishes his commentary on these verses by using the example of the S.W.I.M (Summer Workshop in Missions) program of the CRC, in which high school students would spend a few weeks away from home, receive some training in missions, and then witness and work in different communities. “They bring the message, teach, and organize various social and religious activities. They are not afraid to live for a while in a slum district in a close and beneficial contact with the community.”3 It is a combination of Word and deed which changes the young person. Hendriksen says that the young person comes back and has more interest in Christ and his church. The program is a blessing to students and churches. Hendriksen then ends with this: “Thus, unity has been promoted, a unity of faith in Christ and of knowledge—not just intellectual but heart-knowledge—of the Lord and Savior, who, because of his majesty and greatness, is here called “the Son of God.’”4

It is easy to be critical, but then one must present a solution. The URC may no longer have agencies like we had in the CRC. Many of the Reformed ministries that some of our churches support have risen up to be viewed as “our” agencies. Each ministry has to be judged by its purpose, merits, and theology. May we unite around the many ministries that can bring us closer together locally, nationally, and internationally. Let us recognize that ministries have functioned for the benefit of Christ’s church at home and around the world. Reformed parachurch ministries also have been part of our history and work hand in hand with other liked-minded churches for a common witness of Jesus Christ.

1. Acts of Synod 1999, article 37, 18, https://www.urcna.org/sysfiles/site_uploads/pubs/SL_pub3417_1.pdf.

2. William Hendriksen, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), Ephesians, 198, 199.

3. Hendriksen, Ephesians, 199.

4. Hendriksen, Ephesians, 199.

David Vander Meer works for Word & Deed Ministries, a Reformed international relief and development ministry, in both public relations and projects. He is a member of Cornerstone URC in Hudsonville, MI.