CALVIN SEM GETS NEW DEAN IN SPITE OF A NAUGHTY DAUGHTER – “CRC PICKS VAN DYK AS DEAN OF CALVIN SEMINARY.” This is the headline of a page 1 article in the Grand Rapids Press of June 14, 1986. If you know anything about newspaper coverage you would recognize immediately that the Press regards this item as of considerable significance. This time the Press is right.
The Rev. Wilbert VanDyk, long-time pastor of the prestigious Plymouth Heights Church in Grand Rapids, was nominated by the Trustees of Calvin College and Seminary for the position of academic dean and professor of preaching. The CRC synod is required to ratify such appointments. This the 1986 Synod did by a vote reported to be no less than 136-24.
That the Rev. Mr. VanDyk is competent, experienced, well-meaning goes, I guess, without saying (I have no direct, personal knowledge of him).
Why, then, is the news of his appointment so significant in the eyes of people?
The answer is that once again the Christian Reformed Church, through one of its major boards and its synod, has placed in a position of strategic influence a person whose express position on a very important matter of current dispute which is (a) contrary to existing denominational positions, and (b) contrary to the deep convictions of a sizeable segment of the membership of the CRC.
To make the story complete we’ll need to back up a bit.
VanDyk has a daughter, Leanne, a pre-ministerial student (so far as she is concerned), formerly a student at Calvin Seminary, and returning to get her degree.
Leanne was discovered to be doing something which, for the time being at least, female members of the CRC are not allowed to do, namely, conducting church services (before the Crenshaw CRC in southern California).
This was especially embarrassing for her father because he was at that time secretary of the Board of Trustees of Calvin Seminary, and he had to profess ignorance of this whole business. Leanne is hardly a child (she is reported to be thirty-one years of age), and I suppose one might easily imagine that she didn’t tell Dad that she was doing things “obviously against church rules.”
All of this was discussed by synod when it interviewed VanDyk. Naturally VanDyk was asked to reveal his opinions on the issues involved. What did he say?
(1) His daughter was wrong. ” I am unhappy with what my daughter did. She knows that. I sent her a long and vigorous letter. What she did was obviously against the rules,” VanDyk said (as reported by the Press).
(2) This does not mean that Van Dyk thinks Leanne’s conduct was more than a violation of the church rules. “I don’t believe it is a sin for women to preach, although it is against our regulations.” Van Dyk is reported to say that he personally leans in the direction of opening up church offices to women.
Dr. James DeJong, with or under whom Van Dyk will work in his new position at Calvin Seminary, is quoted to say that he is “delighted” with the appointment of VanDyk. “He is a superb administrator, a loyal churchman, and a fine teacher,” said DeJong.
A VOICE FROM THE PEW – Once in a while one hears a testimony from a so-called “ordinary member” in the church (I know how objectionable and obnoxious this kind of language is!) which makes more than an ordinary impression. It requires no explanation:
We are also concerned and alarmed in the trend of some of our churches. is following the trend, and I predict that not too long in the future we won’t know why we are a Christian Reformed Church.
There is an element of Pentecostalism, a bit of Arminianism with a sprinkling of ecumenism leading us down the path. No doctrinal emphasis from the pulpit, the younger element must be confused like people are at Christmas time, Santa or Christ. I believe that apostasy comes from the top down, from the pulpit, not out of the pew.
I heard a good minister (not CRC in this instance) say at the recent conference of “the Concerned” in South Holland, IL, “It’s high time all of us ministers got down on our knees to beg God for forgiveness of our sins.” This was not said bitterly or negatively, but sincerely.
I agree.