All Articles For Bruinsma, Wilbur G

Previous article in this series: April 1, 2019, p. 306. The Synod of 1946 was pivotal. Its decisions could change entirely the direction of mission work in the Protestant Reformed Churches. First, should our churches engage in foreign mission work and, if so, should that work be done in China as the eastern branch of the Mission Committee was recommending? Second, should the structure of the Mission Committee be altered? Should synod appoint a mission committee made up of men from Classis West to pursue church extension work in the West while retaining the present Mission Committee with the men...

Previous article in this series: November 15, 2018, p. 91. We concluded our last article stating that a rift had developed between the eastern and western branches of the Mission Committee. The synod of the PRC had decided that in order to keep the western churches of our denomination actively involved in the life and work of the churches the Mission Committee be divided into two branches, the majority branch from the East and a secondary one from the West. Tension between these two divisions existed from the start but came to a head when the eastern branch decided to...

During the first half of the decade of the 1940s, the Protestant Reformed Churches began the work of organizing its synodical committees under constitutions. In 1940 the Emeritus Committee presented its Constitution to the synod for approval. The Synod of 1941 adopted the Constitution of the Theological School Committee. The Synodical Committee’s Constitution was approved at the 1942 Synod. It was time for the Mission Committee to draw up and adopt its own constitution as well. This task was also brought to its completion by the Synod of 1942. For the interested reader, this original Constitution of the Mission Committee...

Previous article in this series: September 15, 2017, p. 488. The consistory of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church in Illinois was frustrated. This church was working in the Roseland, Chicago area with little results. This frustration was voiced at the June 1935 meeting of Classis: our outreach lacks personal labor. Much more must be done than merely hosting lectures. For this reason, this consistory recommended to Classis calling a missionary to labor in the Roseland area. Other congregations had expressed the same complaint in their outreach. For example, in 1933 the small Los Angeles congregation expressed to Classis that there...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2016, p. 136. The June 1932 meeting of Classis was filled with matters of missions. Not only had the special study committee defined the task of the Home Classical Committee as presented in our last article, but a couple of other matters were brought to the Classis’ attention as well. First of all, the Mission Committee announced the organization of Creston Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, MI, consisting of 19 families. Further, Rev. H. Hoeksema reported of his visit to Redlands, CA, where he helped organize a church with 44 families. It...

Previous article in this series: September 1, 2016, p. 473. As promised in our last article, we now print in full the study committee’s report on defining the task of the Classical Home Mission Committee, presented to and adopted by the June 1, 1932 meeting of Classis (slightly edited). “Beloved Brethren in the Lord, Your committee had the mandate to present a definite delineation of the actual task of the Classical Home Mission Committee and to advise classis in regard to this matter. More than once complaints were raised about the labors of the existing committee. Yet the reason this...

Previous article in this series: December 1, 2015, p. 114. The decade of the 1930s ushered in the era known as the Great Depression. The Depression actually started already in 1929, when in October of that year the stock market crashed, causing millions of investors to lose all their money. Business and construction began to slow down, resulting in a large-scale firing of laborers. By 1932 twelve million, about 25% of the work force, were without work. The farmers had already been battling severe drought and falling food prices through the 1920s. This continued through the 1930s. Neither were God’s...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2015, p. 130. This is the second article presented by the Domestic Mission Committee (DMC) encouraging local churches to be more involved in mission work in the area of their congregations. I was asked by the DMC to write because I have been involved personally in this type of work in our outreach in the Pittsburgh area. In this article I intend to set forth a few suggestions regarding the method of local mission work. Of course, what is suggested is not meant to be the sole way of performing this work. There...

Previous article in this series: August 2015, p. 446. The Classis of the Protestant Reformed Churches met in session on September 18, 1929. A number of recommendations were received at this Classis from the Committee on Home Missions made up of Elhart, Korhorn, and VanDellen. Among these recommendations, Classis considered one that was of unusual importance: “that our leaders put forth every effort to instruct our members thoroughly in the basic doctrines and in the Confessions, in order that our members who come in contact with brothers and sisters of other churches may try to win them in the spirit...

Previous article in this series: May 1, 2015, p. 352. During the early formative years of the Protestant Reformed Churches, certain methods of domestic mission work became well established. It is important that we take note of these methods and offer an evaluation of them. We begin, however, not with a method of missions, but with the historically established scope of our domestic mission work. At the very start the three ministers and the elders of the Protesting Christian Reformed Churches did not labor to expand the witness of these churches on the basis of a fixed set of mission...