Rachel Boehm Van Harmelen
April 2006
When Rev. John Van Schepen came to Bethel Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Lynden, Washington, three years ago, he attended a session at Regent College on healing in the church. The session inspired him and he wanted to learn more.
With ten churches in the area, Van Schepen saw an opportunity to pursue the topic more extensively while nurturing stronger bonds between himself and other Lynden-area CRC pastors. Together the pastors submitted a proposal for a peer learning grant asking for funds to help them form a group, organize a retreat, pay for a guest speaker and study and learn together.
Van Schepen and his peers invited Rev. Charles Ringma, professor of missions and evangelism at Regent College, to lead a retreat for them on the topic of Christian healing. This event has been a highlight for the group. “Our day-long retreat with Dr. Ringma brought us from thinking about healing primarily in terms of specific physical healing to seeing healing more in terms of prayer counselling and inner healing. We hadn’t anticipated this, and it pushed us in a whole new direction.” As a result of their experiences at the retreat, the pastors decided to focus now on inner healing. “We started pursuing that topic more and reading books together,” says Van Schepen. The pastors are now sharing their new knowledge–and how to apply it in pastoral care settings–with the elders in their congregations.
Not only did Van Schepen and his peers grow in their knowledge of their chosen topic, they also grew in their appreciation of each other and the support they could provide for one another. Today, Van Schepen credits the group, which meets monthly, for several positive impacts at the local church level. “There has been a new sense of unity among the pastors,” Van Schepen says. “Our churches really see that, as pastors, we are on the same page. We have now two joint services during the year, which has been a blessing to all our churches. One pastor has begun having healing services, and these have been well received and uplifting. There have also been more direct prayers of helping and anointing with oil by several of the pastors for people with various needs.”
Van Schepen points out, though, that peer learning is about much more than knowledge and its application. The group has resulted in relationships of caring and mutual support among the pastors. “When a pastor in our group goes through a difficult time, we are able to provide support to each other,” he says. The closer relationships experienced among the pastors has also positively impacted the way they interact at the classical level. “When you are at classis now, you see your peers differently,” Van Schepen says. “You have a whole new respect for them.”
This new togetherness bodes well for the work of the churches in the Lynden area, Van Schepen says. “It’s important for us to serve together in our community,” he says. “We aren’t just 10 little churches; we are one church in different settings.”
