1Life Initiative Helps Equip Churches in British Columbia

A few years ago, Classes B.C. North-West and B.C. South-East in Canada’s westernmost province decided to form a collaborative equipping and learning ministry to support churches. 1Life is the result of that decision, and dozens of Christian Reformed congregations throughout British Columbia now benefit from its work.

The initiative facilitates Bible studies, curates denominational and other resources to help church leaders and others, provides physical and online space for workshops and programs, sends out a monthly newsletter, hosts regular devotions, maintains a podcast, and promotes collaboration between churches in the province.

Wilma Van der Leek has been a commissioned pastor of education for the two B.C. classes for 18 years, and she now serves with 1Life as part of that work. She is enthusiastic about the learning hub’s mission. “Using the five [ministry priorities] that the [denomination] has named as central streams of renewal in the church, we’re looking to provide some coherence and some real depth to all the amazing resources that are available to the churches, to enliven them and strengthen them in their witness,” she explained.

The five ministry priorities of Our Calling, outlined in connection with the Christian Reformed Church in North America’s vision and mission statements, are Faith Formation, Servant Leadership, Global Mission, Mercy and Justice, and Gospel Proclamation and Worship. Van der Leek explained that the resources, communications, and leadership of 1Life are organized around Our Calling, with different staff and volunteers focusing on various ministry priorities.

Van der Leek leads in the area of Servant Leadership, offering year-long Bible study cohorts on the Old Testament, the New Testament, and theological reflection. Similar studies were part of her work with the former B.C. Leadership Development Network. Today, she says, “We’re having a wonderful time with three cohorts who are reading the Bible with their own lives in view and their own questions. Trusting the Scripture as the place where God will meet us, we will be changed and be led into the five areas of calling.”

1Life represents a number of different ministries in the CRC, said Liz Tolkamp, who serves with 1Life in her role as a Thrive connector. “We’re here as 1Life to support and equip the local ministries within the congregations and the people in the pews,” she noted.

1Life began as an idea several years before it became a reality. The 1Life website explains that a 2014 denomination-wide inquiry into what it means to be the church in an increasingly post-Christian age led pastors and ministry equippers in British Columbia to host a retreat, where participants prayed and fasted for three days and studied the books of Nehemiah and Matthew. They discerned a call to repentance and rest, in line with a call from Isaiah.

In 2018 ministry leaders in the province focused on renewal in their communities and congregations. A group began to meet several times per year to discuss how the many resources available to equip churches could better be curated to effect change. “There were many passionate, capable equippers out here in B.C.,” said Van der Leek, “but the churches received us as more of a smorgasbord to graze from rather than as a fine dining menu with an eye toward healthy spiritual formation in the churches.”

The group continued to meet, and they created a curriculum on the foundations of faith, introducing churches to the five areas of calling and a vision of renewal and collaboration. In early 2020, the two B.C. classes approved the creation of what would become 1Life, supported by Resonate Global Mission and given a mandate to coordinate equipping efforts and to promote collaboration within the province’s churches.

The timing proved interesting. Because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after the decision was made, said John Zuidhof, who volunteers with 1Life as a facilitator, “We began dreaming and planning together during a time when equipping events were not allowed to occur. Since we were a small team, and we took cautionary measures due to COVID, we had an abundance of time to do some great planning.”

Engagement has been slowly building over the years. The 1Life monthly newsletter reaches around 400 subscribers throughout the province; the three Bible study cohorts include about 30-40 participants each; and the resources are appreciated by the churches using them, including some of the smaller and more rural congregations, said Van der Leek. The team would like to see more engagement from churches around the province, but they are encouraged by the work and resource use that is already happening.

Some specific topics addressed in online presentations and in the 1Life podcast available through the 1Life website represent a wide variety of issues related to the church and to living out our faith, including getting to know neighbors, sharing stories, refugee experiences, disagreeing well, dementia care, disability without poverty, medical assistance in dying, and changes to Canada’s immigration laws.

1Life can serve as a model for collaboration within and among other classes in the Christian Reformed Church in North America. For ministry leaders interested in exploring the possibility, Zuidhof suggests, “Be sure to involve pastors/leaders who carry some influence in their classis to bring success to a ministry such as 1Life.”

Van der Leek pointed to the 1Life website as a place to see what resources can be offered. In the resources, training, and events highlighted there, she said, “We have been successful in remaining true to a vibrant vision of the teaching ministry of the church, [aiming to] live out the values you can read about [there].” The ministry has changed and adapted over the years to respond to the needs of the congregations they serve. Yet, she concluded, “I still have great confidence and passion for our vision, especially since it focuses so much on equipping all the saints.”