A Ministry of Encouragement

Moses Chung, director of Christian Reformed Home Missions (CRHM), recalls a day many years ago when a disheveled-looking man walked into the office of his church in California.

The man was obviously upset, so Chung asked him to sit down and simply listened to him vent. When the man finished, he looked at Chung and admitted that he had walked into the church hoping to get some money. But he had realized that what he really wanted was to talk to someone who would listen.

The Power of Listening

Chung, who also served as a pastor at a large church in Korea before being chosen to lead CRHM, says that listening to people and paying attention, trying to discern what they need, has always been an important aspect of his ministry.

“Even though we are all sinners and need the grace of God every day, every human being is a glorious creation of God, and we need to pay attention to them,” he says.

In recent months, Chung has spent a good deal of time visiting with and listening to a wide range of Christian Reformed congregations, CRHM supporters, and others across North America, trying to understand what churches need.

Some of what Chung learned has been disturbing. He had a good idea before he started the visits that some churches were in trouble, he says. But now he understands that many congregations are in crisis as they—like churches in many other North American denominations—struggle to respond to the complex challenges of a globalized world.

Anxiety and Confusion

Chung says that a sizeable portion of CRC congregations and their leaders feel deep anxiety and confusion about the future and are wondering how they will be able to survive in this new time of challenges and change.

Many churches, Chung says, have an aging membership. Meanwhile, young people and young families are leaving or not joining. Sometimes this has resulted in congregations closing their doors.

He also learned that churches are perplexed and unsure of how to best use rapid technological advances for ministry. Social changes such as the growth of pluralistic and often anti-Christian movements have taken their toll as well, calling the Christian faith into question.

“It is sobering to think of what is happening to churches in North America,” Chung says. “We no longer have as much of a voice or impact on society at large.”

The CRC and its agencies are also in a time of great transition, he adds. CRHM, as well as others, must find ways to work in a “church and mission context” that is much different today than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

“We are in a new world, where our traditional ways of being and doing church with a European, monoethnic denominational church background raises some hard questions about our identity and what we are to do as an agency,” says Chung.

Responding to Hard Questions

Based on what he has learned, Chung is in the process of crafting a mission that seriously considers and responds to the hard questions about identity and ministry.

He is convinced, he says, that this should not be a time of despair but of hope. He acknowledges the distress churches are experiencing, but Home Missions is also looking at the challenges as “abundant opportunities.”

Creative prayer-led programs and actions will allow CRHM to continue living out its mandate to “lead the CRC in its task of bringing the gospel to the people of North America, drawing them into fellowship with Christ and his church.”

Seeking God’s Will

As part of its strategy, CRHM will be emphasizing the ministry of prayer by encouraging and helping agency leaders and others to develop their own lives of meaningful prayer and to join others in prayer to discern God’s will.

“Discern is the key word,” says Chung. “Discerning God’s will for us by seeking his face in prayer is a key for Home Missions and the denomination. We need to pray because we want to listen, because it is not about what we want to do, but what God wants to do in and through us.”

In next several months, Home Missions plans to explore creative ways of approaching church planting and campus ministries—ministries for which the agency is well known. It also will continue its work in the areas of prayer, leadership development, Coffee Break programs, and discipleship, as well as through grants to partner ministries.

In addition, says Chung, CRHM will invest energy in developing pastors who encourage people in their congregations to participate in God’s mission for North America right in their own communities.

“We want to help churches flourish in God’s mission to reach and bless our neighborhoods.”

He says CRHM will provide resources and coaches to help pastors and churches recognize their great potential and will help them to use their potential to grow and expand their ministries.

“I believe the CRC has been blessed richly with so many buried treasures—congregations are filled with people deeply dedicated and devoted to the causes of Christ’s kingdom,” Chung says.

CRC members across North America are, among other things, helping the homeless, educating inner-city children and recent immigrants, serving and encouraging people who are poor, and providing disaster relief.

But there is much more to be done.

Cultivating Movements

In a broad sense, CRHM is developing the vision of being an agent of prayer and encouragement for all CRC congregations and institutions in North America.

“We need to tap into and follow the movement of what God is doing,” says Chung.

“We need to take the posture of coming alongside churches (and institutions), whether they are new or older, of listening to them and helping to reawaken people to the large God we profess.

“I believe that we have the chance to help catalyze and cultivate the movements of God in our church and to play a role in bringing the kingdom of God alive on this earth.”