Excessive criticism

It was with deep sadness, regret and astonishment that I had occasion to read David Harris' editorial entitled “A Grave Sin” which criticized Rev. Nieuwhof's and his congregation's departure from the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The criticism leveled at Rev. Nieuwhof was excessive, amounting to nothing less than a severe and needless religious condemnation of a church minister who has attempted to apply the Gospel of Christ which has apparently met with resounding success in terms of large numbers of previously unchurched individuals coming to know Jesus Christ.
At a time when numbers in the Presbyterian Church in Canada have been declining rapidly over the past decades, we as a national church body should be rejoicing that Rev. Nieuwhof has been able to attract such large numbers to Trinity, Oro with such evangelical zeal, some of whom are apparently traveling more than 90 minutes to attend service. In the same breath, we should also be gravely concerned that we failed to accomodate Rev. Nieuwhof's ministry and congregation within the broader Presbyterian Church in Canada. I seriously doubt that, as alleged, Rev. Nieuwhof used his “position and authority as a spiritual leader to persuade others in [his] care to abandon the church and its teaching.” Quite the contrary, it is clear that it is the national church body that abandoned Rev. Nieuwhof and his congregation. In recent years, evangelical Christians have become quite alarmed and distressed about the direction that the world-wide Presbyterian Church has taken and appears will be taking in the years to come. Whether it be on the issue of homosexual marriage, the ordination of practicing homosexuals, sexual orientation, abortion, or the authority and interpretation of Scripture, evangelical Christians are growing frustrated and tired about what can only be characterized as a continuous stream of fluid and fuzzy pronouncements coming from national church bodies. Through this continuous stream, such churches risk becoming irrelevant to the communities they purport to serve. These national church bodies are failing to recognize that large numbers of people are looking for a concrete Christian-belief system which is not subject to ever-changing cultural and secular practices in modern-day western society. One only has to look at the educational system, the society in which we live, the policies of our politicians both on domestic and foreign issues to realize that individuals like myself, a professional raising a young family with my professional-working wife, are uncomfortable and distressed and are looking for a church with evangelical zeal that is steadfast and unyielding in its commitment to the Gospel of Christ, a strong Sunday school and youth group providing guidance for our children and a social conscience addressing the spiritual, economic and social needs in the community in which it serves. Fortunately, for my family, we have found such a church and minister at St. Andrew's Islington in west Toronto. I can only presume that it would appear that many have also found such a church and minister at Trinity, Oro.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada has had some success in recent years in establishing separate and successful presbyteries based on ethnic background, something which I myself have been uneasy with. Perhaps the Presbyterian Church in Canada should start to consider greater accommodation to evangelical churches or else risk losing more and more numbers in the national church body. And we cannot do this at a snail's pace. In the end, I would suggest that it was a “grave sin” for David Harris to write about his disagreement with Rev. Nieuwhof in the way he did. I would respectfully submit that the next time David Harris has such a disagreement, he write his article leaving out the unnecessary religious condemnation and attack. Otherwise, he invariably risks drawing lines in the sand and provoking others like myself to begin discussing with other evangelical Presbyterians whether we too should follow Dr. Nieuwhof's lead because of a failure to accommodate.