Learning to Trust God

When God Shows Up:
A Pastor’s Journey
By Henry Wildeboer

This book provides great insight for pastors, seminary students and lay people who want to hear and follow the voice of God while leading a missional church. Henry Wildeboer, a pastor with the Christian Reformed Church, writes out of the crucible of 50 years of ministry experience and describes the many challenges and opportunities he faced in leading congregations to fulfil the great commission.

The first section, called “Preparing,” describes the early years of Wildeboer’s life as a young boy who with his family emigrated from Holland to Canada. Life in a new country was not easy, but through various experiences Henry learned to trust God to provide for his needs, a lesson he would discover over and over during his pastoral ministry.

The second part, called “Serving,” is the more interesting for those who want to understand the challenges of serving in a traditional church and in attempting to bring about change. Using his own story, which embraces several congregations both in the United States and Canada, Henry describes in great detail the many challenges and obstacles he faced. Willing to be a risk taker for the sake of the kingdom of God, Henry was not content to settle for a “caretaker” ministry. This would cost him dearly. Inevitably there was conflict because he was doing things differently. Some of the old paradigms were being challenged and some people were struggling with this new approach. It would be easy to blame congregants for the conflict, but Henry accepts responsibility for some of the struggles. Perhaps he could have done some things differently. But that is part of the learning curve.

And Henry did learn. He learned to trust God in every situation of life and the stories he relates of congregational life and renewal will warm your heart and encourage you to rely on the Holy Spirit in all your endeavours.

I know Henry Wildeboer as a man who is honest, forthright and transparent and these traits are revealed as you read this book. Henry always tells it as it is. Above all, you will discover his great love for God and his desire to follow Him, no matter what.

This is when “God shows up.”