BY BILL KNOTT
ON'T LET THE STATELY eighteenth-century mansion, the manicured
green acres, or the robins fool you.
The quiet center of Dutch Seventh-day Adventism in Utrecht's
sleepy suburb of Huis ter Heide lies 80 kilometers from the churn and splash
of the North Sea, and little resembles a promontory against the tide. Yet it
harbors some of northern Europe's most bracing visions of the church's activist
role on a continent awash in secularism and materialism--visions that may transform
the face of Adventism in the Netherlands and beyond.
"My primary goal is that people have a more optimistic
view, a hopeful view, about the church," says Reinder Bruinsma, president
of the 4,500-member Netherlands Union Conference. "We need to leave behind
the feeling that has been pretty dominant in European Adventism and quite dominant
here that things are going down, that it's no longer possible to effectively
carry on the mission of the church."
Bruinsma, 62, was elected president of the Netherlands Union
Conference in 2002, after a short tenure as director of ADRA/Netherlands, the
national branch of the denomination's humanitarian outreach. With a long background
as a pastor, teacher, and author, he also served 7 years as communication director
and then executive secretary of the Trans-European Division, headquartered in
St. Albans, England.
"When people start asking, 'How long will we be able to
maintain the church?'--that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy," Bruinsma
continues, drumming his fingers on the desk. "We must come to the place
where we say, 'Hey, look, we have a couple of thousand active members. You can
do a lot with that many willing people.' We do have assets and skills--hundreds
of people in all kinds of professions, and young people in important positions
in our society and professions. And they have no problem identifying themselves
with the Adventist Church."
In Bruinsma's view, the new opportunities for the church
in Dutch culture call for a new attitude by the church toward the culture.
As he sees it, the church's long-running role as a critic of social trends must
be augmented by a willingness to engage people with useful descriptions of the
value that religious faith can bring to their lives. It isn't just "positive
thinking" that forecasts sustainable growth for the church in the coming
decade: after 50 years of being dismissed as irrelevant cultural icons, faith
communities of all kinds are discovering new life in a nation where religious
convictions of any kind are increasingly accepted.
"When I was baptized at age 14, I kept it a close secret
from my peers in school," he remembers with a wry grimace. "Like a
lot of Dutch Adventists in those days, I thought that the Adventist Church was
a funny kind of little sect that they probably didn't know anything about. Recently,
however, I had an opportunity to see how perceptions have been changing. At
a nearby church we had two young people being baptized--and they brought 50-60
of their school friends with them! Now, that's something we haven't seen!"
The key to Adventist renewal in the Netherlands, as the president
sees it, is at the door of each local Adventist congregation, of which there
are a total of 52 in the nation of more than 16 million.
"We 'do church' in a very different context than in America,"
Bruinsma continues with a broad grin. "Many of us in Holland and in Europe
have a love/hate relationship with the United States, just because of its enormous
impact upon our culture. And Adventism's North American heritage tends to affect
our view of our rightful place in Dutch culture. I think it is a real gain that
Adventists in this country are no longer viewed as an American sect--that we
are generally viewed by people who know anything about us as part of this culture
rather than an import."
The more favorable view of Dutch Adventism ironically emerged
at the same time that the church was undergoing a painful process of deinstitutionalization
during the past three decades. Since the 1970s and 1980s, financial constraints
have pushed the Netherlands Union Conference to close a publishing house, an
orphanage, and the theological seminary that once shared the manicured acres
in Huis ter Heide. Similar problems have affected Adventist schools, sanitariums,
and presses throughout northern Europe, especially Scandinavia.
"Getting rid of those institutions or being forced to
sell has been a painful process in Europe," Bruinsma reminds. "That
has been one factor in what some would call our 'discouragement.' At one time
we were something--our identity was very much depending on what we had to show
for institutions. As much as we loved those institutions, however, they may
not have moved our mission forward as much as we thought."
In Bruinsma's view, no building or curriculum can deliver anything
like the impact of a faith community that deepens and enriches its members'
lives.
"The key to Adventist growth in Holland--and probably
in most places--is that you have more and more local churches that are simply
good places to be: places where people feel they have space; where people feel
that it's relevant, and has something to do with daily life; where they don't
have to leave their intellects at the door, but can actually ask some questions;
where there is a reasonable degree of tolerance, and people can bring their
neighbors on Sabbath without the fear that the sermon will be on the mark of
the beast."
"We'll grow," he asserts, "and we are growing
where we have churches like that."
The president's determination to refocus attention on the priorities
of congregational faith and life is apparent in a major strategic document voted
by a special meeting of the union committee in May 2003. The remarkable 4,400-word
statement addresses 31 topics bearing on the current status and future plans
of the Adventist Church in Holland, and does so with a frankness often missing
from comparable North American initiatives.*
More than half of the 31 voted statements address Adventist
faith and lifestyle as viewed from the congregational level. The document identifies
such priorities as creating an accepting climate for racial, ethnic, and even
theological diversity in the local church; asserting the necessity of personal
and congregational openness to change; allowing for contemporary worship forms
and lay planning of worship services; increasing the quality of pastoral care;
promoting respect among Dutch Adventism's very different cultures (West African,
Caribbean, and indigenous Dutch); nurturing community cooperation with other
Christian faith groups; and providing for adequate church buildings.
Beneath the well-crafted language lie the realities with which
Bruinsma and other Dutch leaders and pastors must wrestle. The familiar divides
within many Western Adventist congregations (gender, race, economic status)
are compounded in Dutch Adventism by the growing tensions in Dutch culture and
European society generally over the increasing size of immigrant populations;
the very different models for church authority seen in Europe, the Caribbean,
and West Africa; and significant differences in expressions of Adventist lifestyle.
"There's no perfect illustration of the challenges we
face as Dutch Adventists," Bruinsma says, studying the long expanse of
lawn out his window. "But here's one that shows how important it is that
we stay in dialogue with one another, whatever our cultural background or theological
views.
"Just yesterday a pastor said to me, 'I'm giving Bible
studies to five young people. Two of them are living together with their partner.
They want to be baptized with the others. Can I do that?'
"Now, in Holland," he continues, "it's rare
for young people not to live together before they are married. And this is an
extremely difficult issue to handle, because the church wants to have a pastoral
attitude. Many pastors and members in our indigenous congregations would tend
to be pragmatic about it--to say that if the couple is living together in a
lasting kind of relationship that has been going on for some time and shows
no sign of being temporary, then they could probably be welcomed into the church
through baptism.
"But that issue looks altogether different to members
from our immigrant congregations. They would see merit in using the church discipline
tools to try to correct the situation, and might encourage those young people
not to seek baptism until their lives were more in harmony with Bible expectations."
The eyes get steady, and the tone is instructive.
"The point of that story isn't that there is a right or
wrong way to deal with what is essentially a very good development--two formerly
secular young people seeking baptism. The point is that in our different expressions
of what it means to be Adventist, we must respect others' points of view, listen
to one another, somehow be shaped by one another, and finally, learn to work
out our differences--often in the same congregation."
Bruinsma is very aware that other Adventists around northern
Europe may not fully endorse the broad-minded, dialogical model that he and
other leaders have articulated as normative for the Dutch church, both in its
internal discussions and in relationships with other Christian denominations.
Even within the long-term membership of the Netherlands Union, there are noticeable
regional differences in worship style, theology, and understanding of Adventist
lifestyle. Rural and eastern congregations lean toward traditional approaches,
while urban and western congregations focus on progressive developments in Great
Britain and North America.
"It wouldn't surprise me to discover that there is a belief
in other places in northern Europe that 'the Dutch are a bit more liberal than
others,'" he concludes with an easy smile. "That may well be the case.
It's certainly true of Dutch society in general. But perhaps, more accurately,
we're just a bit more open and candid in expressing our real views about a faith
that we take very seriously.
"If we believe something--even if it differs from your
view--we'll tell you. That's the Dutch way. That's not just truthful--it's also
helpful, because it actually increases understanding."
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*www.adventist.nl; [see downloads: beleidsplan: engels (English)].
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Bill Knott is an associate editor of the Adventist Review.
