Postma reflects on rural churches

In April, Christian Courier’s Editor spoke with Rev. Albert Postma about his newly-permanent role as Executive Director-Canada of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in North America and – for this theme issue on rural Canada – drilled down into the health of rural churches, which make up a significant portion of the CRC historically and to this day.

CC: Where did you grow up – city or country?

Postma: Country. I grew up in Blenheim Christian Reformed Church, outside of Chatham [Ontario]. It was a rural setting – not on a farm but in the middle of farmland.

CC: How do you define a rural church?

Postma: A church that is primarily located outside of a city or in a smaller community. We can look at where the building is and where the community is. For a rural church, I think it’s located in a smaller community with undeveloped land around it, made up of people who are part of that small community.

CC: We could probably make up a subcategory of churches that used to be in rural areas, surrounded by undeveloped land, with towns now grown up around them.

Postma: Yes. Exactly. And we could say in some cases, vice versa. Churches that used to have a community around it that’s now gone. But we can’t measure the health and vibrancy of a church community by demographic shifts. A church might be struggling with its membership and shrinking because people are moving out of the community; it can still be a faithful church. And the inverse is true too. A church could be growing because a community is growing; that isn’t in and of itself a sign of vibrancy and health.

CC: What are some unique strengths a rural church might have?

Postma: In some cases, the church you’re a member of is the only church option. That can strengthen the nature of community – if someone has a need, people reach out. The people at church are the same people you see at the grocery store. Which can have some challenges, but there’s also a real gift to that. In some places rural communities are growing in diversity far more than people think they are. One reason is immigration patterns to more rural communities for employment opportunities. I also hear that for some immigrants, a rural community is a place to feel at home more quickly.

We also see a lot of rural churches with strong global mission support. As a rural church, you realize that through your denominational connection it’s the primary way to be part of something bigger than your own small community. In a more isolated setting you’re more regularly supporting things that you don’t expect to be happening in your own backyard all the time.

CC: What about challenges to the rural church?

Postma: Demographics and the displacement factor: young people moving away. Even if the people who grow up in a church don’t move to a city, they often leave for education and don’t necessarily return; and if they do, it’s not necessarily to the same rural community.

When a church is vacant, it’s hard to get pulpit supply. Sometimes it’s hard to be seen as an attractive option for a pastor. Having and maintaining a pastor and managing the time when there isn’t one is a heavier burden for rural churches.

People in rural settings often feel like an afterthought. Like decisions are made further out by people who have never been where they are. I understand that feeling. As a community of churches in many locations, a whole variety of experiences, how do we do ministry and provide resources and support people so that each person can say ‘I hear my voice in this’?

CC: Since 2021, nearly 100 Canadian churches have been vandalized or damaged by arson – most of them on First Nations land or in small communities. If we can interpret that as unresolved anger toward the role of the Church in running residential schools, what is the Christian Reformed Church doing to address it?

Postma: The CRC has had a long history of working with First Nations communities in a variety of ways. We have our three Indigenous ministry centres which support communities in a robust way. We have our senior Indigenous leader for Justice and Reconciliation, Adrian Jacobs, who is well connected within the First Nations communities across Canada. When people see the CRC’s commitment they are able to see the church doing something. Adrian is really involved in our Hearts Exchanged program, helping churches connect intentionally with First Nations communities and reserves – to engage in relationship building activities.

We may think we’re distinct, but to the wider society – the church is a church. Whether or not we were participants as individuals, or as individual churches, or as a denomination, we bear the reputational harm of the Church. So we also bear the reputational responsibility of the Church.

CC: Indigenous ministries have a uniquely Canadian flavour. Are there other angles unique to the rural Canadian church, perhaps compared to rural American churches?

Postma: A lot of CRC churches were started by the wave of 1950s immigration in Canada, and many of those people were working in agriculture. Now we’re at the third generation immigration. In the U.S., the immigrant experience at least from the Netherlands is a more distant history. Many rural churches in Canada have members working in agriculture who were immigrants themselves. Things I grew up thinking were Dutch, but the more people I know who have immigration as part of their own story, I realize how much of our experience is actually “immigrant.” It’s actually a far more common experience. That makes me wonder if there’s an attraction to immigrants to rural settings, if many of our rural churches have immigration as part of their lived memory – we get each other. You may be here for only six months or a year, but we remember what it was like to be here for six months or a year, what it was like to try and find a job, or to be exploited. Because the rural setting tends to be more stable, there’s stronger maintenance of that immigrant identity.

CC: Anything else you’d like to add?

Postma: We have many strong, robust, growing and large rural churches in the CRC. I can’t speak to how this relates to larger trends or what other denominations are experiencing, but I can say confidently that if someone’s predominant image of a rural church is one that is small and struggling, that image is incorrect in a variety of Christian Reformed Churches all across Canada.