What if God brings growth you were not expecting?
Bethel Reformed Church (Brantford, Ontario) was founded by Dutch immigrants who had come to Canada after World War II. It had been a vital place for faith and connection for this immigrant community and was largely made up of first, second, and third generation immigrants from the Netherlands. Though beautiful there have also been some challenges.
As the congregation aged and many children moved elsewhere, Bethel knew it needed to change. Ministry could not be simply about serving the people already in the church, but they needed to be sharing Christ in the community. Some of the Dutch members would drive over half an hour to the church, but there was no one in the church from the neighborhood surrounding the church. So, a few years ago, Bethel tried a whole bunch of things to reach out to the community: flyers, community meals and worship services, heading door-to-door, summer kid’s programs. None of it worked to reach people in the community, only to build up those already in the church.
Then COVID hit. It was really difficult. Ontario was extremely restrictive with their regulations, and there was significant tension inside and outside the church. We lost one-third of the church. They just didn’t come back. We got really excited when we had 40 people on a Sunday, which was the maximum we were allowed in that room.
Then, people started coming.
A flood of new people at church
God brought new people in various ways. There was a woman who hit rock bottom with drug use and promised to go to church as soon as she got out of rehab. One of her friends had come to an event at Bethel 15 years earlier and thought the Bethel congregation seemed nice. When she came after rehab, she honestly felt welcome. She felt that all of her friends with tattoos could also come and be welcomed. Our church simply said, “Great to see you.” She used to sit in the back where no one could see her, and now she sits in the second row.
There was a Jamaican woman who started coming to our church. She’d been a faithful Christian and church-goer her whole life. She brought along a refugee from Syria, and the refugee felt comfortable in our church. It was the first place that she felt comfortable, so the two of them kept coming back.
There were hints of this welcoming culture before, but it was a little hidden. When we first arrived six years ago, there was resistance to change—particularly when it came to welcoming new people. But there were glimpses of that welcoming spirit. The congregation was good at welcoming people with different disabilities, especially children of the church.
Easter 2023 felt like the biggest in years. We had a profession of faith, as well as three reaffirmations of faith from people joining the church. It felt big, but that was just the beginning.
In spring 2023, a recent Nigerian immigrant was walking to the grocery store when he heard God say, “This is the church you are going to attend.” Not because of our flyers, or programs, or community outreach; God simply spoke to him. He showed up the next week and brought his roommate. They invited more friends, who invited more friends. What started as two or three new faces suddenly became 10 to 15 to 30 to 40, depending on the Sunday—Indian, Nigerian, Thai, Ghanaian, Cuban.
Later that year, this man came up to me (Stephen) and said, “We would like to join the church.” I asked, “Who’s ‘we’?” Later that day, he texted me the names of 17 individuals or families who also wanted to join the church. Thus began large-group new members classes and meetings of 20+ people in the pastor’s study after church to come before the elders for reaffirmation of faith. We heard how they loved how God’s Word was preached at the church and felt a profound love and welcome from this church. In April 2024, over two Sundays, I baptized 8 people, and we welcomed over 30 people. The church has continued to grow.
New members prepare to join the church on a Sunday morning.
From every nation, tongue, and background
There’s a Cuban pastor who first came to Bethel after seeing the Reformed Confessions on the church website. He stopped by the church during the week to talk theology and explain his situation as someone seeking asylum. He admitted that he didn’t speak English very well, but he wanted to know if he and his family would be welcomed. The answer was yes. When their housing fell through, one family from the church took them in for a couple weeks and helped them find a new apartment. This pastor and his wife are now leaders and teachers within our congregation and our Sunday school teachers give a Spanish word of the day to help bridge that gap for his family and other Spanish-speakers.
One of the new members brought her best friend’s children with her to church, and later their mom was willing to come too. I (Stephen) was able to baptize the whole household together.
There were also new waves of immigrants in Ontario and at Bethel Reformed. People from around the world were going to schools here to get certifications, and they brought their family. There’s now an Indian couple from near Bangalore, and they live next door. By Christmas, we had 16 Nigerian families.
For us, what’s amazing is that it had nothing to do with any strategy we did. Our church has almost doubled in the last year through these immigrants. And people are excited. Many of the families of our immigrant newcomers ask why they are going to a “white church.” Their answer: “Because they preach God’s Word, and they love us.” The beauty is that—now—Bethel is no longer a white church but a multiethnic church.
We didn’t follow a cool outreach program. God brought these people in and, by his grace, we were ready to receive them.
Related: Three life lessons from the harvest
From a Dutch church to an immigrant church
At Bethel, there’s been a shift from thinking of us being a Dutch church to us being an immigrant church. Our church is now 30 or 40 percent multiethnic. We’ve moved from monoethnic to multiethnic.
Welcoming immigrants is deeply biblical. The biblical story of God welcoming in the stranger has really helped our congregation connect. And, on a personal level, we could lean into that shared history: Stephen is from the United States, and Olga is from the Netherlands. That immigrant identity allows us (and others) to say, “They’re like me.” At church, there’s a young Ghanaian in her 20s and an older Fresian person in her 70s or 80s. Because of the shared experience, they can say, “This person looks nothing like me, but we have this kinship.”
Congregation members fellowship together during the annual church picnic.
Additionally, a lot of our Dutch immigrants started telling stories of when they moved to Canada. They were telling of these struggles they had and how God was faithful to them. Before we had this influx of immigrants, they wouldn’t share much. But the immigration struggles of our newcomers stirred up their compassion and prompted them to open up and share.
Related: It’s sacred to hear the stories of refugees like Jesus
Welcome, hospitality, and getting to know one another
We (Olga and Stephen) work really hard to know everyone’s name. We practice the names with each other throughout the week, and we rehearse name pronunciations with the elders. It is an act of love and hospitality toward people who often feel like strangers in a strange land.
We started taking pictures of all our people, old and new, so that people can get to know each other. We hung up the pictures on the wall by the bathrooms, so that people can have a visual reminder of who they just talked to. We encourage people to learn names and to sit with someone they don’t know during coffee time.
The wall of faces and names at Bethel Reformed Church helps congregation members get to know one another.
In getting to know each other, there’s mutual giving and receiving. We receive each other’s gifts. We embrace the Ghanaian drumming and the vibrant clothes from African cultures. (We even see others dress more colorfully now, too!) Our Dutch members didn’t have to give up everything that’s important to them; they could receive the new gifts and cultures, and give their own, too. We used to say we needed to do less Dutch things, but now the Africans are excited to do the Dutch things because they’ve received that hospitality. It is beautiful to watch elderly Dutch people try to sing “Weten I go give to you?” and see young Nigerians singing, “Ere zij God.”
Related: How to create a sense of belonging and invite everyone to contribute their gifts
Leaning into community and flexibility
Most of our new people don’t have vehicles. We initially discussed buying a church bus, but then we realized we have many older people with empty cars and young people without cars. We could figure out a way to make that work! We invited people to pick others up on their way to church. My (Olga’s) vehicle is always full on Sunday morning. Other vehicles are full, too. Some people even make multiple trips to church. That’s helped people get to know each other.
Each Sunday is a little different in terms of worship, but we often have drummers with the organ because the Ghanaians and Nigerians really love drumming. We sing songs in different languages. We’ve even read the Reformed Church in America’s baptism liturgy in Spanish! I (Stephen) don’t know Spanish, but I can pronounce it—and did so to baptize the Cuban pastor’s daughter.
We’ve had to grow into our need to be flexible with our life and ministry.
A new kind of outreach
In terms of outreach today, there’s been a transition from program-based outreach to relational outreach—person to person, friend to friend, and neighbor to neighbor. When you feel good about the church, or that you sense God is doing something in this place, you want to invite your friends.
Our people are excited to invite friends and family to our church. We find people are more likely to come if their friend invites them, rather than the pastor. When we all sense that God is working in this church, people know they can invite their friend, and their friend will feel loved and welcomed here. There’s so much possibility in the renewal of worship and outreach that comes from receiving each other’s gifts.
Whatever—and whoever—God gives, we will receive.
A church bonfire, hosted once per month in the summer.
Hope for a multicultural future
Going forward, I (Stephen) hope to see the movement continue and for Bethel to shift from multiethnic to multicultural. We now have many different ethnicities in the church (multiethnic), but many of our practices and structures exclusively reflect our church’s Dutch heritage and not the full breadth of our current congregation. When our practices and structures change, our church will truly become multicultural. We continually hope to see more immigrant families reunited; we pray for these families with our kids every night.
We’re a microcosm of what’s happening right now in the Reformed Church in America. We lost one-third of our church during COVID, now God is bringing in people who love the Lord but worship in a different style but with such joy and enthusiasm that we should find that infectious. Our hope is that we would learn and live into this multicultural future, still rooted in Reformed theology. We don’t diminish the gifts of anyone. We’re not not Dutch, but we’re more than Dutch.
What we’ve learned along the way
This has been such an unexpected transformation. It’s fun to see the joy in people and how they love one another. Truly there is unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Whether you and/or your church or community are welcoming immigrants, or experiencing growing diversity, here are some tips for doing that well.
Learn people’s names
Learning people’s names is a huge thing. Take the time to call people by name. I feel like that is half of our ministry, just getting to know everyone’s name. Practice the pronunciation out loud. People feel seen and cared for when the pastor knows their name and remembers them. You don’t have to know everything about their lives right away, but knowing their name is a key first step.
Connect to the biblical story
Whether it’s the Revelation 7:9 end goal vision or the stories and immigrant experiences in the biblical stories, that’s powerful. I (Stephen) knew that intellectually, but it didn’t make sense in the same way until I immigrated in 2018. I don’t preach frequently on immigration, but it is part of the way we talk about being called out by God and welcoming strangers. It really helps to be able to acknowledge that common thread of people’s lives and see how it is connected with a common thread throughout the Scriptures. That’s part of what God does: he calls us to find our home in him. That becomes our normal language. Be able to see what God is doing in the life of your church.
Storytelling is important
It’s also important to remember your own story and where you came from and what God might have in store for you. Our women’s Bible study group has been working through the book of Acts, and in studying that story, we’re seeing how much applies to us today. Stories are important in every culture. When we tell our stories and share with one another, you build those connections together.
Give and receive each other’s gifts
We each have gifts. When we’re thinking of a multicultural church or denomination, we each bring gifts (and blind spots). Part of life together is receiving gifts. It’s not about trying to figure out how everyone can be happy; rather, it’s asking, “How can I receive the gifts of this other person, and how can they receive the gifts I bring?” That requires a certain kind of openness to the gifts of others. And it’s a reminder that the goal isn’t to be comfortable, but faithful and fruitful.
Expect pushback
Not everyone will be on board with change. Some of our loss was due to COVID, but some of it was resistance to the posture of being open to try new things, like receiving a multicultural future and what God was doing in the community. You can’t navigate change in a way that everyone will want to be a part of. That’s okay. Learn to be okay with that as a part of leadership.
Related: 6 churches share stories and advice for discerning the will of God
Respect language differences
It should go without saying, but how good a person is with English is not a reflection of their intelligence. In an immigrant community, we all know what it’s like to assimilate to a new language. At Bethel, English skills are at all different levels. We seek to practice patience with one another and assume the best intentions when speaking to each other.
Grow your understanding and welcome
Do you want to better understand the biblical ties to immigration? Or grow in empathy and practical welcome for people adapting to a new home country? Explore these migration and immigration resources to engage the issues of migration and caring for people on the move or living in diaspora, both locally and globally.
Rev. Stephen C. Shaffer
Rev. Stephen C. Shaffer serves as the pastor of Bethel Reformed Church in Brantford, Ontario. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, he has taught at Western Theological Seminary (Holland, Michigan) and served on the Commission on Theology for the Reformed Church in America. He is the author of Our Only Comfort: Daily Devotions through the Heidelberg Catechism, Rooted: Growing in Christ in a Rootless Age, and All Things Hold Together: Recovering Christian Worldview(Peniel Press, 2023).
Rev. Olga Shaffer
Rev. Olga Shaffer is an ordained minister of Word and sacrament in the Reformed Church in America. She and her husband, Stephen, previously served as co-pastors at the Reformed Church of Stout in Stout, Iowa. Now in Brantford, Ontario, Olga is at home full-time with their three kids. She was recently elected to serve as clerk for the Reformed Church in America’s Classis of Ontario.
