Planting ‘New Hope’ Reformed’ churches expanding to Maine

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ew Hope Church is a lot like a toddler, its pastor says. It began holding services this summer at a Bangor motel and is one of more than 1,000 congregations associated with the Christian Reformed Church of North America based in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The denomination traces its roots to the Netherlands and the Dutch Reformed Church.

Hardly a young tradition – but spanking new to Maine.

“We’re a baby church,” the Rev. Carl Bergman, 53, recently told his congregation. “We’re taking little steps.”

The congregation will take a big step when it holds an open house at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Bangor Motor Inn Conference Center on Hogan Road. A fellowship brunch will be served afterward.

Bergman, a church planter for the denomination, is one of four ministers leading emerging Christian Reformed congregations in Maine. The others meet in Newport, Athens and Standish.

“It’s been our vision all along that this church would be an organization that exists for the benefit of its nonmembers – the community,” Bergman said. “For them to hear about that, we needed to do something to let them know we’re here. We decided to announce our presence to the community with an open house.”

The congregation has spent the month preparing for the event. At a recent service, Bergman outlined some of the goals of the new congregation, comparing them with the purposes of the church St. Paul explains in his biblical letter to the Colossians:

“We really do need to walk together and ask ourselves, ‘Why are we here and what is God’s purpose for us?'” the pastor said in his sermon.

Bergman, who considers himself more a teacher than a preacher, said he could boil down the purpose of Paul’s letter to the purpose of the church which, then as now, is to bring glory to God, gather in God’s lost family, and to grow deeper, stronger, broader – and larger.

Worship services at New Hope are casual and contemporary, as is the music played by the praise band. About 50 people have been attending services every Sunday. Small groups of adults meet in local homes each week, and programs for children and teens are being developed.

Michael Haum, 45, of Bangor began attending services over the summer because he “wanted to get plugged into a church.” He said that he responded to New Hope’s invitation because “it was not filled with a lot of demands.”

“I think it’s more than just the relaxed nature of services,” Haum said in explaining why he attended New Hope. “It’s a sense of connection that goes beyond just Sunday morning service.”

Joan Anderson, 56, of Bangor is one of the church’s few members who grew up in the denomination.

“I’ve been in other churches in the area, but I enjoy the contemporary worship style,” she said after a recent service. “Plus, the teaching here is good and solid.”

Matthew Tyree, 22, of Bangor met Bergman a couple of years ago when the minister served as interim pastor at the Orono Community Church, which meets in the community center on Bennoch Road. Tyree plays guitar in New Hope’s praise band. “This is a really warm, welcoming place,” he said.

Bergman came to Maine as a church planter in 2002. In the seven years before that, he helped start churches in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

His colleague, the Rev. Tony Brown, 35, leads Pathway Community Church in Newport. That congregation meets at 9:30 a.m. the second Sunday of each month at the former Katahdin Trail Saddlery on Route 7. It plans weekly services after the first of the year.

The group began meeting in Brown’s St. Albans home in February. A full-time registered nurse, he works at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Waterville and Augusta. He said that when the denomination asked him where he thought a church was needed, he immediately said Newport.

“There are a lot of young people there that aren’t being connected with,” he said. “With 43,000 people living within a 25-minute drive of Newport, we saw a lot of churches that fit in the community but nothing that would spark the unchurched to come.”

In Bangor, Bergman said that reaching out and serving the community is how New Hope plans to reach people.

“We really want to help the community get the kind of support that other places get by having healthy churches,” he said. “I’m involved with some local agencies and we’re already talking about how we can help with home heating crises this winter.

“We want to help make Bangor look a little bit more like God has been here through his people,” Bergman said.

For information on New Hope Church, call 858-5050 or visit www.newhopebgr.org. For information on Pathway Community Church, call 368-9977 or visit www.pathwaycrc.org.

CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH: A HISTORY

The Christian Reformed Church of North America traces its roots to the Netherlands and John Calvin.

Calvin’s followers flourished in the Netherlands as the Dutch Reformed Church. Followers brought that tradition to North America, settling in 1625 in New Amsterdam, now New York City.

Still, much of the Netherlands remained Roman Catholic, yet the Reformed Church wound up established as the state religion.

Eventually, a movement developed among the less-educated, lower-income members of the denomination, who worshipped in small groups called “conventicles.”

In 1848, when the Reformed Church began to persecute leaders of that movement, a secessionist pastor fled, along with 40 others, to what is now Holland, Mich.

The harsh conditions of their settlement forced the group to seek help from the Dutch Reformed Church in New York. That relationship blossomed into a short-lived merger.

Then, in 1857, four churches made up of 130 families left the new union and created the Christian Reformed Church, which reports more than 273,000 members.

The church has evolved over the past 150 years. Today’s worship services can be casual and relaxed at many churches and include contemporary Christian music as well as traditional hymns. Communion is open to “all who are truly sorry for their sins, who sincerely believe in the Lord Jesus as their Savior, and who desire to live in obedience to him as Lord.” The focus of sermons is teaching, and community outreach by congregations is emphasized.