Monthly Archives: March 2013

Memories of Church No.3 – Methodists and Mayhem

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Pieter Stok

This is part 3 of my early recollections of church.

In the mid 1960’s the church to which I now belonged rented a Methodist church that only had a few members left. After a couple of years we purchased the building and added to our congregation a small number of aged Methodists who refused to leave the building they had been part of for their whole lives. One of the “fixtures” was Mr. Robinson who, in his earlier life, had shown 16mm films in the local schools. He was also an expert on first aid and was always willing to give our youth group demonstrations. As we had Dutch parents and grandparents, Mr Robinson was our connection with the new culture in which we lived.

This was also the time that I was starting to think about the future. God put in a number of factors: there was a teacher who urged me to apply for University, which, as I have explained in earlier blogs was light-years away from my parents’ experience, and there was Rev. Deenick who urged me to explore the concept of Christian education. Rev. D. didn’t hit me with all of that at once but over time we had discussions, and he urged me to read certain books and attend particular conferences and so when the time came, in the then, distant future, I was helplessly drawn into a group of people whose aim it was to set up a Christian school, and ended up being a Christian school teacher.

 At the time it seemed all so “accidental” but looking back Rev. Deenick and God were in close collaboration.

But I am racing ahead of myself. When I look back, being a Christian was a serous matter. It was not about having fun – and I am ok with that. Awe, obedience and doing things the right way were explicitly and implicitly drummed into us.

Then in the second half of the 1960s an upheaval occurred. One of the professors from the theological college (the “house” I mentioned previously) started teaching the doctrine of a second blessing with the baptism of the Holy Spirit*. To be blunt, theological war broke out and my parents were in the middle of it. As a teenager I pretended nothing was happening, after all, even though church was important there were also music, girls, cars and a bit of study to consider.

Little did I know then that this was part of the Pentecostal/Charismatic tsunami that was to hit Australian churches, and whether I liked it or not, I would have to reflect deeply on the Bible and what I believed.

* Both these men, Rev Deenick and Professor Schep, in opposing theological camps, are mentioned under my blog heading: Melchisedeks.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Faith, Family, History, my dad, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Memories of Church No. 2 or Coffee, Calvinism and Cigars

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Pieter Stok

Yesterday I started my reflections on growing up in a migrant church in the 1950s.  Today the story continues …

By my mid teen years we were worshiping in Geelong. This congregation, which was much larger, did not have its own building yet and had also moved several times – from a Temperance Hall (with amiable rats) to Church Halls. At this time I attended “Catechism classes”, also in relocated army huts. (A story for another occasion involves the Friday after school Catechism classes held at our home. But that deserves a special heading of its own). Previously we had  had Saturday Morning School. Every Saturday morning, (as the name suggests!) the children from Ocean Grove were herded into a windowless van my dad normally used to cart veggies, and were sent to a house in Geelong, which also doubled as a theological college, (these dutchies weren’t shy!) and we spent two hours learning about the Bible, Church History and creation while our Aussie friends played football, tennis or cricket. I must confess they were not my favourite two hours of the week. It was an attempt by  our parents and the church to compensate for the lack of Christian education,  not as I suspected at the time, a form of sadistic adult cruelty.

Around that time, due to the closure of our church, we started attending church in Geelong which had a very traditional dutch minister. When asked what the church was doing for evangelism, his honest reply was, “We open the doors of the church every Sunday.” He soon returned to Holland (and, I believe, to a “black stocking” church) and a new minister arrived who had a profound impact on my life. Rev. J.W. Deenick was a staunch Calvinist who had an amazing sense of the the Christian’s role in the Kingdom of God. With the gift of hindsight I realise that he planted some of that in me.

The church services were just as dull as usual – the hymns sober, the organ slow and not a

Image: Courtesy, Wikipedia

Image: Courtesy, Wikipedia

guitar in sight. I recall on one occasion being reprimanded by my dad for wearing corduroy trousers, “Would you visit the Queen wearing those pants?” “She hasn’t invited me,” I thought but didn’t dare express.  However, now with the new minister there were activities to get involved in; Holiday Clubs (or Vacation Bible Schools) to run and Beach Missions to organise during the summer. For a keen teenager this gave purpose to a Christian’s life. Looking back, it was a time when we began to shed our ethnic hangups and sought to become part of Australian society and bring our own unique contributions: coffee, Calvinism and cigars – not necessarily in that order.

All the while we still had our dreaded catechism classes after which followed the more enjoyable youth club time with its topical studies, business meeting and games – as well as meeting girls. This is where I discovered my wife – after a few false starts!

Tomorrow I want to explore my entry into Christian education.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Faith, Family, my dad, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Memories of Church No 1.

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Pieter Stok

Some of my earliest memories centre on Church. In our small migrant community in Ocean Grove during the mid 1950s, our kitchen was the biggest room. So every Sunday the Reformed people would meet at our home. Sometimes a sermon was read and on occasions a visiting preacher would do the honours. My dad played an asthmatic reed organ that he had rescued from somewhere – possibly the tip.  He also  loved the once a month communion service because the bottle of left over wine was passed on to him – a real treat at a cashed strapped time! I imagine his only regret was that cigars were not part of the service!

Our family in that kitchen in about 1957. N.B. I was a blond in those days.

Our family in that kitchen in about 1957. N.B. I was a blond in those days.

When the community grew in size we moved to the “Methodist Camp” which had a hall large enough to accommodate the growing community. My brother was baptised there as a baby in 1956. Later it was the Anglican Church Hall. A time came when we built our own church building over the road from the Primary School. A disused army hut was moved on site and as funds became available it was rebuilt to serve as a multi use hall. The kids were able to help by carrying and painting and serving cups of tea and coffee.

However by the mid 1960s most of the dutch migrants had moved closer to Geelong and to places of work. The church closed and the building was relocated to another town for another small congregation.

This period of time, at the most encompassing 12 years, has warm memories for me. The overwhelming sense is one of community and cooperation. “New Australians” needed each other as they coped with the massive issues of arriving in a new land. For a while we shared a car with one of the other families. People helped each other out and the church building was just a small example of a bigger attitude of selfless service. When babies were born the rest of the children were farmed out – this was so “usual” for us and it was fun to have new brothers and sisters for a week.

This was my first memory of church. It was what I thought church was about. Years later as wealth entered the community and people became more independent something was lost.

But I like to dream. I remember the time when people walked from all corners of Ocean Grove just to come to our kitchen. I remember the laughter as the adults drank coffee and smoked (sorry – I have to tell the truth!) after the service. There were all these friends I could play with and we could take walks near the marshes along the river. That was Sunday and that was church. When I got back home and everyone had left I would find dad settling down with a glass of wine, and a cigar – if he was lucky.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Faith, Family, my dad, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | 6 Comments

Providential Intersections

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Pieter Stok

Lately I have been dipping into a book, “The Piety of John Calvin” by the foremost Calvin scholar and translator, Ford Lewis Battles. It is delight to read and casts a wider and more human/humane picture of Calvin than we often read. (If you are obsessed with the Calvin and Servetus controversy I suggest you read the excellent work listed below).

Picture 1159 cropThis book has an extra level of joy and that is the providence we see in its pages – the hand of God at work. Battles was a Rhodes scholar who went to study at Oxford in the 1930s. One of his teachers was none other than C.S. Lewis who introduced him to the classics of theology. Battles stated that this led to a “rebirth into faith all too imperfectly received in my childhood when I was sent to the early Christian fathers by my academic supervisor, C.S. Lewis of Oxford University.” (p11).

Battles died in 1979. “The Piety of John Calvin” has since been republished with a preface by his daughter, Nancy, who describes her father’s pre-laptop computer attempt in developing a well catalogued version of Calvin’s work and that his effort to do this well was inspired by the medieval monks who spent a great deal of effort producing handwritten and illuminated works.

I hope to write more about this book in the future but my question for today is a simple one. Are we aware of the saints who preceded us who have shaped and directed our lives? Who has inspired us to do well, to serve well and live well? In an age when “the present” is king and we deify this moment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, do we stop long enough to reflect on the positive influences from the past?

These saints of the past may have come to us via books and studies we have pursued. Let us be thankful that God has given us a lineage of influences linked throughout the centuries. For Battles, church fathers, medieval scholars and C.S.Lewis were just some of the intersections that God put along his path.

PS. A balanced article by the renowned scholar Lorraine Boettner on “Calvin and Servetus”: http://the-highway.com/servetus_Boettner.html

Categories: Book Review, christian, Christianity, Church, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Engagement

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Pieter Stok
Ocean Grover Primary School circa 1957

Ocean Grove Primary School circa 1957

Some minds twitch with eager attention –

ready to absorb, engage and respond.

Others meander between sleep and apathy.

A few sparkle with their own thoughts and musings –

but not with my instructions.

The sound of a football or distant song, piques their interest,

however the poem or play, theme or plot hardly registers.

How to excite the neurons,

that is the question.

To electrify ideas, thought and wonder

beyond the mundane and internet fed drivel,

is the challenge …

as the wandering mind sits behind the desk,

waiting for recess.

Categories: Education, Poem, poetry | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

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