Leadership Journal

This case study raises a critical question: How does a pastor help his or her congregation through an identity crisis without blowing apart the church?
Harderwyk Church in Holland, Michigan, had to rediscover its identity when two styles of worship began to compete. This case explains why the crisis came to the fore and how Harderwyk and its council and pastor, Wayne Brouwer, tried to resolve it.
Your church's size, polity, or leadership style may be different, but we felt the underlying issues of finding congregational identity were important for any church's health. As you read the case, consider how you would approach a similar dilemma.
—The Editors

Founded by poor, immigrant Dutch farmers in the last half of the nineteenth century, Harderwyk Church never grew beyond neighborhood size during its first fifty years. The three main clans intermingled until nearly everybody was at least a second cousin to every other member of the congregation.

But after World War II, prosperity steamrolled into western Michigan. The lakeshore properties that had performed so poorly for farming suddenly became attractive to the newly rich from Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Detroit. Strangers moved in, with money. While the poorer farm families welcomed the church growth and the financial backing that allowed them to put up a new building and develop better programs, the alliance between old and new was always tenuous.

The seventies and eighties were boom decades, and a third wave rolled in: business professionals—doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and CEOs. These folks, mostly upper-middle class and educated, brought with them the baby-boomer desire to do things "right" and a love for big organizations. The boomers quickly became leaders and visionaries in the church. During the eighties and early nineties, the church launched a massive building campaign, and each time the pledges came in, there was more money than blueprint.

Meanwhile, the loose lacing that bound the three demographic groups together in the congregation was unraveling. Some families felt the building was not meeting needs in the community; it was a monument to the church, but not necessarily to its mission or its younger members.

As the building program ended and the sanctuary reached maximum capacity on Sunday mornings, a fourth group evolved. These folks asked permission to establish a seeker-sensitive, outreach-type service in the Great Room. Their proposal, they said, would not conflict with the main morning worship, since it would be held at a different time and would require no additional staff.

At first the congregation was excited about this new venture. The service began with fifteen people from the congregation and a handful more invited from the neighborhood.

Then things changed.

Since the new group used all contemporary music, the main worshiping community became increasingly typified as traditional. Soon a number of families, particularly those with teen-aged youth, ...