The First NRC of Grand Rapids, Michigan (3)

1892–1893: Rev. M. Vander Spek (1822–1893)

One year after the departure of Rev. Vorst for New Jersey, Rev. M. Vander Spek accepted a pastoral call to the Grand Rapids (Division Avenue) flock.

Mr. Vander Spek was working as a ferry boatman in Schiedam when the Lord called him to the ministry. By the time he was ordained in the Free Reformed congregation of Sliedrecht (by a Rev. Wedemeijer in the early 1880s) he was about sixty years of age! In 1886 he accepted a call to a congregation in Dirksland which would later join the Netherlands Reformed congregations (Gereformeerde Gemeenten). Six years later he came to North America.

Rev. Vander Spek was installed in Grand Rapids under the leadership of local elders. Elder Stokkers read a sermon based on 1 Kings 14:14, “But what? even now.” Elder C. Lindhout read the form of installation. A CRC minister of LaGrave Ave., Rev. Vander Beck, also participated in the ordination.

When Rev. Vander Spek arrived in Grand Rapids, he was already in his early seventies. Less than one year after his installation, it pleased the Lord to release this servant from his earthly labors. Rev. Vander Beck conducted the funeral.

1896–1904: Rev. Gerrit Wolbers (1866–1922)1

Three years after the death of Rev. Vander Spek, Rev. G.J. Wolbers from Ooltgensplaat, The Netherlands, accepted the call from the Division Avenue, Grand Rapids congregation.

Gerrit Jan Wolbers was born on September 23, 1866, in Markeloo, a village in Overijssel, The Netherlands. His parents were farmers and lived worldly lives, without the fear of God. From his childhood Gerrit was drawn by the Lord, and as a boy of five years of age sought out places of solitude to bow his knees and beg the Lord for a new heart. Especially his mother and older brother often displayed much enmity against his lifestyle. Under such circumstances he grew up.

His parents were not at all pleased that their son sought the Lord and His strength. As he advanced in years and it became evident that he was seeking for things other than that which the world offered, they accused him of laziness and made fun of him. They secured a place for him to work, herding sheep in the fields. From that time on, they concerned themselves very little with his education and necessities.

However, through God’s providing care, his outward circumstances changed. An uncle took notice of him, and arranged that Gerrit might receive better clothing and also some education. Through his uncle he also came in contact with a number of God’s people, who supplied him with books of the “old writers.” These he read with enjoyment and with benefit for his soul, and by them his desire was aroused to be a preacher of the gospel.

At the age of sixteen years, he was already requested from time to time to speak an edifying word in the religious gatherings of God’s people in his neighborhood. The Lord blessed these endeavors, and often a large number of people came together in a farm house or barn to hear him. His pulpit was a barrel turned upside down, and, being small of stature, he was sometimes carried over the heads of the assembly to be placed on his pulpit.

In time his parents wanted him to work in a factory in Rijssen, but he could not accustom himself to this work. Through the help of others he was able to leave this employment and was sent to a school in Germany to study for the ministry. This venture was also short in duration, as he did not feel at home with his instructors and their teachings. He therefore returned to Rijssen, there to be taught by a Rev. L. Spoel. In this way, equipped with more knowledge, he continued to lead services both on Sundays and during the week. Soon other groups from the surrounding area requested his services, and in due time he became closely united with a congregation at Doetinchem. He served them every other Sunday. In 1886, when he was only twenty years old, they invited him to take up his abode there and serve them every Sunday. This he did, and the congregation flourished. In 1888, a church was built there, for which he laid the first stone at a special service.

Two years later he accepted a call to the congregation of Sliedrecht to be their exhorter and was installed on December 6, 1890. Two days before his installation he married Gerritje Bulten, who remained his loving and faithful helpmeet to the end of his life. He served the congregation of Sliedrecht for three years, and then departed to Ooltgensplaat, where he was ordained into the full ministry.

In 1896 he received a call from the Grand Rapids congregation, which he accepted, and began a sojourn of thirteen years in America.

He was installed in November of 1896 by Elder Arnoudse. During his ministry, the congregation’s official name was changed from “Christian Reformed Congregation” to “Neder-duitsch Reformed Church of Grand Rapids.”

Rev. Wolbers possessed an independent and unique character. He avoided denominational ties whenever possible, though he did assist with the organization of a church in Fremont, Michigan in 1899. Nevertheless, he was privileged to have a close walk of life with the Lord. It was said of him that he was walking with his feet on the earth while his soul was above the clouds. He often spoke aloud to God as he walked. Oh, for more heart-communion with God in our day!

After eight years in Grand Rapids, Rev. Wolbers accepted a call to the congregation of Kalamazoo, and remained until September, 1909, when a second call from Enkhuizen, The Netherlands, caused him to return to his fatherland. There Rev. van Schev-eningen installed him from Exodus 33:15, and that evening he preached his inaugural sermon on 2 Corinthians 4:5.

On Christmas Day, 1921, he spoke in his congregation on Luke 2:13–14; it proved to be his last sermon. Later that day he became seriously ill, and passed away on January 11,1922, at the age of fifty-five years. His departure was not a surprise for him, for he had often said to others that he would not grow old. To his wife he had often spoken of his holy jealousy when one of God’s children was taken away. May such a desire be granted also unto us.

After Rev. Wolbers’s death, his Enkhuizen congregation remained independent for several years. Ultimately, it split into two groups—one group became an “Old Reformed” (Oud Gereformeerd) congregation and another group became NRC (Gereformeerde Gemeente).

1906–1909: Rev. Comelis Pieneman (1863–1912)

Rev. Wolbers’s successor in Grand Rapids, Rev. Cornelis Pieneman, was a very active minister both here and in the Netherlands. Born at Zevenhoven in South-Holland, Cornells Pieneman’s first memories are of the loss of a Godfearing thirteen-year-old sister when he was four years old. His father espoused a superficial Reformed religion; his mother had more impressions of the truth, but claimed she had no experience of it. His parents had to work hard to maintain a family of eight children.

Cornelis received his first years of education at a local public school. At nine years of age, he left school to work for a farmer. Over the next six years, Cornelis’s family moved several times. At first Comelis lived largely carefree in the midst of a worldly atmosphere, often playing sports on Sunday and ignoring occasional pangs of conscience. On several occasions he was wonderfully spared from death, but after each warning passed he returned to a worldly lifestyle of cursing. Later, in his early teens, Cornelis began to live a more moral life when he was placed in an atmosphere that was more religious, even though his church and friends continued to despise those who loved experiential truth.

At fifteen years of age, it was God’s time to work savingly in the heart of Cornells Pieneman. On the day after Christmas, 1878, he was persuaded to attend a church service led by Rev. E.A. Lazonder, a sound and experiential preacher. The minister preached ably, and the young Cornells was impressed with one of his closing remarks, namely, ‘To live without Christ is possible, but to die without Christ shall be terrible.” On the three-hour walk home after this service, Cornelis and his mother stopped at a farmer’s house where Elder Peter Rijksdam and others were gathered. In the discussion that followed, Cornelis began to defend his outward form of religion as sufficient. Suddenly, Elder Rijksdam turned to him and earnestly asked, “Dear boy, what if you were to be called before God tonight—before that God who is a consuming fire? Could you stand before Him with your excuses?”

“The moment Elder Rijksdam spoke these words,” Rev. Pieneman would later write in his autobiographical sketch, “it was as if I was immediately placed before the Judge of heaven and earth, before a holy and righteous Being who truly was a consuming fire. I feared that I would drop into perdition and be eternally lost. I began to cry so hard that I could hardly be quieted…. I could do nothing but cry all the way home about my miserable state, and at the same time I felt a deep need for all my fellow-travelers to eternity…. This was the first fruit of conviction in my soul.”2

The young Pieneman was not to remain long under such conviction. He writes: ‘These convictions continued to work powerfully within me…for two days and three nights. Then on the third evening I was given to confess my guilt in uprightness of heart and to ascribe justice to God. There a door of hope was opened for me in the valley of Achor (Hos. 2:15). There I saw a possibility to be saved through these words, ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15). The following morning…it was as if there was a new heaven and a new earth…. Everything that I saw spoke peace to me.”3

After seeing Christ as the way of escape for his needy soul, the young Pieneman lived very tenderly before the Lord. His time was spent studying God’s Word, praying, reading the church liturgy and other edifying books. He writes that, as a result, “I thought I had become quite a Christian already.” He could not understand why God’s people often seemed so barren.

New converts have much to learn and Cornelis was no exception. The Lord soon led him into greater awareness of his misery. Past sins and his corrupt heart began to weigh upon him “like lead.” Conscience, Satan, and the law accused him that he had forfeited all received grace. The sweet peace of “first love” dissipated. Cornelis learned that his experience was not sufficient unto salvation, for he needed to have Jesus Christ as Surety for his own heart.

Most of the material concerning Rev. Wolbers is extracted from Garret J. Moerdyk, ed., Our Hope for Years to Come (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), pp. 89–90 and the 100th Anniversary. Additional details were gleaned from a private interview with Rev. Gerrit Bieze.

2Leven en Werk van Ds. C. Pieneman (Veenendaal: Kool, 1985), p. 26.

3lbid., p. 27.

Dr. J.R. Beeke and Rev. J. den Hoed are continuing a series of articles on the histories of individual Netherlands Reformed Congregations.

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