The NRC of Peoples Park, New Jersey (1)

The former Peoples Park Netherlands Reformed Congregation was organized officially a century ago in June, 1893. The roots of this congregation, however, reach back several years earlier in the Paterson, New Jersey area and more than fifty years earlier in the Netherlands.1

During the nineteenth century there were two major waves of emigration to America from the Netherlands. The first wave extended approximately from 1840 to 1870, interrupted only by the American Civil War (1861-1865). The motivation behind this first wave was twofold: the agricultural depression throughout Europe due to the so-called “potato-famine” of the early 1840s, and the religious discrimination, even outright persecution, of those persons who had seceded from the State Church (Hervormde Kerk) of the Netherlands between 1835 and 1845. The vast majority of emigrants in this first wave were seceders, yet few of them came from the Dutch province of Friesland since that area was effected only marginally by the Secession of 1834. In Friesland the majority of orthodox and experiential (bevindelijke) Reformed ministers and believers remained within the State Church after 1834. In fact, in the 1850s and 1860s a period of revival was experienced in Friesland, especially in the State Church. This revival led to the organization of evangelism posts in places where the Reformed truth had been supplanted by liberal, modern theology. These ministers and their fellow workers (lay evangelists) who sought to restore the church to its Reformed faith and practices, were known as “The Friends of the Truth” (Waarheidsvrienden). This movement in turn formed the basis for the rise of “the Doleantie” in the mid-1880s as well as the formation of a few independent Reformed congregations in Friesland.

The second wave of emigration to America from the Netherlands extended from 1885 until 1910. The motivation behind this migration was primarily economic, due to widespread recession throughout Europe after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), and the radical mechanization of agriculture which meant that fewer farm laborers were needed on the land. This was particularly true for the agricultural province of Friesland. Thus, it is not surprising that the Frisians formed the majority of emigrants in this second wave of emigration. Many of them had had connections with either the Waarheids-vrienden or the Doleantie churches. However, the immigrants arriving in this second wave affiliated largely with the Christian Reformed Church, instead of the Reformed Church in America as had been the case with the immigrants of the first wave. This change was intimately connected with the Free Mason controversy within the Reformed Church. The orthodox Reformed in the Netherlands began to recommend that emigrants to America should affiliate with the Christian Reformed Church because, contrary to the Reformed Church, they refused to grant church membership to Free Masons. Moreover, commencing in the 1880s the Christian Reformed Church was considerably more active than the Reformed Church in gathering into her fold the new immigrants arriving in America.

1862-1947:

Rev. Titus Hager (1893-1896)

This pattern was at work in Peoples Park, New Jersey (located in the area of Paterson, New Jersey) in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In 1891 a young elder of the First Christian Reformed Church of Paterson, burdened with a sense of calling to the gospel ministry, was urged by his pastor, Rev. P. van Vlaanderen, to begin to labor among the immigrants settling in the Peoples Park area. This young elder, Titus Hager, was even licensed by Classis Hudson of the Christian Reformed Church to be an exhorter. Classis Hudson also appointed Rev. van Vlaanderen to tutor Hager in the basic theological subjects so that he might become a minister under Article 8 of the Church Order of Dort.2 Mr. Hager began exhorting among the orthodox and experientially Reformed believers later in 1891 in a rented hall and by the spring of 1892, when he sought to be examined for the ministry under Article 8, a major change in attitude was to be found in Classis Hudson. The Classis denied Mr. Hager’s request for ordination and the vast majority of the Peoples Park members broke their relations with the Christian Reformed Church. The change in attitude within the Classis might be traced to the activities of Rev. Enno R. Haan, who had seceded in 1892 with the majority of the Midland Park Reformed Church from the Reformed Church in America to affiliate with the Christian Reformed Church. Being rather sectarian, Rev. Haan opposed the admittance to the ministry of men whose backgrounds differed from his own.3 Moreover, he also utilized his strong, domineering personality at classical sessions to achieve his own goals.

When Rev. Haan was successful in influencing Classis Hudson to bar Mr. Hager from entering the ministry, the group in Peoples Park began to look for new affiliations. Mr. Hager and thirty-six of the Peoples Park families turned to Rev. J. A. Prins of the independent Passaic Congregation.4 Rev. Prins quickly organized these thirty-six families into an independent Reformed congregation, which immediately extended a call to Mr. Hager to become their ordained minister. Thus, the Peoples Park Congregation was officially organized by Rev. Prins on June 21, 1893, when a consistory was installed consisting of Titus Hager, G. Friesema and G. van Dalen as elders, and H. Kuiphof and C. Smidt as deacons.5 Rev. Prins’s text for the occasion was, “love the truth” (Zech. 8:19). From June through November of 1893 Mr. Hager received further instruction from Rev. Prins in preparation for the ministry. In November, 1893 he successfully sustained an examination for the ministry and was then ordained into the full ministry of the Word and sacraments by Rev. Prins.

On March 29, 1894 the newly organized congregation was able to dedicate their new church building in which they would worship until 1971 — the year in which they would officially disband in order to merge with the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey congregation.

The church militant on earth, however, is never battle-free. Often those within her ranks become her severest enemies. Some who had sat under Mr. Hager as exhorter prior to May, 1893 refused to accept his seeking affiliation with Rev. Prins, and turned against him. Moreover, some also had objections about Rev. Prins’s ministry, and these persons sought affiliation with the Reformed Church in America, which organized Peoples Park Reformed Church also in 1893! It is remarkable that both congregations which were organized in the same year worshipped within a few blocks of each other. And, most remarkably, both congregations would ultimately be served by Rev. Titus Hager! He served Peoples Park NRC as minister from November, 1893 until May, 1896, and would later serve Peoples Park Reformed Church from 1916 until his retirement from the ministry in 1931. Both congregations were “brothers of the same house,” in that both desired to sit under a Christ-centered, experiential ministry of God’s Word.6 And this was precisely Rev. Hager’s gift; he was known as an experiential “Christ-preacher.”

During Rev. Hager’s two-and-one-half year pastorate at Peoples Park NRC, the flock grew from 36 to 116 families. Much of this growth was internal or came from immigration. Happily, however, spiritual growth was also evidenced. Several under spiritual bondage were brought to liberty. The attendance at the Lord’s Supper increased substantially. This too, however, brought difficulties. Though the majority of God’s people came to love Rev. Hager’s preaching, some of the congregation rejected him for his Christ-centeredness.

Rev. Titus Hager served the Turner Avenue congregation (now: Covell Avenue NRC) of Grand Rapids, Michigan from 1896 until 1913, when he accepted the call to serve an independent Reformed congregation in Muskegon, which had been organized in 1907 by some forty families who had seceded from the Christian Reformed Church.

After Rev. Hager’s departure from Peoples Park NRC, the flock was pastorally vacant until 1900. During these four years, the congregation was periodically served by Rev. Prins of Passaic and Rev. Hager of Grand Rapids. However, in 1900 a call was extended to and accepted by Rev. Dirk Versteeg (1846-1907), who had pastored the Old Reformed Church (independent) at Den Helder since 1885. He would serve the Peoples Park NRC faithfully for five years, prior to becoming emeritus. But more of that next time, the Lord willing.

1 We are indebted for most of this background material to Rev. Gerrit Bieze, who has specialized for many years in the history of Reformed, experimental preachers.

2Article 8 provided for the possibility of “exceptionally gifted” men called to the ministry to be ordained after a somewhat shorter period of study and exhorting than was required for regular ordination.

3This became publicly known with the case of Dr. J. C. Calkoen, but no doubt was also true for Hager, whose background was rooted in the Waarheids-vrienden and the Doleantie movement before coming to America in 1885. For more detail on Hager’s life and subsequent ministry, see The Banner of Truth 57 (1991): 286-89.

4At that time, this Passaic flock was an independent congregation, but now is the Clifton NRC.

5The Peoples Park congregation would not come to affiliate with the NRC until 1916 after Rev. Wielhouwer accepted a call to the independent Turner Avenue Nederduitsch Congregation of Grand Rapids.

6The Peoples Park Reformed Church also received their first pastor in 1893, Rev. J. Smid (1842-1911 ). Like Hager, he was also known as a Christ-centered, experiential preacher who had been ordained into the ministry in 1883 (in the Wortendijke [Midland Park] Reformed Church) under Article 8 of the Church Order of Dort, after having exhorted for several years in both the Netherlands and America. In 1887 he declined a call to the Passaic/Clifton NRC. Rev. Smid served Peoples Park Reformed Church until his death in 1911. Afterwards, it was served by Rev. John Lumkes from 1911 to 1916, and then by Rev. Titus Hager for fifteen years.

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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