November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Homiletical Use of the Heidelberg Catechism
That there continued to be tension over the issue of Catechism
preaching among the colonists in Holland is indicated by an entry
in the classis’ minutes of October 14, 1851. The minutes take
note of an accusation by a certain J. Boes against Rev. Van Raalte
for not preaching the Heidelberg Catechism. In his response, Rev.
Van Raalte assured the classis that he had no objections against
the Catechism, indeed, that he had a “special love for the truth in
the Catechism,” and promised to “take all possible means, in his
work on Sunday afternoon, to make the Catechism intelligible to
his hearers.” 19
The minutes of Classis Holland make clear that concerns over
a lack of Heidelberg Catechism preaching caused a number of
colonists to question the wisdom of union with the RCA. This
was undoubtedly fueled by reports of a lack of Catechism preaching
by immigrants who had lately arrived in the colony, having
traveled through and worshiped in RCA congregations as they
made their way to the Michigan frontier. Rumors circulated in
the colony that in the churches in the east “The ministers do not
preach from the Heidelberg Catechism.” 20 D.H. Kromminga reports
that at a meeting held in the schoolhouse in Vriesland in
1851, a certain T. Ulberg reported, among other things, that during
his stay in the east there was no Heidelberg Catechism preaching
in Rev. Wyckoff’s church. 21
This lack of Catechism preaching was soon documented in
the classical record. The minutes of September 5, 1855 contain a
report of the denominational synod meeting submitted by J. Van
de Luister and Rev. C. Van der Meulen. The report took note of
the fact that these delegates “…found deficiency in the regular
preaching of the Catechism, and also some laxity in discipline” in
19. Classis Holland: Minutes 1848-1858, p. 61.
20. Marian M. Schoolland, De Kolonie: The Church That God Transplanted
(Grand Rapids: Board of Publications of the Christian Reformed
Church, 1973-1974), p. 211.
21. D.H. Kromminga, The Christian Reformed Tradition: From the
Reformation Till the Present (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1943, repr. 1961), p. 107.
November 2007 11