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Introduction
Overview of the Study and Its Setting
The Evangelische Christengemeenten Vlaanderen (ECV) began as a result of evangelistic church-planting efforts led by a group of Canadian missionaries in the early 1970s. These missionaries were from one of the many distinct, historically Protestant, evangelical movements known as Brethren.1 What began as a series of home-based, evangelistic Bible studies grew into a fully recognized denomination within a few decades of the first study. However, these simple introductory remarks present a challenge, as the question of defining this particular Brethren movement first must be addressed.
To study the history of people and churches associated with these Brethren is to grapple with a group that, though identifiable to insiders as well as outsiders, often makes the claim of being without either a linking structure or a distinctive name. Accordingly, one of the challenges of any work about this group is what to call this movement. These Brethren have been known in the English-speaking world under several different titles, including “Plymouth Brethren,” “Christian Brethren,” “Brethren,” or simply “brethren” (lower case “b”).2 Further complicating this naming is the need to determine which part of the movement one is discussing. The more conservative within this movement strongly would refuse any title, since to accept one is considered divisive and sectarian in nature. As one historian explained, “The refusal has a theological base in 1 Corinthians 3:3–6 where the Corinthian church was rebuked for manifesting a party spirit and dividing the body of Christ with each group taking a different name.”3 Accordingly, more conservative Brethren refer to themselves merely as Christians and to their gatherings as “assemblies of believers” or “the meetings.”4 To press further for some type of distinction is to be greeted with statements such as:
I think he would be unwilling to identify himself in any way other than as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I suspect that the term Plymouth Brethren would be just as offensive to him as it is to me and to most of us who simply want to be Christians, to follow the New Testament as best we can understand it, and to reject any denominational labels.5
In light of all the preceding, this book normally will use the title of Brethren.6
The central focus of this group, however named, traditionally has been the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It is the very heart of the Brethren gatherings. Indeed, to call one’s gathering a part of this Brethren movement without the centrality of the Lord’s Supper is to deny the history and practice of the Brethren since their inception in the early nineteenth century.7 While the Brethren in the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century were noted for their biblically based preaching and their prodigious quantity of written works related to the study of the Bible, the central meeting of the local church was that in which the celebration of the Lord’s Supper took place. Although one author has argued that early in the history of the movement the “Bible reading” or Bible study was the “characteristic religious activity,” nearly two hundred years of history and countless other studies aptly have demonstrated that people inside the movement and others observing from the outside see the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and not the form of Bible study as the characteristic meeting.8 In practice, this means that most Brethren assemblies historically have had a separate meeting during which the Lord’s Supper is celebrated. This has been done as a corrective to what the Brethren see as a de-emphasis on the Lord’s Supper which characterizes most Protestant churches, either through the shortness of time spent in its celebration or the infrequency of its celebration.9
An additional terminological matter is that the common Brethren designation for a local church congregation is “assembly.” Brethren argue that this is a better translation of ἐκκλησία. This book, however, will use the terms “local church” and “assembly” interchangeably. Also, the term “the assemblies” is used to refer to a group of these local Brethren churches.10
A final area of definition is necessary for terms used throughout this book. As with many evangelical churches, a person who has undergone evangelical conversion is said to have been “saved” or “born again.” Those who have not are “unsaved.” The Brethren commonly identify a person who has been saved as a “believer.” A person who has not undergone evangelical conversion would be called an “unbeliever.” A fellow believer would be called a “brother” or a “sister.” Note that the terms believer, unbeliever, brother, and sister are not unique to the Brethren, but are common among any number of evangelical, free church movements. Nonetheless, they note a clear demarcation concerning the relation of the person to the evangelical faith, as well as the family sense of those who have undergone evangelical conversion, whether or not the converted are part of a Brethren assembly.
The purpose of this study, then, is to examine one of the groups associated with this nineteenth-century movement as it exploded on the scene in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. As noted at the beginning, the ECV began as a result of evangelistic church-planting efforts led by a group of Canadian Brethren missionaries in the early 1970s. What began as a series of home-based, evangelistic Bible studies grew into a government-recognized denominational organization within a few decades of the first study. This result was surprising at a number of levels. First, the speed at which the churches were planted was remarkable. After decades of little or no growth among the Brethren in Flanders, twenty-six churches were planted in a nineteen year period.11 Further, these churches were composed almost exclusively of new believers as opposed to the transfer growth of believers from other Protestant churches. Second, the suddenness of the growth of the ECV was matched with the equal suddenness of the cessation of growth. After a certain point, no new churches were planted and a few even ceased their operations. Third, while the purpose of the founders of what would become the ECV was to plant Bible studies “all over Belgium or in southern Holland in homes” with the goal of planting churches, none envisioned the move from an informal movement to a governmentally recognized denominational organization, even having some of its workers paid by the Belgian government.12
With these three points in mind, the task of this work is to record the origins and development of the Evangelische Christengemeenten Vlaanderen as it grew surprisingly rapidly, but then leveled off and developed in ways that its founders might not have expected. This book will offer some suggestions as to why these events happened as they did as it traces the history of this movement.
Overview of the Previous and Present Research of the ECV
As of this writing, no scholarly research has been done in any language which addresses the history of the Evangelische Christengemeenten Vlaanderen (ECV). In fact, no scholarly research of any kind has been done which considers the history of the Brethren in Flanders from its arrival in the late nineteenth century until modern times. That said, a number of short, popular-level pieces have been written which specifically treat the history of the ECV, though none have investigated the events behind the surprising, sudden growth and equally surprising and sudden stop of growth which has been associated with this part of the Brethren in Flanders nor its change into a regularly recognized denomination. These pieces include only a handful of articles in Brethren missions magazines13 at the popular level as well as a part of a chapter in a popular level, multivolume work as commissioned and published by the Brethren missions service agency in the United Kingdom, Echoes of Service.14 While of some use, this multivolume work is noted more perhaps for its readability and somewhat hagiographical approach rather than its precision in historical matters.
Only one known study is available in which the ECV plays a significant role. This work was a Dutch-language master’s thesis.15 Additionally, the work of the ECV is mentioned, or at least its existence is noted in a few other MA theses as well.16 No other scholarly studies at any level or in any language are known. At the popular level, a series of articles tracing the history of the ECV and its workers have been published in Dutch. Entitled, “Handelingen,” these very short pieces appeared in De Werkerskrant, a magazine printed by the ECV themselves.
The timing of this study is significant as the principal figures in the founding of the ECV are aging, and some are in poor health. As will be noted below, oral history is a major part of this research since written records are scarce in some areas. Consequently, in another decade or less, much of the material will be beyond research as the people with the firsthand information die. Even during the time of this research, one of the early founders died.
Sources and Methods of the Study
Primary sources have been sought as the leading avenue of research. Interviews were conducted with the central participants in the founding and shaping of the ECV, as well as those outside the ECV who had close contact with these churches or their leadership. Those interviewed included the principal missionary church planters, the Flemish leadership, and people who had contact with the ECV but were never a part of the group. Interviews were conducted with appropriate people scattered across five countries on two continents to include friends, family, former co-workers, and elders in the Brethren assemblies in Canada who sent out the missionaries as “commended to the Lord’s work” in Belgium.17 In addition to these interviews, the personal journals, popular publications, newsletters, and Bible courses created by leaders and teachers inside the ECV were examined for pertinent information related to the origins and development of the ECV. Material was found beginning in 1990 which includes the official minutes of meetings, as well as long-range planning documents and statements of faith. All of the above were examined with an eye on the chronological and geographical spread of the ECV, as well as a comparison and contrast of these factors among the various churches within the ECV. Moreover, a comparison and contrast was noted between the groups which were either organically or theologically related to the ECV during these same years. For this comparative aspect, interviews with principal players in oth...