Letter from John Bolt

Dear fellow pastors and colleagues in ministry,

I am sending this email note to all active pastors in Classis Grand Rapids East as a challenge to you and your churches to become actively involved in praying for and also participating in the discussions about the future of Grand Rapids Christian schools, especially the future of Oakdale Christian School. I attended the meeting of parents and supporters last Thursday evening (April 24) at the school, and sensing the passion, feeling the hurts and frustrations, and yes, sharing some of the anger about due process, I have come with this appeal. To be up front about it, I am not a neutral observer here: two of my own passions—Christian day school education and racial reconciliation—meet here; my wife and I have two bi-racial grandchildren being raised by us along with their single mother, grandchildren whom Ruth and I presented for baptism and have taken on the responsibility for nurturing of faith and life; the oldest is in the first grade at Oakdale, the second will start pre-school this fall. Our little granddaughter has been blessed beyond measure by her Oakdale experience and it breaks my heart to think that the school could close.

Could I ask you to consider something? Here's a conviction of mine: Christian Reformed Churches thrive when they are in good relationship with a good Christian day school. Now, in SE Grand Rapids, there is another very important component to this. Our CRC inner city churches have a very intimate relationship with Oakdale Christian School. For decades the CRC has been serious about urban concerns and racial reconciliation, and has created and supported a number of ministries. I am truly grateful for all that has been accomplished; I am grateful for ICCF, for church food pantries, for youth programming that targeted the immediate neighborhood of churches, for efforts to partner with inner city African American churches, for tutoring programs in the public schools, and more. Now, as a member of Plymouth Heights CRC and sensing the realities of demographics, it concerns me that the possible closure of Oakdale would be exactly the kind of signal that will reverberate loudly in our churches. It is not just the future of Oakdale that is at stake here; I have a sense that for the churches that you minister in and with, your identity as a church concerned about racial reconciliation, your efforts to reach out to your communities in the name of Christ, all this cannot be separated from the role that Oakdale plays in our midst as a place where we draw from beyond our own walls and provide quality, safe education for the children of Grand Rapids. Simply put, is not the future of our churches and their ministry in the City of Grand Rapids linked closely to Oakdale school?

I am only asking that you give this prayerful consideration, that it be a matter of prayer in public worship, that it be a topic of conversation among your elders, deacons, and members. Encourage it, talk it up, lead the way in placing the challenge of keeping Oakdale Christian School open (I really hope that we can keep Creston open too. Somehow, fixing our illness by cutting off our limbs one by one does not strike me as good medical practice.)

I am well aware that there are many good causes and needs competing for your attention—mine too. This however happens to be close to home; if we don't meet this challenge for the sake of social justice, for the sake of racial reconciliation, for the sake not only of our children but also the children of our community, will we be able to meet future challenges?

Thank you for your attention and all the good ministry that you are doing. I only ask that we all together think and pray and act in response to this challenge which is upon us, now. Feel free to pass this on to whomever you please—get the message out.

Yours in our Lord's service,

John Bolt