A Dutch Update

The Dutch C&MA has proudly launched the translation of “A.B.” by David P. Jones. “A.B.” is the biography of Albert Benjamin Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Rocco Rausch, pastor of the Alliance church in Tilburg, was part of the team responsible for this effort. Rocco was interviewed by Gerdien Karssen, communications officer of Unie-ABC Church. This interview is a translated and adapted version of the original.

“There are several biographies about the life and work of Albert Simpson. The last one dates from 2019 – exactly 100 years after his death,” said Rocco Rausch, pastor of the Alliance church in Tilburg. “I was privileged to be part of the team of the AWF Young Scholars Program who were invited to take an intensive course on Alliance History and Thought in Nyack, New York in 2019,” Rausch said (who everybody knows as Rocco).

The reason for this new biography was that it shed new light on several parts of Simpson’s life and ministry, Rocco continued, but it was “also to revive the rich heritage and DNA of our movement. AWF hoped that we as Young Scholars would take the things we’ve learned to the regions we serve in, and this book, now available in Dutch, is one of the fruits of this journey. With an English version you will only reach pastors and people in leadership roles. But we wanted it to be available for everyone in our churches and beyond. The AWF was so kind to give us the rights to do so and, with a small team of translators,” Rocco said, “we started on a journey. It was a lot of work, but the effort paid off. And now the book is available for anyone who wants it. For free! Simpson’s personal story offers a unique view in a piece of world history,” concluded Rocco.

What is so remarkable about the story? Simpson was an ordinary man, a pastor, who had a challenging life in many ways. But even though he had trials in his marriage, for example, and in bringing up his children, he always found a deeper understanding in his relationship with the living Christ. Our God uses broken tools for his work – and he does so today. This alone makes Simpson’s story encouraging; it offers a unique view of a piece of world history.

Simpson moved from Canada to minister in the United States. He arrived in New York at a time when a lot of Europeans were leaving their homes and traveling to the U.S. to get their part of “the American Dream.” After arriving on the American shores, the dream shattered, and a lot of immigrants could only find their place in the margins of society. Simpson found his place in a nice Presbyterian church, and he wanted to seek out immigrants. He organized street missions and was able to reach one hundred Italian immigrants with the gospel. But when he brought them into his well-to-do church for baptism and membership, the church board rejected them. They said he had better look for a church for people of their own class. This broke

Simpson’s heart. Because of this, he resigned and formed the Gospel Tabernacle, a mobile and free church for people of all classes. He then started the Missionary Training Institute from which scores of missionaries were sent out to reach the world for Christ. With his Missions Magazine he brought these countries and regions – and especially the “unreached” – to the attention of people who were willing to go. With conferences and training in churches and the institute, they were shaped for mission, and with the organization he built up they were supported and sent out. In all of these countries local churches were birthed out of this missionary endeavor, and from that came national churches who much later united themselves in the Alliance World Fellowship.

One of these churches was the C&MA in the Netherlands. It started as a missionary office and at first was a Dutch branch of the North American missionary organization. “The Dutch couple Könemann became part of the missionary effort of the C&MA in the Dutch East Indies. After World War II they came back and started CAMA Zending. They began with prayer meetings and mobilization of people for mission. In the 1950s, the first missionaries were sent out,” Rausch said. “The planting of churches in our country took until 1975, when the first church was planted in Den Bosch. After that several churches were planted, mainly in the western and southern parts of our country. They united as CPG (Cama Parousia Gemeenten) and merged in 2006 with the Free Baptists to form the ABC Churches (Alliance of Baptist and CAMA churches).”

There will be a new merger in the next year, with the Unie van Baptisten (Union Baptists). With it arises a new church body in our country, with strong ties all over the world. It has its own seminary which is connected to the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. A new name for the body has to be found, but the unity the new merger has is a testimony to the world and we’re looking forward to how God can use this for his mission. CAMA Zending remains a missionary organization, mainly focused on sending workers to the least reached peoples of the world. As such, it is the main missionary partner for the merged church body.

Because of these developments, we started with what we called “The C&MA in the Netherlands.” We saw the need to build a home base where we could develop the missionary DNA of our movement once again. Our slogan is “to Find, to Form and to Give Wings.” We want to tap into the rich history and heritage of our movement to shape people in missionary endeavor to be a blessing to the world – to our main partners, CAMA Zending and ABC-Unie – but also to go further. As such we seek to promote the deeper life in retreats and conferences, to translate and publish books, and to start new congregations with an experimental focus to shape people for mission. We’re looking for the “A.B.s” of the future, to mold them in the deeper life with Christ and to mobilize them for mission (“Give Wings”).

The “A.B.” book in Dutch is available to all for free. Simpson’s life has been a gift to us, and we believe he is a gift to the world. Anyone who can read Dutch can get a copy through our website.

The book was presented in Den Bosch on February 6. If you have any mastery of the Dutch language, you can view the presentation here.

Do you want to know more about the history, heritage and DNA of the C&MA? In January we had a webinar of six sessions with Rocco Rausch for the AWF EMERALD Region.