The period from around 1925 till the beginning of W.W.II is the most peaceful time in the entire history of the denomination. Americanization proceeded, with the denomination switching decisively to the use of the English language. "Home missions" began to take hold and foreign missions were born. The dominant personalities in the church were the editor of the Banner (for 28 years, beginning in 1929), H.J. Kuiper, who represented a blend of the differing mentalities in the church but with a defensive pietist bent, and Louis Berkhof, professor of systematics at Calvin Seminary (for 38 years, beginning in 1906), a solid confessionalist with antithetical neo-Calvinist tendencies.

During this period, the "Roaring 20's" gave way to the Great Depression of the 30's. Most communities, including the CRC, were preoccupied with economics and turned inward during this time. In addition, the doctrinal controversies of the early 20's had soured most people on the whole idea of quarreling. Mostly because of these two factors, a very staid conservatism pervaded the church. While Berkhof defined Reformed orthodoxy and promoted a Reformed spirituality which increasingly intellectualized the faith while castigating the "liberal" movement, Kuiper fought the war against worldliness, promoting chastity, reverence for God's name and the Sabbath day, and the work ethic.

Berkhof's influence looms very large in the theological area. The lines of battle were drawn during this time between the two diametrically opposed camps of fundamentalism and modernism, with the CRC aligning itself decisively with the former. The infallibility and authority of Scripture were emphasized so much that the CRC was sometimes accused of "bibliolatry." When the Orthodox Presbyterian Church separation took place in 1929, the CRC was entirely sympathetic and contributed a great deal to that church and to Westminster Seminary, sending two professors there (Cornelius Van Til and R.B. Kuiper) as well as generous funding. Berkhof represented the dominant feeling in the church at this time that the Christian religion could be summarized as a set of propositions to which one must give intellectual assent (When carricaturized, this thinking is condemned as "scholasticism"). Kuiper followed this up by laying out the ethical implications for the faithful, defining the requisite, narrow lifestyle, which coincidentally completely accorded with traditional Dutch Pietist sentiments. Along with vigorous condemnation of those evil "worldly amusements," Kuiper promoted "covenant family values," e.g., having lots of kids (sex for any other purpose was debauchery and birth control was evil) and bringing them up in the covenant schools, and the virtues of contentment and diligence. Meanwhile, most all of the church was satisfied with maintaining this theological and moral status quo, cooperating in campaigns for doctrinal education and protecting covenant youth by educating them in parent-sponsored Christian schools. Overall, this period of the CRC's history represents a very necessary time of consolidation. The church had cut most of the vital ties with the Netherlands, and needed a settling period to establish its independent identity. This called for the setting of theological and moral boundaries and some wall-building, to which Berkhof and Kuiper diligently applied themselves.

More positive developments did occur during this time, however, especially in the area of a growing missions consciousness and the inauguration of new programs for missions in North America and abroad. It has already been noted on several occasions that the importance of missions was recognized from the beginning. Early attempts were made at missions to the "pagans" near at hand (the Native American populations). Since, logistically speaking, it was deemed next to impossible for the CRC to organize its own foreign missions society in the early years (the 19th Century), funds were regularly collected and sent to the Dutch churches ( and also some to the United Presbyterian Church) to support their missions programs.

From the beginning of the CRC in 1857 and virtually until the end of W.W.II, home missions consisted largely of the gathering of new immigrant groups into new congregations. As Dutch immigrants settled in small pockets (most often they settled in rather isolated, rural areas and stayed together to support one another in their new homeland), new churches were organized and gave continuity and cohesion to the new settlements. Denominational efforts were made to support and send out "pioneer" pastors who would shepherd these new flocks and incorporate them into the denomination. (My grandfather was such a pastor, organizing new churches in Iowa, South Dakota, and New Jersey.) Such home missions led to a growing geographical spread, but created little diversity, as the new groups shared the theological and ethnic roots of the CRC. Thus churches and their communities in rural Central California or Southwest Montana even today differ little from those in Massachusetts or North Carolina. This is a common phenomenon with many immigrant churches, with ethnic factors preventing a spiritual "melting pot."

The missions to the various Indian groups were not considered "home missions" but were self-consciously thought of as having a different nature altogether, since they were not church-planting among those who already believed but evangelistic outreach to non-believers. This work was never abundantly fruitful, but the CRC churches persisted in it, showing their firm convictions about its importance (and also demonstrating the stubbornness characteristic of the Dutch). Other home missions efforts were undertaken though which were evangelistic in nature. This included Jewish evangelism (in New Jersey and Chicago) and radio ministries to promote the Reformed faith among the neighbors of CRC churches. These were self-conscious attempts to share the riches of the Scriptures and the Reformed doctrines of salvation with audiences which either had access only to Arminian or Methodistic teaching or had not heard the message of salvation at all. Some of this work was sponsored by individual congregations and some was carried out by the local classis. Abraham Kuyper's assertion that missions was the work of the whole church gave impetus to the formation of denomination-wide programs, and by the beginning of W.W.II, the present denominational mission structures were largely in place (with the exception of the CRWRC).

The impetus for missions did not come from the confessions of the church, as the Forms of Unity say very little about the missionary calling of the church. However, the Dutch Pietist tradition with its emphasis on the necessity of personal conversion for salvation and the Neo-Calvinist drive to subject the religions and thought patterns of the world to antithetical analysis and confront those opposed to the kingdom of God with the claims of the sovereign God and his Christ, proved to be great forces in the mission-mindedness of the CRC. To some extent the CRC was also caught up in the 20th century missionary movement which was spreading among all American denominations at this time. (For example, the Reformed Bible Institute was founded in Grand Rapids as a direct competitor to the Moody Institute in Chicago.) But the largest impetus for foreign missions came from the so-called "Positive Calvinists," and in particular, one of their spokesmen, Rev. Henry Beets, who was to become the first director of the denominational mission program.

While for this entire period and even into the 50's the "Indian work" had the predominance of personnel and program, the CRC synod was presented with the challenge by some of its classes to adopt new fields of endeavor outside of North America. Work was first undertaken in China in 1920. Both ministerial and medical personnel were sent to carry out a "word and deed" outreach. This kind of holistic outreach had been typical of the missions of the Dutch Calvinists who had gone out with the Dutch East India Company traders (schools and hospitals were frequently established before any gospel preaching took place, and a great deal of literacy work was done), and was considered more biblical than the "soul-saving" evangelical missions of the Arminian groups. Some ministers were sent out to organize churches among Dutch immigrants in other countries as well, such as Argentina and Brazil. However, almost from the beginning these ministries had more of an evangelistic flavor than similar projects in North America.

In 1939, the synod adopted the Nigerian field, already pioneered by the Reformed missionaries of South Africa (among the Tiv) and some independent CRC missionaries, notably the legendary Johanna Veenstra, who began her life's work among the Hausa in 1921, dying there after 13 years of labor at the age of 39. The Nigerian field became the focus of an all- out and multi-faceted program involving educators and medical staff as well as church-planters, and has been by far the most fruitful of the CRC programs, contributing to the development of indigenous churches whose membership now exceeds that of the CRCNA.

There is some justifiable criticism of early mission efforts as being culturally imperialistic. This is true of the "home missions" efforts as well and is probably due to the failure to distinguish between what belongs to Christianity and what is more strictly Dutch cultural baggage. Looking back, one can see a great deal of cultural arrogance and paternalism in the early missionaries and the churches which sent them. But this was the rule among the western churches of the day. Nevertheless, it is probably a little anachronistic to evaluate the thinking and efforts of that time with today's categories, as these issues were not being adequately articulated at that time.

Radio ministries arose in different localities as the new technology became available. Some local churches simply broadcast their own worship services to the local communities, imitating what was being done by the more "evangelistic" Arminian churches. The CRC broadcast was frequently an attempt to balance the largely Arminian, revivalistic and altar-calling brand of Christianity offered by such groups, by presenting a richer and more intellectual (and naturally more biblical) brand of the faith. The denominational broadcast known as the Back to God Hour was officially launched by the synod of 1939. The hallmark of this agency has always been intellectual and biblical integrity, with most broadcasts focusing on a message of biblical exposition relating the message of salvation by grace through faith to particular issues of life or social issues of the day. Follow-up programs were created to function in conjunction with local churches and the home missions agencies of synod and the classes.

Building from the base of sound Reformed orthodoxy and maintaining its distinctive piety, the CRC thus began to look outward and started to share its riches with the world around. With theological consolidation completed and the mission precedents established, the CRC was poised for vigorous expansion in the post W.W.II period. This we will examine after considering in a little more detail the problem of ecumenical relations.