The Jack Miller Archive

September, 1964, Pages 13-14

Jack Clarifies His Role in Modesto Chapel (from April, 1964 Presbyterian Guardian)

EDITOR'S MAIL BOX — Letter to Editor
Dear Sir:
In reading the news from the Presbytery of the West Coast, I appreciated the kind report by Rev. Richard Lewis concerning my part in the establishment of the Modesto church. To make the picture somewhat more complete, however, I would like to call attention to the generous labors of others.

Particularly, elder Clarence Westra, a dedicated member of the Stockton session, performed faithful yeoman service. For all practical purposes, he became leader of the evening Bible class in Modesto in order to relieve me for other labor. Later on, he faithfully represented our Stockton session at the Lord's Day afternoon services in Modesto, preached there too, and, I believe, secured guest speakers.

Not only so, Rev. Robert Churchill was active in many phases of the work: in speaking, helping to find a place to meet, and organizing the congregation. Rev. Henry Coray also helped in much the same way. Two retired Christian Reformed ministers, Rev. J. J. Weersing and Rev. J. J. Steigenga, preached frequently and brought a rich spiritual blessing to the people of God in Modesto. And from time to time, a number of the O.P. pastors and elders took part in maintaining the worship.

Although every true church is established by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, it seems almost as if he had moved in a unique manner in bringing into being the congregation in Modesto.

One particular incident stands out as an illustration of such working. Several years ago on a hot afternoon, I was calling door-to-door in Modesto and stopped at a home where the man of the house was standing on a stepladder working on his garage door. Quite obviously he did not want to talk, and after a brief one-sided conversation, I turned to leave.
Upon a sudden impulse, I paused. He had said he was a Baptist and that was about all. "Are you," I asked for no apparent reason, "convinced of Baptist doctrine?"
"No," he said, "I'm a Calvinist." That was the first meeting with Richard Nielsen. Within the next five minutes we were sitting on his lawn, well on our way to becoming fast friends in the gospel. Considerably later, the Nielsen family and the families of Charles Cornwell and Robert Cornwell invited me to lead a Bible study. Some months after, the interest of the John De Boer family brought additional encouragement to us.

After a further season of waiting, with some
discouragements, God moved again. The arrival of the Clyde Dunlap family and the Glen Harris family from the Long Beach O.P.C. gave the work a renewed impetus and official worship services were started, first on Sunday afternoon, and later regular morning and evening services were established.

In the gathering together of these and other families, the thing to impress the observer is not human agency but God's quiet working to establish a congregation.

Another bright aspect of the picture has been the coming of Rev. Thomas Champness to feed this new flock. For a minister to cross the country may not in itself be so unusual, but Mr. Champness came to a very small group as yet not organized as a church, without a church building, and with relatively little financial help outside the local group.
In calling attention to the working of God in Modesto, one does not mean to slight his other works, for God delights to build with different means in different places. Yet at certain times and certain places, our Father's workings seem especially striking. And our church there appears to be one of his spontaneous products, a grass-roots development. An indication of this fact can be seen in the attendance pattern, for regularly the evening attendance equals the morning.
Undoubtedly, the Modesto O.P.C. will face growing pains like other churches, but God, we believe, will continue the good cause that he has originated.

Sincerely,
JACK MILLER Redwood City, Calif