Outgoing Reformed Christian leader looks back

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The history of Christian denominations is
pockmarked by centuries of doctrinal disputes and stormy schisms.

Then there are Christian leaders, such as the Rev. Wesley
Granberg-Michaelson, the soon-to-be outgoing general secretary for the
Reformed Church in America, who have taken a stand against such feuds.

The 65-year-old said he made the decision to step down prayerfully,
believing he's completed the contributions he was called by God to make
in the RCA.

Despite long-standing fissures in Christian unity,
Granberg-Michaelson is a tireless drum major for ecumenism, said the
Rev. Jerry Dykstra, executive director of the Christian Reformed Church
in North America.

"He has proven himself to be a true ambassador at many ecumenical
sites, yet maintains a strong focus on the Reformed Church in the North
American context," said Dykstra.

Kind words for a man who initially questioned if he was qualified to
be the RCA's general secretary.

Granberg-Michaelson said, "I remember telling those who, when first
asked about it, I didn't grow up in the RCA and didn't grow up in a RCA
church community, and I haven't pastored a traditional RCA
congregation."

His reservations didn't dissuade the General Synod. It turned out
Granberg-Michaelson's patchwork ministerial career was the stuff this
denomination of 177,500 needed, synod officials agreed before his
installation as the RCA's fourth general secretary in 1994.

Ten years earlier, the native of the Park Ridge suburb of Chicago
graduated from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Mich., the same
year he was ordained an RCA minister.

Now, after serving as the RCA's chief ecumenical officer, financial
administrator and sounding board for pastors, Granberg-Michaelson plans
to step down from a position he says has been "deeply meaningful" to
him.

Meanwhile, the RCA's General Synod Council is searching for the next
general secretary. Granberg-Michaelson will continue to lead until a
successor is chosen next year.

As he looks in the rearview mirror of his life, working as general
secretary is a high point of Granberg-Michaelson's ministry, despite
working a weekly average of 60 to 70 hours.

It's a workload guided by encyclopedic knowledge and fueled by a
passion for Jesus.

"It was one of the most unexpected things that ever happened to me,"
said Granberg-Michaelson. "I never envisioned myself in this kind of a
position, nor would I have imagined staying in it for 17 years."

Granberg-Michaelson's eclectic portfolio includes serving for eight
years on the foreign policy staff of U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Oregon,
and as managing editor of the social justice magazine Sojourners from
1976 to 1980.

In 1981, Granberg-Michaelson and his wife, Karin, moved to Missoula,
Mont., where he founded New Creation Institute, a nonprofit that works
on issues of Christian responsibility to the environment. From there,
Granberg-Michaelson served for six years on the World Council of
Churches staff in Geneva, as director of church and society.

He also is co-founder of Christian Churches Together, a forum
established to foster unity and to witness among evangelical, orthodox,
Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, historic Protestant and ethnic churches.

Granberg-Michaelson also played a behind-the-scenes role in the June
merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed
Ecumenical Council into the World Communion of Reformed Churches, a
union that represents 80 million Christians from 108 countries, in
nearly 230 denominations worldwide.

Those who know Granberg-Michaelson say he has helped make the RCA
less insular by strengthening links with an array of Christian
communities around the world. He also is known as a confidant to
burned-out pastors and a torchbearer for expanding the RCA's multiracial
and multicultural mandate.

"It's one thing for people to have ideas, it's another to implement
them," said the Rev. Edwin Mulder, who served as general secretary from
1983-1994.

"He's continued to have a vision for churches in the world, and it
isn't just for the Reformed churches. That's an important part of what
we need to continue to be because it's so easy for denominations to
become parochial."

Granberg-Michaelson said his boyhood church, the independent,
evangelical, nondenominational South Park Church in Park Ridge, Ill.,
shaped his bridge-building drive.

To be sure, there are challenges the RCA must grapple with in the
future, Granberg-Michaelson said.

That means listening to God's voice and sensing his direction, even
if there's a tendency to initially say "no" to what God has in mind.

"I could only do this thing with the deepest knowledge of God's
call, and that's what sustained me," said Granberg-Michaelson.

During his free time, Granberg-Michaelson enjoys fly-fishing at
Yellowstone River in Montana, where the angler is fond of cutthroat,
rainbow, brown and brook trout. He also is writing a memoir, with the
working title, "Born Again At 4."

"It plays off the story of my early childhood," he said.

Granberg-Michaelson forgoes taking credit for where the denomination
is today.

"A denomination is a servant of the local church," he said. "It
needs to connect to the broader church in the world. Keeping that focus
remains a huge challenge."