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Diaconal Ministries Canada marked 25 years of work in Christian Reformed churches across Canada, celebrating stories of love in action Oct. 17. The organization was created by deacons for deacons with a dream to disciple, mentor, and connect Canadian CRC churches.
John Wildebour, national director for just over a year, said, “Humility, passion, and a desire to impact our local communities were the values that drove the formation of DMC, and they continue to drive us today.”
Focused on supporting deacons to be active members of Christ in the churches and communities they serve, Diaconal Ministries provides grants, coaching, community assessments, and assistance implementing projects. They also host deacon workshops where deacons from different congregations can share advice learned from addressing similar circumstances.
In 2008 Diaconal Ministries mentored Immanuel CRC in Simcoe, Ont., along with other local churches, as it looked for ways to engage its community. They helped the church build partnerships and gave resources to begin serving dinner once a month to anyone in the community experiencing poverty or low income. Following this, they recognized a need to help anyone who had health issues, was facing homelessness, or was dealing with financial struggles. With the help that Diaconal Ministries provided in their first project, the church and its partners created a meal delivery service for those in need, a nonprofit laundromat, a warming center, a shelter for the unhoused, and a nonprofit program helping families in need to furnish their homes with donated furniture. Now operating as “Church Out Serving,” the group of local churches continues to bless its neighbors with all of these services and a community garden.
A decade later in Hamilton, Ont., Diaconal Ministries worked with Danielle Steenwyk-Rowaan in opening Open Homes Hamilton, which provides community and hospitality to refugees arriving in Canada. Coaching included helpful information about nonprofit organizations; determining mission, vision and values; and helping Open Homes to apply for grants and recruit staff to fit their team.
For 25 years Diaconal Ministries has striven to connect churches in Canada to work together to further the kingdom of God. That cross-country vision speaks to the organization’s beginnings. In the 1980s in Vancouver, B.C., now-diaconal coach Gary Veeneman was looking for ideas on how to improve the work of deacons. He attended a diaconal conference in Burlington, Ont., where he met Ben VanderZande, then-director of an Ontario diaconal conference. VanderZande helped Veeneman develop a servant leaders’ guide and helped the deacons draw up a working plan to assist their congregation and surrounding community. Ron Vanden Brink, also from British Columbia who served as Diaconal Ministries’ national director from 2016 to 2025, was inspired by the regional diaconal conferences. He became a ministry developer and coach and, with the help of first national director Hans Kater and previous Regional Ministry developer Henry Bosch, Diaconal Ministries Canada was formed.
They created a network of deacons, gathering resources and organizing more diaconal conferences to reach out to deacons who struggled to assist their congregations and communities.
Peter Zwarte, who influenced the beginnings of Diaconal Ministries Canada, spoke at the Oct. 19 celebration.
Peter Zwarte, known as ‘God-father’ of Diaconal Ministries Canada, was one of many deacons who helped the organization come to fruition. In the 1960s when he first served as a deacon, he felt there were little to no resources to assist congregations and communities. He began diaconal gatherings in Hamilton and Niagara as a way to bless his generation and the generations after him with biblical guidance on the work of the deacons.