By Jack Krayenhoff

WARD GASQUE knows a thing or two about the Plymouth Brethren.

BCCN is speaking to him just as he prepares to leave his interim pastorate at Victoria’s Oaklands Chapel, to make way for new senior pastor Phil Horton.

It is a good opportunity to pick Gasque’s brain on the strengths, weaknesses and future of this interesting branch of the church – also known as Christian Brethren, and simply as ‘Brethren’ – which has had an influence on Protestantism much beyond its numerical strength.                      

Gasque is a well-known figure in the evangelical world. He was part of the launching of Regent College in the late 60s, both as professor of biblical studies and as an administrator. He is a scholar, but he comes from a business family – and he also likes an administrative challenge; so after Regent was firmly established, he took on such jobs as turning a college into a university, and helping save a school of theology from bankruptcy – Toronto’s Tyndale, now thriving as Canada’s biggest evangelical seminary.

Gasque has just returned from an international Brethren conference in Germany, and it has given him a fresh view of how the movement is faring worldwide. “The picture is bright,” he says. “People came from 78 countries! There are 1,100 Brethren assemblies in Chad, more than 2,000 in Zambia, 3,000 in India. Some of them are really booming, often in difficult circumstances.”

He stresses that all these are grassroots churches, truly indigenous and independent – for that is built into the structure of Brethren Assemblies. They may have been started by missionaries, but now nobody from overseas tells them what to do, nor do they require permission to change. He comments: “The key to the growth of a church is the liberty of the Holy Spirit. When he is given his way, the church does what it needs to do to reach the people.” 

And what about the Brethren in Canada? Gasque categorizes them into three groups.

First, he names the Gospel Hall Brethren – which he describes as very conservative congregations, which firmly resist change. They see themselves as maintaining scriptural principles from the first century. They are declining, on the whole; a number of churches have disappeared altogether.

Then there are the Gospel Chapel Brethren – still conservative and cautious, but open to some change. They are declining slowly, though a very few churches are growing.

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The third group is more outward looking, progressive and outreach-oriented. Some of them are thriving, and almost all are holding their own. Oaklands Chapel has moved into this category. These churches tend to become simply independent Christian churches which try to reach their communities effectively, and many members don’t think of them as ‘Brethren’ any more. They tend to lose their denominational roots.

One result of this is that they don’t cooperate with each other as they used to. In Victoria, they now only collaborate in the work of running Camp Imadene.

While Plymouth Brethren founder John Nelson Darby is best known for the Rapture theory popularized by the Left Behind books, the Brethren movement has contributed much to the church as a whole.

Gasque points out that in its early years, in the middle of the 19th century, the Brethren were revolutionary in opening the communion table to all believers. This was unheard-of in the denominations of the day, but now the idea has become widely accepted – except among a few denominations, such as the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

The same is true of the Brethren’s insistence on the ministry of all believers. Back then the churches were strongly clergy-dominated; now the ministry of the laity is almost everywhere accepted. One might say that, in important respects, the Brethren movement has changed many Protestant churches in its image.

But does the appointment of full-time paid pastors, which has become the practice among the progressive assemblies, not militate against this principle of permitting each believer to function according to his gifting (including preaching), rather than on the basis of a seminary degree and ordination?

No, says Gasque. It’s just that when you reach a membership of 100 or so, you need full-time staff. Such a person naturally is given major responsibilities, but he does not necessarily do all the preaching; it certainly does not mean he assumes dictatorial powers. The Brethren have always insisted on multiple leadership, to insure a broad base for the direction a church is taking. 

What does the future hold for Gasque? He has just been appointed as English pastor of Richmond Chinese Alliance Church  on the Mainland. Writing a book about how the Christian church came into existence in the first three centuries is also an attractive possibility; for Gasque, it would serve as a corrective to such pseudo-history as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.

October 2007