HAGERSVILLE—When Pastor Steven Eckersley administers his first service at the Hagersville Christian Reformed Church (CRC), it will be the first time the church has had a Pastor to lead the congregation in several years.
Eckersley said that in his initial meeting with members of the church, he found himself touched by their sincerity: “It’s a small church, but they’re really purposeful and dedicated, and the people that are there really want their church to grow and be a place for community. I really liked and enjoyed spending time with the people there. That drew me to come here. I really like the sense of community they have.”
Eckersley’s work in the Ministry began at Redeemer University, where he completed pre-seminary studies and met his wife, Sandra. Next, he attended McMaster University’s Divinity College.
Having attended a CRC growing up, he knew in his heart that was where he wanted to Minister, so he attended a semester of studies at Calvin Theological Seminary as well to learn the “intricacies” of the CRC.
Eckersley previously had a decade-long tenure in a Cornwall church, where he said, “I learned and improved on my preaching. It’s an artform that takes some time to get used to…. For me, a big concept is ‘living life together as a group’, facing whatever joys or challenges we have as a community, being a place where people can feel safe to come to worship God and to be part of our community.”
He stepped down from that role just before the pandemic, which left him in “limbo. I was out of the ministry for a couple of years.”
Eckersley is ready to get back to it and bring that love of community to Hagersville CRC. He believes many people today are missing out on the benefits of a person-to-person community experience, adding, “I think the church can really fill in there.… When people are alone, you don’t have anyone to let you know things are ok. You get trapped in your own thoughts, your own ruminations.… We need people to help us navigate life and all those things. We’re meant to be social creatures.”
He believes that the church can provide answers to some of the more perplexing questions modern people struggle with: “I think people are seeking something but they don’t always know what they’re seeking. Times are tough … (and) when things are tough, you start wondering, ‘what am I doing, why am I doing this’…. As Christians, we can help answer this; the reason we’re here, the purpose. We can provide answers. That’s something that’s not easy to find in our day-to-day lives. There are so many different things, it’s easy to get lost in all the different paths you can take.”
On how he plans to grow the church’s reach locally, he explained, “Part of my plan is just to be part of the community. We bought a new house right in Hagersville, so we’ll be … getting to know people and families that live in Hagersville. From what I understand, it’s turning into a little bit of a bedroom community with people commuting to Hamilton…. I see it as an opportunity.”
On the issue of younger people not connecting with their local faith community as they have in the past, he added, “All the churches are struggling with that one. The youth need to have a desire to come, but how do we go about bringing that? You have to find something that draws them.”
He believes that generalizing the issue won’t help, noting, “You need to reach out to youth and see what they need, what questions they have. I think sometimes the church has ignored them or told them what kind of things they should be doing.”
He believes a more gentle approach could pay dividends: “It’s about trying to meet them where they’re at instead of forcing them down a path; that is the only way to go in reaching today’s youth.”
Eckersley is looking forward to settling into his new role and learning the history of the church and community: “I like to move slowly in that sense. I don’t want change just for the sake of change. It needs to be the right change; it needs to be working towards something.”
Eckersley’s installation service took place on July 2. His first official service will be on July 9. He will be preaching every Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
He concluded, “Life has a purpose, life has a reason; it might not always feel like that, but I think deep down everyone wants to understand why we’re living, why life is. We have answers to that. We don’t have all the answers, and we don’t have perfect answers, but through our belief in God, we can answer some of them.”
