Bruce Adema, the new pastor at Bethany Christian Reformed Church in Bloomfield, has had an overwhelmingly positive first impression of the county.

Having been here since January, Adema is very grateful to be part of the County community.

“It’s a beautiful place we’ve noticed,” expressed Adema. “A lot of wonderful opportunities to be a part of the community. Our first impressions have been overwhelmingly positive and we’re very grateful to be part of the County now.”

Born in Brampton, Ontario Adema started out working for a paramedic service in his early 20’s and began to hear a higher calling. Not long after, he made the life-changing decision to study theology at the Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids Michigan.

Since his training,  Adema served as pastor of a church in Southern Ontario before taking another posting at a church in Alberta. He also served in the Philippines for nine years as a church planter, was a professor at a seminary and was the director of Canadian Ministries for the Christian Reformed Church.

“I was working for an ambulance service and I started to think maybe I needed to do something else,” Adema told the Gazette. 

Adema went on to speak of some of the challenges the church and community faces now with this global pandemic.

“The challenge for the church is to know how to respond to the spiritual needs in the community,” stated Adema. “With covid everything has changed, everything is up in the air and we’re having to reinvent our ministry so that our members and the community at large receive the best service from the church. I think there is a lot of loneliness in our community that was exacerbated by covid and my people are looking for connection, their looking for a place to belong, a place to find truth and hope and the church is trying to do that in a way that is sensitive, accessible and transformative.”

For more information or to watch an online service please visit http://bloomfieldbethanycrc.org/tp42/Default.asp?ID=128349