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Community Corner

Portraits of Faith: Pastor Doug Bratt

Bratt leads Silver Spring Christian Reformed Church on Arcola Avenue.

Wheaton's diversity is well-known, but that diversity also extends to the faith communities that worship in the area. Here's a chance to meet the people who lead the churches, synagogues and temples that make up Wheaton. 

First up is Pastor Doug Bratt, who leads Silver Spring Christian Reformed Church, nestled in a wooded area off of Arcola Avenue. 

Patch: Describe your congregation at .

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Doug Bratt: I would say that we have roughly 125 members. I haven’t broken it down more specifically than that. People come, I would say, from this part of Montgomery County, Olney area, and a few people from Prince George’s County.

Most people, I would guess, live within about a 20 to 25 minute drive on Sunday. It is a largely Anglo congregation, middle class to upper middle class probably. Pretty highly formally educated—most of the people who attend here have some kind of post-high school education and quite a few of them have doctorates.

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Most tend to work in government or government-related work. A fair number are teachers as well. The age demographics are fairly evenly spread in terms of retirees, 40 to 60 year-olds and 20 to 40 year-olds.

Patch: How do you reach out to churchgoers?
DB: We have two services on Sunday. One is at 11:00 a.m. and one is at 6:00 p.m. They are two distinct services. There are religious education classes, Sunday School, for children on Sunday mornings and for young adults and high school students. There is a somewhat irregular adult class on Sunday mornings.

Not a lot goes on formally during the week because people are so scattered.  But we do have a number Bible study groups of 6 to 10 people who meet regularly, some weekly. We also have something called “Bridging the Gap,” which is a deliberately intergenerational group that meets monthly for fellowship.

Patch: How did you become a pastor?
DB: When I was in college, I took sociology and intended to become a social worker.

But I felt like that would mean working with just one specific group, like children, teenagers, or married couples. I felt like ministry is an opportunity to work with a whole variety of people. Over the course of time I came to believe that this is what God wanted me to do. I have relatives who are teachers and pastors and encouraged me to consider going into the ministry. I went to seminary theological school and graduated in 1987. I’ve been in ministry for about 23 and a half years.

Patch: What do you think should be the place of religion in wider society?

DB: I think that one of the things that Jesus calls us to do is to love God above all, but also each other as much as we love ourselves. One of the places of religion is to love and to serve each other, especially the most vulnerable members of society—the poor, children, and immigrants. I think that religion has the power to be a very good influence in terms of calling people to love and to serve each other.

I think that within our faith tradition, well, there’s a certain part of our culture that says that religion and public life have to be separate. We would say that they’re not separate, but that our faith influences the way we act so that we don't try to impose our values on the broader society, but we do try to act in loving, and forgiving, and compassionate, and kind ways. Because that’s the way Jesus acted and that’s the way we think Jesus calls us to act.

We want people to take their faith seriously in the public square and the public arena, but take it seriously in terms of love and service.

Patch: Pulling the conversation back more locally, where’s your favorite place to be in Wheaton?

DB: Well, I’ve been married almost 30 years and my wife and I love to eat at on University Boulevard. We also like . And we love to walk through .

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