Answering Rita’s question
Part one of "Four Fresh Approaches to Synod."
It was the defining moment of this Synod.
“If [upholding confessional status] passes,” Rita Klein-Geltink asked, “can someone who is unsure of what God expects of LGBTQ people become a member of the CRC? Can my four sons and their wives – if they fall into this category of unsure – can the CRC still be their home?”
This confessional answer is critical. And we need to do better than having goat gates that say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ We need to create new structures and new traditions, and find a way to not simply separate sheep from goats but to grow what our confessions hold.
People who are struggling with alignment with confessions with the denomination that they’re in – there are lots of layers and levels to that. What people need is guidance and authentic community. If an elder or deacon is struggling with something, a confessional gravamen would be appropriate. We don’t need a gate, yes or no, we need a conversation. You could even have Youtube channels or podcasts on issues, because the goal is not just keeping the sheep in the pen, the goal is growing the church on all levels.
If a pastor signs a gravamen, at that point you need the classis. What resources do we have for this pastor? The goal is not setting up all of these little Kafka traps or binary ‘gotchas.’ The goal is to have a system where the confessional development and growth of the church can take place.
Currently with our system of assemblies we don’t really have that. We have another year to work on this gravamen issue. Let’s work on developing structures that lead to better confessional development.
Can a split be avoided? I don’t know. Both sides have to give a little. One side would have to say, look, we’re going to be teachable. We’re going to publicly maintain the confessional integrity of the church but in appropriate spaces and places we’re going to have confessional conversations in order to achieve the truth and presence of Christ in our midst. That’s our goal. I don’t believe such a thing is impossible for the CRC. To me, that’s the way forward.
Paul is a CRC pastor in Sacramento, California. He runs a lively YouTube channel with over 26K subscribers.
Reading the room
By Rita Klein-Geltink
I asked four questions in total, but everyone picked up on the one about my kids. I also asked if any “unsure” person could be a member of the CRC, if any “unsure” person could be an office-bearer, and if any unsure person could still file a gravamen.
Seems to me, the answer to all the questions is “no.” Unless, of course, somewhere along the way they change their mind to align with the conservative side. In other words, they can only be “unsure” for a while. Sadly, this seems to mean that no more study is to be done on the topic.
FOUR FRESH APPROACHES TO SYNOD
“Instead of writing a regular news piece about the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) recent Synod, I decided to engage with it creatively through four questions: What was Synod 2023’s watershed moment? Why did Synod run out of time? Could Overtures be submitted any other way – in video format, perhaps? And what would Abraham Kuyper say about it all, if we had a robot with his personality who could imagine being in Grand Rapids? (We do!)”
– Angela Reitsma Bick, Editor
Read the other parts to this series:
– Synod, interrupted
– Video overtures?!
– Even robots grow weary
