Anxious? You’re not alone

When CC decided to run an independent survey on how Christian Reformed churches in Canada were responding to decisions made at Synod 2024 by its binational denomination, we knew it would garner interest. But we had no idea just how much! As a uniquely Canadian publication with roots in the Reformed tradition, CC has been tracking what it means to be CRC in Canada for years – decades, even. There’s no doubt that synodical rulings on confessionally defined unchastity, which began with adoption of the Human Sexuality Report in 2023, have drawn a pretty firm line in the confessional sand. Responses to that line are all over the map, which is why a survey to make sense of the Canadian response is important.

Why this survey now?

Why? For two reasons: First, to fill a void. Even to those of us with our ears to the ground, it’s not obvious what’s happening nationally, regionally and sometimes not even locally (30% of respondents attend churches that did surveys of their own members, for example, for reactions to Synod 2024). Second, to help everyone – including individuals, church councils, pastors and denominational leaders – understand what shape the Canadian response to Synod 2024 is taking in 2025.

With academic feedback and advice, a CC survey committee crafted 13 questions to help determine how members of the CRC in Canada are feeling, how closely they’ve been following Synod, and whether their church participation has or will change since decisions made by Synod 2024. Every question had a neutral option, which means that respondents were not forced to choose between extremes.

Overwhelming response

We posted the survey on January 22, and in less than a day more than 300 people had filled it out. The numbers climbed steadily from there, until our final tally of 1,199 responses in two and a half weeks. The survey was publicized through CC’s channels (print, website, newsletter and social media platforms) and through bulletin announcements sent to 244 CRC churches in Canada (on Jan. 23). Though we don’t know how many churches published our blurb about the survey, we do know that 40% of respondents said they don’t read CC – so that gives us some confidence that this went beyond CC circles. We also put measures in place to ensure it could not be completed by anyone outside Canada (as one Canadian on holiday in Florida found out!) and prevented trolling by limiting responses per device.

There are currently 38,185 Canadian members of the CRCNA, according to the Yearbook, which means that our survey reached 3.14% of that total. Since this is not a random sample, we cannot say for sure how representative it is of all Canadian CRC members. However, we think the results are broad enough to capture the diversity of opinion among our members, and, while we can’t be confident that our percentages precisely match the CRC population in Canada, some percent differences are large enough to indicate they are important. In other words, these results should be taken seriously.

Faced with a mountain of data, I called a faith-based researcher and a Professor of Sociology to figure out the next best steps. As you will see, some of our data is straightforward: Would you sign the Covenant for Office-bearers? Yes, No, Not sure. But given the complexity of the issues, six questions had an optional fill-in-the-blank with the invitation: Would you like to say more about the answer you gave? Nearly a third of our respondents took us up on that offer – a very high percentage which, the sociology professor noted, is unusual and indicates strong emotion behind the answers. This means that in addition to our numerical analysis, we have nearly 3,800 comments to inform our findings. Not only that but 450 people volunteered to be contacted for follow-up interviews or focus group conversations – a very high number for an anonymous survey. Once again, this demonstrates how much passion is behind the data. After my analysis on two questions regarding a distinct CRC in Canada was complete (see “Five Conversations,” page 1), the sociology professor looked over the methods and hand-coding documents and thought they appeared fair and balanced. Time constraints prevented CC staff from going through every question before this issue went to press, but we plan to publish a longer report in April (and make it freely available on our website).

When I shared the first set of survey data with both Al Postma and the leaders of Toward CRC Canada, I asked what they would say to the hundreds of people who describe feeling “concerned” and “anxious” about the future of the denomination in Canada (see page 7 for more).

“We too are concerned,” Everett Vander Horst and Peter Bulthuis of Toward CRC Canada said. “The good news is that there is very little apathy out there. ‘Concern’ means you want to see the CRC flourish in Canada. And it is out of our own concern that we’ve been working to map a way forward.” Though their reasons vary greatly, “anxious” is the category 46% of our respondents picked to describe their current state of mind about the CRC in Canada.

“There are real and significant challenges facing the CRC, and the anxiety people have expressed is understandable,” Al Postma, ED for the CRC in Canada said. “It’s important to not lose sight of the strengths and resources we have as a denomination. While the road ahead will not be easy, I truly believe we can navigate these challenges with grace and wisdom. Even in the uncertainty, we can have a deep peace – rooted in the strong conviction that the church belongs to Christ, and he will continue to lead us forward.”