Bird’s eye view

One of my biggest joys when working for the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) denomination for 25 years was the opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the church. At times it was more like a high-flying 30,000 foot view. My work lifted me out of my own individual church and community to see ministry happening in the United States and Canada and the world! I was given the opportunity to go out and encourage and equip those in ministry – but the truth was that I was learning so much from those I ministered to. My eyes were opened to the beauty of the unique CRC churches from east to west, north to south. I was able to experience and enjoy diverse experiences in cultures and languages in places very different from my own.

And more than my eyes being opened, my heart grew to love all the differences and uniquenesses. I believe God gave me glimpses of The Church, the Bride of Christ that is so much bigger and more beautiful than I ever imagined.

Now that I’m retired from that official work, my heart still cares deeply for the CRC and all that she is. So much has changed in a few short years since I left the office during Covid. Ministry has always been difficult. But now the difficulty of leading and serving a denomination seems to have reached a whole new level.

I wish everyone could have the experience of having a ministry acquaintance in an east coast church and a west coast church, a Canadian church and an U.S. church, a Spanish-speaking church and a Korean-speaking church, a suburban church and a city church, a prison church and a rural church, a 100+ year old church and a new micro church, a Ukrainian church and a Chinese church, an African church and . . . . you get the idea.

I wish everyone could have that bird’s eye experience because if we truly knew people in these churches and cared deeply about them and their unique ministry, maybe we would understand our need for each other in a whole new way. I wonder if we would see that what holds us together isn’t what we do, it’s what Christ did and continues to do every day. I wonder if having a friend in so many diverse places would increase our desire to learn from each other, even if it meant learning from someone very different from what we currently know.

I wonder with great sadness sometimes, because I’m afraid for the CRC. It’s no secret that we’ve become polarized, with groups sectioning off around different interpretations of scripture and what each thinks the church should look like.

No middle ground

It seems that we’re at a crossroads. We can follow the historical road where our Protestant predecessors have taken us and split . . . and split again . . . and again. But why? Someone once said to me, “we’ll go our way and you go yours, and then we’ll all meet up in heaven someday.” What sense does that make? Does that make any kind of “Christian sense” to you?

It may seem easier to keep splitting to allow us to be with like-minded people and to worship and serve in comfort and without opposition. But If we choose to surround ourselves with those who share our way of thinking and have none other to stretch it or refine it, we are not being challenged in our version of the truth. Do we then become Pharisees who are trying to do church right according to us?

I talk to many people and pastors who consider themselves to currently be somewhere in the middle of the modern day issues. They like being in the middle, even though it’s messy to have people to the right and left of you who don’t agree as you are searching for wisdom. We live in a society and even a church that tells us we need to choose sides. But if we are all forced to align with a side someone has chosen for us, there is no middle. This cutting off of those with differing thoughts and beliefs, in my opinion, is one of the greatest dangers we face today. If push comes to shove, many will consider themselves shoved out of the CRC. Dangerous times.

This makes no sense to me. My bird’s eye view and experience gives me a bigger perspective. I believe we need each other and that our differences are needed to make a more beautiful and complete whole. I don’t feel complete without you, even if we disagree on some matters. What we agree on is so much greater – that Christ is the head of the church. It is God’s idea. It is powered by the Holy Spirit. God is with us, of whom shall we be afraid?

Bottom line, I believe we need each other more than we need to weed each other out of the garden. I continue to pray that in spite of ourselves, God keeps pruning us, watering us, feeding us, and shining on us. And I pray that we and those who lead us will make choices to stay in the same garden, diverse, beautiful and productive for the benefit of others.