Rebuilding and renewal

The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) held its annual general assembly in Canada last month, the first time Synod has met north of the 49th parallel since 2012.

In his opening address to the delegates and guests gathered at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, the CRCNA’s General Secretary Zachary King said that 34 congregations, of a total of approximately 1,000 in North America, are in the process of disaffiliating from the denomination or have already done so recently.

The departures are due to actions taken by Synods in 2022, 2023 and 2024, in which the denomination’s position on human sexuality was confirmed as accepting only heterosexual marriages and that this stance was confessional. Church leaders have had to agree with this interpretation or leave. As a result, ordained pastors, congregations and even academic institutions such as Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies are cutting ties with a Reformed denomination that many would say is the very reason their understanding of Scripture led to an inclusive posture.

Yet King’s talk on June 13 was upbeat and spoke of the necessity of the Holy Spirit to convict, discipline and reform us. “Doesn’t God use persecution and adversity to shape us?” King asked.

Basing his talk on the story of the rebuilding of the temple from Ezra 3:10-13, King said the rebuilding of the temple for the Israelites included sadness and lament – and a smaller temple – but was evidence that God was working, and continues to work, in his followers today.

Christian Courier is sharing the perspectives and voices of some of the leaders – ordained and lay, present and future – who are now out of the CRCNA or on the way out, voices no longer welcome at Synod. Many of them speak of sadness too, but others see this as an opportunity for rebuilding and renewal – freedom to follow where the Holy Spirit is leading.

Roy Berkenbosch, a lay leader at Fellowship CRC in Edmonton, spoke at a recent meeting of Classis Alberta North of “exasperation and frustration that is very much a part of our reality” as Fellowship completed the disaffiliation process.

Energized by freedom

But Berkenbosch had more to say.

“Let me say to you that we are alive, healthy; our worship is joyful, our commitment strong, our future hopeful. We have happily welcomed several new members in recent months who have found among us a place of safety and belonging, a place where as one new attendee said, she felt she could ‘breathe again.’

“We are hopeful as we explore new connections with other faith communities, many of them similarly exiled by the CRC, as new networks and affiliations emerge. Even while we lament being discarded by Classis, we are energized by the freedom to chart a new path forward freed from the encumbrances of belonging to ecclesiastical structures that have become burdensome and an impediment to the ministry we believe God has for us.”

A warning

“Maybe you know the story of Glen Adsit and his wife – missionaries in China for many years, put under house arrest, one day told they had to leave and were allowed 100 lbs each. They sorted all their possessions, carefully weighing this and that. Finally, scales were balanced at 100 pounds and the soldier came – ‘did you weigh the kids?’ Suddenly everything else became trash.

“Did you weigh the kids? The ones you have baptized and to whom you have made promises and upon whom you have declared the promises of God’s unshakeable love? The children are watching.”

Heavy hearts

For worship leaders at one CRC (they asked to remain anonymous), the departure came early, when their church council began taking steps to ensure any rental tenants would be in compliance with the Human Sexuality Report. The council indicated their intention to require all church staff and volunteers to sign a code of conduct indicating their support of the HSR, at the same time signaling their refusal to consider softening their stance against women in office.
The worship ministry leaders resigned from their roles in December 2023.

“With heavy hearts, we resign from our positions as Worship Directors. We feel that our continued ministry will lead to further frustration and conflict. We would rather leave now, on a note of affirmation than on one of anger in coming issues. 

“We refer primarily to council’s intention to include volunteers in the code of conduct, which will create further division and disunity in the church, effectively creating a two-tiered membership. This is not something in which we would like to participate.  

“Secondly, council’s rejection of the many requests to reconsider the issue of women in office was particularly painful for us. It is difficult to plan services and lead worship knowing that council does not respect our opinion on the HSR and on women’s roles in leadership.

“Without the support of council, we cannot serve the congregation well. There are many beautiful things and people at this church and we will miss all of them.”

‘Sorrowful conviction’

Philosopher Calvin Seerveld, who has had a licence to exhort in the CRC since 1977, relinquished it last December.

“Because of the recent Synodical decision on sexuality (from 2022-2024) demanding that any leadership in the CRCNA must believe that homophilic unions entail flagrant unrepentant sin, I believe I need to return my permission to exhort in the CRCNA which now stands for such a judgment.

“I personally know followers of Jesus Christ who live as a same gender household that testifies of the love of our Lord. Their communion avoids loneliness. Some of these couples do not have a formal legal document but abide by moral norms and generate domestic peace.

“I send this letter of thanks to Willowdale Council and Classis Toronto, with the sorrowful conviction that Synod has over-reached its authority, and now has declared the CRCNA communion stands officially for something that has wrongly singled out, judged and hurt many fellow believers of Jesus Christ, like me.”

Vanished ethos

In February, theologian Nicholas Wolterstorff wrote in support of the decision of the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto to sever its relationship with the CRC.

“Over the years of its existence, ICS has reflected what was best in the CRC of the 1960s when it was founded by neo-Calvinist immigrants to Canada from the Netherlands.

“In my lifetime, the synods of the CRC have held discussions, stretching over many years, about a good number of highly controversial issues: about so-called worldly amusements, about the nature of biblical authority, about divorce and church membership, about the ordination of women, and more. The discussions were theological – and biblical. Participants listened to each other respectfully. There was no attempt to shut anyone down, and no attempt to rush to conclusions.

“The ICS Board writes that by giving their interpretation of scripture confessional status in the CRCNA, these synods have ‘effectively expell[ed] all those whose Christian consciences call them to dissent.’ I am among those who have been expelled.

Hope for renewal

“The denomination that gave birth to ICS no longer exists. There is no genuine and open theological discussion. My hope is that the action of ICS, and the writing, by myself and others, in support of that action, will stimulate the sort of discussion that the CRCNA has tried to shut down, of how to embrace in love those who find themselves to be LGBTQ+.”

Another long-time CRC pastor, Nick Overduin, whose time serving First CRC in Toronto two decades ago attracted negative attention from Synod due to his support of gay and lesbian Christians, also relinquished his ordination in a recent letter to Classis Toronto.

“When I enrolled at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1980, our professors explained that an early Christian creed is embedded inside Titus 3:4-8 which uses a once-only term to describe the grace of God as philanthropic.

‘When the kindness of God our Saviour, and his philanthropic love for all humanity appeared, he saved us not because of what we had done, but in accordance with his mercy.’

A limit on God’s love

“During my life-long career of full-time ministry, this early confessional saying from around 40 CE motivated me. The extravagant wildness of God’s passion for us, his reckless abandonment in pursuing us, his boundless enthusiasm about reversing our global plight, his unilateral dynamism – I preached it. I practiced it.

“But now my denomination has put an asterisk on God’s philanthropy. A stultifying clarification in the CRC’s Synod of 2022 has restricted the full range of anthropos and diminished the meaning of philos. We have been officially informed that the divine philanthropy doesn’t include most gay and lesbian people. Furthermore, all pastors who don’t vouch for this imported asterisk are being forced out. Many are indeed leaving, congregations are splitting, and tension is widespread.

“I am emeritus, thus under less stress than many others. But personally, rather than succumb to this cunning retroactive attack on Titus 3, I have decided to resign from CRC ministry. I will not submit to my impending removal from office. My denomination has sabotaged my first love, that most ancient of creeds. It now openly declares that God’s love excludes beautiful people.

Irreversible decline

“By scorning the earliest creedal affirmations of the fledgling Christians scattered throughout the Roman Empire in the 30s and 40s – their initial glimpse of a God on the move, a reckless God, a wild God, a philanthropic fanatic – the CRC has chosen a path of irreversible decline. Hoping that ordained ministers will disappear quietly is not proper ecclesiastical behaviour. The CRC needs to publicly own its recent embrace of heartlessness.”

Yet 20-year-old Robin Bick, who helped analyze written comments submitted to Christian Courier’s recent survey on the CRC, sees room for optimism.

“I was struck by how many people, of all ages, expressed a desire for inclusivity and change. Sixty-six percent of those in the age category 65 and older said that they felt they could no longer sign the office bearer covenant, with responses reflecting sentiments like, ‘God’s unconditional love is for everyone!’, and ‘Who among us could throw the first stone?’ 

All generations

“The results from synod over the past few years have been difficult. I want to be part of a CRC that welcomes all with open arms, as Jesus so famously did all those centuries ago. Watching those doors slam shut in front of several of my friends has been heartbreaking.  

“At times, it felt like we were outliers in our fight for inclusion. But reading the survey comments reminded me I’m not in this fight alone. There are people out there, from every generation, actively making a difference.  

“These results show that it’s not just the ‘woke’ generation crying for change, or a small fraction of the church. Across generations, there is a shared and growing desire to make the church an open and inclusive space. Together, from all generations and paths, we can make the CRC a place where all are welcome – just as Christ intended.”