Toward Canada keeps moving forward

On September 16 to 19, Toward Canada (formerly known as Toward CRC Canada) gathered in St. Albert, Alberta, for a conference entitled: Waymaking. Concerned about the Americanization of the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA), this expanding movement of Christian churches, organizations, missions and individuals is exploring a new association or network of Canadian churches. 

Many of the speakers over the three days of the conference expressed a desire to get away from a “bounded set” approach to Christianity, which focuses on defining who is “in” and who is “out” of the church. Instead, attendees were encouraged to think in terms of a “centred set” model, which focuses on a shared direction oriented toward a central point: Jesus. Conference attendees discussed how the church can live and act as God’s eyes, arms and heart in the world and the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5) came up often.

Disaffiliation wounds

While there is nothing new (and actually something quite old) in this approach to Christianity, several people I talked to said they found it refreshing. They lamented the ways identity politics has taken over white Evangelicalism in North America and caused pain as people are pushed out of churches, institutions and even families for being the “wrong” kind of Christian. 

For some at the conference, these wounds are quite fresh. Several attendees were from the 18 Canadian churches that have disaffiliated from the CRCNA (either kicked out or voluntarily left before they could be kicked out) because they refused to accept the doctrinal status of the positions laid out in the Human Sexuality Report (HSR). Many others were from churches operating under the threat of disaffiliation.

A sense of pain and heaviness was palpable at certain moments of the gathering, and tears were not uncommon. At the same time, I was impressed with Toward Canada’s ability to look forward: while there were workshops on religious trauma and on information and support for those in the process of disaffiliation, the majority of the plenary speakers and sessions focused on how to find new associations with other churches and organizations for mutual accountability in service of a shared mission. Several sessions ended with audience members sharing their takeaways and what they had learned, and I was struck by how often they spoke of hope. “I was feeling isolated, but now I feel hopeful that my church can move forward,” said one attendee.

This hopefulness (not quite an optimism) stemmed from the spirit of cooperativeness and mutual respect that permeated the entire event. Even when speakers were critical (like Fr. Joash Thomas was of the intertwining of colonization and international mission work), that criticism was framed in terms of finding better ways to follow God and pursue our shared life together as followers of Jesus. This focus on Christ as the center of our shared life and mission was reflected in the conference’s structure, with six different times of worship throughout the three-day gathering.

Hope and healing

For me, I think this was the most surprising thing. I attended the conference on behalf of the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) to see how this gathering of churches might be growing and developing and whether the ICS could have some role to play in its future. I went expecting a large amount of policy work and governance conversations – and, admittedly, there was a plenary session devoted to each of those things. But what I experienced was a hopeful and healing time of worship with other Christians who were more focused on following Jesus well than on figuring out who does or does not belong inside a church building or council room. 

I was also heartened to see the word “reformational” appear in potential mission and value statements for this new association of churches. That term has a long history of representing the transformationalist stream of reformed life (alongside the “doctrinal” and “pietist” streams). The transformationalists focus on living out their faith in all spheres of life as agents of transformation (or reconciliation) in our culture.

But, more important than this nod to Kuyperian theology, I was heartened to see the deep and heartfelt commitment to a genuinely Christian world-and-life-view permeate not only the content of the presentations, but their mode of presentation. Most of the plenary sessions were workshops of mutual discernment and collaboration, which is likely not something that would have been said about the reformationalist approach to the church in the 70s and 80s.

I was also struck by how little conversation there was about the HSR or the mistakes of the CRCNA. I had (again wrongly) assumed this would be a main focus of the conference, but it really was not. In keeping with their own stated preference for the centred-set model, the focus consistently remained on the shared direction (“how do we move forward?”) and the central point of focus: the person of Jesus Christ.

While questions certainly remain about the future of the Toward Canada group – including the nature of the shared commitment that the churches and institutions who are part of the group would have toward each other – the tone and tenor were of hopeful collaboration, seeking to move forward in shared conversation and mutual discipleship. I left sharing that hopeful feeling, excited that a new home may be growing for the transformationalist and reformational stream of Christianity that the CRCNA seems to be distancing itself from.