Synod 2024: Step Forward as Confessionally Reformed

United in What?: Part 3

The conflict in the CRCNA is for the current and future identity of the denomination.

Will we be a denomination that is united in name but divided in beliefs?

Or will we be a denomination united in name and united in beliefs?

For most of our history, the Christian Reformed Church has been a denomination that took their beliefs incredibly seriously. Founded in secession in the Netherlands, secession in the New World of America, the Christian Reformed Church held to its convictions against strong cultural and religious winds.

And the CRCNA is once again at a crossroads for testing the conviction of the faith which we collectively profess.

Will we be a mainline denomination that has room for all?

Or will we be a confessional Reformed denomination that fits a specific place and function in the body of Christ, unique to us and uniquely useful to the body of Christ?

Let us strive to be unique!

Let’s turn from the path of bland lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, useful for nothing but being spit out from the mouth of our God.

Let us leave no foothold for the devil, but hold fast to the faith that was once for all delivered to us by the saints.

Let the RCA be the RCA. The PCUSA be the PCUSA. The UCC be the UCC.
But we the Christian Reformed Church must hold fast to our confessional convictions.

Our ancestors risked much when they broke from the Dutch national church and met secretly in fields and barns.

They risked much when they sailed across the Atlantic to an unknown world to live and worship according to their convictions.

They risked much when, despite the gracious aid delivered by the RCA in the first days in the new world, they knew that they could not be a room-for-all denomination, but must remain distinct. Even if that meant a much smaller denomination.

The CRCNA still has a powerful future to offer the North American church! But only if we remain distinct and convicted and faithful to the Bible.

We see it in the young men and women rising up in influence in our churches.
I see it in the young seminarians I met at Calvin Seminary.
They are here for the theology! They are here for the convictions. Because these are Biblical.

We need to be more counter-cultural, not less. More Biblical, not less.

My deep hope is that Synod 2024 will live into these convictions with a clear vision of our future as a thoroughly Reformed denomination. May every decision glorify God!

Glorify God by choosing officers who boldly hold to the beliefs of our confessions.
Glorify God by keeping us confessional and limiting gravamin to its intended purpose of being a temporary means of shaping confessional councils.
Glorify God by holding churches and officebearers accountable for affirming sin and leading their flock astray.

Let’s step forward into our future as a bright light in a foggy world.