Content & Delivery at CRCNA General Synod 2023

I am just an outsider*, but it appears to that this summer's General Synod of the CRC was marked by such ongoing tension that it may well have left the church with more confusion than clarity given the issues, the interaction and the things left unresolved.

I won't get into the details of the entire meeting and all the discussions and decisions in this post.  I think you can - and should! - get that from the CRC denomination news website TheBanner.org.  CLICK HERE for that.  

But when I read statements like .  .  .

"What grieves me is that we make decision here, and then we leave - and some decide to be ogres and jerks about it.  If you are going to vote for this majority report, please don't leave here and be a jerk about it.  .  .  Yes, I want to believe, if we're not jerks about it, we can find a place to converse."  

I'm seeing pretty significant tension, especially when the parties fail to reconcile or resolve.  CLICK HERE for the specifics. 

In this particular case,  I understand what the speaker is upset about, and have spoken to it myself, though I used different language.  CLICK HERE for the first and CLICK HERE for the second of two seperate blog posts.

It seems to me that when we speak as the church to our surrounding world, we need to be gospel-centered with BOTH our "content" AND our "delivery."  

There is in fact a "faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people" - Jude 3.  That is the "content" side of our message.  Though applied and communincated to each generation and setting, this "content" is not ours to be altered.  Neither the world nor the church can add to or subract from that content - though admittedly, we may all vary in what we include.

But there is also the "delivery" side of our responsibility.  I would say directly that it contradicts the gospel of God's grace when we communicate it with self-righteousness.  It is all too possible to say the "right" thing in the "wrong" way.  Sadly, I have experience in doing that and NO interest in repeating my mistake.  Even when we get the content correct - or as correct as humans can get God's truth - we can miscommunicate it because of our delivery.

Speaking only for myself-the-outsider* here: It looks to me like the CRC has gotten the content mostly correct with regard to the matter of human sexuality in our time; both with the full report and the modification made to QandA #108 of the catechism.  But I am also feeling a strong undercurrent of "missing it" on the delivery side of things.  The exhortation to "don't leave here and be a jerk about it" is a call to be just as concerned and Christ-like in our delivery as we must be with our content.  It's a BOTH/AND matter.

*Full Disclosure: I am not ordained in the Christian Reformed Church.  Instead, I have been a Teaching Elder in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church for over 35 years. (Learn more at EPC.org) I am currently serving in a congregation - Harderwyk Ministries - with over a century of connection to the CRC.  As a result, I have participated in Holland Classis meetings and observed General Synod meetings as something of an outsider, but one who wants to be respectful and appreciative of the CRC's history while also being supportive and involved in it's future.