NR #1995-032: For Immediate Release Reformed Church in America Expels Leading Conservative Church for Nonpayment of Denominational Assessments by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer Reformed Believers Press Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (April 13, 1995) RBPS - The leaders of the American Revolution had a slogan: "taxation without representation is tyranny." Apparently the leaders of America's oldest continuously-established denomination take an equally dim view of representation without taxation. In an unprecedented decision, the Reformed Church in America's Classis of North Grand Rapids held a special closed-door session on March 7 and voted by a 45-17 margin to expel its second-largest congregation, the 1038-member Seventh Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, because the church refused to pay $7484 in assessments for the denominational periodical and seminaries. The total denominational assessment amount owed by Seventh Reformed was $21,384, but the church chose to pay a total of $13,900 in assessments for most denominational line items other than the Church Herald and the Board of Theological Education. The classical vote follows a decision by the 1994 RCA General Synod not to seat the delegates from the Classis of North Grand Rapids and the Classis of Muskegon on the grounds that they had not paid their denominational assessments in full. The RCA assessment procedure is dramatically different from that of most other Dutch Reformed denominations. Each classis is obligated to collect annual "regular assessments" of $12.29 per member and forward the funds to the General Synod. Other assessments are collected as well: a special assessment of $1.50 per member for the Board of Pensions, $5.18 per member for the General Program Council, and $2.68 for the Board of Theological Education. The requirement is backed up by a provision in the RCA Book of Church Order stating that "a classis shall be required to be current in its payment of its General Synod assessments before its delegates are seated as members of the General Synod." If a local church does not or cannot pay its full assessments, the classis may make up the deficiency from its own funds or from contributions by other churches. Due to the fairly low total amount of the assessments - which are only a tiny fraction of the corresponding annual Christian Reformed denominational ministry share of $612.38 per family and $261.86 per professing member - classes almost always are able to make up deficiencies in assessments. At the 1994 RCA General Synod, the nonpayment provision of the denominational book of church order was invoked for the first time in RCA history against the two classes, each of which had a large congregation which refused to pay its assessments. Ironically, the churches had opposite reasons for nonpayment: Seventh Reformed refused to pay the assessments for the Church Herald and for the seminaries out of opposition to theological liberalism, whereas the 3565-member Christ Community Church of Spring Lake - a theologically progressive congregation which has gone as far as changing the Lord's Prayer to "Our Father and Mother," - refused to pay assessments for the Church Herald out of a belief that denominationalism is becoming irrelevant. Seventh Reformed also objected to making mandatory assessments for any causes other than denominational administration, arguing that RCA practice since 1864 has required all non-administrative causes to raise funds through voluntary contributions. Following the 1994 decision, Christ Community Church decided to pay its assessments, leaving Seventh Reformed as the lone dissenter. The consequences of continued nonpayment could have been quite high: in the Reformed Church in America, as in most Presbyterian denominations, civil court decisions often allow denominations to claim the property of congregations which withdraw from the denomination. However, the motion formally proposed to classis stated only that "classis remove Seventh Reformed Church and their property from the Classis of North Grand Rapids." "I think it was done out of an offering of grace, concern and compassion, and also to facilitate the ongoing ministry of Seventh Reformed Church," said Rev. Curry Pikaart, president of the RCA's Regional Synod of the Great Lakes. "The vote should not be seen as a vote on theology but as a judicial, procedural vote." In a further show of moderation, the motion formally proposed to classis did not include earlier language that would have removed Seventh Reformed's ministers from the denomination, thus allowing its pastoral staff to remain members of the RCA despite their service in an independent church. However, Seventh Reformed's pastor, Dr. John R. de Witt, indicated that he and retired pastor Rev. Charles Krahe would likely be leaving the RCA as well. "We are trying to think of what to do," said de Witt. "Our ministerial credentials are in the classis and we have to decide where we want to go." De Witt emphasized that Seventh Reformed never intended the assessment dispute to lead to a rupture with the denomination. "Leaving the Reformed Church was the farthest thing from our minds," said de Witt. "We're not separatists. Everybody always says you've got to stay until you get thrown out, and we got thrown out." De Witt said that his background as a seventh-generation pastor made the split from the RCA particularly difficult. "I feel a bottomless sadness for the Reformed Church that things have come to this," said de Witt. Following the expulsion, the consistory of Seventh Reformed Church sent a letter to all congregations of the RCA throughout the United States objecting to the expulsion. Pikaart said Seventh Reformed's letter left out certain key items. "I would say there was one glaring error: all three of their elder delegates voted in favor of the proposal. There were other things in the letter that were left unsaid," noted Pikaart, who said de Witt did vote against the expulsion of his church. "The implication is that the one hour session was all the discussion there was; over a two to three year period the assessment issue was discussed with them in a number of forms," said Pikaart. "I think classis has said we're going to say as little as possible, we're not going to stir it up. That has not been a joyous nor pleasant experience, although I believe the classis acted very pastorally through the judicial process." "Classis reluctantly voted feeling no options were left there," said Pikaart. Where Seventh Reformed and de Witt will go is not at all clear. The congregation sent observers to attend meetings of the Alliance of Reformed Churches for the last few years, but de Witt is a strong opponent of independency and has written a number of books and articles attacking independency as un-Reformed. De Witt was most recently a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and pastor of one of its largest congregations, Second Presbyterian Church of Memphis, Tennessee. However, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church allows local option on women in office and the charismatic movement - positions toward which Seventh Reformed has historically taken a strongly negative stand. Cross-References to Related RBPS Articles: #1994-038: Classis Grand Rapids East Votes "In Principle" to Permit Churches to Disobey CRC Synod's Ban on Women Elders #1994-041: Unprecedented Decision of Reformed Church in America Synod Removes Voting Rights from Two Regional Classes #1994-050: Classis Grand Rapids East "Refines" July Decision to Disobey Christian Reformed Synodical Ban on Women Elders #1994-064: Number of Christian Reformed Churches Allowing Women Elders Reaches Seventeen #1995-012: Classis Illiana Overtures CRC Synod to Disenfranchise Classis Grand Rapids East for Ecclesiastical Disobedience #1995-020: Minnesota South Asks Synod to Disenfranchise Churches with Women Elders and Terminate Members from CRC Committees #1995-021: Classis Hudson: Remove Churches with Women Elders from Christian Reformed Denomination, Effective Immediately #1995-028: Classis Wisconsin Overtures Board of Trustees to Unseat Classis Grand Rapids East for Ecclesiastical Disobedience Contact List: Dr. John R. de Witt, Pastor, Seventh Reformed Church (RCA) 950 West Leonard St., Grand Rapids, MI 49504 * (616) 459-4451 Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary, Reformed Church in America 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115 * O: (212) 870-2841 News Office, Reformed Church in America (Tim Baker) 4500 - 60th St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 * O: (616) 698-4951, 698-7071 Rev. Curry Pikkaart, President, Regional Synod of the Great Lakes 1465 - 3 Mile Rd. NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 * O: (616) 784-4060 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr95-032.txt .