NR #1996-004: More Christian Reformed Churches Secede from Denomination Synod 1995's decision to allow women in office by permitting classes to declare parts of two church order articles "inoperative" has led to the secession of one church and creation of four new churches with nearly 800 members. Three of the churches, Oak Glen (IL) Covenant Community Reformed Church, Community Reformed Bible Church of Highland, IN, and Immanuel Reformed Church (Indep.) of De Motte, IN, are in the southeast Chicago suburbs, historically known as a center for CRC conservatives. The other two in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, and Grande Prairie, Alberta, are in areas far removed from the centers of CRC denominational life. NR #1996-004: For Immediate Release More Christian Reformed Churches Secede from Denomination by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (January 16, 1996) URNS - Synod 1995's decision to allow women in office by permitting classes to declare parts of two church order articles "inoperative" has led to the secession of one church and creation of four new churches with nearly 800 members. Three of the churches, Oak Glen (IL) Covenant Community Reformed Church, Community Reformed Bible Church of Highland, IN, and Immanuel Reformed Church (Indep.) of De Motte, IN, are in the southeast Chicago suburbs, historically known as a center for CRC conservatives. Except for the Oak Glen church - which seceded with more than a three-quarters majority and now has 350 members - the churches formed when minorities of conservative churches left the denomination. According to Rev. Tom Wetselaar, pastor of Immanuel Reformed Church and former pastor of Bethel CRC in De Motte, the secession from his 392-member church began when the church council adopted a motion by a 7-6 vote critical of certain elders who had been meeting to consider leaving the denomination. The November 11 motion declared that "if officebearers no longer meet with small groups or inform people that they are leaving the denomination, they may remain in office. If officebearers continue to meet with small groups and tell people of their intention to leave the denomination, they must resign from office." Citing as grounds Proverbs 6:16-19, the preparatory exhortation to the Form for the Celebration of the Lord's Supper, and a statement that "as officebearers we must work in harmony and unity together," the motion had the effect of splitting the church. "We had one elder, 3 deacons resign the night of this meeting; the next night another deacon resigned, and subsequent to that one more elder and one more deacon resigned for a grand total of seven," said Wetselaar, who noted that he had not attended the meetings of the officebearers who were considering leaving the CRC and that he had initially asked for a terminal leave of absence from Bethel CRC rather than resigning from the CRC ministry. However, within a month the new church extended Wetselaar a call and he accepted on December 12. "The problem is we had two churches struggling within one church," said Wetselaar. "When I stepped down it was a very traumatic experience to me and this church." For now, the new De Motte church is meeting in the original building of First CRC of De Motte, now owned by Faith Lutheran Church. While the new church has only a quarter of the membership of Bethel CRC, Wetselaar noted that over half of its 110 members were children eighth grade and younger. "Basically the Cadet leaders, Calvinette leaders, Sunday school teachers, the organists, the elders and deacons, the people who really were the church servants have left and it has gutted the Bethel church," said Wetselaar. The third Chicagoland church, Community Reformed Bible Church, was formed in the aftermath of a congregational meeting at the 888-member Second CRC of Highland which rejected a 14 to 10 vote of the council to secede from the CRC. The October 23 congregational vote resulted in approximately sixty percent of the congregation deciding to remain in the denomination. "We really felt a large part of the congregation had no idea what was going on in the Christian Reformed Church," said Deacon Gerald Swets, president of the deacons at the new church. "We really didn't want to push anyone to leave the CRC who didn't feel comfortable; we presented a majority and a minority report, and wanted to give the congregation several weeks to look those over before we made a decision. Our whole goal was to give them the opportunity to make as informed a decision as possible." When Second Highland voted not to leave the denomination, four of the 24 council members resigned and formed a steering committee which led to the creation of the new church. Currently totalling 223 members with over 240 in attendance, the church began services on January 7 in the Highland Community Center and expects to have several more families join in the near future. "If that means growing significantly we're going to have to look at separating again," said Swets. "One of our goals is to get every member active in some sort of ministry, therefore each person can become an important part of the church; when you run out of places for people to serve, maybe its time to split up again." Swets said the new church would focus on small group ministry and discipleship rather than focus on controversy. "We're kind of middle of the road when it comes to worship style, we have special music and things like that," said Swets. "We want to pull the congregation together into smaller groups and get the whole congregation involved in fellowship groups; for the first time we've had more volunteers for teaching positions than we've had positions." The new church is already working to take advantage of its volunteers. "We just passed out a gift survey yesterday hoping to find places to plug everyone in," said Swets. Both of the new churches said they would not be using an option given to them by Synod 1970 to proportionally divide the assets of the church in the case of a split. "They're being decent to me now, and I would rather not aggravate the situation in the church," said Wetselaar. "I'm hoping for the day that we can work together and see eye to eye." While the three Chicagoland secessions are in a traditionally conservative area of the CRC, the other two secessions are anything but typical. The 42-member Westmoreland CRC in New Hampshire began in the late 1950's as an independent Bible church in a spiritually devastated part of New England. "Over the years a few of the families were Reformed and were seeking a minister; they were going to go either Presbyterian Church in America or Christian Reformed and via that route they entered the CRC," said Westmoreland pastor Rev. Ken Sanders. "This is an area that really needs the Reformed faith. That was the big change six years ago that they became confessional, and then we as leaders had the chance to educate the people on what it means to be Reformed." According to Sanders, the Westmoreland church's key concern was not so much women in office but Classis Atlantic Northeast's rejection of an overture from Champlain Valley CRC in Vermont regarding homosexuality. "I saw the classis response to the overture was twofold, one why bring this up, it was already discussed in 1973, and also a comparing of homosexual lust that it was equal to heterosexual lust," said Sanders. "Our hearts really drooped when we heard that, it showed us that the CRC has by and large accepted a wrong interpretation of Scripture." The result was that the Westmoreland CRC voted overwhelmingly to leave the denomination following Synod 1995. "We hope that it will also be an encouragement to other conservative churches in our classis to take seriously the biblical call to separation," said Sanders. The fifth church of the secession churches in the far northwest of the Canadian province of Alberta also has a quite atypical background. Among the key organizers of Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church of Grande Prairie, Alberta, is the son of an itinerant Pentecostal evangelist who became Reformed through the ministry of another secession church and returned to his hometown out of concern for the spiritual life of his friends. "It was under the influence of the Edmonton Orthodox Reformed Church that I came to see what could be done," said Tim Gallant. "I knew there were a lot of Reformred people here who were hungry and starving, and that there certainly was room to do something." Gallant said the new church - at present, an unorganized work under the supervision of the Edmonton congregation five hours away - began with several families listening to sermon tapes on the Lord's Day. "Over time we basically recognized we wanted to go a little further, to get together and really give it a shot," said Gallant. "We put together a formal request to ask the ORC to oversee what we were doing, they consented to that; Pastor [Bill] Pols and a couple of the elders came up, there was a meeting with a few interested people, and outlines of a faithful ministry, what people ought to expect from a faithful ministry." Currently meeting in the Seventh Day Adventist church of Grande Prairie, the new church still spends most of its time listening to reading services without a minister, although it had a seminarian, John Barach, working with the church last summer. "Since John left we've been having ministers every 2 or 3 weeks," said Gallant. "We have lots of guests when we have a minister, so it can get up to 35. We have some families about an hour away who also come when we have a minister; when we don't, they meet in their own group in their homes." Gallant called other likeminded churches to focus on a commitment to distinctively Reformed evangelism. "Grande Prairie for some reason has been particularly amenable to the charismatic movement, and even the established churches have that influence," said Gallant. "I think a lot of people have the impression here that the Reformed churches are a fortress and they haven't made much penetration into the broader community." Cross-References to Related Articles: #1993-015: Massive Membership Decline Wipes Out Three Years of Christian Reformed Growth; Largest Decline in CRC History Knocks Denomination Back to 1989 Levels; CRC Yearbook Undercounts Loss By 4500 members #1993-033: Koreans Call it Quits from Christian Reformed Denomination; John E. Kim Leads 15 Churches, CRC's Second-Largest Church to Secession; First General Synod of Korean Reformed Presbyterian Church in America to Meet in October, Expected to Have at Least 9 Classes, 55 Congregations #1993-044: First General Assembly of Christian Presbyterian Church Enrolls 41.4% of Christian Reformed Koreans #1994-006: 1994 CRC Yearbook Reports Loss of 11,000 Members, Ten Years of Growth Wiped Out; 3.5% drop from 311,202 to 300,320 members unprecedented in CRC history; Accelerating denominational loss totals 16,095 or 5.1% since 1992; CRC yearbook claims drop from 311,202 to 300,320 equals decline of 783 #1995-016 Continuing Christian Reformed Hemorrhage Costs CRC 22,000 Members in Three Years; Unprecedented Loss Tops Seven Percent of Pre-1993 Membership, Knocks Denomination Back Fifteen Years to 1980 Membership Levels #1995-017 Alliance of Reformed Churches Continues Dramatic Growth #1995-070: Christian Reformed Classes Permitted to Declare Church Order Ban on Women's Ordination "Inoperative"; Synod Decision Given Immediate Effect without Two-Year Ratification Process Contact List: Mr. Tim Gallant, Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church Box 281, Sexsmith, AB T0H 3C0 * H: (403) 568-2975 Rev. Paul Ipema, Pastor, Oak Glen Covenant Community Reformed Church 2224 Indiana Ave., Lansing, IL 60438-2107 * O: (708) 474-0172 * H: (708) 474-0172 Rev. Ronald Meyer, Pastor, Second Christian Reformed Church 3116 Ridge Rd., Highland, IN 46322 * O: (219) 838-0506 * H: (219) 838-2942 Rev. Bill Pols, Pastor, Edmonton Orthodox Reformed Church 18415 - 92 Ave., Edmonton, AB T5T 1P2 * (403) 487-7189 Rev. Ken Sanders, Pastor, Westmoreland Christian Reformed Church (Indep.) 33 Capon Rd., Westmoreland, NH 03466 * O: (603) 357-2313 * H: (603) 399-7213 Deacon Gerald Swets, Chairman of Deacons, Community Reformed Bible Church 2158 - 45th Ave., Highland IN 46322 * H: (219) 923-3939 Rev. Tom Wetselaar, Pastor, Immanuel Reformed Church PO Box 638, De Motte, IN 46310 Elder Will De Vries, Vice-President of Consistory, Bethel Christian Reformed Church 221 - 5th Place SE, De Motte, IN 46310 * O: (219) 987-2005 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-004.txt .