Churches prepare to leave CRC following LGBTQ+ decision

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Christian Reformed churches that are LGBTQ-affirming must repent or leave, the denomination has decided.

Delegates and church leaders met throughout the week at Calvin University in Grand Rapids for this year’s Christian Reformed Church in North America Synod, the denomination’s annual assembly. As it did for the past two years , this year’s Synod largely focused on the role of LGBTQ+ community members in the denomination.

In 2022, Synod voted to uphold its position that same-sex relationships are sinful, but having attractions to the same sex is not in itself sinful. The denomination voted to make its stance a confessional issue, or a core belief. This meant office-bearers — including pastors, deacons and elders — and CRC school faculty must share the belief that LGBTQ+ relationships are sinful, and cannot be in same-sex relationships themselves .

Still, some churches remained LGBTQ+ affirming, and office-bearers could file a notice (referred to as a confessional-difficulty gravamen) stating they disagreed with the church’s stance.

The CRC Synod this year voted to call affirming churches into a process of discipline. Those churches must publicly repent and withdraw their affirming statements, or they must disaffiliate from the denomination. If the churches do neither, they will be removed from fellowship with the denomination.

“This year’s synod just concluded,” Zachary King, general secretary of the CRCNA, said in a statement to News 8 Thursday. “The agenda included several items related to discipline and clarity around issues of human sexuality. Over the past several years, synod has worked hard to articulate our understanding of what the Bible says about sexuality and how this relates to our confessions as a church. Now that that has been clearly defined, this year’s synod focused on clarifying procedures for congregations and office bearers who may wrestle with this understanding; with a commitment to help guide them in their understanding, or create pathways for them to disaffiliate if their convictions are already settled.

“We know that these decisions are lamented by some of our members even as they are commended by others. We hurt because part of our body is hurting, and we pray that the clarity that has been established will help us move forward.”

He noted that synod made other big decisions throughout the week.

“We adopted a Global Vision report that pointed us toward an exciting future of relationships with Reformed congregations around the world, heard wonderful testimonies from our current Korean and Hispanic congregations, approved 25 new candidates for ministry, and celebrated plans to plant 33 new churches in the coming year,” the statement says. “We are grateful for what God is doing despite our human struggles and divisions.”

Synod delegate Trish Borgdorff told News 8 there are 28 affirming churches in the denomination, including Eastern Avenue CRC in Grand Rapids, where she is an elder.

She expects many of those churches will make the decision to disaffiliate.

“(Eastern Avenue CRC) became affirming in 2022,” she said. “It was the result of a 10-year conversation. And so for us, it was a process of responding to a call of God. … To repent from a call of God is — puts us in a very difficult situation. And so I believe that we are at a point that it is really our only option.”

Disaffiliation will be a painful process, Borgdorff, who grew up in the CRC church and whose dad served in the denomination’s executive leadership for more than 25 years, said.

“I felt a deep cord of sorrow through the week because of what the denomination has been in my life, and the ache of what won’t be anymore, the good people who share the incredible sense of who God is and God’s grace and God’s goodness,” she said. “That’s hard to recognize that we’re walking away from that — or being sent out, I’m not sure. There isn’t room for us anymore in the denomination I love.”

Thursday morning, she read a farewell to Synod, on behalf of herself and the churches that will disaffiliate.

“What grieved my heart the most was that we were separating over conflict,” she told News 8 while recounting her farewell. “In a broken world where we so long for peace, that even under what we know to be God’s call on our lives, we couldn’t find it with each other. And so it was a call to all of us to acknowledge that the problem we are facing, we all contributed to. It’s not any one person, not any one side.”

Sherman Street CRC, another affirming church that will likely leave the denomination, held an information session Thursday evening, followed by a lament service.

It’s the third year the church has hosted a lament service following Synod, Pastor Jennifer Holmes Curran and Pastor Tony Holmes Curran told News 8.

Several people from Sherman Street CRC and other churches gathered in-person or over Zoom to pray, sing songs and share what they were feeling. Some cried, others shared memories of growing up in the CRC church and one person read a poem.

Sherman Street CRC was founded in 1907, and has been part of the denomination throughout its history, the pastors shared.

“We made a decision to be an affirming church two years ago, knowing that this might be the consequence, really hoping that it wouldn’t,” Pastor Jennifer Holmes Curran said. “It’s heartbreaking that this is how it has turned out, particularly for people in our congregation who have been in the CRC their entire lives. It’s going to be a real grief, but we also kind of knew that this might happen and this might be the cost of following Jesus in this way.”

Her husband said ultimately, “God is love” is the message their church strives to embody.

The two said while they don’t want to leave the CRC, they still “want nothing but good things for the Christian Reformed Church,” a sentiment Borgdorff echoed.

“We see things differently,” she said. “But God is good and God is gracious, and we are all serving the same God. And so as we go about it differently, may we go about it in a way that will further his kingdom, and may one day, when we dwell in the house of the Lord forever together, may we find a way to be in awe of how unity has been achieved.”

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