Confessional

So who are we?   I have had that question asked of me many times throughout my life.   From birth to the present I have always been a member of a Christian Reformed Church (CRC).   I have lived in three countries and on two continents, but I have always been a part of the CRC.   In my youth the school I attended was across the road from a Reformatory.   When I told other children that I went to the Reformed church they thought I was attending a penal institution.   It got confusing.   So who are we?

This question has to do with our culture, what we value as a denomination.    In a previous blog I mentioned five Biblical values that shape the culture of the CRCA, a contemporary, Reformed, gospel-focused denomination.    These values are worth reflecting on, as Lyle Schaller has said:   "The most important single element of any congregational or denominational culture is the value system."  (Getting Things Done: 1987)  Who you are or what you deem is important to you will determine what you will do. 

So in the CRCA when we say that we are "contemporary Reformed", what do we mean?   By this value we are saying that we as a denomination are both confessional and contextual.   Let's begin with the idea of being confessional.   This describes who we are as a denomination, what we deem is important to us as churches.   We are confessional.   By confessional we are not referring to the confessional booth you find in some Christian churches.   Rather a confessional church or denomination is one that holds to one or more of the historical creeds and confessions of the Christian faith.   

In his thoughtful and helpful book Deep Church, pioneering church planter Jim Belcher makes the case that the church in the postmodern era has been marked by a certain shallowness.  He describes the polarity we often see today between many emerging churches at one end of the spectrum and traditional churches on the other.  Borrowing language from C.S. Lewis, Belcher argues for the deep church, a third way beyond both emerging and traditional churches.   For C.S. Lewis the 'deep church' is a church committed to mere Christianity.   

A commitment to 'mere' Christianity does not equate with being 'shallow'.   Quite the opposite.   As Belcher describes the 'deep church' he argues that the deep church believes in foundations.   As in the building of a house, the foundations support the structure.   Belcher goes on to say that "...the foundations are built on belief, not reason.... We believe in order to understand." (Deep Church, p. 84)  This is true of the CRCA.   We have foundations, and these foundations are built on our beliefs.   These beliefs help us form the foundation of what it means to be church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now for some people this idea of having beliefs to help us understand might sound strange.  In fact, as Mark Dever writes, "In society today, beliefs have been domesticated.   We no longer fight about them.  We don't really argue about them.   We may not even care about them anymore.   After all, we think, so many beliefs are merely passing fashions or momentary expressoons of individual wants or desires.   [We] create designer religions and smorgasbord faiths.... Today people believe to be true simply what they desire to be true." (Nine Marks, p. 58) 

But in the CRCA having a set of beliefs is not strange.  In fact we do care about our beliefs.  We do argue about them and at times have even fought about them.   Heeding the words of Scripture, we "stand firm and hold to the teachings" that have been passed down to us over the centuries. (See 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 11:2)   We recognize, as the early church understood, that there are foundational beliefs that unite us as believers and enable us "to live a life worthy of the calling we have received" as churches.  (Ephesians 4:1; cf. vv. 3-4) 

What are these foundational beliefs?  Most of what we believe we hold in common with the Christian church around the world and throughout the ages.   Our understanding of key Christian doctrines is summarized in the Three Ecumenical Creeds (Apostles', Nicene, Athanasian), the Three Forms of Unity (the Belgic Confession,  the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dordt) as well as The Westminster Confession.   As churches we accept that these confessional and creedal statements are in harmony with the Word of God.   Every leader (pastor, elder, deacon) in the church is committed to defend these beliefs and to reject all teachings that contradict them. 

This is who we are!   We are confessional.   These foundational beliefs we hold on to give shape to what we do as churches, how we live out our calling as churches in Australia and the world.   This value in the CRCA explains why we do certain things.   So the next time someone asks you, "What does it mean to be Reformed?", simply tell them, we are confessional!   Point them to the "gospel" that is summarized in our creeds and confessions.  And allow these deep truths to undergird everything you do as a church.      

But as a denomination the CRCA is not only confessional.   It is also contextual.   More about that next week.