The Crisis Point in the CRCA

There has been some talk recently about the CRCA reaching a crisis point. And I would agree,

but perhaps not as some would think. For some our very status as gospel churches is under threat. From my vantage point as I travel across the denomination, I see something quite different. I see the gospel making impact in and through our churches.

The word crisis literally means "turning point." This is how the "father of medicine", the 5^th century Greek doctor Hippocrates used this word, and where our use of the word came from. One moment you are sick, but then there is a crisis – a turning point, and you become healthy again. Or visa versa. The word critical comes from the same Greek word(krisis). When a person enters a "critical care unit" in a hospital we realise that we have reached a crisis – it can turn for the worse or for the better. 

What is the crisis point in the CRCA? Which way are we turning? For better or for worse?  Well, what do I see?  Now I admit that my viewpoint is limited to the 27 months I have lived and worked among the CRC congregations in Australia.  But check it out!  In 2006 the CRC adopted a missional vision to direct the current chapter of our denomination in the first part of the 21st century.  Building upon our strong Reformed heritage and our pioneering spirit, as churches we decided to expand our gospel impact throughout Australia and beyond.  We know that we are no longer simply a church targetting migrants from Holland.  Rather, like the Christ followers who moved from Jerusalem to Antioch in the 1st century, we recommitted ourselves to tell our Australian neighbours "the good news about the Lord Jesus." (see Acts 11:19-21).   Why?  So that a great number of people might reach a crisis point in their own lives, and turn to the Lord in true repentance and faith.

In my travels some people ask me:  "With this missional vision, does this mean that we lose our Reformed distinctives?"   I assure them that it is quite the opposite.  The Bible remains God's infallible rule for faith and life.  Our message has not changed:  we are saved by grace alone, by faith alone.   Our only comfort in life and in death is in the saving work of Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Saviour and Lord.  We recognise the priesthood of all believers.  We build upon the solid foundation of our creeds and confessions.   We confess that our world belongs to God, that his claim is upon every square centimeter of creation.   This is our message!

What has changed is not our message, but a few of methods.  We realised that some of the ways we did church were ineffective in reaching lost people for Christ.   Seminary professor Dr. Elmer Towns put it this way:  "When culture changes, adjust your methods or you will lose your effectiveness ... but never change your message or your principles!  When methods no longer work, don't blame the harvest as being unreachable; instead ask God if it is time to change your methods."  When our denominational statistics revealed that we were not bringing in the harvest, then we sensed God telling us it was time to change some of our methods.

I believe that today, several years later, we are seeing a turning point, a crisis, in our churches.   There are a growing number of churches taking the Natural Church Development (NCD) survey.   These churches realise that to be a growing church you need to be a healthy church.  Each of them are taking steps to increase health knowing that in so doing they will reach more people for Christ.  Regulary I am in contact with pastors who are asking strategic questions about how to maximise their gospel impact.  Some I have met with on a weekly basis over an extended period of time.  They are now implementing new strategies, new methods, to increase their gospel effectiveness.  And these new strategies are bearing fruit.  Churches are looking outside their four walls into their communities and some are seeing opportunities for the gospel for the very first time.

The recent  issue of the Trowel and Sword celebrated the organisation of three new CRC congregations.  There are more than a dozen other churches which are actively engaged in a process of planting new churches.  The Church Planting Taskforce is looking at reaching new migrants, many who are unchurched, by planting churches which are distinctively Reformed and gospel focused in places like Mackay and Darwin.  And for several years already, a number of churches are partnering with G.O.S.P.E.L. (http://www.gospel.crca.org.au/) to realise the planting of churches in India.  The mission of the CRCA is gradually being realised:  to multiply Bible-based Christian fellowships and congregations which equip and nurture their members and grow throughout Australia and beyond.

Further evidence that we as a denomination have reached a crisis point is the development of Task 3 in partnership with the Reformed Theological College(RTC) and BILD International.  There is an increasing number of men and women receiving this church based theological education helping them to be engaged in Kingdom service  in the local church and beyond.  Some young men are receiving Task 3 training in preparation for future studies at RTC and/or full-time ordained ministry.   This is truly a turning point in the CRCA, one which will raise up an increasing number of well-trained persons for the gospel.

All this evidence shows to me that we have turned the corner as a denomination, a real crisis point.  And this crisis is for the better.   As a denomination we are getting heathier.  Seeds for the gospel are being sown, and with God's blessing, in due time the harvest will come.

But as Mark Driscoll writes in Vintage Church, when churches decide to change in order to reach lost people for Christ it will not always be neat and tidy.  In fact, it will be messy.  Mistakes will be made.  Failures will come.  Roadblocks will be faced.  And in the CRCA, we too will make some mistakes.  We have done so in the past, and the future will be no different.  But that is the nature of the church.  God uses crooked sticks to write straight lines.  It is so wonderful that the Christian community is a place of grace, of forgiveness, of second chances, of new beginnings.  The same is true of the CRCA.  We can bear with each other's shortcomings, and when one of us falls, we are there to pick each other up again.  And in the end, it is Jesus himself who builds the church.   We plant the seed, another waters, but it is God alone who gives the growth(see 1 Corinthians 3:6).  That is why to him belongs all the glory, now and forever.