Reflections on the Leadership Landscape of the CRCNA Part 5: Concluding Thoughts

The Candidacy Committee and Calvin Seminary are both committed to make every step towards ordination as meaningful, formative and deeply connective as possible. And we’re very passionate about the work that you’ve entrusted to us, since we’re convinced that theological education is an important part of equipping people for a long, healthy ministry career. I think most of you are convinced of that as well, so I invite you to help us cast a vision for theological education and promote the importance of this value in whatever ways you can.

Perhaps the best way to show emerging leaders that we’re all in this together, is to model this value by engaging in life-long learning! 

Let me tell you a quick story: Deb Chee is the Candidacy Committee member who’s ending her term this year. Deb has spent her life teaching in schools, so she values learning. She went through Classis Red Mesa’s LDN to learn how to better  do ministry within her own context. Then she went on for two more years of mentoring to become a commissioned pastor in one of Classis Red Mesa’s churches. We recruited her to the Candidacy Committee and the EPMC Facilitation Team where she served for three years. She has the most inspiring reason for not serving a second term–it’s because Deb, in her late 60’s, has started pursuing her MDiv. No one required her to do it, she’s already pastoring a church as a commissioned pastor. She just wanted to learn more and be even better equipped to serve her congregation. She’s been an inspiration to all of us and I wanted to share that inspiration with you.

There are two other values that I mentioned earlier–our concern for well-formed character and our covenant commitment to each other. Many of you might agree with me that these values have been the ones most challenged in recent years (in fact, some of you may have rolled your eyes when you heard me mention them because of how poorly you feel we have been living into them). It has been obvious that our anxieties about the direction of the Church have challenged our ability to exhibit godly character. As the Pinerest trauma counselor explained to our office the other day in a pre-synod prep session, the part of our brain that operates when anxiety hits us is not the wise, gentle, rational part.

We’ve all been afraid of losing things that are precious to us–whether that be confessional alignment and moral clarity, or hospitality and the ability to think in nuanced ways. Our fears have sometimes led us to seek out reinforcement by aligning ourselves with groups that are like-minded around our topic of concern and distancing ourselves from those who are not. We might achieve a greater sense of safety and assurance, and maybe even a little more control over the factors we’re nervous about. But it’s also problematic. 

That’s because the further we are from people, the less clearly we see them. From a distance, and through the haze of social media banter, a wounded brother or sister can appear to be the enemy. We may, in a bad moment, fire off a shot at someone before we take the time to recognize who they are. And also, when we’re very focused on winning a particular battle, we can lose sight of the greater war that we’re fighting–the one against the forces of evil, the philosophies of this world, and the sinful tendencies of our own human nature. I am daily reminded that the greatest enemy to the gospel is my own self-righteousness. And I know how easily we can all slip into basing our own “rightness” on the things we think we do better than others– instead of what Christ has done for us. And when we do that, we slip into a posture of  “thank you Lord that I’m not like that guy”, instead of the posture that Jesus said justifies: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner”.

Emerging leaders are watching our attitudes and behavior. When they see us participate in factions, spread misinformation and bear false witness against each other on social media, it can be confusing and discouraging to them. And when they experience us as grumpy or resentful, never hopeful, always suspicious–it makes them question their call to serve the CRC. It breaks my heart when I work with emerging leaders who have heard so much negativity about our denomination and its seminary that they come to us full of anxiety about what they’re going to experience in their program. In some cases they even come with a chip on their shoulder or an ax to grind that makes them unteachable. Although we address these issues in terms of their own formation, it’s often clear that these chips and axes were handed to them by others in their contexts. Fortunately, in most cases, once they push through and get a first hand experience of the denomination and its agencies and partners, they kinda like us! But sometimes that happens only after we require them to go to whichever entities they’re disappointed with and talk through their issues, seeking out accurate information and listening for understanding. It takes some emotional courage to communicate in this way, but I hope that as we support them, we can try to model seeking truth and accuracy with each other.

A Latino pastor I know commented that he doesn’t understand the propensity CRC people have for bad mouthing each other publicly. He said, “in our culture, if you’re family you’re family. We don’t talk bad about each other.” Friends, our great witness to the world is that God has taken us from all our diverse backgrounds and made us family in Christ. Sometimes some of us act like the grumpy uncle or the wayward niece, but even then we are still part of the family. Sometimes family members need to discipline or show tough love to each other, but they should never demonize or intentionally hurt each other. Our family relationships are our greatest strength. 

And people are so hungry right now to experience the sense of community that we have. They want to be adopted into our family and experience a sense of connection and belonging that they can’t find in their communities. Do you know which class EPMC participants tend to love the most? Kathy Smith’s Church Order class. That’s right, church order excites them! Not because they love rules, but because they love our ecclesiology–our covenant commitment to each other that flows through all our procedures and policies. They want to be part of a body like that–one that supports them and protects them and nurtures an environment of trust. Let’s not cause them to experience a bait and switch by failing to live out our beautiful ecclesiology in the contexts where they serve. 

As in any family, every member plays a part in addressing their piece of the dysfunction.  My prayer has been that with all important work we have to do at synod, we don’t fail to do the critical work of inviting the Holy Spirit to convict each of us of whatever role we’ve played in the crisis of broken trust that our denomination is experiencing, and making amends with those we may have hurt. Families who quickly apologize are strong families. So let’s model the grace, trust and support that’s characteristic of the family of God. I know this will make a difference in the lives of our future leaders–it may even greatly increase their numbers.

We often speak of the denomination as if it’s some entity outside of ourselves–but the truth is that the denomination is YOU. It’s us. We, the denomination, are a body of diverse people who have received the grace of God–and that grace is what connects us deeply to each other in a way that is beyond human understanding. Let’s keep walking together in that grace that we’ve been given so that the message of the gospel that we proclaimed can be verified to the world through our lives.

I’ll close with this: Membership decline and our pastoral shortage might seem like insurmountable challenges but they aren’t. The power of God and the fellowship of the Spirit can change the whole picture. So let’s do whatever it takes to position ourselves in such a way that the Spirit can move among us.