Henry DeMoor

If you have it available to you, you might wish to read my answer to this exact question in Christian Reformed Church Order Commentary, pages 311-313.

Just my two-cents worth ..........

Jerry,

I'll gladly forward to you the section of my book on Article 56 which includes this question and answer.

I'll use the e-mail in the Yearbook.  If that's no longer valid, please e-mail me and give me an updated address.

My book is readily available from Faith Alive Resources or even Amazon.com.  Perhaps you can convince your council to have at least one copy in the church library.

First, you should take careful note that these four possible declarations were not invented by Synod 1998. This assembly was the first to apply them to ministers resigning in order to serve in another denominational context or in an independent congregation. But the declarations actually functioned in practice much before that year. All along, there have been those, for example, who resigned by reason of a growing conviction that they could no longer assent to the church’s confessions (“honorably released”) or those who resigned under the pressure of special discipline instead of following the process through and looking toward repentance and restoration. In the case of the latter, it is better to declare such persons to be “in the status of one deposed” than to depose them after a resignation has been submitted (something the courts would not judge to be appropriate). Next, as you suggest, we need to acknowledge that vindictiveness has no place in making these declarations. In fact, it is not so much a declaration to and about the person involved as it is a signal to the church at large. Congregations need to know whether they should ever invite such a person to mount a Christian Reformed pulpit again. If the assemblies have said that a person is “dismissed” or “in the status of one deposed,” congregations would normally not extend such an invitation. If it was an “honorable release” or just a “release,” the broader assemblies might allow for a preaching visit or even a possible reentry into the denomination. We should also observe that it is primarily the classis that makes the determination with respect to the kind of declaration that is appropriate. The reason for this is that the classis is in a far better position to make these judgments than the synod would be. Even if, for example, a resigning minister has made some problematic statements in the news media that perturbs synodical delegates, the classis would still have a much clearer and more balanced view of that minister’s past service. Synod 1998 acknowledged that fact in an action with respect to one such resigning minister by attaching the following note: “In the broader context of denominational life a declaration of ‘released’ might have been more appropriate than that of ‘honorably released’” (Acts of Synod, 1998, p. 431). Still, it approved the work of synodical deputies who concurred in the judgment of the classis that, on balance, the person should be given an “honorable release.”

A minister is an elected officebearer, set aside by the congregation as Christ’s representative to exercise spiritual oversight and to equip members of the congregation to fulfill their calling in the church and in the world. As our Belgic Confession makes clear in Article 30, ministers of the Word together with the elders and deacons “make up the council of the Church.” This confessional basis must translate into organizational/administrative reality. I am not fussy about ministers having to chair council meetings. That requirement is more common in Presbyterian polity and in the RCA. For the CRCNA, there is a selection process in Article 36, recognizing that certain elders or deacons may be more gifted for that position. Broadly speaking, churches may never exclude ministers from membership in the council. I fully understand that certain tax regulations or other government regulations applying to nonprofit corporations or charitable institutions may suggest or state outright that this amounts to a clear instance of conflict of interest: a “paid employee” on the board. This, however, should not lead us to the extreme of forbidding ministers from being seated on the council in clear violation of the confessional basis and the text of our Church Order. In most cases, it is possible to exclude the minister from all decision-making that involves ministerial salary and benefits and other agenda items that such government regulations clearly envision. In fact, this has been our traditional practice at both council and congregational meetings. Local articles of incorporation could even spell out that the church has a council (all officebearers) and also a board (all officebearers minus employees, including ministers). The latter would be responsible for all matters relating to the remuneration or employment of staff, if not the entire budget.

Ron,

There is no rule on that.  Having six elders and four deacons is perfectly acceptable.  It all comes down to a judgment of the local council as to the needs that have to be attended to and whether the officebearers' work gets done efficiently and effectively.  Peace.

...meetings of officebearers are in principle open to the membership unless they are declared to be in executive session.  The latter happens routinely at meetings of the consistory and the diaconate (when particular members and their circumstances are discussed each time) and it happens occasionally when a council feels the need.  A good example of that would be a discussion on nomination for elders and deacons.  Nonetheless, meetings of council, certainly, are typically open, and it is good when members of the congregation take an interest and attend as visitors

(p. 216, Christian Reformed Church Order Commentary)

John,

Article 43 of the Church Order speaks of licensure given by the classis for persons to have the right to exhort.  Commissioned Pastors also receive the right to preach after they have been examined by classis and subsequently ordained.  This is covered in Article 24.

The council is not permitted to use a "lay person" who has not been given the right to exhort of preach by the classis for preaching in his or her own church.

If you wish to get "behind" these regulations, I urge you to read my commentary on Article 43.  The commentary is available from Faith Alive Resources, our denominational publishing ministry.

Dear “Karen”: I’m so sorry to hear this story from you. You are not alone. Unfortunately, there are many others with a similar story. Like you, those people do not know what to do either or where to turn. I’ll do my best to describe the “ins and outs” as you requested. First of all, my response depends on your age. I cannot tell from your letter whether you are an adult, so I am going to describe a response to a minor and then a response to an adult. If you are a minor (under age eighteen in most states and provinces), you should know that sexual abuse of a minor by an adult is a crime whether or not the abuser is a pastor. If the abuser is a pastor, the abuse is also a serious form of church leader misconduct, a violation of professional ethics, a betrayal of your trust, and a sin. Although it might be very difficult for you, you should tell a parent or a stepparent what has happened. If you cannot tell your parent or stepparent or if they do not believe you, then tell your story to an adult—perhaps an elder of your church, a youth leader, or a school teacher—it doesn’t really matter who, as long as it is an adult that you trust. If you live in Canada, all adults are legally responsible to report the allegation. If you live in the United States, some adults must report an allegation of abuse because of their professional responsibilities while other adults do not have to report. Then two things should happen to prevent the sexual abuse from happening again. First, the adult you confide in should report your allegation to the local police. By law, the adult should report the allegation within twenty-four hours of hearing about it. Second, that same adult or the police should inform the church’s executive or leadership group of your allegation. You didn’t say whether he’s your pastor or the pastor of another church. But that doesn’t matter. The church needs to be told. The police will interview you and the pastor separately, and they will interview others as well. It takes some time to conduct a thorough investigation. After all the interviews are done, it is possible that criminal charges will be filed. There could be a trial, especially if the pastor claims he is innocent. If he is found guilty of abusing you or if he pleads guilty to abusing you, he will likely be punished. I can’t say what the punishment might be, but you should understand that any punishment is the result of his abuse and not because you reported the abuse. The church’s leaders should take action too. The church should at least suspend him for a period of time, or they should remove him from the pulpit and prevent him from being a minister again in that church or another church. Throughout this experience, you will find it helpful to have a counselor to talk to. Your friends will be very supportive to you, but you may not want to share all the details with them. Besides being a good listener, a counselor can also help sort through all the feelings you’ll have through the investigation and trial. All this may sound scary and overwhelming to you. I am not trying to frighten you. There really isn’t another way to prevent you from being hurt again by the pastor, or to prevent him from hurting someone else. I hope you find the courage to tell someone, and that the abuse stops. This is my advice if you are a minor. If you are an adult, I am just as saddened and disturbed by your story as if you were a child. My advice, however, is a bit different. First of all, I hope you’ll make an appointment with a counselor or therapist as soon as possible. Please don’t delay. Depression is a very natural reaction to the sexual violation and the betrayal you have experienced. But depression, anger, and sadness can also be overwhelming at times, so you should not face these emotions alone. As an adult, you have different choices than does a child. One of your choices is to go to the police with your story. If the events took place a long time ago, the police may or may not be able to investigate your story. The laws in your community may also affect whether or not charges can be filed. Another choice is to approach the Christian Reformed Church. The churches in the denomination have been challenged to understand the gravity of your situation, and the classes in the denomination are providing Safe Church Teams so that you have a safe place to go with your story. The conduct you describe might be sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct occurs when a minister does not observe appropriate relationship or physical boundaries. Sexual misconduct usually includes exploiting a person for the power and control that it gives the other person. While it may look as if the relationship between the two people is “consensual,” in fact it is not because the minister is in a position of power and authority over a parishioner and has violated the sacred trust of his office by his conduct. The minister is always responsible to safeguard the relationship with the parishioner. When boundary violations occur, the minister should be held accountable. This is a very serious matter. And I hope my indication of the road to take now, even if it is a difficult one for you, is the right one for you and for the church. If this person is guilty of sexual misconduct, he must not be allowed to continue in office. Despite your own pain, we hope you will help us prevent further hurt and humiliation to even one more person. Unfortunately, once ministers cross these boundaries, more incidents usually follow. The Christian Reformed Church has a network of Safe Church Teams that are convened to hear stories like yours. If a team is not located near you, your expenses to travel to that team’s location will be provided for you. In addition, Safe Church Teams offer claimant advocates to assist those who have allegations of sexual misconduct committed by a minister. To get started and bring your story forward, you may contact a claimant advocate, a Safe Church Team chairperson, or the chairman of the church council to whom this pastor is accountable. If the offender is your minister, you may feel more comfortable calling a claimant advocate or team chairperson, but you certainly may approach someone on your council that you can trust. If the offender is a minister of another congregation, you can call either the claimant advocate, team chairperson, or a person on that church’s council. Usually the claimant advocate makes the call, but you could choose to make the call. If all of this begins to sound too difficult or impossible in some way, please know that the claimant advocates and Safe Church Teams are made up of professionals who are knowledgeable in sexual misconduct dynamics. You do not have to worry about confronting the minister alone or at all. The Safe Church Team will form a panel that will meet with you, accompanied by the claimant advocate, and then they will meet separately with the accused minister. When both parties have been fully heard, the panel will consider whether your allegations are more probable than not. You and the minister will be notified of the panel’s findings; the panel also notifies the executive committee of council. The council will then meet to decide on what should be done. Once again, the claimant and the minister do not meet face to face, but they will both be notified of the council’s decision. If the council judges that the allegations are more likely than not to have occurred, the council should initiate steps of discipline. It is likely that the minister will then first be suspended. If he claims to be innocent, a formal hearing will be held. If he pleads guilty or it is determined that he is, in fact, guilty of an offense, it is likely that he will then be deposed. If, on the other hand, the council judges that the charges you have brought are not likely to have occurred, then the matter could end. However, the chairperson of the advisory panel and the claimant advocate might challenge the decision of council. They could submit a copy of the panel’s report and of the council’s action to the Interim Committee of the classis. This committee presents a report to the next meeting of that classis. This is done to make sure that there is no partiality in the way that your allegations have been responded to in a “more local” setting. When this difficult road of appeal has been followed, and still no action is being taken against the minister for whatever reason, you and your claimant advocate still have the right of appeal from what the classis has decided in the matter. That appeal may be addressed to the synod of the Christian Reformed Church. It meets once a year and has a special committee that can hear the case in confidence. It will then provide the following synod with well-formulated recommendations. So you have representatives from the entire denomination at your disposal to address this serious matter. “Karen,” I’ve just given you a lot of stuff to digest. If you have any further questions, please know that you may contact me at the telephone number listed below my signature. I will keep our conversations confidential and not reveal them to anyone. Or you may write back. Either way is fine. I also encourage you to contact the denominational Safe Church Ministry at 616-224-0735. The ministry has a website with information on how to contact a claimant advocate or a Safe Church Team chairperson. I wish you much strength in all of this. I understand that this minister has hurt you. I hope you will experience a church that wants to end that hurt. The church does not want to bury its head in the sand. It wants and needs the opportunity to help you now. Just getting the word out to others will be difficult but, in the end, I am confident it will lighten your load and lead you on new roads to joy. Grace and peace to you.

John,

On that same page 119 of my Commentary, my advice for those who are not (or not yet) ordained is "Do not raise your arms and pronounce the salutation and the benediction.  You will undoubtedly upset someone if you do.  Instead, change these pronouncements into prayers: "The Lord bless us and keep us ..."

Then, indeed, I advise such folk not to "do the laying on of hands" but have the chair of the elders and the chair of the deacons do it because they ARE ordained and because Synod 2001 ruled that official acts of ministry are entrusted to the church's ordained leaders, not to a specific office.  That reference in on page 294.

You are also free to call all of what I write a "bunch of hokey" (or any other similar expression) since it is what it says it is, a Commentary, but nobody should undercut the authority of the Church Order itself.  We have covenanted to observe it faithfully.

I am happy to do so. In a document we prepare for students at Calvin Theological Seminary, we enumerate seven items from tradition and Church Order that we deem to be “official acts of the ministry” (Article 53): the greeting or salutation, the blessing or benediction, the assurance of pardon, the reception or dismissal of members, the ordination of officebearers, the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments. The preaching of the Word is a recent addition by Synod 2001, and students, of course, are licensed to proclaim it, to “exhort.” The other six items do not all carry the same weight. Our advice about them follows. Do not raise your arms and pronounce the salutation and the benediction. You will undoubtedly upset someone if you do. Instead, change these pronouncements into prayers: “The Lord bless us and keep us . . .” The assurance of pardon is undoubtedly a word of Scripture, and the student pastor is perfectly free to read it. Say, “The Lord says in Isaiah 1: ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.’” Reception or dismissal of members is really the act of the consistory as a whole. I see no reason why you couldn’t welcome people into adult confessing membership on behalf of the elders who have met with them. This makes good sense, especially if you were the one who, as an intern, led a number of young people to make public profession of their faith. It makes less sense for you to announce dismissal if you have not been involved in discipling the person(s) involved. Ordaining elders and deacons is also the act of the local council. If you are involved in that, the council must give its permission, and it must be clear to the congregation that it’s really the council doing the installing. Involve the chair of the elders and the chair of the deacons to make the point visibly. Have them—not you—do the laying on of hands, for example, since they are ordained and you are not. The sacraments, given our theology, are clearly to be administered by ordained persons, either a minister of the Word, a ministry associate, or—as a legitimate exception—an elder identified by the classis as having the authority to do so if no minister or ministry associate is available. We advise you as a student not to administer baptism or the Lord’s Supper. Finally, remember that you are not licensed to solemnize a marriage. Conducting funerals is another matter and, if it makes good sense, feel free to do so if requested by the family.

Steve (and others),

I am being encouraged to contribute to this discussion.  I will do so shamelessly by asking you all to read pages 133-135 of my Christian Reformed Church Order Commentary to gain some historical perspective on this issue of limited or permanent tenure and to read pages 136-138 of that commentary to see what can be done about a "high turnover rate" that sometimes impedes our ministry.  You will be amazed, when you read the latter part, how flexible our Church Order really is on this issue of how long a term might run........  (No, I do not make royalties on the sales of this commentary, but your buying it if you haven't done it already will definitely support our Faith Alive Resources agency).

Steve,

The Christian Reformed Church Order does not know of an "inactive elder." The Presbyterian churches do and so does the RCA, but not the CRC. An elder whose term has ended has no more authority of office than any other member. In practice, we sometimes bend things a little. When I became an elder recently and the communion schedule came out, I realized I would be on vacation the first time out. So I asked the elder whom I replaced to do it for me. Nobody takes anybody to classis or synod with a protest over such. But we do see it as an exception and the elder whom I replaced would rather "rest" from his labors for a while anyhow. So I don't keep asking him to do this. Strictly speaking, you may not participate as an elder when your term has ended. You are unordained. I do not know how to say this any more clearly and hope this is back on the path you set out on.