After 112 years in the Christian Reformed Church, First CRC of Detroit has transferred out of the CRC and into the Reformed Church in America, as First Reformed Church Grosse Pointe. A couple of weeks ago, at the 167th meeting of the CRC’s Classis Lake Erie, they acquiesced to the decision of First Church to disaffiliate. As the minister of First Church, I felt compelled to share with the classis some parting words that I hope reflect the reasoning for our departure and the love, grief, and hope we have for both our church and the CRC moving ahead.
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Sisters and Brothers in Christ, as First Church of Detroit leaves I want you to know that we love the Christian Reformed Church. Our church, like yours, is full of people who have found their spiritual home in the CRC. We have members who go back generations with faithful CRC membership. We have several Calvin alumni, including many couples who met at Calvin. We also have a few that experienced the great welcome of the CRC when they emigrated to Canada after World War II from the Netherlands (some having lived through Nazi occupation). They were loved, and cared for by the CRC churches that welcomed them in. I’ve heard the stories of strict Sabbath rules, like no swimming in the lake, and stories of how to get around strict Sabbath rules, because holding a bar of soap in the lake is bathing, not swimming. I’ve heard about a few huisbezoek’s (elder visits) that went a little too far. A few fights over choirs in church, women voting and serving, and much more. This has been our home, but now it feels as if we’re being asked to leave, and so we are.
To be clear, in our eyes we are not leaving the CRC like Israel fleeing Egypt. Instead, this moment is more like Paul and Barnabas going separate ways. God is still doing wonderful works in and through both of us. My hope is that by sharing this I convince you we are not leaving as prodigal children. We hope to remain sister churches, or if not sister churches, at least close cousins.
To that end, I want to let you know that we are leaving because of our understanding of being Reformed. We are not leaving because we want to be less Reformed; we leave because we are Reformed.
Now you may ask, “How Reformed are you?”
We’re so Reformed that it will always be stated clearly in our name. Over a decade ago when we, like many other churches in the CRC and other Reformed traditions, discussed changing our name to be more accessible to others from non-Reformed traditions, it became immediately clear that we were proudly, unashamedly Reformed and wanted people to know it.
You may say, “That’s just a name,” and so you’re still going to ask, “How Reformed are you?”
We’re so Reformed that one of our values comes straight from the conviction of God’s sovereignty over every square inch of creation. We value “Encouraging Service.” What we mean is that every person is called by God and gifted by God to be an ambassador of God’s kingdom in whatever sphere of life that God has called him or her to. We fully intend to equip our members as we say at baptisms and when we receive new members, to be “God’s faithful servant until life’s end.”
We’re so Reformed that another one of our church’s values is to be a “Welcoming Covenantal Community.” It is not lost on us that many in our modern world have no idea what a covenant is. It means we are people of promises. When we make promises at baptisms, professions of faith, ordinations and installations of elders, deacons, and ministers, we mean it. We don’t perfectly keep these promises, but the promises bring us back to our calling again and again and we’re glad that they do.
A third value of our church is to have a “Reformed Foundation.” This includes our sacramental view of worship, our inclusivity of children as full members in God’s church, and our understanding of confessionality. We believe, as stated in the Covenant for Officebearers, that the confessions “define the way we understand Scripture, direct the way we live in response to the gospel, and locate us within the larger body of Christ.”
After hearing this, you may wonder why we are leaving.
We are leaving because Synod’s recent decisions impact individuals who have been faithful elders and deacons for decades. These leaders have not changed their convictions and they have not taught or spoken against the confessions. However, because of Synod’s decisions, they are now disqualified from serving. They are disqualified because they do not heartily believe without reservation all the doctrines in our confessions as required in the Covenant of Officebearers. For some this centers around Synod’s interpretation of Heidelberg Catechism Question & Answer 108, with some adamantly opposing Synod’s interpretation, and others just not sure. For others, it has to do with a decades-long wrestling with the sovereignty and election of God, something the third and fourth point of Article 13 of the Canons of Dort acknowledges is beyond comprehension.
If we were to start a church from scratch, maybe we could have found a way to stay, but to stay now means to turn our backs on the promises we made to these people at their baptisms, at their professions of faith and membership, and, most importantly, when they were ordained as elders and deacons.
When we ordain elders and deacons we give a charge to the congregation, which in part reads, “I charge you, people of God, to receive these officebearers as Christ’s gift to the church. Recognize in them the Lord’s provision for healthy congregational life.” The congregation is asked “Do you, congregation, pledge to receive them as you have been charged?” The congregation responds by saying, “We do, God helping us.”
Since, as I said, we are a covenantal community, we take our promises to one another seriously. To stay is to break those promises. To stay is to say that these same people are no longer Christ’s gift to the church and the Lord’s provision for healthy congregational life. However, we’ve seen them be God’s gift to the church, the Lord’s provision for healthy congregational life, and so we still pledge to receive them as such.
We view Synod’s recent emphasis on adherence to the Creeds and confessions as misplaced. This doubling down on heartily believing without reservation is exactly the type of legalism that Henry DeMoor (author of the authoritative text, “Christian Reformed Church Order Commentary”) and others have cautioned against. Here’s an example of the sort of legalism I’m speaking of: Heidelberg Catechism Question & Answer 28 asks “How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?” The first line of the answer says simply, “We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well.”
Are you always patient when things go against you? No? Then does that mean that you are not believing heartily in this doctrine of providence without reservation? If so, are you unfit to serve?
My point is that Synod’s new expectation of leaders to have this tight of a grip on the confessions treats the confessions in a way they were never designed to be treated. A truth that the confessions say again and again in a myriad of ways is that what is most important is not our grip on God, but God’s good, strong grip on us. As we doubt, as we stumble, as we fail, God brings us back again and again.
So I bid you farewell, trusting you into God’s hands, asking for God’s blessing on your life and your churches, and asking you to continue to look to the author and perfecter of our faith, our good shepherd, who will not allow anyone of his to be plucked from his hands.
And I look forward to the day, when once again we can, like Paul and Barnabas, be hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, at the table of our king.
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I felt my words were received with a spirit of resignation from those who are staying. This is understandable as First was one of two churches who disaffiliated at this meeting and another two churches had disaffiliated in the past year. An elder from the other departing church affirmed what I said as did a deacon from First Church, who was there as a delegate.
The decision to disaffiliate was reached through much prayer and, of course, good process. We essentially followed the process that Rev. Sean Baker and the Pastor-Church Resource office of the CRC put together. It was extremely helpful and I’m grateful for their assistance in this process.
I’m also grateful for the leaders and members of First Church for modelling the grace, listening, and maturity needed for a moment such as this. Together we look forward to the ways that God will continue to show himself faithful to us and the CRC and churches throughout the world for God’s glory and our good.
30 Responses
Welcome to the Reformed Church in America.
I am so very sorry. What a painful upheaval to go through. We’ve walked with many of our sister’s & brothers in Christ here in GR who have gone through this pain-filled process and joined our Middle Assembly (FKA Classis). They have expressed many of the same feelings.
That said, God is good and healing will happen though I am sure you will mourn for a long time, but out of that mourning joy WILL come again.
In the meantime, as a member of Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids we welcome you all to the RCA as part of our family.
“What is most important is not our grip on God, but God’s good, strong grip on us.” Well said, John. I have great faith that First Reformed Church Grosse Pointe will continue to be blessed and be a blessing.
To “heartily believe without reservation all the doctrines in our confessions” has been in the Covenant for Officebearers and the Form of Subscription for many years. It is not something new. Recent synodical decisions have not changed anything there.
Given recent decisions concerning Q&A 108 etc. concerning human sexuality one wonders if you adhere to marriage being only between one woman and one man. If not, can you explain clearly what you believe in that regard?
Yes, that phrase is not new. What has changed (or has been clarified) is the gravimen process. We (the council) discussed that it was not Synod 2022 that led us to explore leaving, it was Synod 2024. Personally, I hold a traditional view on marriage and human sexuality (I do think I have some nuance about this, because I believe there are some thorny issues that are not completely black and white), and many of our members and elders/deacons do as well. For us, as mentioned in what I said, the issue is the rigid adherence, that doesn’t reflect the heart of the confessions or Scripture. If there was a gravimen of submission we’d probably have stayed. In our eyes there appeared to be no room for the biblical and real faith that looks like, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”
As a person who was raised Catholic and left the Catholic Church at 18, I have a vague understanding of what you went through. Your decision seems very well thought out. I can tell it was not without struggle. As a person who now is at 2nd Reformed Church in Pella, I say welcome.
Thank you for your message. It did bring tears to my eyes as it could have just as easily been written by our church leadership upon disaffiliation. We are across the Detroit River from you and have a place to land with other disaffiliated churches in Canada. Thank you John for articulating your parting words so well. Our church is also very much Reformed and Christian. Our pastor also compared our separation to that of Paul and Barnabas and went on to say that separation produced two faithful churches eventually.
Many years ago I walked away from the denomination that raised me not because I had left the faith but because my faith had deepened and I saw an incongruence in my church at the time. It is hard, brave, and messy work to do for yourself, even more so to do as a congregation. In my work with our local classics / middle assembly I have found myself quite in the middle of this CRC to RCA transition of many ministers and churches in the GR area. I am continually amazed by the grace, resilience, and love in these pastors and congregations as they navigate one of the most difficult seasons of their life. I hope that you all at First Reformed Church of Grosse Pointe have been shown the utmost hospitality and love by the RCA. We know how hard this transition can be and hope that we have been a soft place to land in a difficult time.
I hear wisdom, grace, clarity, humility, loss, hope, and faith in your writing. I’m sure the same is exemplified within your congregation.
As a retired pastor in the RCA, I perceive that the fruit of your labor is a gift you carry into your new denomination. And I, for one, am thankful for the hard theological and emotional work you’ve done.
Blessings on you all.
Yikes! Just imagine if members of Congress could abstain from fully committing to the U.S. Constitution and still serve. Well, we don’t have to imagine; we see it in how our government functions every day. People who give lip service to our Constitution. He said, in many words, that they are Reformed in name only, while building a straw-man argument, insisting that they haven’t changed.
In your analogy, the Constitution would be The Bible (not the CRC creeds and confessions). In your analogy, the creeds/confessions would be equivalent, perhaps, to the Federalist Papers — interpretation and supporting documents. I honestly don’t think this is a question of whether council members or pastors are fully committed to The Bible. Committing to interpretations needs some wiggle room, which Synod was not willing to give.
Yes, but my analogy also assumes that the confessions are faithful summaries of what the Bible teaches, not merely interpretations that we are free to accept or reject if we want to be considered Reformed, something the author aims at to persuade. And I would argue that our confessions already allow considerable room for differences on matters where Scripture permits them.
Have you considered just how generous and comprehensive our confessions are in accommodating the breadth of biblical thought? They are called the *Three Forms of Unity* for a reason. They emerged in a Europe deeply divided by theological controversy and yet became a remarkable expression of doctrinal unity among Reformed churches across different nations and traditions.
The confessions were never intended to settle every theological question or eliminate every legitimate disagreement. Rather, they establish the shared biblical convictions that give our Reformed identity its substance.
And this is where I think the real issue lies. If someone disagrees with the confessions, I would much rather they say so openly. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging a genuine theological disagreement. But it seems inconsistent to insist that one is thoroughly Reformed while simultaneously treating the very confessions that historically define the Reformed tradition as optional.
At some point, if being Reformed no longer requires a sincere commitment to the doctrines expressed in our confessions, we have to ask what the term *Reformed* actually means. If it can mean virtually anything, it eventually means very little.
I think there is confusion about our issue. It’s not with the confessions directly, it’s with the type of subscription the CRC is asking for. To use your analogy the CRC is asking us to not just follow/submit to the constitution, but to heartily believe in it without reservation. We don’t do this with the constitution. Someone can dislike the constitution all they want, the issue is when they break the constitution. If the CRC asked elders, deacons, and ministers to submit to the confessions, to understand them as the rule for faith and life, we would have stayed.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on my logic involving Heidelberg #28. Isn’t it true that if we are impatient when things go against us it is because we are not heartily believing? The approach of the CRC seems to invite witch hunting. It seems like it invites a type of questioning like, “Do you heartily believe?” “Do you really, deep down, in the depths of your heart and soul believe?” When in reality we all believe imperfectly.
Hey John- well said, my friend.
What classis are you guys moving into in RCA? City classis? Elsewhere?
Thanks Jared!
Yes, I’ve been in the City Classis for a few years while serving back to back CRC congregations. I also recently got suckered into being the clerk, so given that and our location and our sense of mission as a congregation it all made sense. Just had a wonderful gathering in San Diego, seeing God at work in Renew, Tijuana, and heard from Bishop Pham doing great work standing with the vulnerable.
Well said, John!
Thanks, John! I appreciate your insightful words. I feel blessed to be part of the Lord’s mission with you!
Well articulated! I was born, baptized, and raised into the faith at First CRC of Detroit. We at First CRC of Grand Rapids (now Bates Street Church, a Reformed
Community) have traveled a similar journey over the past few years. God’s richest blessings as you faithfully follow the Spirit in humility and wonder.
This was my church family when I attended law school in Detroit. This well thought out statement is exactly what I loved about my Christian family in Detroit and why she will always be in my prayers.
Hi Sharon. And warm wishes. – Brian Monsma, Louisville, KY, Louisville Community of Mindful Living.
“We’re so Reformed, we’ve progressed beyond creation, confession, and conviction.”
Thanks for sharing John. I am always amazed and dismayed that whenever I read a thoughtful work such as this it immediately causes a dagger response about Q&A 108, but rarely a thoughtful rebuttal to your other points of “without reservation.” There would be no “Reformed” church if not for people like Luther, Calvin, etc. who refused to follow human declarations “without reservation” something they could not do with integrity. I think you make a very good case that one can sign without reservation or have integrity or simply not know or care what the confessions actually say. This puts a huge burden on people who actually know what the confessions say and are humble enough to admit we see through a glass darkly.
I grieve with you. I believe I am the last person from First CRC to enter the Gospel ministry, following in the footsteps of such giants as Jake Eppinga and Duane Vander Brug among others. The streets of Detroit and Grosse Pointe are difficult soil for the gospel to take root, but I’m forever grateful that I was discipled and nurtured in the Christian faith by First CRC and the Grosse Pointe Christian Day School. My formation in both the church and school during the tumultuous years of the 1960s and 1970s formed me in powerful ways and made my ministry, which has literally taken me all over the world, possible. I still consider myself both a Detroiter and Christian Reformed, which is a really odd combination filled with tensions, especially now that I live in West Michigan. I believe First Church, literally on the border of Detroit and Grosse Pointe, is located in one of the most strategically important places in America for Kingdom building. The RCA is gaining a wonderful church. My prayer for you is that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 1:6)
Thank you for your thoughtful, gracious parting words to Classis Lake Erie and for your clear articulation of the reasons for disaffiliating from a denomination that has turned from its rich heritage to follow a rigid, narrow view of the confessions.
My family and I spent thirteen years at First Detroit (1962-1975), and have fond memories of our years there. During our 70 years of marriage, my wife and I have also been members of First Grand Rapids (1957-1959), Palo Alto CRC (1959-1962), and Fourteenth Street CRC in Holland (1975-2024). I happily and thankfully was a member of the CRC for nearly 90 years, served faithfully as an elder in three of those churches, served as an officer of Calvin Theological Seminary’s Board of Trustees, and in many other ways devoted my life to this denomination into which I was baptized as an infant. All but the last of these churches have disaffiliated and joined the Reformed Church in America. Nearly two years ago my wife and I regretfully left the last of these churches, but happily joined Hope Church RCA in Holland. Welcome to the RCA! It is my hope and prayer that you will be as richly blessed by your move as we have been.
Jack,
I imagine that David Cooke would have joined you in your disappointment. That notwithstanding, I am grateful that you and Lee are members of Hope Church.
I found this post somewhat confusing. I think Rev. Compton is saying that his church is leaving the CRC because certain they are putting the personal beliefs and convictions of certain elders and deacons over what is stated in the CRC’s creeds and confessions which in turn reflect the clear teaching of the Bible. Should not our personal beliefs and convictions be tested against what the Bible and the creeds and confessions say, not the other way around? Getting that out of order starts churches and denominations down a very slippery slope which has a bad end as demonstrated by the mainline Protestant churches. Since the 1970s, the PCUSA has lost ~75% of its membership, the Episcopal Church has lost ~55% of its membership and the United Methodist Church has lost ~65% of its membership.
During the same period, the Presbyterian Church in America has grown from ~75,000 to ~400,000 members and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has grown from ~17,000 to ~34,000 members. Orthodoxy matters to God and for church growth. I wish the new First Reformed of Grosse Pointe well, but I am afraid history is against them.
Thank you for your thoughtful engagement and for wishing us well.
In brief response, what we did wasn’t simply center our faith around a few certain individuals. Synod’s decisions, some in 2022 but more so in 2024, made it so that what determined a person eligible for office, was what they believed deep down in their heart. Being good Reformed people we know that “the heart is deceitful above all things.” My understanding of the RCA’s approach to the confessions (and I know this is not universal in the RCA), is that they are what guide us. We are to submit ourselves to them, whether we like them or not. A very rough analogy we used was corporate policies in workplaces. Everyone has followed a corporate policy that they did not like or agree with, but they did it. It seemed in our eyes that the CRC wanted complete love of all the doctrines not just obedience. I think that is a recipe for self-righteousness and witch hunting, because now it is no longer about following or submitting to the Creeds/confessions, but do you heartily believe them without reservation.
Thanks for this article. It’s good that churches that are disaffiliating trying to say what they take Reformed Christianity to mean.
I’m curious about why the church feels that the RCA is the right destination. I’ve heard lots about why churches are leaving the CRC, and less about where they end up.
This excellent statement also reflects your leadership and service is this process–full of wisdom, clarity, patience, grace, discernment, and affirmation for the deepest truths of our tradition and faith. So many owe a debt of gratitude.
Pastor John, God be with you. I am disappointed to hear you are leaving the CRC. Like you, our church is traditional on sexuality and is discerning whether to remain in the CRC based not on Synod 2022, but on Synod 2024. Our Classis submitted an overture on gravamen in 2026, and Synod substantially returned the language to what it was prior to 2024. I wish we could have talked. I think the gravamen process now allows for the room you wanted. If it’s not too late, I’d love to discuss why I see it this way. Shoot me an email.