Synod 2025: Are We Ready to Trust?

This was my fourth synod as news editor—sixth in a reporting capacity. Titles of my “In Our View” reflections have been “In Person, But Not Together,” “Incomplete and Broken,” and “Resounding Words.” As I witnessed discussions, deliberations, and decisions of the Christian Reformed Church synod this year, I began to wonder: “Are we ready to trust?”

Some felt it imprudent to trust our closest ecumenical partner, the Reformed Church in America, with the continued in communion designation—at least not without being specific about where we’re headed in five years if our review doesn’t show a clear enough return to the biblical views held in their confessions. But the advisory committee—first split on what to recommend—ended up presenting a unified report. They said there was too much good happening on the level of local church cooperation, they didn’t want it to grind to a halt with “sand in the gears” from a synodical relationship change. They were realistic about a timeline operating with a denomination that only convenes its general synod every three years. Five years is necessary, and that’s what synod gave.

The virtual church discussion went in a similar vein. There were voices very sure that the marks of the true church (Belgic Confession Art. 29) can’t be displayed in a disembodied gathering. But synod wasn’t ready to speak with one voice on that—there are too many places and people blessed by online ministry to shut it down too soon. Synod thanked the Virtual Church Task Force for its report, and to the churches the message is to take this advice, walk carefully, but we want you to experiment.

This synod tried to be careful with words. A few discussions raised debate about whether to “encourage” or “instruct” on different matters, and synod revisited both “without reservation” and “fully agree” from clauses in the Covenant for Officebearers. Synod heard the struggles of churches seeking a full slate of elders and deacons able to say with integrity they have no reservations about anything in the church’s Three Forms of Unity. Synod didn’t remove the words “fully agree” from the Covenant, so elders, pastors, and deacons will still affirm that the doctrines in three confessions—the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort—“fully agree with the Word of God.” But it gave a little room in redefining what Synod 2024 said about “without reservation.” Synod 2025 said “without reservation,” (from the sentence “affirms without reservation all the doctrines contained in the creeds and confessions of the church”) means not having, to the best of an officebearer’s knowledge, “either a persistent serious doubt or settled conviction contrary to any of the doctrines contained in the creeds and confessions.” Synod also said “without reservation” does not mean that the person signing has an “exhaustive knowledge of confessional Reformed theology,” nor does it mean the person “does not struggle emotionally with some doctrine” or “fully understands some doctrine.”

And synod wants the reaffirming of this Covenant to be joyful, not compelled. Instead of the yearly obligatory re-signing of the Covenant at classis, requested by Synod 2024, now classes are asked to reaffirm the Covenant at every classis meeting, but in any way the classis wants to do it.

Does the CRCNA trust one another as partners from two nations in one church? Synod says yes, but there still might be a few bumps.

As for how we work together as assemblies, synod wants the task force already working on studying the relationships between council, classis, and synod in regard to discipline to report to Synod 2026 before taking any further action. And it affirmed a definitive report on the varying pronouncements of synods and how they should be used in the life of the church: there’s a hierarchy, and the categories of “confessional interpretations” and “doctrinal affirmations” carry the most weight.

Synod gave some correction to Classis Toronto for failing to implement the decisions of Synod 2024 in good order. It sustained an appeal from five Classis Toronto churches, but it didn’t go quite so far as to declare those meetings of classis improperly constituted or unseat Classis Toronto delegates. Synod seemed to dance between discipline and trust.

But synod decided it couldn’t trust The Banner with its 2015 mandate—that needed a change, and now, with no time for review or even a weigh-in for the Council of Delegates-appointed Banner advisory committee. Delegates were sure, 131 to 36, showing diverse positions from within the church isn’t what’s needed in the official denomination publication. Instead, it needs to be clear about the positions held by the church and “represent the denomination publicly to the broader Christian church and to the world at large by speaking from a distinctly Reformed perspective in line with our confessions and synodical decisions.”

I came into the CRC in 2008, attracted by the commitment to Christian education, covenant theology, and the warm embrace of my local church. The Banner was part of what I loved about the CRC. I want it to be that for all of us. I want it to continue to build up ministry; to connect people in one part of the denomination with good ideas from another part; and be part of the denomination’s efforts toward renewal by addressing “relevant problems, needs, and concerns even though some persons, congregations, or agencies may prefer that such information not be disseminated” (unchanged in our mandate). Are we ready to trust?

Synod 2025, the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, met June 13-19 on the campus of Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont. See the full week of coverage from The Banner. Visit crcna.org/synod/annual-synod for the agenda, advisory reports, and recordings of plenary sessions.