Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - May/94

Contributor - Jonathan Gerstner

Title - Finally Beloved: The Holy Spirit at Classis

Topic - Reformed Church In Canada

One great dream that we have as a Synod of Canada is that the assemblies of the church will be ruled by Christ through His Holy Spirit. With the Spirit present, one may leave a church assembly inspired and revitalized to renew one's ministry. Without the Spirit's presence, the assemblies become bureaucratic wrangles at best.

Although the Holy Spirit is a person of the Sovereign God, and very capable of breaking through in the most unexpected ways, we normally expect the Spirit to manifest Himself where God's people seek Him and consciously request His presence and aid. God the Spirit is everywhere, even in the most dead or apostate church assembly, but He generally manifests Himself and gives guidance to those who seek his face.

This leads to a very basic question, do we seek the Holy Spirit's presence at our assemblies? Let's start with consistory meetings. Do we expect God to be present at our discussions. Our church order requires every meeting to open and close with prayer, and this is still dutifully checked when classes inspect consistorial minutes. But have we taken the time to investigate why our tradition so valued prayer at the beginning of the sessions? Clearly we were taught that without the presence of God, church board meetings become a pale bureaucracy trying to lead a declining human institution. When the leadership is turned over to the Spirit, and each member prayerfully seeks what God wants them and their congregation to do, wonderful things happen. People can leave the meeting knowing that they were on holy ground.

The challenge to seek the Holy Spirit's presence at consistory meetings, is a local challenge which works itself out in regional ways as well. Classis has the potential of being a remarkably spiritually invigorating experience. A gathering of ministers and lay leaders should unleash a tremendous amount of vision and energy. Yet here too, we have often sat in assemblies in which God seems to be the furthest thing from anyone's mind. Can classes be revitalized?

Indeed they can. One encouraging aspect of the Reformed Church in Canada is that two of our three assemblies are brand new. They have a chance from the beginning to set a Spirit-led course. I have wonderful news to report from the inaugural sessions of the two new classes. Both were highlighted by exceptional worship experiences. The Classis of BC experienced a wonderful time of worship in which Pastor Case Koolhaas gave some extemporaneous sharing of how his ministry had been revitalized by the Holy Spirit. Pastor Case had traveled to La Plata, Argentina and seen the mighty moving of the Holy Spirit in a great revival in that city. The Spirit gave him a vision of what the Spirit could and would do through him. That session ended with others sharing their testimonies of the Lord's work in the life, and a concerted time of prayer for those who come forward with special needs. It was a classis to remember, indeed a classis to empower.

Classis of the Canadian Prairies had a different style and an equally vibrant seeking of the Holy Spirit. In addition to a powerful call to discipleship by President Robert Westra, there was a detailed prayer time in which each of the congregations shared their requests, and others of the classis prayed for them. The Spirit was clearly present.

What was the key? Both gave major time over to prayer and worship. Both allowed the newness of the assembly to let them try different things. Our established Classis of Ontario also gave a time for worship and prayer, and we must thank the Lord for the shared evangelical commitment of the three assemblies. Although it lacks a new beginning as a classis, Classis Ontario would be blessed by investigating new and spontaneous ways to be led by the Spirit.

I had the opportunity to share a word of challenge at both of the two new classis meetings. I shared that the dream of new classes can be entangled with sin to lose its effectiveness. It has become clear to me that a danger of reformed church polity is a confused sense of democracy. Delegates can start to view themselves as political appointees, and meetings can quickly degenerate to politics. In this atmosphere, at best, delegates parrot the views of their constituency, at worst, delegates start to vote from their pocket books, or to line up behind old friends, or to support a traditional denominational party line.

A classis starts dying when we start voting from our own perspective, and not sincerely striving to vote the way we think God wants us to vote. What would Christ want us to do with the difficult decisions? What has God revealed to my congregation in its worship of Him which would help me find His will in the matter before the classis? When we all seek Christ's will for His church, disagreements will remain in this fallen world about what that will is in a given circumstance, but the unity caused by seeking His will together will not be broken. When we start voting from our own interests or a party line, the classis starts dying.

The Scripture speaks of grieving the Holy Spirit, and admittedly I have been at church assemblies where I feel figuratively at least, the Holy Spirit is as fed up with the proceedings as those who are seeking His face are, and simply and sadly goes away. He certainly stops speaking because the delegates have more than enough to say by themselves.

Revitalization can began at our church assemblies, the same way that it usually begins in the church at large, through worship. We as the Reformed Church in Canada have an unprecedented opportunity and responsibility of maintaining not only our own consistories, but also classes and regional synod. We even have a larger voice to help renew our denominational General Synod. The Spirit is truly willing. If He is not listened to, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

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