Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/93

Contributor - Jonathan Gerstner

Title - Finally Beloved: New And Old

Topic - Reformed Church In Canada

This fall has been a time of new beginnings in the Reformed Church in Canada. August saw the birth of the new Regional Synod of Canada. September saw the birth of the Classis of the Canadian Prairies, and the birth of the Classis of British Columbia. We are finding new church structures are affecting all of our congregations.

Fall also saw the end of some very loved institutions. 'Me Council of the Reformed Church in Canada had served for almost twenty years proclaiming the good news. The Alberta unit and BC unit also ceased to exist, to give way to the new classes. Each of these assemblies served crucial historic roles in their region. Yet all died with scarcely a tear. Why?

So what is the best of the old for the Reformed Church? The key unchanging truth given us is that the final source of authority in the church is God's revealed will, Holy Scripture. Christ is King, and He rules all things, but in a special way the church is His picture of the new heaven and earth, where He rules directly. The Reformed Church is ever called to reflect His sovereignty more completely.

Unfortunately we have learned through history that unbelievers will sometimes twist Scripture, the Word of the King, to their own destruction while taking simple followers with them. Therefore in the Reformed Church we accept historic summaries of the basic points of Scripture, our three confessions. They summarize the other basic essential points. As leaders in the Reformed Church we confess the emphases of these documents come out of their historical context, but nevertheless that they are faithful testimonies to the teaching of Scripture.

Our denomination has also responded to the contemporary church crisis, in which some unbelieving church assemblies have denied the teaching of Scripture with regard to sexual ethics by clearly restating the teaching of Scripture that homosexual acts are always sinful. We thus confess that a church or member which denies Christ's teaching in this regard has rejected Christ Himself. Sexual ethics is crucial, but even more basic is the authority of Christ Himself The authority of Christ over His church which the Reformed Church acknowledges is rejected when professing Christians defend behaviour condemned by the Lord of the church.

Accepting the Word of God as our authority is another way of saying that the church is Christ's Church, not our church. Anything old in the church must be tested to see that it too is faithful to that standard. New elements introduced simply to make us acceptable to our society is rebellion against the Lord of the church.

On the other hand, holding on to the old norms of a past generation is equally objectionable when it fails to allow Christ to rule His church. When Christ commissioned His disciples He called them to fish for men and women. If our new or old traditions hamper the incorporation of people into the fellowship of the church through conversion they must be removed. Old patterns can hamper people in a new society even hearing the Gospel. New patterns can ruin fishing for men by capsizing the fishing boat and drowning its message in the lost culture' surrounding the church. May our new Synod and classes always be faithful to the old truths, while seeking new ways to empower our churches in this gr endeavour called evangelism

Can we as congregations ( the same attitude toward which is faithful to the Word of God that was demonstrated in our acceptance of the new classis and Synod structure? Can we see the of programmes of our church as always p way for the next logical step in ministering to our community? Can our women's groups prepare for becoming the groups that will minister to the next generation of women of the church and the community? Can our educational programmes be ever preparing for meeting the needs of the next generation of the congregation? Only when the programme of the church or its structure is seen as unchanging does the old find itself on a collision course with the new. Only when the new fails to honour and, as much as possible, incorporate the strengths of the old does it become an alien invader.

We can legitimately call the Reformed Church a church for the future without fear of drifting away from the unchanging truths of Scripture. Having revolutionarily proclaimed ourselves reformed according to the Word of God, we also acknowledge that the process can never be complete for the perfect Word of God is constantly calling us to reform our ministry closer to that perfect standard. The Word calls us to be all things to all people, that we may by all means win some. Therefore as our society changes our church must adapt to those changes by making the unchanging truths intelligible to our society. The process is never over, until our Lord returns.

The same is clearly true for the Regional Synod of Canada and its classes. Hopefully we will never let ourselves sit back and assume that we have arrived. Each classis and the Synod will need to be constantly revising itself to more effectively minister. Future restructure is always before us. But this new vision of reaching out with the good news to Canada, is the old vision restated and will be renewed in any future structure which will please Christ.

May anything in structure old or new which does not bring glory to Christ be removed. May we carry this prophetic message not only to our new classes and Regional Synod, but also to the General Synod and its committees and task forces. This simple test may do more to reform our church than any other restructuring motif. Let all agencies of the church be weighed in the balance of whether or not it brings glory to Christ, and let us courageously remove all that fails the test. This radical step of obedience to the Lord of the church would lead to our entire denomination being blessed by the Holy Spirit to become a renewed church.

1993 is a year of new beginnings for the Reformed Church in Canada. It can eel like everything is in flux. But the acient truth of our call to be reformed according to the Word of God remains the steady constant. May everything be in flux, so long as that flux is reformation closer to God's unchanging truth.

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