Local CRC appoints deacon who is in same-sex marriage
Neland CRC of Grand Rapids appointed as deacon a congregant in a same-sex marriage. The CRC considers same-sex marriage grounds for church discipline. (Photo by Juliana Knot)
Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church appointed a congregant who is in a same-sex marriage as deacon this past summer. According to Council President Larry Louters, they are the only congregation in the denomination with a SSM member in church office.
Neland Avenue declined to name the deacon out of privacy concerns.
The CRC does not condemn same-sex attraction and says that churches should fully include homosexual congregants in church office and life; however, the 2016 Synod concluded that members in SSMs were deserving of church discipline. The official CRC stance on SSM states: “Homosexualism (that is, explicit homosexual practice), however, is incompatible with obedience to the will of God as revealed in Scripture.”
According to Louters, the deacon in question was elected to the council three times prior to her marriage, including a term as chair of deacons. Each deacon elected received at least 87% of the vote.
In a letter sent out to congregants, Neland Avenue denied “getting out ahead of Synod” and emphasized its commitment to the CRC, Calvin University and the ministries of the CRC. Louters said, “After years of careful, prayerful discernment, we simply could not regard our SSM members as deserving of church discipline as synod’s pastoral advice called for, and then could not systematically ignore the congregation’s call, year after year, to employ their gifts in church leadership.”
The letter also noted that decisions related to homosexuality are considered pastoral advice, not confessional or church order articles, so Neland Avenue’s council and pastorate take these decisions to be less binding and do not believe that they have crossed a line of orthodoxy.
A CRC statement on church order says that congregations have the authority to call whom they choose, at least with regards to women in church office: “Every classis shall respect the prerogative of its constituent churches to call and ordain office bearers according to their own biblical convictions.”
Louters said he hopes the denomination recognizes the predicament that Neland Avenue was facing, even if they disagree with the church’s actions.
A denominational study committee was tasked with studying a biblical response to human sexuality, homosexuality being one facet of that. They are expected to deliver a report to Synod this June. Those on the committee had to affirm the CRC’s current stance on marriage, a requirement that Neland Avenue’s council and pastorate disagreed with. Classis Grand Rapids East, which Neland Avenue belongs to, sent a report to Synod in 2016 which stated that a wide range of beliefs can be acceptable under a reformed view of scripture.
A spokesperson for the CRC said in an email to Chimes, “Issues about human sexuality are complex, and many of our congregations are working through them right now. We look forward to next June when the task force studying human sexuality is expected to deliver their report.”
A 2016 survey of the Neland Avenue CRC found that the congregation was split on the issue of SSM. 40% surveyed held to the CRC’s current stance on marriage, 40% surveyed believed that SSM should be affirmed by the denomination and 20% were undecided.
Louters said that congregants have left in response to the election and that congregants have also left because it has taken ten years for a member in a SSM to be elected to council. He also noted that newcomers have joined Neland Avenue CRC as a result of the appointment. The deacon has not received any negative responses from within the congregation, according to Louters, and is well-loved and respected at Neland Avenue.
The letter from the Neland Avenue CRC council denied that this action meant that the church officially affirms SSM, and Louters said that members of Neland Avenue’s council disagree on the issue of LGBTQ inclusion. Louters said, “There are still congregations in the CRC who believe that women holding the office of elder or deacon, let alone pastor, is a sinful practice, against scriptural dictates. Yet we seem to have managed those differences in views. We are hopeful that the CRC will be able to do the same with same sex marriage.”
Jennifer Rijp • Jun 16, 2021 at 7:30 pm
Sam, I appreciate what you addressed. The men with boys issue did come up in the latest study research findings & recommendations.
Male child who has been sexually exploited and abused has nothing to do with same-sex relationships. Pedophilia is about power over, opportunity, and exploitation. Same sex relationships are about love.
Thank you for emphacizing that.
I have many gay friends and I hope they are reading the supportive comments on here. The other is the same old same old that women also dealt with for so long.
Jennifer Rijp • Jun 16, 2021 at 7:21 pm
I’m actually really pleased to see someone value and utilize the God-given gifts all people have. It is heartening to see a CRC church responding in this way. Women were historically also kept out of leadership and office positions. This was always justified on biblical grounds.
I’ve read the comments on here, and find them incredibly appalling. Made in God’s image is made in God’s image. Cutural traditions and beliefs have much impact on interpretation of scriptures.
Pedophilia is wrong, but equating or linking gay relationships to pedophilia is also wrong. it is also a misconception.
When does the message of God’s love come through instead of ongoing judgmentalism and condemnation. What is it that people are so very afraid of? How many people’s hearts have been pierced in the same way they pierced Christ’s body on the cross. I’m wondering why it is so scary to consider that gay people are also in the image of God? What is that about?
I grew up in the CRC and know the theology (studied it and disagreed with it). I’m so very glad that Leland Ave CRC is keeping their focus on God’s love. Jesus countered the rubbish that marginalized people in that culture. He countered it.
Suzanne • Feb 22, 2021 at 4:34 pm
Thank you Neland! I fully support this decision. It’s About Time.
Roselyn M Oppenhuizen • Jan 20, 2021 at 4:59 pm
Does the Bible really clearly condemn?
Remember please the old verse that says judge not that ye be not judged and that in heaven there is no taking nor giving in marriage.
Some things demand our action while others are personal as in meat offered to idols. If you believe homosexuality is sin it is wrong for you.
Are we now using scripture to validate our own biases against our brothers and sisters in the Church? I admit I don’t know the answer to this,
but I strongly hesitate to throw a fellow professing Christian out of church.
“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”
Amelia Prins • Jan 13, 2021 at 7:37 pm
I’m in full support of Neland Avenue CRC! Some of my family members are thinking of leaving their own crc church in the area because of the letters they are sending out to Neland.
Henry Eisses • Nov 5, 2020 at 12:35 am
Where are the gate keepers? Gates are mentioned often in Scripture. They were an important part of maintaining order in ancient societies. Neh.11:19. “The gate keepers kept watch at the gates.” Matt. 13:25. “But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds amoung the wheat and went away.” Where are the gatekeepers today? Quote by Joe Dallas: “A propoganda campaign aimed at biblically orthodox believers has been launched, with the goal of sowing seeds of doubt about God’s commands concerning homosexual behavior.” Our Arch enemy Satan, is sowing seeds of doubt, seeking to alter the Christian church and biblical truth and in so doing seriously mar the image of God. When what God plainly forbids is said to be sanctioned by him, then a serious heresy is unfolding. I agree with you David and Jonathon.
Jonathon Hoek • Oct 3, 2020 at 6:42 pm
Repent, is all anyone can say. Neland actions are apostate and in need of discipline.
David Sung • Sep 18, 2020 at 1:21 pm
Dear Sam, please do not feed people false information. Your claim that the ancients had no idea about same-sex relationships is simply unscientific in its claim and wrong assumption. Sin has been around since the beginning of time. There is nothing new under the sun. Your way of dismissing those bible verses is what we called, ‘divide and conquer’ method which does violence to correct canonical interpretation of Scripture. Those six verses combined along with other passages that say, God created, “male and female” as God’s image speaks one true statement. All sexual activities with the same sex are SIN, pure and simple. Know this too. Pretty much all of global Christianity outside the Western world believe it to be sin. Christian church throughout history believed it to be sin. How do you deny the testimony of the Holy Spirit through history and throughout the globe?
Sam Reynolds • Sep 16, 2020 at 8:22 pm
Thank you for your outlook on the issue, Brie!
While the six passages that address same-sex eroticism in the ancient world are negative about the practices they mention, there is NO EVIDENCE that these in any way speak to same-sex relationships of love and mutuality. To the contrary, the amount of cultural, historical and linguistic data surrounding how sexuality in the cultures of the biblical authors operated demonstrates that what was being condemned in the Bible is very different than the committed same-sex partnerships we know and see today. The stories of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) and the Levite’s concubine (Judges 19) are about SEXUAL VIOLENCE and the stigma of the Near East of the ancient world toward violating male honor. The injunction that “man must not lie with man” (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13) fits together with the context of a society anxious about continuing family lineages and retaining the distinctiveness of Israel as a nation.
Each time the NEW TESTAMENT addresses the topic in a list of vices (1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10) the argument being made is more than likely about pederasty, which is the SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF YOUNG MEN BY OLDER MEN. We read about this in the Paul’s letter to the Romans and it is part of a broader indictment against idolatry and excessive, self-centered lust that is driven by desire to “consume” rather than to love and to serve as outlined for Christian partnership elsewhere in the Bible.
While it is very unlikely that the Jews and Christians of the 1st century had little to no awareness of “sexual orientation”, this doesn’t mean that the biblical authors were wrong. What it means, at a minimum, is that continued opposition toward same-sex relationships and LGBTQ identities must be based on something other than these biblical texts, which brings us back to a theology of Christian marriage or partnership.
Brie Walter • Sep 12, 2020 at 2:02 pm
This is by far the most encouraging thing I have heard from the denomination in quite sometime. Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly.
LGBTQ+ Christians and non Christians alike know more of God when they are loved and welcomed into communities that call themselves “Church.”
Aaron Vriesman • Sep 11, 2020 at 1:14 pm
Thank you Juliana for this report
Kevin Sluis • Sep 11, 2020 at 11:03 am
You know full well that homosexuality is wrong and has no place in a church council. Twisting the scriptures to suit your mind is not an excuse
James Greydanus • Sep 11, 2020 at 10:43 am
The Bible clearly condemns the practice of homosexuality in both the OT and NT. If you go against the Bible to accommodate social norms you are defying the Word of God. Isaiah 56: 4-5
4For thus says the LORD,
“To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,
5To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
In Biblical Hebrew, the term for Eunuch in this context has sexual overtones. ie. not heterosexual, as is indicated in verse 5 that refers to sons and daughters, ie, heterosexual. There is no term in Biblical Hebrew for homosexual, transvestite or transgender. These are modern terms. So these verses can be applied to people with same-sex attraction. If they remain chaste and follow the Lords precepts their reward will be greater (“a name better”) than those who marry and follow Gods law because their burden is greater.
But for those who know the truth but defy Biblical teaching will face the wrath of God.