Ethan Meyers

Synod 2024 met this summer in Calvin’s chapel.

On Thursday, Sept. 19, three churches submitted letters of disaffiliation to Classis Grand Rapids East – the first step in disaffiliation from the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA), Calvin’s parent denomination. 

The churches – Calvin Church, Grace Church, and Church of the Servant (COS) – join Sherman Street Church, which submitted its letter in May, in beginning the process of leaving the CRCNA. Many Calvin professors and students are members or regular attendees of these churches, which are – until the disaffiliation process is complete – part of Classis Grand Rapids East, the CRCNA administrative region that Calvin is a part of.

Lucas Postuma, a senior studying physics and lifelong member of Sherman Street Church, called his church’s decision to disaffiliate a “necessary tragedy.”

The decision comes as a result of the denomination’s tightening of its stance that same-sex sexual relationships are sinful. This summer, CRCNA’s annual synod placed all churches who had publicly disagreed with the denomination’s stance under discipline; these churches included the four who are now in the process of disaffiliation.

Synod 2024 gave churches a year to “repent” of their publicly LGBTQ+-affirming stances or begin the disaffiliation process. Churches that publicly disagree with the updated denominational stance but choose to neither repent nor disaffiliate would be placed under the authority of a neighboring church. For some within the departing churches, this has led to a sense that disaffiliation is inevitable. 

“COS does not want to leave the denomination. But the choice is either that or cease to exist as a church in the CRC,” said Eric Walstra, chair of COS’s council and an adjunct professor of engineering at Calvin. 

“If you’re not in agreement, you’ve got a year to change your mind. And then after that time, you are going to be forced to leave the denomination,” said James Vanden Bosch, professor emeritus of English and a member of Calvin Church’s disaffiliation committee. “We’d rather do it on our own terms and our own schedule.”

Sherman Street Church submitted their letter of disaffiliation before Synod 2024. The church didn’t necessarily want to leave, according to Jennifer Holmes Curran, one of the pastors, who described herself as a “‘stay until they kick you out’ kind of person.” Holmes Curran and her church were also concerned about the unity of the church as they considered leaving. However, she “also felt like we were being treated like we were already on the outside,” said Holmes Curran. 

While the denomination has long maintained its stance that same-sex sexual actions – though not same-sex attraction – are sinful, church office bearers – such as ministers, elders, and deacons – were not necessarily required to subscribe to this position prior to Synod 2022. Some churches within the denomination, including those who have begun the disaffiliation process, hold more welcoming stances toward LGBTQ+ people. 

At Synod 2022, delegates affirmed that the denomination’s position on same-sex relationships had confessional status, which means that all church office bearers are expected to uphold it. Synod 2024 clarified disciplinary processes for those in disagreement and also introduced time limits for churches and office bearers to resolve their disagreements. 

The churches who are in disagreement may not necessarily consider themselves to be officially LGBTQ+-affirming. Walstra told Chimes that COS “has committed together to respect a range of responsible, Reformed, Biblical views ranging from affirming to non-affirming to questioning.” However, COS also believes that “God welcomes to the table those who desire to follow Jesus and calls COS to use the gifts of all the servants at Church of the Servant according to their gifts and callings,” said Walstra. For COS, this includes LGBTQ+ persons – single or married. 

The CRCNA has a long history of valuing theological disagreement. The well-known Reformed scholar Alvin Plantinga, for instance, held a confessional-difficulty gravamen on the doctrines of election and reprobation and was still allowed to serve as an elder at his church. Vanden Bosch called synod’s decision to set a timeline for churches and individuals to resolve their disagreements with the denomination “something brand new.”

“There’s always been room, opportunity, the freedom to say, ‘I don’t agree with this. I don’t agree with this particular scriptural analysis,’” said Vanden Bosch. 

The churches who have submitted notice of disaffiliation are geographically close to Calvin and include many Calvin professors, staff, and students as members or regular attendees. Postuma estimated that about 20 Calvin professors and staff attend Sherman Street Church, and Kate Witvliet, a senior at Calvin and a member of COS, said that at least 14 professors attend COS. Professors who attend these churches won’t necessarily need to leave if the disaffiliation process continues. 

According to Andrew George, vice president of human resources, “faculty may be members at a ‘Calvin-supporting Protestant church’ that doesn’t share the CRC’s theological commitments on chastity or other matters,” though faculty themselves are still expected to subscribe to the CRCNA’s confessional stances or submit a confessional-difficulty gravamen. 

The next steps in the disaffiliation process, according to official CRCNA church order, are a series of meetings between the church and representatives from the classis aimed at encouraging the church to remain within the denomination, followed by two votes by the congregation on whether to stay or leave. 

After years in limbo, the disaffiliating churches don’t intend to stay. “Once this whole process is done for our congregation, it’s going to be just a sense of huge relief that we don’t have to argue about this stuff anymore,” said Vanden Bosch. 

The future for churches that have completed their disaffiliation processes is still somewhat uncertain. Vanden Bosch said that “there is a lot of interest” at Calvin Church and other departing churches in joining the Reformed Church in America, a denomination which shares much of its history and theology with the CRCNA. 

Holmes Curran told Chimes that Sherman Street is looking at possibly joining one of three different denominations – the RCA, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Church of Christ. Most people at Sherman Street “do not want to remain independent” because they “value the accountability of a denomination,” said Holmes Curran. 

According to Walstra, COS is still in the process of listening to God and to other churches — “both those who stay and those who must leave the denomination” — and seeing where God leads.

“Someone in our church shared that in a short while we likely will no longer be CRC, but we will still be Christian, Reformed, and the Church,” said Walstra.