The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) split from the Reformed Church in America (then known as the Dutch Reformed Church) in an 1857 secession. This was rooted in part as a result of a theological dispute that originated in the Netherlands in which Hendrik De Cock was deposed for his Calvinist convictions, leading there to the Secession of 1834–35. For the CRC founders in America, the RCA then appeared to contain problems similar to those that they had seen in the State Church in the old country. Gijsbert Haan (January 3, 1801 – July 27, 1874) was the leader in the 1857 Secession of Dutch-Americans from the Reformed Church in America and the creator of the Christian Reformed Church in the United States and Canada.
In 1857, four churches with about 130 families (about 10 percent of the Dutch immigrant church members in West Michigan at the time) seceded. In March, the Noordeloos church of the Classis of Holland, Michigan, left the Reformed Church in America. On March 19, some members of Second Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, organized a church that became First CRC, Grand Rapids, Michigan. On April 8, churches in Graafschap and Polkton also left the Classis of Holland. Two ministers, Koene van den Bosch and Hendrik Klijn, joined the separatists, although Klijn returned to the Reformed Church six months later.
The new denomination that formed from this secession was led by elders and ministers from the churches in the northern Netherlands, especially from the province of Groningen, that had organized after the 1834 secession in the Netherlands, although members of the new denomination came from all parts of the Netherlands. The reasons given for leaving the Reformed Church were the use of hymns (versus Exclusive psalmody) during worship, allowing free access to communion, lax interpretation of grace, permitting membership in Freemasonry, and failure to provide catechetical instruction to young people.
For the two years, the denomination had no corporate name. In 1859, Holland Reformed Church (Hollandsche Gereformeerde Kerk) was adopted, which was changed to Free Dutch Reformed Church (no record of a Dutch translation) in 1861. Two years later, True Dutch Reformed Church (Ware Hollandsche Gereformeerde Kerk) was approved, which was changed to Holland Christian Reformed Church (Hollandsche Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk) in 1880. In 1894 congregations also could use Christian Reformed Church (Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk) as well. The full adoption of Christian Reformed Church came in 1904, which became Christian Reformed Church in North America in 1974.
In 1875, the denomination opened a theological school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Preparatory Department of the school became Calvin College, while the Theological Department became Calvin Theological Seminary. By 1880 the denomination had grown to 42 congregations. Ten years later the number had grown to 100 located in 11 states. During the 1890s congregations from the True Protestant Dutch Reformed Church (located in New York and New Jersey) joined the CRC. During the 20th century a number of congregations from the disbanding German Reformed Churches also joined the CRC.
By 1920, the denomination had grown to 350 congregations. At that time an estimated 350,000 Dutch immigrants had come to the United States, some of whom were in the Dutch Reformed tradition that since the 1880s was influenced by Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch Neo-Calvinist theologian, journalist, and statesman (he served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, 1901-1905). He founded the Gereformeerde Kerken, a newspaper, the Free University of Amsterdam, and the Anti-Revolutionary Political Party.
During the early 1920s, the CRC adopted three doctrinal points regarding common grace. Three ministers, Herman Hoeksema, George Ophoff, and Henry Danhof were deposed for rejecting three points as being contrary to the Reformed confessions. The dispute led to the three ministers and their followers leaving the CRC and forming what is now the Protestant Reformed Churches in America.
After the Second World War, a new wave of Dutch Calvinist immigration occurred to Canada, most of which were Kuyperian. By 1960, half of the denomination's new congregations (138 of 288) were in Canada.
In the early 1950s, a division within the Protestant Reformed Churches in America led to about three fifths of its members forming the Orthodox Protestant Reformed Church, which joined the CRC in 1961.
In the last decades of the 20th century, the Synod enacted innovations that were rejected by some of its more conservative members and one-time sister denominations. Out of concern about the state of affairs in the CRC, a group of ministers formed the Mid-America Reformed Seminary in 1981, and around the same time a federation of churches known as the Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches (OCRC), comprising some former CRC congregations, was formed. The 1995 decision to ordain women led to the formation of the United Reformed Churches in North America (URC), and the severing of fraternal relationships between the CRC and the OPC and PCA in 1997. Because of the decision to ordain women, NAPARC suspended the CRC from membership in 1999 and expelled it in 2001. This gradual shift has spurred some of the more conservative congregations to leave; a significant number of these have ended up in the PCA, OPC, or URC. In 2008, the OCRC dissolved and member churches joined the URC.
As of 2016 the CRC has bilateral relationships with 39 denominations around the globe: 24 are in "ecclesiastical fellowship;" 10 are "in dialogue;" and five are in "corresponding fellowship." In North America, the CRC is denominational partners with the more mainline Reformed Church in America (from which it had split in 1857) and in ecclesiastical fellowship with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.[5]
Theology
The Christian Reformed Church is Calvinist,[2]confessional and evangelical in its theology. It places high value on theological study and the application of theology to current issues, emphasizes the importance of careful Biblical hermeneutics, and has traditionally respected the personal conscience of individual members who feel they are led by the Holy Spirit. The Church promotes the belief that Christians do not earn their salvation, but that it is a wholly unmerited gift from God, and that good works are the Christian response to that gift.
Reformed theology as practiced in the CRC is founded in Calvinism. A more recent theologian of great influence on this denomination was Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920). Kuyper, who served as the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905, promoted a belief in social responsibility and called on Christians to engage actively in improving all aspects of life and society. Kuyper is regarded as a founding father of Christian Democracy political ideology. Current scholars with wider reputations, such as philosophers Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff, as well as Lewis B. Smedes, have associations with this denomination and with Calvin University. Philip Yancey has stated, "I also admire the tradition of the Christian Reformed Church, which advocates 'bringing every thought captive' under the mind of Christ; that tiny 'transforming' denomination has had an enormous influence on science, philosophy, and the arts."[6]
In 1986, the CRC formulated a statement of faith titled "Our World Belongs to God:[9] A Contemporary Testimony" which addresses issues such as secularism, individualism, and relativism. These issues were seen as "unique challenges of faith presented by the times in which we live".[10] While not having confessional status, it is meant to give a hymn-like expression of CRC beliefs within the heritage of the Reformed confessions, especially addressing issues that confront the church today.[11] The Contemporary Testimony was reviewed and updated in 2008. The second Contemporary Testimony held by the CRCNA is the Belhar Confession, a testimony written in Afrikaans in 1982 from Reformed churches in South Africa.[12]
Social issues
The Christian Reformed Church has stated its position on a number of social issues. Summaries of those positions and references to full reports with exact statements can be found at crcna.org.[13]
The CRC is opposed to abortion except in cases when the "life of the mother is genuinely threatened" by her pregnancy. The church "affirms the unique value of all human life" from the "moment of conception". Believers are called upon to show "compassion" to those experiencing unwanted pregnancies, even while they speak out against the "atrocity" of abortion. In 2010, the Synod adopted a recommendation "to instruct the Office of Social Justice and Hunger Action (OSJ) to boldly advocate for the church's position against abortion, and to help equip churches to promote the sanctity of human life" (Acts of Synod 2010, p.883)."[14]
Unlike many other Christian denominations, the CRC does not have an official stance on euthanasia. Their Acts of the 1972 Synod, however, can be interpreted as also a condemnation of euthanasia, since it opposes "the wanton or arbitrary destruction of any human being at any stage of its development from the point of conception to the point of death". (Acts of Synod 1972, p.64)[15][improper synthesis?] The CRC already expressed its official opposition to legal euthanasia both in Canada and the United States.[16]
The CRC has a moderate stance on the death penalty: "The CRC has declared that modern states are not obligated by Scripture, creed, or principle to institute and practice capital punishment. It does, however, recognize that Scripture acknowledges the right of modern states to institute and practice capital punishment if it is exercised with utmost restraint."[17]
The stance of the CRC is that homosexuality is "a condition of disordered sexuality that reflects the brokenness of our sinful world". Christian homosexuals should not pursue "homosexualism", defined as "explicit homosexual practice", which is "incompatible with obedience to the will of God as revealed in Scripture". Christian homosexuals should be given "loving support" within the church community, compassion, and support "towards healing and wholeness".[18][19] Christian homosexuals, like all Christians, are called to discipleship, holy obedience, and the use of their gifts in the cause of the kingdom. Opportunities to serve within the offices and the life of the congregation should be afforded to them as to heterosexual Christians.[20]
The Christian Reformed Church in North America also opposes Freemasonry.[21]
Political involvement
The CRC educates its constituency and mobilizes member advocacy on a wide range of social justice issues in Canada and the United States.[22] It does so primarily through its Office of Social Justice and Hunger Action[23] (OSJ) and the Centre for Public Dialogue[24] (CPD) in Canada. Major issues on which the CRC has clear, biblically rooted positions and an active advocacy effort include: Reducing or ending abortion, comprehensive reform of the U.S. immigration system, ending global poverty and hunger, fighting systemic racism in both Canada and the U.S., achieving more justice for aboriginal groups in the U.S. and Canada, organizing for a stronger governmental and private sector response to care for God's creation – including climate change, refugee protection and resettlement, and standing in solidarity with those who are persecuted for their faith.
The CRC has mission efforts and ministries in Nigeria, South America, Southeast Asia, and the Navajo reservation. Among the most prominent reservation churches are the Zuni and Rehoboth missions. Rehoboth was founded in 1903 and has grown significantly into a large church and has an independent school with over 500 students in grades K-12; Zuni has experienced the same in its community. The Rehoboth hospital moved to the neighboring town of Gallup in 1970. Rehoboth built a high-school in 1951, and a new high school, funded by the DeVos family, was built in 2018. The first Rehoboth church was built in 1908, though the congregation moved to a new building in 2005.
Governance
The Christian Reformed Church emblem approved for U.S. military gravestones.
Church polity refers to the form of governance and organization of a church. The CRC follows a Presbyterian form of church polity organized under governance by elders, as compared to Episcopal polities organized under governance by bishops (Roman Catholic, United Methodist, and Episcopal denominations) and Congregational polities organized under the governance of the local congregation (Congregational, Baptist, Disciples of Christ). Governance by elders is assumed throughout the Christian Reformed Church Order, but CRC polity is not exactly like that of Presbyterian denominations. Two particular differences include the fact that the CRC has limited tenure for officebearers (so elders and deacons serve terms, not forever), and ministers are ordained and credentialed by a local congregation, not the regional classis or presbytery. Another key difference is that church polity in the CRC does not have confessional status and, therefore, the Church Order does not have the same authority as the creeds. The Church Order is subordinate to the creeds and confessions, which are subordinate to Scripture.[25]
The Christian Reformed Church has three levels of assembly: the church council (local assembly, composed of a congregation's deacons, elders, and ministerial staff), the classis (regional assembly, of which there are 48: 37 in the United States and 12 in Canada, with one straddling the international border), and the synod (bi-national assembly.)[26] The church's Synod meets annually in June, with 192 delegates: a minister, an elder and a deacon from each classis, plus one other officebearer.
Central offices of the church are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Burlington, Ontario. The CRC in North America has sent missionaries to many countries around the world where Christian Reformed churches have been established, but these have organized on their own and are independent from the North American denomination.
Education and agencies
Reformed teaching puts an emphasis on education. As such, many CRC members support Christian day schools as well as post-secondary education.[27]
The logo of The Back to God Hour radio program, which gave Back to God Ministries International its original name
ReFrame Ministries– (formerly The Back to God Hour) media ministry founded in 1939 that uses radio, television, internet, and text messaging to reach nearly 200 countries, with 34 websites in 10 languages[29]
Resonate Global Mission - Formed by the joining of Christian Reformed Home Missions and Christian Reformed World Missions, Resonate Global Mission, trains leaders, guides new churches, and forges partnerships to proclaim and live out the good news of Jesus Christ worldwide.
World Renew– World Renew, formerly the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), is the relief and development organization of the Christian Reformed Church. It responds to the needs of people around the world who are suffering from poverty, hunger, disaster, and injustice.[30][31]
Departments and offices
Faith Alive Christian Resources[32]– known as CRC Publications until 2007, publishes and distributes books, magazines and learning materials. In 2013, Faith Alive was reorganized from a CRC agency with its own board to a department supervised by the CRC Board of Trustees.
Christian Reformed Churches in the US by county, 2008
Membership trends
After a time of steady growth during the period of 1963–1992, membership totals have declined, even though the number of churches has grown. In 1992, at the height of its membership, the Christian Reformed Churches had 316,415 members in 981 churches in the United States and Canada. In 2019 membership had dropped to 222,156 members in 1072 churches, marking a loss of 78,164 members (or 26% of its membership) in the last 25years.[49]
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, a schism in the Western Church. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregational traditions, as well as parts of the Anglican and Baptist traditions.
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is the second-largest Presbyterian church body, behind the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the largest conservative Calvinist denomination in the United States. The PCA is Reformed in theology and presbyterian in government.
The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 84,957 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church.
The Dutch Reformed Church was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal family and the foremost Protestant denomination until 2004, the year it helped found and merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. It was the larger of the two major Reformed denominations, after the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was founded in 1892. It spread to the United States, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and various other world regions through Dutch colonization. Allegiance to the Dutch Reformed Church was a common feature among Dutch immigrant communities around the world and became a crucial part of Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa.
The United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA) is a theologically conservative federation of Reformed churches founded in 1996. Many churches joined the URCNA after splitting from the Christian Reformed Church in North America denomination.
The Canadian and American Reformed Churches (CanRC) is a federation of Protestant Reformed (Calvinist) churches in Canada and the United States, with historical roots in the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands.
Herman Bavinck was a Dutch Calvinist theologian and churchman. He was a significant scholar in the Calvinist tradition, alongside Abraham Kuyper, B. B. Warfield, and Geerhardus Vos.
The Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) was an international organization of Calvinist churches. It had 39 member denominations from 25 countries in its membership, and those churches have about 12 million people together. It was founded August 14, 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan as the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. The Reformed Ecumenical Council was the second largest international Calvinist alliance and the more conservative of the two largest. In 1953, The Reformed Ecumenical Synod meeting in Edinburgh decided to advise its member churches not to join the World Council of Churches as currently constituted because it “permits essentially different interpretations of its doctrinal basis, and thus the nature of the Christian faith” and “represents itself as a Community of faith, but is actually not this” due to member churches holding “basically divergent positions.”
The Protestant Reformed Churches in America is a Protestant denomination of 33 churches and over 8,000 members.
Reformed Churches of New Zealand is a Calvinist denomination in New Zealand. The denomination is constituted of 22 member churches, the first seven of which were formed in 1953. Total membership as of 2023 stands at 3,530.
The Netherlands Reformed Congregations is a conservative Calvinist denomination with congregations in Canada, the United States and Bolivia. It is affiliated with the Reformed Congregations in the Netherlands.
The Heritage Reformed Congregations (HRC) is a Reformed denomination in the United States and Canada influenced by the tradition of English Puritanism and the Dutch Nadere Reformatie.
The Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands is a Protestant church in the Netherlands.
The Free Reformed Churches of North America (FRCNA) is a theologically conservative federation of churches in the Dutch Calvinist tradition with congregations in the United States and Canada. It officially adopted its current name in 1974.
The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Reformed (Calvinist) churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Christian communion in the world after the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. This ecumenical Christian body was formed in June 2010 by the union of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC).
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) (Dutch: Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (vrijgemaakt)) was an orthodox Calvinist federation of churches. This church body arose in 1944 out of the so-called Liberation (Vrijmaking) from the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, when many pastors and members refused to go along with the General Synod's demand to hold to "presumed regeneration of infants" at their baptism. Klaas Schilder played an important role in the Liberation. There are currently 270 affiliated local congregations with a total of about 120,000 members in 2016.
The Reformed Churches in South Africa is a Christian denomination in South Africa that was formed in 1859 in Rustenburg. Members of the church are sometimes referred to as Doppers.
The Reformed Church in Japan is a confessional Calvinist denomination in Japan. It was formerly a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, but it chose to suspend its membership.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Taiwan was officially established in 1971 when the First Presbytery was formed as a result of the union of various conservative Presbyterian and Continental Reformed congregations planted by various missionary groups. Its origin could be traced back to the 1950s when the very first missionaries of those Presbyterian and Continental Reformed missionaries arrived in Taiwan.
References
Bratt, James H. Dutch Calvinism in Modern America: A History of a Conservative Subculture. Eerdmans, 1984.
Doezema, Linda Pegman. Dutch Americans: A Guide to Information Sources. Gale Research, 1979.
Kroes, Rob, and Henk-Otto Neuschafer, eds. The Dutch in North America: Their Immigration and Cultural Continuity. Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1991.
Kromminga, John. The Christian Reformed Church: A Study in Orthodoxy. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1949.
Schaap, James. Our Family Album: The Unfinished Story of the Christian Reformed Church. Grand Rapids, Mich.: CRC Publications, 1998.
Sheeres, Janet Sjaarda. Son of Secession: Douwe J. Vander Werp. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2006.
Smidt, Corwin, Donald Luidens, James Penning, and Roger Nemeth. Divided by a Common Heritage: The Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America at the Beginning of the New Millennium. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.
Swierenga, Robert. Faith and Family: Dutch Immigration and Settlement in the United States, 1820–1920 (2000)
Zwaanstra, Henry. Reformed Thought and Experience in a New World: A Study of the Christian Reformed Church and Its American Environment 1890–1918. The Netherlands: Kampen, 1973. 331 pp.
Witteveen Fred, rehoboth christian school 1903-2003.
↑ Although Presbyterianism itself originated in Scotland, those denominations stand out as having a more prominent Scottish heritage and/or connection with Scottish Presbyterian denominations.
↑ Those denominations allow member churches to be more diverse as regards the reformed tradition that they adhere to.
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