The Next 25 Years of the CREC

In this talk on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the CREC, I offer a big picture view of how we should proceed as a Communion of Reformed and Evangelical Churches

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is indeed an honor to address the CREC Council on this august occasion of the 25^th anniversary of our Communion of Reformed Evangelical churches. As I look at this international audience today, I am reminded that small acts of faithfulness early in our history lead to grand experiences of grace in the long term.

 I want to begin by expressing my gratitude to PMOC, Virgil Hurt, for his faithfulness in leading the CREC these last six years. I am certain that when he accepted the role in Destin, Fl 2017, he had little knowledge of the insanity of the years ahead with false priests inspecting our temples. And worst, those leading the temples allowed the false priests to come in to determine whether we were healthy or not, to determine whether we were worthy to sing, and to determine whether we were a threat to society.

COVID was a test of leadership; it was a lesson in Isacharian theology. Do we know the times? Which priesthood rules the times? The royal and permanent priesthood or the impermanent clergy of the state? The CREC knew the times and fought against the tide. When the majority of the evangelical church was busy dethroning the church, the CREC was exalting the centrality of the Church in society as the true city of God, which does not take time off but controls time with her calendar and her conviction.

But this evening, I also look to those initial voices in our young denomination who formed those building blocks. Today, we are grateful for their determination to persevere these last 25 years. Though we are small in numbers, we pray as John Knox, who said: “Help to amplify and increase thy kingdom; that whatsoever thou sendest, we may be heartily well content with thy good pleasure and will.”

As we forge our path for the next 25 years, we risk becoming overly ambitious. Therefore, we need a humble vision that safeguards us from the temptations that have befallen many denominations in their early days. But we must also be bold to keep the CREC on the frontlines of ecclesial, cultural, and political battles.

And the reality is that as we grow, the enticement to play it safe will also increase. We must be cognizant of the reality that our hunger for safety fuels the expressive individualism that rules the ecclesiastical scene in our day. So, our response is to be like the Lord’s answer to the devilish trickeries: “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We move forward presupposing that word above all earthly powers; an authoritative declaration that silences the devil and resurrects the dead.

As we celebrate God’s faithfulness and commemorate his kindness, I draw your attention to two highlights of our Communion that will guide us into the new season of our history. They fall under the ecclesial and the political realms.

Ecclesio-Centered

First, the ecclesial, which absorbs several crucial elements of our life as a people. The Scriptures form a basic historical pattern: Garden, Land, and World. The church is that first Edenic corpus that overflows to the land (which includes our homes) and then the world (which includes our cultural and societal realities).

Our Lord Jesus declares that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. This is not a guarantee that hell won’t prevail against the CREC, but it is a guarantee that the gates of hell have already lost the fundamental battle for the bride of Christ. Satan has been defeated, and the Church now moves forth by the power of the Ascended Messiah and through the work of the Spirit, incorporating baptized image-bearers to stand for the claims of King Jesus. And the CREC is a minuscule portion of this warring party, but she is, I believe, a strategic piece of this endeavor.

The ecclesiastical institutions of our times are in shambles. They have compromised their message to the point of near meaninglessness or worse, and the Church is in epistemological despair. We have compromised our preaching, and we have given over the preeminence of the Church to other institutions. As Doug Wilson noted, “The need that confronts us at the present day is a reformation and recovery of lost ground.” And that ground was lost because we didn’t believe that God gave the whole world as our inheritance. To borrow from C.S. Lewis, we have become half-hearted creatures making mud pies in a slum because we can’t imagine that God gave us heaven above and earth below as our eternal holiday.

To believe that his promises are “yes and amen” necessitates a communion like ours to restore the centrality of the Church as the towering mountain that stands unmoved in every town, county, and country.

Among the many areas where the CREC will play a crucial role in the days ahead is through a robust pastoral training that prepares ministers to not only equip the people with a biblical reality but also provides a theological gravitas that restores the proper role of the pastor in society. As we move forward, the CREC needs to think carefully about how to train a new generation of pastors who are courageous Protestants-- intellectually and pastorally equipped to lead our churches in this new era.

Interpreters of Reality

Paul’s words to Timothy are fitting:

…give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. ¹⁶ Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

A minister must rightly divide the word of truth. He must be a compelling interpreter, a respecter of the Word’s purity, internal logic, and redemptive flow. This is the standard for ministers as they come to be examined, and it is the expectation of those who must give an account to our Great Shepherd.

Brian McClain’s ordination exam was sustained by the presbytery

Calvin’s Company of Pastors in Geneva was a great model for this approach. Among the pastoral candidates who came for ordination in Geneva, the vast majority were properly equipped theologically; they were not ashamed of the Word and their calling. There were exceptions, which prompted Calvin to complain in one of his letters that a few candidates were not even “qualified to watch goats.”

Yes, there will always be those who are not equipped even to watch goats, but if the Church is to succeed in this new age, we need a new generation of ministers who are qualified to feed the sheep in word and deed.

The Smells of Hospitality

This ecclesiastical vision must also be filled with a cultural incense that leaves the people smelling better than before. As the CREC grows in the next 25 years, she must embrace her calling as a distinct culture. We cannot lose ourselves in political concerns if the culture of our churches is not thriving.

What does this mean? It means that our congregations will need an even more hospitality-saturated environment; the kind that shocks visitors into wanting more. Our culture of friendship and food is the culture that makes us a delicious sample of the good life. P.J. O’Rourke once noted that everyone wants to change the world but no one wants to do the dishes. Our CREC bodies, especially the ones coming in, will need to get a taste of that hospitality. We affirm the power of hospitality in shaping the life of the Church. As Steve Wilkins noted, “In a world that is becoming more consistent with unbelief, few things will become more strange than the practice of hospitality.” The CREC must preserve this distinct cultural flavor that brings the aroma of life to tables and the human heart, strengthening local bodies to minister to an inhospitable world. This is the pattern of a community whose God prepares a table for his people and who gives himself as a meal for his people.

Theological Conviction

The CREC will find its vigor led by able men, enlivened by tables of joy, and thirdly enriched by theological conviction. We are not a series of inconsequential paradigms; put together randomly to bolster the appeal of the masses. No, we are a consistent theological body that lives out our theology. As John Frame so ably puts it, “Theology is the application of the Word of God by persons to all areas of life.” And so, our theological disposition is going to shape our praxis. We cannot put aside those distinctives that have shaped our churches in the last 25 years, unified our mission, and which now allow us the fruit of seeing our children’s children enjoying this noble heritage.

We must continue to affirm a theological richness that applies our postmillennial lenses as we prepare for the 25-50-75-100 years ahead, our paedocommunion practices as we nurture and admonish our children from their earliest days in the hospitality of our Triune God, and our presuppositional commitments which keep us primarily embedded in the text of Scripture as our sole source of life and practice.

These theological concepts need to remain richly central to the life of the CREC. They have shaped us culturally, and we are a more vital communion because of them.

Liturgically Strong

Finally, under this ecclesiastical vision, the CREC must continue to exercise our liturgical muscles. We need to build our churches not on the supposed authority of our clerical collars or ties or bow ties or sacerdotal stupidities but on the liturgy experienced, practiced, and loved by our forefathers in a covenant renewal context. We need to enculturate not only our people but also those outside of our circles in the joys of Psalm-singing, creating a musically literate culture that grows in appreciation for good music and matures in good music. The church that sings together stays together!

The CREC must emphasize the hymnody of the church as a significant formational means to strengthen our piety, to harmonize our petitions and imprecations, and to satisfy our deepest longing. Whether Israel is in exile or the promised land, she sings. So, too, must we sing fervently, led primarily by the voices of men whose influence will lead the disposition of our women and our children to join corporate voices to the God who sings over us.

The CREC succeeds if she keeps the Church and her culture, theology, and liturgy central.

A Political Gospel

But finally, her voice must not remain internalized. While she feeds her children with the promises of Jesus, she proclaims a message to the world. She moves from her garden walls to the family land, to the cultural and political corridors of the world with a profoundly political message. As Abraham Kuyper noted:

“When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”

It is unmistakable that our political movement as a body in these last few years clashed with the farcical peace movements of our day. The false priests kept chanting, “Peace, peace, peace,” while we knew there was no peace. We did not heed the liturgy of the state, but rather, with the fire of our faith, we proclaimed victory, and we refused to call good evil and evil good. Many heard our voices and were encouraged by our declarations, and our communion attracted the attention and respect of many.

It is evident that as we move forward in the coming years, our churches will be tested again. Will we continue in our unrelenting vision to silence the enemy and the avenger? Will we be united in the bonds of the Spirit to work together to fight greater battles? We must! We have learned that forging courage takes generations, while giving in to fear takes a news cycle.

So, we move forward as an alternative city to the city of man; we offer the world the city of God with all its splendor and glory, with its exalted vision for the created order where man and woman have dominion in their God-given calls, where parents form habits of grace in homes that trains future men for war and trains future women to adorn their homes and environments with their glory.

These are not political options but political necessities for the CREC. We may never fall into a particular conservative vision in the GOP, but we do fall into a particular conservative mission in the kingdom of heaven. While the world’s princes, horses and chariots are dying of thirst and hunger, the politics of the Church feeds on the manna from heaven from the hands of our Ascended Lord of glory.

If the CREC flourishes, let her flourish in faithfulness to the Lord, who makes the church into a new creation by Water and the Word. From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride; With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.

We have much to work on, blind spots to consider, and lessons to learn in our youth, but to be a co-laborer, to serve and worship alongside you, to eat and drink with you, and to lift psalms and hymns and spiritual songs next to you, and to stand with you against false priests has made the CREC a communion of courage and conviction these 25 years.

May the future of the CREC find refuge in Jesus Christ, our hope, and everlasting joy.

Let us pray:

Our Father and our God, strengthen us for the labors ahead. Do not allow our churches to be seduced by false messages of prosperity, power, perversion, and self-preservation, but let us be rooted in your love, law, and life. We pray for the proclamation of your servants that the Word would pierce the hearts and renew our longing to be disciples of the Son of Man who gave his life for us on a tree.

In your infinite wisdom, O God of glory, you have bound us together these last 25 years, seeking the good of the city through the labors of your Spirit-led Bride.

May we not grow weary in well doing, but rather let your Church proclaim the full Gospel that calls kings and nations to acknowledge and serve the king of nations.

And so, Father, Son, and Spirit, we pray as Chesterton did, that you may not take thy thunder from us, but indeed take away our pride; the pride that keeps us longing for respectability.

Keep us humbled before your truth that it may shine deeply in this dark land; keep us steadfast in thy word that we may always build on the sure promises that are yes and amen, the assurance of a God who does all things well, and on Zion, holy city of our God.

We thank you for your promises in the Psalter that the nations would be your footstool. And so we implore that you would exercise your dominion, O Lord, over this nation. May every valley be exalted and your throne be established on all the earth.

We pray in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!