When Attacking the CREC Goes Viral

Some of you kids may have heard about other kids trying to break our bones with sticks and stones. They hurled accusations toward us in the CREC. I confess I cried a little…NOT. Part of the accusation had to do with our secretive infiltration of seminaries–I wish–and sundry attempts to disorient the force.

As I mentioned elsewhere, as the CREC continues to make headway in the arts, podcasting, liturgical, church-planting, beer-brewing, and crocheting world, the more the independent contractors of BIG EVA will come shooting paintballs at our efforts. I am not into names, but I have offered some subtle ones to keep the CREC-deniers away. Schmeit-tart, Flilson, Musk, Spyuers, and others will take on center stage again because…long live wine and babies.

Let me refresh ya’ll on our corporate virtues once more. But I would first like to confess how small we are and how irresistibly untamed we are, and how bizarrely imprecational we are. I offer these prefatory comments because folks might think we are something or on something or that something is on our shoulders when the reality is we acknowledge that in the grand scheme of things, we are barely at drinking age and we have lots to learn and how the mighty are fallen!

Our estimable history of around 23 years ago began when three independent churches decided to join forces. The autonomous status did not suit these good fellas, so they formed a little band of happy trouble-makers. Last year, we gathered in Monroe, LA, for a Council that included over 100 churches. There is a famine around the globe for the kind of thing we offer abundantly: courage and creed. As a representative leader in this small tribe, I can state that the interest in the CREC has grown more in the last two years than in all previous ones combined.

I came back recently from a bunch of engagements in the Pacific Northwest and Louisiana and saw the same happiness on one side of the country and the other. My meetings and talks consisted of intertwined festive meetings and superb fellowship, and fine dining.

We are a young denomination, and young denominations need to be quick to repent and quick to be humble lest we fall. That’s a good word. But in our momentum, we don’t want to let our supremely cheerful state go to waste. We are not over here cheering out of hubris for the incredible growth God has provided our tribe during this or that season, but because the signs of unity keep showing up from hobbit holes and theopolitan taverns. And if two or three brothers walking in unity is a good thing, a couple of hundred pastors and elders walking together is a whole different level of goodness.

It is hard to express my appreciation for a communion that has given me more than I expected but ultimately has taught me that my expectations for God’s goodness should be greater than I imagined. The CREC has been a home to me for almost 13 full years, and I genuinely pray these guys find my Latin presence fruitful for 33 more.

So, let me conclude this brief praise-worthy effort by sharing three thanksgiving elements of the CREC:

First, serrated rhetoric! You may not like his beard or from whence his cigars cometh, but the fella in Moscow has successfully irritated the right people for too many years to count. His joyful disposition and his plodding mammothness come with too many blessings to count. May his tribe increase and may his labors make Peter Enns lose his sleep at night. Further, the stuff happening in Birmingham, Al is just grand. Look it up! It’s spelled T-H-E-O-P-O-L-I-S.

Second, I love the constant fellowship and closeness we have as ministers and congregants. It’s an incredible thrill to sit and listen to faithful pastors exhort and encourage us; many are quietly laboring in unknown towns doing the good work and providing the faithful word shepherding the sheep. They do this in Montana and Maine, and Missouri and their labors are not in vain. My gratitude for these faithful laborers increased a hundred-fold after our time together.

Finally, it is hard to define the joy CREC pastors have when they are together. It’s the sort of elation I never had in any other tradition and have never seen replicated. We don’t just get together to talk business; we get together to sing, share, and cherish one another. The like-mindedness of our communion adds a special touch to our fellowship. There is a rhythm to the things we do that keeps us all marching to the same beat year after year. The proliferation of chant/psalmic camps around the country producing happier unions in marriages will only spread the wealth far as the curse is found. So, there is also that!

But beyond the drinks and devil-crushing strategies, there is also a firm reliance on the Triune God to bless our efforts. This commitment and trust mean that when we gather, we are sons of God going forth to war with the Son of God. And that means that our efforts these last 23 years have been one toast after the other.

May the Lord guide and bless our strategies, and may he see fit to strengthen our young tribe!

I truly don’t want to be on the receiving end of nasty words, but when they do come, my tendency is to frame them as a reminder that even though we are insignificant in the world’s eyes, we–this jolly and dangerous communion–are doing our little part to make this world tremble in glory.