Christian Reformed Synod Votes to Suspend Leaders Over LGBTQ Issues

Synod tells LGBTQ-approving churches to repent or disaffiliate

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (RNS) — At its annual national meeting last week, the Christian Reformed Church in North America, one of the oldest denominations in the United States, voted 134-50 on Wednesday (June 19) to put congregational leaders on “limited suspension” if their churches publicly approve members who identify as LGBTQ+, violating the CRCNA’s official stance on same-sex relationships.

The Christian Reformed Church annual synod meets at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (Video screen grab)

The synod also voted Tuesday (June 18) to tighten rules for how congregations voice their differences with the ruling body of the denomination and asked for new resources for dissenting churches as they seek to realign or disaffiliate in the wake of the week’s decisions.

Like other Christian denominations in recent years, the CRCNA has been debating the approval and inclusion of people in church life who identify as LGBTQ. Two years ago, the CRCNA synod voted to include “homosexual sex” alongside other behaviors, such as adultery, polyamory and pornography usage, in its official definition of “unchastity.” The move elevated the church’s stance against LGBTQ-related behavior to confessional status, meaning that anyone who holds office in the church is expected to uphold this belief.

How exactly the decision will be implemented will be left largely in the hands of regional subdivisions of the CRCNA, known as classes (singular: classis).

For those in favor of the decision, the move is seen as a chance for everyone in the denomination to follow Christ in “humility and joy,” according to the Rev. Michael Bentley, pastor at Trinity CRC in St. Louis, Missouri. Bentley said pastors have a responsibility to “minister like Jesus did and still say, ‘I love you, I’m calling you out of your sin, and Jesus calls you out of your sin.’”

He emphasized that the move shouldn’t be seen as only applying to certain churches and is instead a reminder that “we are all under the yoke of Christ.”

As the denomination moves forward, Bentley said he hopes that all of its members will be “able to be ministered to and loved and brought to walk with Christ gently.”

But the Rev. Ryan Schreiber, pastor of Grace CRC in Grand Rapids, which has a publicly available statement supporting the approval of members who identify as LGBTQ+, said the synod vote threatens the existence of the denomination.

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The pastor delegate from Classis Grand Rapids East, who said he took on a “very visible” role at this week’s synod, said Grace CRC will now begin the process of disaffiliating itself with the CRCNA. While he appreciates that the synod was “very generous in the terms outlined for churches like mine, that are openly affirming,” Schreiber is deeply concerned that the split over issues of gender and sexuality will deprive the denomination of needed resources.

“There is a coalition of churches in the Christian Reformed Church that is turning the polity of the Christian Reformed Church into a steamroller,” moving to push out most of the churches in his classis, Schreiber said.

In the CRCNA, a denomination of roughly 200,000 members, he said, this creates a real risk of financial collapse. He claimed that many churches now on the path to disaffiliation have “historically given much more in ministry shares to the Christian Reformed Church than any other classes.”

Even as it reaffirmed its belief that same-sex sex is sinful, synod delegates declined to call it a “salvation issue.”

The synod also declined to label the belief that the Bible sanctions same-sex marriage a heresy, noting that the overture, or proposed ballot item asking for this belief to be formally declared heretical, “does not meet the high standards of definition and articulation needed for declaring a heresy.”

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