SPAM-ATTACK!

The Returning Church blog has finally succumb to the SPAM ATTACK and much declare defeat! No, this is not the end of the Returning Church (see an interesting discussion about that on the Returning Church facebook page), but it does mean this avenue of communication is going to be ceased. The number of spam comments overwhelms any legit comments - it's become too cumbersome to manage. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We will keep the information and previous posts on this blog out there in cyber-space - so please stop back for reference. But any active discussions will be happening over at our facebook page - join us there. If you don't have facebook, join just for the Returning Church discussions. You control how sucked-in to the rest of facebook world you get.

Go to www.facebook.com, search for "Returning Church" and ask to join the group - you'll be in. You can also keep in touch by joining the email list - just send an email to returningchurch@yahoo.com. Speaking of keeping in touch - please do.

More on the Belhar...

In seeking for the CRC to be a confessional church, the proposed Belhar Confession certainly rises to the top of the issues discussed. We hope to pass along various resources evaluating the Belhar and balancing some of the information that has been passed on to the congregations in the CRC already. If we are to truly study and evaluate it, we need to have good information.

Below are two resources that will be beneficial to the discussion:

Belhar Overture - from Riverside CRC in Wellandport, ON
"Why Not Belhar?" - essay by Rev. Kevin De Young for Reformed Perspectives

Manhattan Declaration

Since one of the primary goals of the Returning Church is to encourage the CRC to be a committed confessional church, it's important to know what the means. Historically, for the CRC, this has meant understanding the Three Forms of Unity (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession and Canons of Dort) and the Three Ecumenical Creeds (Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian) as faithful interpreting and reflecting the Scriptures and then standing upon this commitment.

Today, we seem to have many confessions/declarations/statements being made which pastors, churches and layfolk are beign asked to sign their names to in agreement. Most recently, the Manhattan Declaration has come out with good statements on the sanctity of human life, the fidelity of marriage and also religious liberty. There have been other such statements that have been floating around - certainly we know about the Belhar Confession in the CRC as of late. More liberal Reformed Churches have kicked around the Barmen Declaration (which isn't all that new). More conservative Reformed folks have signed their names to documents like the Cambridge Declaration, the Danvers Statement or the Chicago Statement. This just names a few.

Are these statements "confessional" in how we understand what it means to be a confessing church? Do they have a place in the life of the church? Do too many statements/confessions/declarations water down each other down - just become to much to digest? What do you think?

Winter Classis Meetings

The number of important topics and issues the CRCNA is dealing with on a denominational level at this time in history is a bit overwhelming. What are your churches and classes discussing or what should they be discussing right now??

We're Still Here!

No, recently we haven't been posting any blogs... or is it blogging any posts... whatever. We've been watching others' blogs/websites/etc and, of course, just trying to keep up with the demands of local ministry.

We will be starting the process of planning for our spring event (yeah, summer's not even over yet and we're already thinking "spring" - we'll it's been cold here in West Michigan this summer). Any thoughts on speakers/topics would be appreciated. Our goal is help strength and encourage local CRC congregations to be Christ-adoring, lost-seeking, truth-loving, grace-extending, Word-centered, Bible-saturated and confessionally-Reformed. That's still pretty broad, but we've been encouraged by the results of our meetings over the past couple of years.

Most of the action in terms of events has been in West Michigan - but we would encourage congregations to meet together in other areas as well - to encourage one another and discuss the challenges and blessings facing us as a denomination and churches in general. If you're interested in networking in your area, let us know and we can try to help make some connections.

CRCNA Synod 2009

Pastor and elder delegates from classes all across the United States and Canada will begin converging on Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL, Friday, June 11, to convene Synod 2009. There are the usual items of business on the agenda: new candidates for ministry, budgets, appointments, agency and committee reports, etc. On top of that there seems to be quite a bit of business from the Inter-Church Relations Committee, headlined by the proposal to study the Belhar Confession (see earlier posts and comments on this topic) with an eye to approval as our fourth confession in 2012.

For more information on Synod, you can go to the official Synod web-site by clicking here. If you have time, you may be interested in watching a few moments of the live webcast - and I think Twitter and facebook will be buzzing with Synod news as well (every means of communication, but do we really have that much to say?!). If we receive any updates from the floor of Synod thoughout the week, we'll be sure to post them. Be certain to leave your thoughts and comments about the proceedings here as well. Yeah, even the Returning Church is on facebook if you prefer that format.

More Thoughts on the Belhar

Since our previous post on the Belhar Confession there have been several comments made that are insightful and helpful. Recently, the Belhar Implementation Team from 1st Seattle CRC sent out a communcation with some of their research to the churches. We encourage you to take a look at that, as well as the study report from the Inter-Church Relations Committee (IRC) printed in the agenda for Synod. To give some balance to the evaluation you will find the following links helpful:

Kevin De Young in the RCA Church Herald
Richard Mouw of Fuller Seminary

Kevin De Young Audio from 03.26.09

We were greatly blessed through Kevin De Young at CTS on March 26, 2009. Not only did we get a good analysis of the emergent church movement but also a challenge to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our churches. The audio is here. You can go to www.sermon.net/returningchurch to get the podcast, etc. This is the cleaned up version. For some reason the entire Q&A was not recorded. We apologize and wish we had it to give to you. Enjoy and feel free to share this with your friends and collegues.

Belhar Confession

It's been a couple of years since the CRC has been introduced to the Belhar Confession. We are supposed in a time of reflection and study to see if it would be appropriate to add this as a fourth "confession" along with the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession and Canons of Dort. Still, it seems that the Interchurch Relations Committee (IRC) certainly knows what we should do with it as seen in the title of their report: "The Belhar Confession: What the CRC Can Do with This Gift." If we view it as a gift, why wouldn't we accept it, right?!? (Yes, you correctly read a bit of facetiousness there). What are your thoughts about the Belhar? Is this something we need to adopt as confessional in status? Be assured that you won't be labelled a "racist" by offering a critique nor will you be tagged as a "liberal" is you find some merit. If you have any links to good reviews of the Belhar or if your church would like to share it's reponse, please post that here as well.

For a copy of the IRC's report to Synod, click here.

Details on March 26 "Not Emergent" Meeting

The meeting with Rev. Kevin De Young on March 26 will begin at 7:00 p.m. and is being held at the Calvin Seminary Auditorium in Grand Rapids, MI. Seating is first-come, first served. Ted Kluck, co-author with De Young of Why We're Not Emergent, will not be present due to a prior commitment. For more information, see the post below. If you would like a copy of the promotional poster, just send at email to returningchurch@yahoo.com.

Pastors' Gathering at the Piper Conference

Below is a letter from Rev. Jack Gray (Sully, IA, CRC) reporting on a small gathering of pastors during the Desiring God Pastors' Conference in Minneapolis at the beginning of February.

Dear Brothers,

Most of us CRC pastors who attended the John Piper Pastors’ Conference were truly inspired and energized by the event. It was great to hear God’s word straight and clear without any nuance to what God says. It is great to be in a company where God’s word is held without reservation. No 'Did God say . . . ?', but 'This is what the Lord says...' In my view this is the defining issue among us in the CRCNA, what we do with the Bible.

Eleven us present at Piper’s Pastors’ Conference went to dinner together on Tuesday night and two ideas surfaced in our discussion.

First, we are aware of Reformed Churches and their leaders who do not like the drift they are seeing in their denominations. Perhaps this idea was spawned because of the next speakers coming to address the Michigan Returning Church movement from University RCA. “Why We’re Not Emergent” is a great topic presented by men, Kevin De Young and Ted Kluck, who likely share our vision for Reformed orthodoxy, though I do not know these men’s views personally. Should we open the Returning Church to RCA pastors and congregations who desire to see their denomination also return to a solid foundation of Biblical, Reformed thinking?

Second, many of us find great support in events like Piper’s Pastors’ Conference, R. C. Sproul’s Conferences, the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, and others like them. We are looking outside the CRCNA for guidance, direction, and support. We can all cite reasons for the drift in the CRCNA, but one of them in my judgment was the immersion of pastors and leadership persons from congregations who were paid to attend events at the Crystal Cathedral or Willow Creek. This shifted focus from our great gift to the body of Christ—solid, Biblically Reformed thought— to other priorities that now drive the CRCNA agenda. Could we find some benefactors who would support pastors and church leaders to attend the conferences and events that are so encouraging and uplifting to us? I discovered on the last day of the Piper Pastors’ Conference from one of their staff people that the reason many churches have several people there is that they consider all elders to be pastors. Could we arrange for some persons to finance pastors and their church leaders to attend conferences like these that stress our Biblically Reformed theology and faith? If we could, we might significantly influence the atmosphere of our congregations and eventually our denomination.

We wish you Michigan Returning Church men well in the upcoming event at Calvin Seminary and the Philadelphia Conference. I went to the Philadelphia Conference several times the years I served in New England, and then several us started a conference patterned after it that is still going. We need the camaraderie and mutual support to stand strong for our Reformed faith in the current church culture of our time.

For the preachers have a great day Sunday as you bring God’s word, which is after all, what we really are—preachers of God’s great word. For you who listen Sunday, keep praying and working for the church to return to its historic Biblical Reformed roots.

Yours, Jack

RETURNING CHURCH EVENT: "Why We're Not Emergent"

“You can be young, passionate about Jesus Christ, surrounded by diversity, engaged in a postmodern world, reared in evangelicalism and not be an emergent Christian. In fact, I want to argue that it would be better if you weren’t.”

Some of you may be asking, "What is the emergent church?" Others of you may be interacting with emergent Christians every day. The emergent church is a strong voice in today’s Christian community. And they’re talking about good things: caring for the poor, peace for all men, loving Jesus. They’re doing church a new way, not content to fit the mold. Again, all good. But there’s more to the movement than that. Much more.

The Returning Church has invited Rev. Kevin DeYoung (University RCA, East Lansing, MI) to speak the evening of THURSDAY, MARCH 26 (preceding the PCRT Conference in Grand Rapids area) at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium of Calvin Theological Seminary. Watch for more details to come. Seating is first-come, first-served.

Kevin and Ted are two guys who, demographically, should be all over the emergent church movement. But they’re not. They've co-authored a book called "Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be)." They also have a web-site: http://www.notemergent.com/. Check that out for more information. We hope to see you there - and your young people. This event will be especially applicable for the younger generations - but something we all need to be aware of.

Conference Season

On the liturgical calendar, the time after Christmas and Epiphany is labelled "Ordinary Time." Maybe we should call it conference season. It seems that as winter lingers people are looking for something to do - so bring on the conferences. One goal of the Returning Church is to encourage the local congregations with good, biblical teaching. Highlighting conferences that draw deeply from the Word is a way to do that.

We've chosen not to highlight conferences within the CRC - we all have access to that information through The Banner. The conferences listed below broadens our perspective throughout the Reformed, evangelical family.

Here are some great conferences that are coming up for both pastors and for layfolk. As you know, it would be impossible to attend all of them - so if you do get there, share your thoughts and observations in the comments below. Also, if you are attending any conference, please leave you name in the comments section along with the conference you're attending - it is always good to connect with other at these conferences.

GENERAL CONFERENCES:

Ligonier National Conference
March 19-21 in Orlando, FL
Theme: The Holiness of God (pre-conference on Calvin's 500th birthday)
Speakers: Thabiti Anyabwile, Alistair Begg, D.A. Carson, Ligon Duncan, Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Steven Lawson, Albert Mohler, R.C. Sproul Jr., R.C. Sproul, Derek Thomas

Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals)
March 13-15 in Sacramento, CA
March 27-29 in Grand Rapids, MI*
April 17-19 in Greenville, SC
May 1-3 in Philadelphia, PA
Theme: "Right with God: the Doctrine of Justification"
Speakers: Jerry Bridges, Ligon Duncan, Michael Horton, Steven Lawson, Al Mohler, Richard Phillips and/or Philip Ryken.

*Hosted by 1st CRC, Byron Center. The Returning Church will also be holding pre-conference event again this year the evening of Thursday, March 26. Please watch for dedicated post coming for more information.

Ligonier West Coast Conference (& Cruise)
September 28-October 2 in Seattle, WA
Theme: The Resurrection of Christ
Speakers: R.C. Sproul



PASTORS' CONFERENCES

Desiring God Conference for Pastors*
February 2-4 in Minneapolis, MN
Theme: "Commending Christ: the Pastor, the Church and the Perishing"
Speakers: John Piper, Mark Dever, Michael Oh

*The Center for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is holding a pre-conference event with D.A. Carson in Minneapolis the morning of February 2. Click here for more information.

Workshops on Bibilical Exposition (The Simeon Trust)
February 4-6 in Philadelphia, PA
February 23-25 in Madison, WI
March 17-19 in Spokane, WA
March 24-26 in Calgary, AB
March 25-27 in Toronto, ON
March 31-April 2 in New Castle, PA
May 13-15 in Wheaton, IL
September 29-October 1 in McMinnville, OR*
Theme: Recovering the Centrality of God's Word, Preached Expositionally
Speakers: varies by location (Phil Ryken, David Helm, Kent Hughes, Barry Webb, D.A. Carson to name a few)

*Co-hosted by Sunrise CRC

Entrusted with the Gospel (The Gospel Coalition)
April 21-23 in Chicago, IL
Theme: "Living the Vision of II Timothy"
Speakers: Bryan Chapell, D.A. Carson, John Piper, K. Edward Copeland, Ligon Duncan, Mark Driscoll, Phil Ryken, Tim Keller, Ajith Fernando, etc.

Basics 2009 (Truth for Life)
May 11-13 in Cleveland, OH
Theme: Expository Preaching
Speakers: John Piper, Allistair Begg, John Lennox

Banner of Truth Ministers' Conference
May 26-28 in Grantham, PA
Speakers: Sinclair Ferguson, Alistar Begg, etc.


And just to dream a little... The Calvin Quincentenary in Paris, Strasbourg, Bern and Geneva... June 30-July 10, 2009 - celebrating John Calvin's 500th birthday.


If you know of others that would be good to recommend, please leave it in the comment's section.

Rev. Jeff Voorhees (1971-2008)

Some of you may have heard already, but on Friday, November 21, Rev. Jeff Voorhees of Drenthe CRC, MI, was killed in a automobile accident. He leaves behind his wife Kate and their four children; Calvin, Hannah, Felicity and Gabriel - ranging in ages from 9 mos to 6 years. Before taking the call to Drenthe a big year ago, Jeff served at Pine Creek CRC in Holland, MI. Needless to say this has been devastating to Kate and their family and also very difficult for the Drenthe Church. Jeff was also active in the Returning Church discussions, having a head and heart for both the truth of the Gospel and the lost. Pray for the Voorhees family as well as Drenthe Church, calling upon our good God's grace, mercy and comfort for them.

If you would like to read more about what has happened - and even how God is already using this for His glory - you can go to one of the following links and search by name:

Drenthe CRC (includes information on memorial fund for family)
Holland Sentinel
WXMI Fox 17 News (search "pastor," "Voorhees" and "Drenthe" in videos)
Grand Rapids Press

Third Wave Pentecostalism

Synod 2007 took up the first Third Wave Pentecostalism reports but withheld action because they failed to provide "sufficient biblical study and theological reflection on key aspects of the third wave movement." The task was recommitted to a "beefed up" study committee which will be presenting this new report to Synod 2009.

What are your thoughts and comments on the report specifically or on the whole topic in general?

Click here for a copy of the updated report.

Revitalitzation or Rejection??

In a comment to the previous post Dave Watson from Kent, WA, brought up a good discussion point that warrants its own post. He asks:

"I guess I'm just wondering whether The Returning Church group (I realize it's not a very tightly knit organization) is going to have a somewhat lasting impact on the CRC or if you are just going to move on to greener fields when you can't stomach the direction of the CRC leadership anymore (like the URC folk)."

Those involved with the Returning Church discussions have stated their commitment to the CRC and bringing revitalization to the denomination. Being an unorganized "organization" the Returning Church has so far sought to be a forum for networking and sharing ideas as well as encouragement. How can this best be done in the CRC? What sort of "lasting impact" do you see the Returning Church discussions having... if any? Or are we just setting ourselves up to bolt from the CRC and form yet another Reformed denomination/federation/fellowship??

This discussion is open to anyone and given the looseness of the Returning Church organizationally, your thoughts and reflections are very important in determining where this should all go in the future.

Summer Youth Conventions/Camps

Summer youth conventions/camps have been almost ritual for our high school youth for the last many years. Some of the churches involved in these discussions have attended the Youth Unlimited convention in Bozeman this past weekend and others the Reformed Youth Service (RYS) covention in Minneapolis last week... maybe your congregation went somewhere else, like a Young Life camp or wherever. Your eyewitness reports would be very helpful to all of us. We would love your comments, evaluations - good/bad/etc, especially as we are thinking about faith formation as a denomination. What role does "convention" play?

Blogging from the Floor #5

Well, Synod 2008 is over... we finished Thursday night around 9:30 p.m. It was good to finish the week of business and talking (and talking and talking) with a time of worship and prayer together. But before we got to the finish line there was a bit of a long sprint...

We had a lot of business to cover, but the officers thought we could get it done by Thursday. We did a bunch of house-keeping items throughout the day - like ratifying the work of the synodical deputies. One interesting note - since last year 2 became ministers via article 7 (exceptional giftedness), 25 via article 8 (other denominations - mostly Korean) and 43 became ministry associates (which is a wide range from evangelists to youth pastors to music directors).

There was an overture requesting that an option be provided at the synodical worship service for delegates to receive the elements from males only. Interestingly, the first recommendation from the Advisory Committee was not to accede to the overture, yet their second recommendation was to urge the convening church to show sensitivity to both views on women-in-church-office - which, as the overture's author stated, was what they were asking for. I'll tell you, when an Advisory Committee does their work clearly and thoroughly, there is little discussion. But when they try to muddy things up - the flood gates open... which is what happened here. We spent much more time talking about the whole women-in-church-office issue than the agenda would have led us to believe. But it needed to be done during this "historic" synod. I believe the point came across that we still officially believe the historic biblical position on this is valid. It seems many people had forgotten that.

Other things we did were to adopt a resolution to challenge the president of Zimbabwe on his treatment of the people there. Both the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa and Reformed Church of Zambia representatives pleaded with us for our prayers and action. Sounds like just an awful situation there - so if you know any political representatives in the U.S. or Canada, give them a call.

We also recommitted the Abuse Victims Task Force report back for another year of fine tuning and further study. This issue is too big - spiritually, emotionally and legally - to rush into.

The most tenuous issue for the day was the revised recommendation from the Interchurch Relations Advisory Committee regarding our relationship with the Protestant Churches of the Netherlands (PCN). Like I said earlier, we, in what they thought would just be procedural housekeeping, ended up completely severing our relationship with the PCN and couldn't find a way to approve re-establishing it within our current ecumenical charter. So the Advisory Committee came with another muddy proposal - the PCN won't be in full ecclesiastical fellowship or in ecclesiastical dialogue (our only two categories currently) - it will be somewhere in between or something completely other or who knows. The recommendation kind of left it up to the Interchurch Relationships Committee and Peter Borgdorf. Many of us weren't comfortable with that, but I think the Synod was "smelling the barn" - to quote Jerry Dykstra - and didn't have the energy to go through another lengthy debate. This was approved - but I don't think many really know what it means.

We approved a new Form of Subscription revision committee - looks like a good slate. We'll just have to wait for what they come up with. Mark January 1, 2010 on your calendars!

The Advisory Committee for the Candidacy Committee responded to overtures regarding Article 8 and 23 by basically saying, "Let's wait and see how the new director of Candidacy does." I think this is probably a good approach. There is a tension between the centralization of the process and grassroots development of leaders. I received the impression that the new director, David Koll, has received this message. So nothing has changed in regard to these routes to ministry. Just a note - the Candidacy Committee is engaging in some discussions about article 23... so give them your input!

As I was walking back to the dorm to pack up my things and head home I bumped into the pastor of a Samoan congregation in California. He joined the CRC just a few years ago and is actively working on drawing ten other Samoan congregations into the CRC. He came to the CRC, he said, because He loved our theology, our creeds, our confessions - our love for the Word of God. He loved our high standards (and is insulted by the talk of minorities needing an easier route to ministry). He said, "Don't lower your standards and never give up on the truth." Of everything that happened at Synod I don't think God could have encouraged me more than with this wise man's words. Why is God blessing us by drawing men & women like him and congregations into the CRC? I don't dare presume to know God's eternal decrees, but could He through them be calling our attention back to our first love - Him... His Word... His Son, our Savior? Let's pray that He does.

Chad Steenwyk
delegate from Classis Holland - signing off...

Blogging from the Floor #4.2

Wow, it's taking three posts to cover the whole of Wednesday at Synod 2008. Just a couple of more things:

The Board of Trustees had recommended that only one name be required to be presented to Synod for the various board positions throughout the denomination. This would mean that a simple yes or no vote would happen rather than voting between two persons. The rationale was that it is difficult to get people to commit themselves to the long process of nomination. The Advisory Committee ended up actually going against the B.O.T. on this saying it would give the impression of more centralization (I would argue that it would actually be more centralization). I was glad to see they recognized that in principle at least. Synod passed the committee's recommendation and will be voting between two nominees in the future. Granted, just going through this yesterday, there were many individuals I did not know and had to make a prayerful decision based on what information had been given to me so far. But if the agencies, committees and B.O.T. give names of appropriately gifted, qualified persons to Synod, then it at least gives the churches input into which way they would want these agencies to go. The other related item of business was that Synod approved the B.O.T.'s recommendation to eliminate the alternate positions - just for the B.O.T. itself.

It's amazed me how just-below-the-surface the whole issue of women-in-church-office is. Now, I said this before, but personally I have found the tenor here to be very respectful - maybe even cautious. Particularly, women delegates have been gracious. Some of the men seem to think they need to be the knight in shining armor though. There was a recommendation from the B.O.T. to eliminate the Women Advisers now that women can be delegates directly. They gave a straight forward recommendation which the advisory committee felt compelled to amplify with celebratory language. This, of course, was binding on the consciouses of several delegates and led to another lengthy discussion - but one that continues to be needed. How can delegates who have a complementarian view vote that their classes should encourage the full participation of women at Synod. That was the first recommendation, which passed.

The next recommendation dealt specifically with eliminating the women advisers. Again, the committee added some unnecessary language - which this time was eliminated after the motion was defeated. A pared down version was approved, thereby eliminating the position of women advisers (by the way - 8 women advisers have served Synod for many years, en lieu of delegates - a compromise from years back). I spoke against the motion from a different angle. I know women from a complementarian perspective will never serve as elders and deacons - not because they are being held down, but because of their own godly, biblical convictions. Yet, I think in an advisory role, they could be a beautiful light for truth at Synod meetings. Interestingly, many came up to me afterwards and thanked me for that perspective. There seems to be an assumption that all women who are serious about their service to God's church aspire to be deacons and elders - oh, we have some wonderful ladies for them to meet! Maybe more on this as Synod approaches next year.

Well - off to another day... possibly the last, but those things can never be predicted.

Chad Steenwyk
delegate from Classis Holland

Blogging from the Floor #4.1

It's amazing how quickly it is 11:00 p.m. over at Synod - lots of talking. I'll be looking forward to a week of vacation and some good child banter. We didn't take up the issue of the PCN again tonight, which was a relief for most, I think. The Advisory Committee has to go back to work with the IRC to come up with another option. We'll find something on our tables tomorrow, I'm sure.

Tonight we took up the issue of the Form of Subscription. We've written and posted quite a bit on this topic here (check older posts). There ended up being 10 overtures and 1 communication - all against the proposed changes. The Advisory Committee did a great job evaluating the complexity - and seriousness - of this issue. They identified it as a rock bed foundation of what holds us together. They recommended that the whole matter be re-committed to a new Synod appointed study committee (as opposed to the study task force which was appointed by the Board of Trustees that came up with the proposed Doctrinal Covenant). This passed overwhelming with little debate.

The Synod was then quite firm that it wanted to appoint the committee and whole-heartedly turned down a motion to have the B.O.T. appoint a new one. Anyway, the recommendation passed and the new study committee of 11 will be appointed tomorrow morning from suggestions we gave tonight (so if any of you get calls - say "yes"). That commmittee will present a revision - not a document that alters the meaning of the FOS - to the churches by January 1, 2010. They'll have 18 months to gather input before it has to be presented to Synod 2011. Sounds like a long time out, but this is how long the old committee wrestled with it - and still completely misread the denomination. We actually spent more time on trying to determine the make-up of the committee than we did debating the recommendation - so many were against what was being proposed - HALLELUJAH!

Earlier today we heard from fraternal delegates from the RCA, Associate Presbyterian Reformed Church and the CRC in Nigeria - all good reports, however, the APRC guy was just hillarious... had to be there. But I've said we need to do more church planting in the south! The APRC is centered in South Carolina.

There are some more things to mention, but check back tomorrow. Time for bed here.

Chad Steenwyk
delegate from Classis Holland