The United Reformed Churches in North America began on November 14-15, 1995. The spirit of the URCNA began earlier. Concerns about biblical and confessional faithfulness in the Christian Reformed Church had been poking up like prairie dogs in June in South Dakota since the mid-1950s. Major synodical decisions in 1972 and 1973 gravely impacted biblical authority in the churches and pulpits, ushering in a new approach to biblical interpretation. By the 1990s, the CRC synods were debating whether women could and should serve in church offices, like ministers, elders, and deacons. These were the issues that spurred on the spirit of the URCNA.
With the issues becoming clearer and antithetical sides drawing sharper lines, an alliance was formed within the CRC for a threefold purpose: return, revive, and reform according to the clear teachings of holy Scripture. The authority, necessity, sufficiency, and clarity of Scripture were being undermined; the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was not being faithfully taught and defended; the apparent rift between creation and science was being reconciled by mottling the doctrines of both; the sin of homosexuality had been redefined to allow for a homosexual identity, considered entirely apart from the practice of homosexuality; and, in the most clear violation of biblical and ecclesiastical principles, women had been allowed (on the basis of cultural influence) to occupy all ecclesiastical offices by the early 1990s.
With clear grounds for seceding from the CRC, this alliance of concerned churches and consistories met one last time in November of 1995. Delegates from several of the churches, many of which had already seceded from the CRC, remained to move forward on a noble suggestion that had been proposed years before: the need for a new federation of churches.
Several resolutions were made at that first meeting, along with a decision to hold a synod in 1996. Those resolutions already showed a desire to have a federation of churches with rule and order and authority coming from the consistories (comprised of ministers and elders), with each individual church having the opportunity to send delegates from their respective consistories to meetings of classis and synod. This consistorial authority continues to be the backbone of the URCNA.
As a federation of churches, we recognize only one Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ. We believe the elders are ordained by Jesus Christ to carry out spiritual care, oversight, and order within the churches. We believe that Scripture requires our churches to be united in a like precious faith, in doctrine, and in fellowship with one another, exercising and showing our unity at classis, at synod, and through common agreement and adherence to our church order.
Our church order is based upon elements from the Synod of Dordrecht (1618-1619), and the 1934 church order of the CRC. One of its unique features is the unity of principles pertaining to the offices of the churches, the worship of the churches, the function of the churches, and the discipline of the churches, while also allowing a great deal of breadth and flexibility for the individual churches to apply those principles in the local church. What this means practically is that if you visit one of our churches for worship on the Lord’s Day, the liturgy will be unique to that particular congregation. While all of our churches hold two worship services every Lord’s Day, some of our churches spread out those two services to a morning and evening service; while other churches in our federation might keep those two services close together, even within a couple of hours of each other. Our synod does not prescribe what Bible translation the churches must use, nor does our synod prescribe what song book to use. Each consistory must decide these matters for the local church. This consistorial authority is in many ways a reaction to the spiritual abuses that our churches suffered in a previous denomination, though we believe we find good grounding for such a structure in Scripture. While our synods may make decisions that are “settled and binding” on the churches, those decisions are only made on matters and issues that first originate from a local consistory. And no assembly in our churches may “lord it over” another assembly.
This federation structure also puts some challenges before us. Certainly the voluntary nature of a federation structure itself is challenging. Our consistories hold each other accountable through a few means. Perhaps, at approximately 130 congregations, we are small enough to know one another well enough to maintain our unity in the Scriptures and the Reformed confessions. Our covenantal bond between churches requires a great deal of vigilance, as well as a common commitment to worship and to live in mutual submission to the church order and the decisions of our broader assemblies.
Most of our churches are located in concentrated pockets of North America. There is a swell of URCs in southern California, another in western Michigan, another cluster in southern Ontario, another nest along the Illinois/Indiana border, and a smaller concentration in northwest Iowa. If you should find yourself traveling in any of these areas, or in the vicinity of any of our churches scattered across the United States and Canada, please come and join us for worship. If you do, I am certain you will immediately find yourself among like-minded brothers and sisters in the Lord. You might even find the liturgy to be very similar to that of any given RCUS church. The classic Reformed dialog of worship will be the fundamental structure of the worship service, though the elements may be arranged differently than the structure to which you are accustomed. Our worship services are focused on the living preaching of God’s Word. We emphasize Psalm singing, but our churches also sing hymns. Our churches use either a version of the blue Psalter Hymnal (usually the 1954 or 1976 editions) and the (new) Trinity Psalter Hymnal, which our federation has put together with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Another particular and peculiar feature of the worship of our churches is the practice of “confessional preaching.” This means that the Word of God as summarized in the Three Forms of Unity is regularly preached at one worship service every Lord’s Day, with a particular emphasis placed on the preaching of the Heidelberg Catechism. Whereas in many RCUS congregations, the Heidelberg Catechism is often read and briefly explained during the worship service, in our churches, a Lord’s Day from the Heidelberg Catechism will set the direction and context for the preaching of God’s Word in one worship service. “Confessional preaching” will either be a sermon on a text of Scripture which touches on the theme of a particular Lord’s Day or an article from our Confessions, while making reference to that Lord’s Day or Confession; or, it will be a sermon which uses the theme and content of a Lord’s Day or article from our Confessions as the text to preach. Some advantages of this kind of preaching are that the system of doctrine taught in our Confessions is regularly put before the congregation; a wider knowledge of Scripture is gained because a confessional sermon often quotes many passages of Scripture; and it showcases for the congregation the unity we share in our doctrine. Our worship services also have the reading of God’s Law, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, and a reciting of one of the ecumenical creeds. Tithes and offerings are brought and collected during the worship services, and we also have a tradition of a congregational prayer, which is typically a longer prayer that includes the various petitions and supplications of the congregation according to need.
Our churches have a renewed zeal for home missions and foreign missions. We emphasize church planting and are still learning how best to send church planters, make assessments for church planting, and how to raise funding for church planting. Our foreign mission fields include Mexico, Italy, Romania, Ecuador, Honduras,
Philippines, Costa Rica, and Turkey. Our home mission fields include several major cities in the United States and Canada, an increasing emphasis on reaching the Latino populations in both countries, as well as engagement with Muslims, Sikhs, and other middle eastern religions.
What characterizes our churches more than anything else is the pursuit to preach Christ and His glory, His death and resurrection, and His coming again, in fulfillment of the Great Commission. While our ministers come from different seminaries, and our churches are located in different countries and different communities, the work of making disciples for Christ is our singular aim. We rejoice to have that mission in common with the RCUS and all true and faithful churches. May it please our Lord Jesus Christ to grow His church for His glory through His means. May Christ come, and come quickly! Soli Deo Gloria!
Rev. Todd DeRooy
Redeemer United Reformed Church
Orange City, IA
