Episode 133: Reflections on Synod 2023 with John Klompien (Part 1)
"Synod didn’t flip-flop one year to the next on the matter of…human sexuality…[This year held] the same sort of commitment to looking to what God has said and responding…with a sober and humble-before-God-type mentality…There was a consistency that we are going speak to things from God’s Word with an awe of him and a love for our neighbor that has to encourage one to admonish one another in love.” -John Klompien
Summary of This Episode
This week on the Messy Reformation, Jason hosts a conversation with Rev. John Klompien, pastor at Calvary CRC in Orange City, IA. John is the son of a preacher, but did not initially plan or desire to go into pastoral ministry himself. However, once encouraged by the external call, he attended Westminster Seminary (CA) and has been in ordained ministry for over 20 years, having also served at North Street CRC in Zeeland, MI and First CRC in Byron Center, MI
John was a delegate from Classis Heartland at both Synod 2022 and Synod 2023, joining Willy this year on Advisory Committee 7 (Human Sexuality). He shares how he experienced a wide variety of feelings around being delegated this year. He felt privileged but not thrilled to go initially, overwhelmed by seeing the workload assigned to his advisory committee, but was grateful after all was done. Being on a committee with such heavy work made this experience different from past synods John has been at. Both he and Jason share how last year’s Synod (and others) provided plenty of time to have broader interactions and connecting over meals with fellow delegates, but because of their committee assignments in 2023, that was not possible until the final days.
John shares a few encouragements from this year. First, he enjoyed—unexpectedly—“the amount of movement in [his] own heart and mind as [they] listened to each other, as [they] talked [in the committee]…The Spirit does lead that deliberation, and uses us…the ‘iron sharpening iron.’” He also enjoyed worship and how that was led authentically—not focused on agendas. Finally, he was encouraged “that Synod didn’t flip-flop one year to the next on the matter of…human sexuality…[This year held] the same sort of commitment to looking to what God has said and responding…with a sober and humble-before-God-type mentality…There was a consistency that we are going speak to things from God’s Word with an awe of him and a love for our neighbor that has to encourage one to admonish one another in love.” That gives him optimism about the CRC going forward. Jason appreciated the definitiveness as well and shares there shouldn’t be any doubt where the CRC is on these matters.
John shares a couple cases of how the drawn-out nature of CRC deliberations—despite the actual decisions—have impacted local churches. He knows someone whose congregation has moved from the CRC to the RCA after Synod 2022, who shared that move happened not so much based on disagreement with the decision but “because we’re sick of talking about it, and we want to go on.” He also knows of a congregation that left the CRC “frustrated that we’re even talking about this issue because it should be so clear biblically that [same-sex marriage] is wrong…They’ve left because we’re talking about this too long.”
With that in mind, John brings up a great point: “Will we be allowed to move forward in applying [the last two Synod’s decisions] so that we don’t have to discuss the basics again?...We’ve got to be moving forward and…to go with the gospel.” He brings in how this fits the urgency that Scott Vander Ploeg identified: “The issue of the Christian Reformed Church [is] how do we bring the gospel into our communities?” What the CRC has been dealing with is an implication of the gospel, but we need to get our focus back to the main thing. Our denomination or churches shouldn’t be a modern-day version of the Athenian Areopagus, where people gathered “would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21). John closes around the comment, alluding to Genesis 3, “Dialogue can be diabolic.”