Episode 141: The Power of Discipline: Transforming Individuals and Denominations (Part 2)
“If a church in my classis was, either in life or in doctrine, going astray and someone from Classis Grand Rapids East were to look at us and [give correction], the congregation of my classis should rejoice that there is a congregation who loves us enough to call us back into faith and fellowship.” -Willy Krahnke
Summary of this Episode
This week’s episode of the Messy Reformation podcast picks up Jason and Willy’s conversation about guiding erring officebearers into compliance with what was affirmed by Synods 2022 and 2023. We jump back in with Jason highlighting the Heidelberg Catechism’s summary of “genuine repentance or conversion” being both “the dying-away of the old self, and the rising-to-life of the new.” The reality of dealing with doctrinal and practical errors in people’s lives and the life of the church is that we’re talking about matters of sin. Believers need to hate their sin, to mortify the flesh, while also living into the joy of what God calls us to. Jason speaks a good word: “If you truly love what Christ has called you to do and love the life that he’s given you to live, you want people to be correcting you because you know that any…step off the path that Christ has laid out…is sin and death and destruction. You don’t want to do that…That means constant correction.”
Part of the work of Synod these last couple years has emphasized that Christians and CRC leaders and members are in relationship. Willy shares a quote from Puritan pastor George Swinnock, “Satan will always attack the ship that does not sail in convoy.” Jason points out the fittingness of that given the concept behind the CRC’s term “classis” is “a fleet of ships sailing together, working with each other, heading in the same direction.” Jason acknowledges if one of us—individual or church goes off alone, where is Satan likely to attack? We have a responsibility to one another.
Keeping with the watercraft imagery, Jason shares a canoe trip story that involved Willy’s teenage rebelliousness and his own immaturity while serving as a youth leader as he lost his cool while rebuking young Willy. Correction was necessary, but the way Jason went about it was worse than the act requiring it. So, Jason needed to repent, or respect would have been lost. He was confronted with his sin, and by seeking repentance, he was reconciled, and full relationship was restored.
Willy explains that part of why he and Jason support calling officebearers to repentance and compliance is because they’ve personally experienced this. With The Messy Reformation platform, they want to invite others into the kind of life they’ve found and the beautiful effects which allow them to rejoice together. He acknowledges that this works both ways—“If a church in my classis was, either in life or in doctrine, going astray and someone from Classis Grand Rapids East were to look at us and [give correction], the congregation of my classis should rejoice that there is a congregation who loves us enough to call us back into faith and fellowship.”
Willy also shares that some of the highlights of his life and times when he has grown the most are when trusted loved ones have confronted him with his sin. Correction genuinely can come out of that kind of relationship—which the CRC needs to also work on at this point. Yet this isn’t just for the CRC, but for the church universal, or catholic, it’s a call for all of us. Love seeks restoration in the fold of Jesus Christ.
Jason acknowledges this conversation around discipline isn’t pleasant, but we do hold it as the third mark of the church. “It’s the discipleship part of Word and sacrament…Discipline is where the rubber hits the road…We need to recover that.” Neither he nor anyone else is saying this is easy or should be enjoyable. He doesn’t love it; it gives him a knot in his stomach when he has to confront someone. He does it, though, “because Christ has called me to do it and I know it’s good.”
They wrap up the episode by talking about practical next steps. For Jason, he encourages finding a trusted person and inviting them to offer you correction, training, or rebuke, as you seek help to come closer to Christ. If we are disciplined ourselves, we’ll better be able to live and practice it in other spheres of our lives and the church. Willy reminds us of Paul’s prayer for the Philippians, “That our love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that we may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. We understand that all of this is for God's glory, for the furthering of his kingdom…In that, we give him praise.”