Episode 188: Synod 2024 - Confessional Integrity and the Power of the Holy Spirit - Michael Bentley (Part 2)
“I think the key we’re re-evaluating is not just the identity of a denomination, but the identity of God’s people. What kind of subversive excitement can you find in recognizing that nothing else is going to bring you joy but following Christ? It’s the worst kept secret in the whole world…All we need to do is trust Jesus at his word, and once we start doing that, I can’t imagine the eruption of the fruit of the Spirit and humble, thankful people who…are going to fight for joy that Jesus has died and risen from the dead to give them. There’s no better way to spend your life.” -Micheal Bentley
Summary of this Episode
Jason and Willy are joined again by Rev. Michael Bentley, the pastor of Trinity CRC in Maryland Heights, MO (a suburb of St. Louis) and a Classis Central Plains delegate to Synod 2024. The conversation picks up as Michael is sharing what was discouraging from his synod experience. We heard at the end of the last episode, “I didn’t understand how far down the Grand Rapids [cultural] elitism goes…” and this week shares, “I could never pass enough.” He’s talking about how the revisionist side of the denomination tends to be those who have deep histories in the CRC, who live in or are connected to the geographic heart of the CRC, who have had “white guilt” and “liberal” guilt, that’s pushed them to seek out others. Yet those who have been brought in are people like Michael–non-Dutch, non-born-and-raised-CRC, and the newcomers are the ones reforming the denomination to God’s word.
As the conversation goes on, they start casting a vision for the future of the CRC. Michael identifies, “If it’s confessional, and if it really applies cross-culturally, then we’ve got to have a vision that theologically seriously applies this stuff to the culture…The church is most culturally relevant when it’s least culturally congruent…Is [the vision] consistently confessional application of biblical truth and can all tribes, tongues, and nations that Christ is bringing to the kingdom affirm this no matter who your grandpa was?” Willy points out that this is what the apostle Paul identified in Philippians 3:4-8. It wasn’t his Jewish pedigree that he rested on, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Jason reminds us all, “It’s going to take real, intentional, diligent leadership throughout the denomination to try to pull us out of some of these ruts and move us into this position” where confessional is seen as our identity.
Shifting back to Synod, Jason asks how Michael felt at the end. He shares a feeling of being overwhelmed that everything was done. He describes it as, “An ordained kind of a situation, where a lot of people’s hearts were being prepared for making a decision…I think people were done with [a lack of clarity], and they wanted to [stand] on what we know is true.” To be clear, to be decisive, to stand on truth is better than what is untrue or muddy.
Jason reflects on this as a “Here we stand as a denomination”-type moment. He shares how he preached on Jesus’ high priestly prayer recently and sees Jesus praying a vision for the church. “He’s calling for us to live holy, missional lives that are sanctified in his truth, that we’re holy people, that we’re becoming more and more like him. And yet he says, ‘I’m sending you out into the world and the world is going to hate you’...[There is a] connection of our own personal holiness, our own sanctification, actually has a missional aspect to it…You don’t downplay discipleship and sanctification in order to be missional people…and you don’t downplay mission in order to be sanctified. They actually work together.” Jason and Michael are in agreement that the spread of the gospel should be broad, even “promiscuous,” but don’t water things down or compromise. Jason is convinced becoming a healthy church (and denomination) comes through Holy Spirit renewal with the process of sanctification. Michael points out that to see that process happen, to get invested or re-invested in our denomination will require people to believe Jesus really is right. We can get past the surface issues to deal with the root problems if we’re rooted in his truth.
Michael leaves us with a good last word: “I think the key we’re re-evaluating is not just the identity of a denomination, but the identity of God’s people. What kind of subversive excitement can you find in recognizing that nothing else is going to bring you joy but following Christ? It’s the worst kept secret in the whole world…All we need to do is trust Jesus at his word, and once we start doing that, I can’t imagine the eruption of the fruit of the Spirit and humble, thankful people who…are going to fight for joy that Jesus has died and risen from the dead to give them. There’s no better way to spend your life.”