Episode 241: Grassroots Theological Training — Brandon Seaver (Part 2)

“Don’t be afraid—if you feel like your church is not…teaching the Confessions and the Creeds…engage your pastors lovingly in that conversation…Be thinking and praying about that…Let’s…show the beauty and the truth of God’s Word and how our confessions…reinforce that and help the next generation understand it.” —Brandon Seaver

Summary of This Episode

This week on the Messy Reformation, Jason is back with Brandon Seaver, an elder at Hillcrest CRC in Hudsonville, MI, and delegate from Synod 2025. The conversation picks up on some of the things Brandon felt passionately about at this year’s Synod and helped to offer minority reports for. To jump quite a bit, writing a minority report didn’t mean he felt like everything was terrible in what would be the majority report but he and others believed there were better ways to deal with things on a few points. Jason summarizes these tended to be wisdom things—what is the wisest action, rather than being very divided on an issue.

One of the significant issues that brought a minority report was virtual church, which Brandon believes should and will come up again at a future Synod. As we’ve heard from previous guests, he also believes that the body was not on the same page about the topic, which meant that comments and discussion could not be properly understood. He summarizes the minority report’s intent was to point out the risk of a solely virtual church being able to practice the marks of a true church. Particularly as an elder, he questions the ability of officebearers to faithfully carry out their responsibilities to the people in such a setting. He was surprised by what felt like a lack of caution from those he thought could have served with a theological perspective. He would’ve preferred a pause to study it more.

Throughout his sharing, we can hear Brandon’s desire to help train and equip church leaders and members. Synod also received overtures calling for the churches and the CRC to actively train elders and deacons and raise up people who get licensed to exhort. Brandon learned that in many congregations, there likely isn’t a lot of training. He shares that he appreciated hearing the denomination is working on materials to be released soon hopefully.

Jumping ahead again, Jason shares that Brandon is one of those who was involved earlier this year in facilitating the “Our Three Forms of Unity” event at Hillcrest. The intent was to provide resources, teaching, and equipping on the Confessions and why they matter. He acknowledges there was some criticism that some believe they were elevating them about the Bible, which is not true but we want to show how the Confession teach what’s in Scripture. They are planning for another event either this fall or next spring. Jason encourages him, “…I am thankful to hear that the denomination is working on some material…but…part of the problem has been that a lot of churches have just waited for the denomination to put out material…I just want to tell people, ‘No, just go do it, create the stuff, and start doing it where you're at.’ …There's something about a local church doing something like that where people [want to be part of it, to join, because they know the people].”

Looking forward to the future of the CRC, Brandon hopes to see a positive direction in terms of churches, church planting, and raising up the next generation. He expresses having a cautious eye, especially on the CRC pastors and congregations who are going over to the RCA with the review of the relationship between our denominations. Being in an area where there is a heavy saturation of CRCs, RCAs, and congregations that have left the RCA, that aspect of Synod’s decisions really matters to him. His final words are an encouragement for especially officebearers, “Don’t be afraid—if you feel like your church is not…teaching the Confessions and the Creeds…engage your pastors lovingly in that conversation…Be thinking and praying about that…Let’s…show the beauty and the truth of God’s Word and how our confessions…reinforce that and help the next generation understand it.” He also encourages considering attending synod, “If you feel like you have a passion for what’s going on in the church and…you [like] to network and communicate with others and…have great conversations around these topics…don’t be afraid to carefully discern whether Synod might be something you should check out and go to.”