Episode 253: The Value of Confessional Accountability — Richard Britton III (Part 1)

“Another thing that hit was the HSR. One of our elders had a really great insight. He said, “If the affirming ideology can infiltrate a small town rural church like Trinity CRC in Fremont, it can infiltrate anywhere.” For us, thankfully, our council was of one mind on the issue, holding the biblical position. But we did have some members who were not of the same mind on the issue, and that was hard because ultimately our church in Classis Muskegon did have to stand up for our biblical view of marriage and sexuality. That was not popular among a few in our church. We had a few who left—some big givers—and that hurt us.” —Richard Britton III

Summary of This Episode

This week on the Messy Reformation, Willy and Dan are joined by Rev. Richard Britton III, the pastor of Beckwith Hills CRC on the northeast side of Grand Rapids, MI, where he was called earlier this year. This is the second church he’s served after pastoring at Trinity CRC in Fremont, MI until they closed in 2024.

Richard kicks off the episode sharing his unique upbringing. His dad was a pastor in a not-yet Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation in rural Illinois. Eventually they moved up to Brookfield, WI, outside of Milwaukee, where he had his first contact with the Christian Reformed Church at Brookfield CRC. He really appreciated the discipleship he received there and growth through CRU and Geneva Campus Ministry at the University of Wisconsin. While he looked at other seminaries, he chose Calvin Theological Seminary having had friends at Calvin University as well as attending a conference at CTS on missional living and Scripture that really struck a cord with him along with the faculty.

As mentioned before, Richard’s first church was one that closed, which is a unique experience for many pastors but especially one’s first church. Dan asks how that went and how it formed him. Richard shares devotion to prayer and having encouraging elders were essential to that process. He saw God’s provisions there despite the hard times, including the graciousness of the congregants who gave him room to grow as a pastor. There were several facets to them losing large parts of their identity, but the council was of one mind, and that helped through the process.

A significant piece of his time, though, was coming shortly after COVID-19, which set in when Richard was in his final semester of seminary. Dan asks what that experience was like at the seminary, and if there was any teaching/training about how to deal with such a situation when one is pastoring. Richard reflects on how virtual learning made the best of things and he was grateful that CTS had the technology it did to help that, but he was bummed to not be able to complete certain courses in the classroom. There wasn’t much advice given, and Dan acknowledges even as a pastor in that time and looking at various churches, it’s hard to give the one-size-fits-all application. Perhaps it was a good thing to not give advice as there were lessons that might have been shared in those days that looking back weren’t great.

Willy ends the episode pointing us to next time when Richard will share his involvement in Synods and bringing things from Trinity pertaining to his former classis and where he hopes things continue to go in the CRCNA.