“We don’t want to be just having conversations for conversation’s sake. We don’t want to just keep plodding and putting out episodes just for the sake of putting out content…We want to be putting out content that really blesses the Christian Reformed Church, that builds people up, helps draw them closer to God, helps equip them to go out and serve the church…We pray that as a result of this little break, we’ll actually have a bigger, stronger, more effective impact on the kingdom of God.” — Jason Ruis
Take the listener survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf91m4Obqpue1s6tCchu49CZHTRnrnd3xeTPeFnyuExxus81g/viewform
Summary of this Episode
Jason gives an update on why the show has been quiet and what comes next.
The reruns earlier this summer were intentional. We wanted listeners to hear the conversations we were having three, four, and five years ago, before the fights, and to hear the contrast between that tone and the conversations about Synod. Jason’s reason for running them: it’s easy to move on to the next fight without stopping to look at how good God has been to the Christian Reformed Church.
Then the posting stopped, and people noticed. Jason has gotten text messages asking whether everything is okay. The show has been running for almost six years without missing much; the only long gap was the two or three months when he almost died. That’s not what’s happening this time.
Two things happened over the summer. Dan DeGraff’s church blessed him with a sabbatical, and he stepped away from his responsibilities at the Messy Reformation for those months. Jason, coming off a year of stepping into two new roles at a church and a school, treated his own summer much the same way. Two of the three of them were out for three months, and then the school year started.
The gap turned into a chance to think. For about five years it was clear what the main conversation in the CRC needed to be. Those conversations have largely been wrapped up. There are still plenty of issues, but less agreement about which one is central. So the question the team is sitting with is what role God has for the Messy Reformation in the life of the church right now. Jason is direct about not wanting to have conversations for conversation’s sake, or put out episodes for the sake of putting out content.
Out of that comes a listener survey. Jason grounds the request in the conviction that the Holy Spirit speaks more clearly through large groups of people, which is why the church has classes and synods. He wants to know who is listening, why, what has been useful, and where listeners think the CRC is going.
He also names the shift the denomination has made into a rebuilding phase, and says the podcast likely needs to shift toward it. And he is hoping to bring back the Messy Reformation conference in Wisconsin next summer.
He asks for patience and for prayer while the team works this out.
Take the listener survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf91m4Obqpue1s6tCchu49CZHTRnrnd3xeTPeFnyuExxus81g/viewform