Reminder Episode: Before We Knew — Fear God, Not Men — Jason Pre-Synod 2022
“I long for the day when people are going to ask us to tell the story of how reformation happened in the CRC. I long for that day when I can talk to my kids and say, this is what happened. This is what God did to bring reformation in our denomination.” —Jason Ruis
Summary of This Episode
We’re re-airing three episodes from 2022 and 2023 over the next three Sundays. This is the first.
Two reasons. The practical one is that Jason is out of town for three weeks. The better one: the last several weeks on this show have been encouraging—the convening session of Synod 2026, the recap, conversations with Zack Flipse and Ralph Wigboldus. We keep saying it’s worth remembering how far this denomination has come, and how much fight and work and faithfulness from God it took to get here. We’re not done. But we’ve come a long way, and that’s easy to forget.
So we’re going back to what things sounded like before we knew.
These are Jason’s final thoughts before heading to Synod 2022, recorded in May, with synod still weeks out and a thousand pages of agenda left to get through. Everything else in the archive about that synod was recorded afterward. We thought it was important for our listeners to be reminded of what things sounded like leading up to Synod 2022, back when it felt like heading off to battle.
Jason works through the fear of the Pharisees—the places in Matthew, Mark, and Luke where the religious leaders know what they intend to do and hold back because they fear the crowds. Jason sees that same fear in himself, and admits that he shakes when he speaks up in a room. He tells about a congregational meeting early in his ministry where he had something to say and said nothing, because he was afraid of what it would cost him. He drove home resolved never to do that again.
The common thread of this episode is: fear God more than you fear men.
That’s as true now as it was then. Most of what has gone wrong in the CRCNA over the last decade didn’t go wrong because someone made a bold, wrong decision. It went wrong when people decided to stay quiet, because they were afraid of looking foolish or afraid of what speaking would cost them.
Near the end, Jason lists what he was longing for. A denomination he could be proud of instead of ashamed of. One known for standing firm instead of collapsing under pressure. One with enough commitment to God’s word and God’s people to actually discipline someone teaching false doctrine. Denominational positions filled by people worth being excited about, instead of the blandest, least controversial candidate available. A church more interested in what’s possible than in rehearsing its failures. And the day somebody would ask him to tell the story of how reformation came to the CRC—the day he could tell his kids what God had done.
Listen to that list, and then look at the last four years. The CRC disciplined a church for the first time in over twenty years. It gave the teaching of the human sexuality report confessional status and has continued to hold that line. It’s putting people in denominational positions we’re genuinely glad to see there—still room to grow here, but we’ve made really good progress. This summer we came home from synod encouraged and excited—rather than battle weary.
God has been good and has answered these prayers. Praise God!
Next Sunday: the conversation Jason and Willy recorded the week after Synod 2022.
If you were around in 2022, what do you remember about the weeks before synod? Reply to this email or leave a comment. We read them.