GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As the Christian Reformed Church has continued to reaffirm its traditional beliefs on marriage, a number of its ministers have left the denomination for the Reformed Church in America.
In mid-February, 33 ministers from the CRC transferred their preaching credentials to the RCA's North Grand Rapids Classis in a group ordination ceremony at The Community Church in Ada.
"It was something I didn't know I needed," said Heather Stroobosscher, a pastor at Creston Church in Grand Rapids. "It ministered to my soul."
That night, Stroobosscher and the other CRC ministers talked theology with members of the RCA, took a test and took communion as part of their acceptance into the denomination.
They were also given loaves bread baked by members of local RCA churches: "From many fields, the wheat is gathered to form one loaf," said Katie Musick, president of the North Grand Rapids classis, referencing the RCA's liturgy.
For Stroobosscher, the ordination was an act of "obedience."
A graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary, she had grown her faith in the CRC and put it to practice at a number of churches in the denomination, including Creston Church. But when the CRC ruled last year that its pastors, elders and deacons had to align with its stance on sexuality — that same-sex relationships are sinful — Stroobosscher felt she had to leave the denomination she loved.
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"I just wept all the time and grieved the brokenness of the Christian Reformed Church," she said. "Not just sexuality, but the the vitriol, the tone, the change in curiosity and wonder and delight in our beautiful theology."
READ MORE: 'We're a divided culture': Grand Rapids churches leaving the CRC over sexuality
In 2021, the RCA went through a similar split over sexuality when conservative churches broke away from the denomination to form the Alliance of Reformed Churches.
The RCA does not have a denomination-wide stance on same-sex relationships and instead lets its regional church groups — also called classes — determine their beliefs and policies on the topic. In its North Grand Rapids classis, some churches are affirming and others are non-affirming toward LGBTQ people.
"We've all agreed that we are going to live together with difference, that we are going to live in the messy middle, as it were," Musick said.
Notably, the CRC is an offshoot of the RCA. The two split in the 1800s for a number of reasons, including worship style and Christian education. Musick says her denomination also places more of an emphasis on social justice.
"The church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream," said Musick, quoting the Belhar Confession.
In May, the North Grand Rapids classis plans to ordain another group of CRC ministers in a similar ceremony.
"It feels absolutely like home, to my surprise," said Stroobosscher, whose church is also planning on disaffiliating from the CRC. "We are living into a new day and God is there."
"It is a delight to be a part of this beautiful new day in the midst of two denominations really struggling to understand how to be well in the midst of a difficult time in the world and a difficult time to be a church," she said.
