Recorded days after Synod 2022 adjourned. Second of three reruns in the Before We Knew series. Jason and Willy work through the six questions the podcast then put to every delegate it interviewed: your role at synod, what you learned about yourself and the CRC, what encouraged you, what discouraged you, how your congregation is responding, and where we go from here. Willy served as a young adult representative, a role that can speak on the floor but cannot vote or speak for or against a motion. He questions whether the role should exist at all under a Presbyterian polity, and both note how many actual delegates were young that year, most of them conservative. They sat together on advisory committee three, education and candidacy, which handled the seminary and Calvin reports and the candidate interviews, including the two new Calvin Seminary professors, Wilson Cunha in Old Testament and Yudha Thianto in historical theology. Cunha answered directly on the human sexuality report. Thianto said he would abide by whatever synod decided, which left people uneasy. On what encouraged them: orthodoxy prevailed, and it prevailed by margins nobody expected. Four things passed — penal substitutionary atonement, the majority report on human sexuality, confessional status for its teaching, and disciplinary action against Neland Avenue — all by supermajorities in the range of 70 to 75 percent. Jason expected to come home wrecked and did not. He credits the fellowship among delegates and answered prayer, including moments where several delegates arrived at the same conviction separately during deliberations. On what discouraged them: hostility toward orthodoxy in some quarters, arguments from personal testimony treated as equal to Scripture, and conduct on the floor that was out of order on a worldwide livestream. Jason was criticized for repeating the word clarity, and answers the charge that the CRC has made an idol of it: clarity is not about being right, it is what makes pastoral guidance possible. He also names tone deafness, particularly the reasoning that professors should be asked only whether they will abide by synod's decisions rather than what they believe, and traces it to the distance between Grand Rapids and the rest of the denomination. Willy answers with Luther at the Diet of Worms on conscience captive to the word of God. The hardest section is about their own side. Off social media all week, Jason came home to find not only anger from those who wanted an affirming outcome, which he expected, but conservatives who were angry that synod had not gone far enough. Willy answers that watching a livestream is not the same as reading the room. Jason argues from church revitalization: this was the first disciplinary action against a congregation in over twenty years, small wins come before large ones, and nobody thought the work was finished after one synod. They also read the closest vote of the week, the defeated catechism footnote at about 51 percent, as a matter of people not having had time to think it through beforehand. On congregations: Willy's church was glad of the results and worried about a split, and he tells them that separation may be inevitable when both sides believe the gospel is at stake. Jason reads an email from an orthodox pastor who got everything he hoped for from synod and now has a congregation in turmoil, with members asking whether they can still belong. Both argue for giving churches time to repent before stronger action, and Jason ties it to Hebrews 12 — discipline is not designed to remove someone from the family. He mentions the Neland elder who said, with a smile, that synod would have to kick them out. They close on where to go from here. Willy names the three marks of the true church: preaching, sacraments, discipline. Jason wants the in loco committee under the new general secretary held to its work, and a warning that Paul Vander Klay's prediction may hold — that some will leave from the left and some conservatives from the right. His closing word is to the conservatives: this is step one, stay. Timestamps: 0:00 — Series intro 1:43 — Original episode begins 3:02 — The six questions asked of every delegate 4:03 — Willy's role as a young adult representative, and whether it should exist 9:52 — Advisory committee three: education and candidacy 13:49 — Interviewing the new professors: Wilson Cunha 18:30 — Yudha Thianto's answer on the human sexuality report 20:11 — What encouraged them: orthodoxy prevailed 23:51 — Four supermajority votes 25:55 — Answered prayer, and the Spirit at work among delegates 29:06 — Disagreeing agreeably: 95 percent of it went well 31:06 — What discouraged them: hostility toward orthodoxy 34:03 — "The clarity guy," and whether clarity is an idol 35:13 — Tone deafness, and the Grand Rapids echo chamber 38:47 — Luther at the Diet of Worms 39:25 — The social media moratorium, and what came after 40:32 — Conservatives angry that synod did not go far enough 41:40 — Willy: watching a livestream is not reading the room 44:02 — Thinking like a church revitalizer: step one of many 48:46 — The false accusation that orthodox delegates know no one affected 50:49 — The catechism footnote, defeated 51 to 49 53:57 — How the congregations are responding 57:24 — "Separation, I believe, is inevitable" 58:30 — The email from a pastor who won and now has a mess 61:14 — Giving churches room to repent 62:26 — Quoted in the Banner, and Hebrews 12 on discipline 63:45 — The Neland elder: "You're going to have to kick us out" 64:54 — The marks of the true church 66:59 — Holding the in loco committee to its work 67:33 — "Don't leave. Stick with us." Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer
