The Messy Reformation

Jason Ruis

We love the Christian Reformed Church; we want to see reformation in our denomination; and we recognize that reformation is typically messy. So, we’re having conversations with pastors throughout the CRC about what reformation might look like.

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 274: Synod 2026 — What Is a Church? Forcing a Theological Conversation (Chris Ganski & Derek Buikema)

    Chris Ganski and Derek Buikema join Jason to talk about the overture out of Classis Wisconsin to Synod 2026 calling for a study committee on the nature of the church. It is not a flashy overture. It is not addressing a fight. But Chris and Derek argue it might be the most important overture on the floor — because every other ecclesiastical conversation in the denomination right now is happening at one or two levels of abstraction away from a question we have quietly stopped asking out loud: what is a church? They trace the overture back through ten years of the company-of-pastors conversations, name the drift of American pragmatism through CRC life, and make the case that a generation has grown up assuming everyone knew what a church was — and now nobody is sure. The conversation does not stay in diagnosis. Chris keeps the bar for the study committee low and the vision serious: force a theological conversation. Recover Calvin's deep ecclesiology — election, the church as creature of the Word, the sacraments, the ministry of the Word. Derek's contribution is to remind the denomination what study committees actually do. They frame conversations. Children at the Lord's Table did. Human Sexuality did. A serious, theological study committee on the church will do the same — without requiring a controversy to do it. The pivot of the episode is Derek's image: a faithful pastor knows when to fight and when to garden. The CRC has been fighting for a decade. It is past time to also garden. Then Chris turns to Calvin as a model. Calvin was a refugee. He fled France at twenty-five, landed in Geneva, and was forever an outsider. That experience shaped his ecclesiology. He invented the consistory. He gave the modern diaconate its shape. He sent church planters into France for forty years. Reformed mission did not come out of pragmatism. It came out of a refugee's deep theology of what the church is. Chris closes with a pastoral word for tired pastors and anxious elders: the church is founded in God's election. Whether the church survives is not finally on us. Believe that. Lead from that. That is what reformation looks like. Timestamps: 0:00 — Introduction 3:19 — Origin of the overture: ten years of the company of pastors 5:01 — Why a study committee, not another task force 6:27 — Synod 2025 itself asked for this work 6:55 — How we got here: the drift toward American pragmatism 9:22 — Calvin, Bavinck, Kuyper — the resources we have forgotten 9:57 — John Cooper: pragmatic arguments used to lose at Synod 11:17 — Nine Marks in New England and the hunger for ecclesiology 14:22 — A low bar: just force a theological conversation 16:28 — Virtual communion, virtual baptism, and forgetting the sacraments 18:44 — The faithful doing flows from the faithful being 22:14 — Church vs ministry: when church planting becomes community development 26:36 — The catechism caricature: living theology, not rote memorization 29:52 — Tradition vs traditionalism (Pelikan) 31:05 — Ezekiel by the Chebar: church without land, king, or temple 33:26 — Sexuality crisis revealed the deeper unrootedness 35:43 — How a study committee actually shapes a denomination 41:48 — From fighting phase to building phase 42:21 — Knowing when to fight and when to garden 44:13 — Struggling churches default to pragmatism 45:00 — Calvin the refugee: an exilic ecclesiology that planted churches 47:43 — Final word: the church is founded in God's election Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    51 min

  2. Jun 1

    Episode 273: Synod 2026 — The New Leaders of the Denomination

    Jason and Dan DeGraff kick off the Messy Reformation's annual Synod coverage with a breakdown of the convening session of Synod 2026. The convening session is mostly a warm-up — an hour of tech troubleshooting and a chance for delegates to find their footing before the real work begins. But it ends with the one piece of business that, year after year, tells you more about where Synod is headed than almost anything else: the election of officers. Chad Steenwyk is president. Derek Buikema is vice president. Jose Reyes is first clerk. Dave Tenclay is second clerk. Jason's point is not the names themselves but what it means that none of these names is a surprise. Four years ago, the idea that a leader of the Abide Project could be elected president of Synod would have been unthinkable — anyone associated with Abide carried what Jason calls the black mark of the plague. Now it just makes sense. That, he argues, is the single most important thing this episode is about: the fog of reformation makes it easy to forget how far the CRC has actually moved. Dan brings the numbers and the texture. Over 100 new delegates this year — close to 58 percent of the floor — which is roughly the pattern of the last several synods. He and Jason talk about why the convening session matters even when it looks like nothing happens, why around 25 absent delegates is worth a gentle rebuke, and what it means that the delegates got behind strong confessional leaders right out of the gate. They engage Paul VanderKlay's recent video predicting that the pendulum has swung about as far as it will, and Jason pushes back: he thinks Synod is increasingly willing to take the reins on things like the Calvin Seminary presidency precisely because trust in the institution has been lost. The conversation closes on demographics that complicate any simple read — the confessional fire Jason has seen among Korean, Hispanic, and Venezuelan delegates, the talk of a new Classis Lone Star out of Hispanic church plants in Texas, and the continued decline in women delegates. The hosts commit to a few coverage episodes during Synod rather than daily updates, and Jason ends where the podcast always ends: this is Christ's church, he bought it with his blood, so keep watch on your life and doctrine and keep fighting the good fight in this messy reformation. Timestamps: 0:00 — Intro and welcome 2:00 — Why we always cover the convening session 3:30 — The tech struggles of an online convening session 5:00 — Why the officer elections signal where Synod is headed 5:30 — Chad Steenwyk elected president 7:00 — Chad and the fallout of 2023 9:00 — The shift: an Abide leader as president would have been unthinkable 11:00 — The fog of reformation: forgetting how far we've come 13:00 — Three officers have been on this podcast 15:00 — The new leaders versus the old institutional names 16:30 — Derek Buikema elected vice president 19:00 — Jose Reyes elected first clerk 21:00 — Dave Tenclay elected second clerk 24:00 — Over 100 new delegates: what it means 28:00 — Preparing first-time delegates 31:00 — Around 25 absent delegates and why the convening session matters 34:00 — Paul VanderKlay's video and the confessional trajectory 37:00 — Synod taking the reins and the Calvin Seminary overture 40:00 — Ethnic minorities and the confessional fire 43:00 — Classis Lone Star and a more confessional CRC 45:00 — Women delegates and the officer board 47:00 — Coverage plans and closing Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    40 min

  3. May 25

    Episode 272: The Banner's Future and the Confessional Renewal of the CRCNA — Lora Copley (Part 2)

    In part two of our conversation with Lora Copley, editor of The Banner, the question turns from where the Banner has been to where it could go. Lora doesn't dodge — she names specifics. A Banner podcast launching this year, fully funded through grassroots giving, hosted by Derek Buikema and Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra. A daily Synod 2026 recap modeled on the work of Abide Project. A growing donor base of "banner builders." Online space for articles ranging from 500 to 2,400 words, giving faithful Reformed voices a platform the print magazine can't yet hold. This isn't strategic spin. It's a vision of a publication actually serving the church it claims to speak with. Then Willy turns the conversation toward confessionalism, and the heart of Lora's vision becomes clear. She isn't manufacturing a confessional turn at the Banner — the pitches are already coming. A stay-at-home mom in Chicago on a "Now What?" series for young adults. A church planter in the Multiply 222 network who tells every new disciple after twenty-six weeks of catechism that the only place to go next is Berkhof's Systematic Theology — because the book is incredible. The Reformed confessions are not a museum piece. They're how Reformed churches make disciples, and the CRCNA is hungry for leaders who believe it. Lora heads into Synod 2026 to be interviewed and voted on as permanent editor. She admits she's nervous — her words tumble out like a clown car at the Ringling Brothers circus, she says — but she'll feel deeply dependent on the Lord and His Spirit, and that's a good place to be. We boast in our weakness so that Christ's strength may be known. The closing word is Jonathan Edwards: among all the counterfeits the enemy can imitate of the Spirit's fruit, the one thing he cannot counterfeit is the exalting of Christ. That's what Lora is praying for the Banner, the agencies, the denomination, and the Synod about to gather. Lifted, fixed, transformed eyes on Jesus. There is no other sign and wonder worth chasing. Timestamps: 0:00 — Recap and lead-in 0:26 — Dreaming the Banner's future 1:07 — Reaching a younger, audio-visual audience 1:32 — The new Banner podcast launching this year 4:06 — Banner builders and grassroots support 5:34 — Willy on confessionalism in the Banner 6:48 — Berkhof Basics, Canons of Dort, and confessional pitches coming across the desk 8:33 — "Just send them to Berkhof": a church planter's discipleship story 11:10 — Jason on teaching doctrine to high schoolers 11:49 — Calvin was 26: Reformed confidence for a new generation 13:03 — A hunger for passionately confessional leadership 13:34 — Lora on heading to Synod 2026 15:42 — Nervous, dependent, and in the right place 18:29 — How to pray for Lora and the Banner 23:00 — Praise God for His faithfulness 27:45 — Pray, write, read, share 28:16 — Final words 29:04 — Jonathan Edwards on the one thing you can't counterfeit Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    31 min

  4. May 19

    Episode 271: Breaking the Echo Chamber - Wider Voices in the Banner — Lora Copley (Part 1)

    Lora Copley never thought she'd be editor of The Banner. When her name first came up, she sent back a crying-laughing emoji. She was a campus minister in Iowa, not a journalist. But on a Saturday afternoon — the day before the application deadline, while her daughter was napping — the thought wouldn't leave her alone. She put in her résumé fully expecting to be politely declined, and instead found herself in Florida, at the Multiply 222 conference, receiving a call she hadn't seen coming. In part one of our conversation, Lora tells the story of how God redirected her into the Banner, and what she's learned about the publication, the denomination, and the work in front of her. This episode is for anyone who has thrown the Banner in the recycling and assumed nothing was going to change. Lora walks us behind the curtain — how feature articles get planned a year in advance, how unsolicited columns come in, how the Our Shared Ministry pages work, and why submissions have nearly tripled since December. She's not asking the CRCNA to manage decline. She's reading Hebrews 11 and the COD report side by side and refusing to pretend the gospel has shrunk. She wants to know what God is doing in Houston and Pease, Minnesota, and Acton, Ontario — and she wants The Banner to be the place where we hear about it. The payoff is the moment Jason calls out in real time: he's been one of the Banner's most vocal critics for six years, and he's genuinely encouraged. Lora's vision — a publication that speaks with and within the denomination, that helps the CRCNA know both God and itself, that holds Calvin's twin pillars of wisdom together — is exactly the kind of cross-pollination a denomination in reformation requires. Part two picks up with Lora's dreams for the next five years, the Banner's confessional turn, and her nerves heading into Synod. Timestamps: 0:00 — Intro 1:59 — How a crying-laughing emoji turned into a call to the Banner 5:30 — Hebrews 11 and refusing the script of decline 9:06 — Stepping into a new role: the steep learning curve 11:30 — December deep dive into Synod 2025 12:27 — What Synod 2025 actually asked of The Banner 14:00 — Speaking with and within the denomination 15:30 — Calvin's twin pillars: knowing God and knowing ourselves 17:59 — From interim editor to candidate for permanent editor 19:30 — A call to and a release from 20:48 — Behind the scenes: how Banner articles come together 22:00 — Features, columns, and Our Shared Ministry 25:57 — Why submissions tripled — and what that means for stewardship 27:38 — Widening the pool and breaking the echo chamber Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    32 min

  5. May 11

    Episode 270: Synod 2026 — Passionately Reformed Leaders for a Passionately Reformed Denomination

    Part two of our Synod 2026 preview goes after the bones: who has authority to discipline, what the church owes the state, what the church even is, and why confessional integrity at every level isn't a bonus — it's the basic ask. The technical density of these overtures hides deeply theological questions, and the answers will shape the future of the CRCNA. Jason, Dan, and Willy work through the discipline-of-office-bearers task force and the Canadian-law pushback in Overtures 34 and 36, where pragmatism keeps trying to override principle. Then Christian nationalism: Overture 25 from Grand Rapids East, a public reading of Belgic Confession Article 36, and Willy connecting it to the Lord's Prayer. Classis Wisconsin's Overture 33 on Reformed ecclesiology gets the case it deserves — the study committee we actually need. The gravamen overtures are dispatched with the contempt they earn for being out of order. The home stretch is confessional alignment: every employee a member of a CRC, every adjunct faculty member at Calvin Seminary signing the covenant for office bearers, the next Calvin Seminary president confessionally aligned and passionately Reformed — and synod prepared to reject any candidate who isn't. Synod has the authority. Stop apologizing for using it. Christ is still building his church, and we are ambassadors of his kingdom. Timestamps: 0:00 — Wrap-up of the defining membership task force 0:30 — Discipline of office bearers task force (recommendations C, D, E) 2:23 — Overture 34 (Eastern Canada): Canadian-law objections 5:44 — Pragmatism is the door out of the church, not into it 6:09 — The Christian nationalism conversation begins 12:30 — Overture 25 (Grand Rapids East): defining Christian nationalism 14:37 — Reading Belgic Confession Article 36 22:29 — The Lord's Prayer and Belgic 36 in concert 26:40 — Overture 33 (Classis Wisconsin): Reformed ecclesiology study committee 37:34 — Gravamen overtures: out of order, fight is over 42:19 — Every denominational employee should be a confessionally aligned CRC member 45:39 — Overture 15 (Iliana): Calvin Seminary adjunct faculty 47:55 — The next Calvin Seminary president and synod's role 55:10 — Synod's authority and the courage to use it 57:03 — Closing words from Dan and Willy Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    1h 2m

  6. May 4

    Episode 269: Synod 2026 — The CRCNA Needs to Cast a Vision Worth Funding

    We're back from a short break with the first half of our annual Synod 2026 preview — and this is not a back-to-normal agenda. The Council of Delegates is bringing 27 recommendations forward, and Jason, Dan, and Willy walk through the bigger buckets the people in the pew should actually be paying attention to. We dig into Recommendation K (Saturday-to-Saturday synod and the Lord's Day problem), Recommendation O (the quiet authority shift on the Program Committee), the biennial synods proposal in Y and Z, and the pay-to-play two-tier ministry shares scheme tucked into Overture 32. Overture 30 from Georgetown is the financial transparency we should already have. Underneath all of it sits a trust crisis the denomination keeps trying to solve by demanding more trust — when before trust always comes transparency. The episode lands in the defining membership task force, where Dan calls us to stop rushing people into membership, Willy distinguishes commitment from understanding, and Jason wrestles honestly with both sides of a question that isn't yet resolved. The reformation isn't done. Keep pushing. Timestamps: 0:00 — Intro and Synod 2026 preview 2:56 — Recommendation K: Saturday-to-Saturday synod and the Lord's Day 7:45 — Recommendation O: Director of Ecclesiastical Governance on the Program Committee 11:53 — Recommendations P & Q: Limited suspension reporting 14:13 — Recommendations Y & Z: Biennial synods and governance costs 23:23 — Overture 30 (Georgetown): Financial transparency 25:35 — Cutting bureaucratic bloat in the CRC 27:21 — Trust, transparency, and the Canoeing the Mountains principle 33:48 — Defining Membership Task Force 37:11 — Stop rushing people into membership 39:48 — Difference in understanding vs. difference in commitment 41:12 — Jason on the open theological question Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    48 min

  7. Apr 20

    Episode Replay: Why Reformation Is Always a Return, Never an Evolution — Lee Christoffels

    Lee Christoffels was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in 1970. He has been preaching ever since — in Worthington, Minnesota, where his congregation has held services in four languages and watched the community around it change week by week; in Edgerton, where he now serves part-time in retirement; and in pulpits across the region whenever someone needs a preacher on a Sunday morning. Fifty-two years in, he still loves it. This episode is a conversation with a man who has seen everything the CRC has been through since the 1970s and has something clear to say about what holds. Lee traces the drift that has shaped the denomination's current crisis back to a single question: what is Scripture, and does it have final authority? That question surfaced seriously in the 70s, when debates over biblical infallibility began to fracture the clarity the CRC had inherited. From there, Lee argues, the line runs directly through the battles over women in office in the 90s to the tensions surrounding Synod 2022. The problems were never sudden. They were the slow consequence of decisions made decades earlier, each one loosening the anchor a little further. The conversation turns on one of the most misused phrases in contemporary church life: semper reformanda — always reforming. Lee insists the historic qualifier was never optional. Always reforming according to the word of God. Reformation is not evolution. It is not the church adjusting to its cultural moment. It is the church being called back — daily, personally, institutionally — to what Scripture actually says and what the church of the ages has always confessed. As Jason points out, the original Reformers did not see themselves as innovators. They quoted Augustine and Irenaeus and said: we are standing where the church has always stood. It was Rome that moved. That same logic applies now. The episode ends where every episode ends: this is Christ's church and he bought it with his blood. Wolves will come. Keep a close watch on your life and on your doctrine. Preach the word in season and out of season. Lee Christoffels has been doing exactly that for 52 years. It is worth hearing from someone who has stayed the course that long. Timestamps: 0:00 — Intro 2:08 — Lee's background: 52 years in ministry, Worthington CRC, family 4:20 — Multi-cultural ministry: 30 languages, four-language worship services 6:33 — Joys of ministry: seeing people grow in faith over decades 8:29 — The case for long pastorates; Piper, Begg, and leavening a congregation 11:48 — The CRC in the 1970s: Scripture authority questioned, infallibility debates 14:11 — Women in office and the fractures of the 90s; confessional subscription 16:01 — Two competing visions of what "reformed" means post-Synod 2022 17:20 — Semper reformanda: what "always reforming" has always meant 19:11 — Willy: the dividing line between the two groups 19:47 — Confessional unity as the CRC's real strength; Edmund Clowney 21:29 — "Doctrine unites": pushing back on a progressive slogan 21:54 — The Reformation's claim: "they left, we stayed" 23:26 — The only way to be reformed is to be Catholic (small c) 24:29 — Reform vs. evolution: prone to wander, always called back 25:44 — John 3: something in every believer's heart still hates the light 27:08 — Scripture authority as the primary issue facing the church today 28:48 — The Catechism and the fullness of Scripture 29:01 — The unity of Old and New Testaments; the case for Old Testament preaching 31:47 — Catherine Vos's Child Story Bible as a model of redemptive-historical discipleship 34:27 — Expositional preaching and where authority lives in the pulpit Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    37 min

  8. Apr 13

    Episode 268: Classes Need a Plan for Dying and Planting Churches in the CRC — Denominational Structure Roundtable (Part 2)

    If episode 267 made the case that the CRC has a congregational health crisis, episode 268 asks why the structures meant to address it aren't functioning. The answer, according to Matt Haan, is simple: classes have never had a plan. Not a real one. They were formed by proximity, not strategy, and the denomination has never seriously addressed that. What would it look like to treat a classis as a territory — a defined patch of the kingdom — responsible for every church and every unchurched community within it? Matt introduces the CRC belt of the Bible: 80 percent of the denomination falls within 100 miles of I-90, north or south. Everything outside that corridor is harder. Dan DeGraff adds the legacy dimension — it's not stubbornness keeping struggling churches together, it's that the building is woven into people's faith stories. But he also names what he learned at a recent candidacy gathering in Phoenix: some classes have figured this out, and the ones that haven't need to be challenged, not coddled. Meanwhile, Jason drops the news that Classes Wisconsin is bringing an overture to Synod 2026: before the CRC plants more churches, it needs to answer a basic question — what is a church? Matt closes with the line that cuts deepest: one church in Classis Iakota had more baptisms than 11 classes combined. That's not boasting — it's a challenge. The gospel is still alive. God can do amazing things when people are willing. The question is whether the denomination is willing to do the unglamorous work of supporting the outposts of the kingdom — not just the exciting new plants, but the struggling congregations that need someone to walk with them and help them figure out what comes next. Timestamps: 0:00 — Willie: swallowing pride and drawing from covenant community (rewind) 0:38 — Matt: classes need to have a plan 1:00 — The history of how classes formed — there was no plan 2:00 — The CRC belt of the Bible: 80% within 100 miles of I-90 3:00 — A full church life cycle roadmap: plant → emerging → revitalization → close 5:00 — Dan: legacy feelings — "This is the church that raised me" 6:00 — Hard conversations are actual leadership — without them, people spin their wheels 9:00 — Matt: the smaller the place, the bigger the pride 11:00 — The CRC's post-WWII church landscape and why it's changing 13:00 — Jason: the 40-year mark when churches hit crisis 14:00 — Dan: the last 40 years of the CRC — women in office, human sexuality, COVID 15:00 — COVID and the sexuality debate stalled classes renewal work 16:00 — What classes are planting churches? Iakota's four church plants 17:00 — Funding nearly half of pastor salaries — and the limits of classis capacity 20:00 — If the OPC is already there, support them — don't compete 21:00 — Let's plant even if it never gets above 70 members 22:00 — classes are territories for us to care about 24:00 — We have locations and willing churches — we just don't have planters 25:00 — The pastor shortage makes it hard to plant churches 29:00 — Classes Wisconsin overture: define what a church is before planting more 30:00 — Dan: the Quorum Deo conference and what good missionaries look like 32:00 — Matt: one church in Iakota, more baptisms than 11 classes combined 34:00 — Jason closes: "I could keep yapping, but we'll end it on that" Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/ Intro music by Matt Krotzer

    37 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
39 Ratings

About

We love the Christian Reformed Church; we want to see reformation in our denomination; and we recognize that reformation is typically messy. So, we’re having conversations with pastors throughout the CRC about what reformation might look like.

Information

  • Creator
    Jason Ruis
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    288
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2022
  • Show Website
    The Messy Reformation

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