I once suggested to a few pastors in a private conversation that an HSR kind of report was needed in the CRCNA 25 years ago. The discussion came up because a pastor in our classis wouldn’t marry a member of his church who was living with his fiancé. Because of his stance, the pastor was forced to leave that church. Article 17. One of pastors I was speaking to said to me that I wouldn’t live long enough to see a HSR type of report get completed and passed in my lifetime. He felt the CRCNA was way too divided on the meaning of Biblical Sexuality. At the time, I believe he was right. I’m convinced that generation of CRCNA leadership, elders and pastors, would not have passed the current HSR in those years. Where he was wrong is that the next generation did pass it while I was still alive. Praise God! In other words, it took another generation, (children and grandchildren), of the men I was talking to, to write it and embrace it. It took another generation of those who would be faithful to the clear meaning of God’s Word on the biblical meaning of human sexuality. I thank God the pendulum is swinging in that direction. Let’s pray it doesn’t reverse course and swing back again.
I once suggested to a few pastors in a private conversation that an HSR kind of report was needed in the CRCNA 25 years ago. The discussion came up because a pastor in our classis wouldn’t marry a member of his church who was living with his fiancé. Because of his stance, the pastor was forced to leave that church. Article 17. One of pastors I was speaking to said to me that I wouldn’t live long enough to see a HSR type of report get completed and passed in my lifetime. He felt the CRCNA was way too divided on the meaning of Biblical Sexuality. At the time, I believe he was right. I’m convinced that generation of CRCNA leadership, elders and pastors, would not have passed the current HSR in those years. Where he was wrong is that the next generation did pass it while I was still alive. Praise God! In other words, it took another generation, (children and grandchildren), of the men I was talking to, to write it and embrace it. It took another generation of those who would be faithful to the clear meaning of God’s Word on the biblical meaning of human sexuality. I thank God the pendulum is swinging in that direction. Let’s pray it doesn’t reverse course and swing back again.