RED churches

The first ever URCNA church planting colloquium was an instant success that I hope has lasting results. As a RED member, I salute Rev. Paul Murphy, who gave the opening salvo on the URCNA and the Great Commission, the dominant theme of the colloquium.  He argued that a healthy classis is one that seeks to accomplish the Great Commission.  When we do mission work, we follow the very nature of God, who is a missionary God.  Dedication to the Great Commission, therefore, should be evident in the budgets and prayers of the consistories, which in turn should motivate classes and synod.  As the church in Acts progressed from the sacred, Jerusalem, to the secular, Rome, we must continue that progress and plant churches in the least reached places in America and the world.  The URCNA must commit to always reforming (semper reformanda), not to merely preserving.  Our federation is fifteen years old, yet there is still much foundational work to be done.  We suffer from a lack of organization and cooperation, with the result that many seek to reinvent the wheel.  This wastes valuable resources and energy.

The URCNA tends to be too congregational, according to Rev. Murphy.  He explained the serious problems this causes and the need to cooperate, collaborate, and coordinate.  We must have attainable goals at the classical level, because “if we aim for nothing, we’ll hit it every time.”  A rifle approach to missionary support, with focused giving, is far superior to that of a shotgun.  The federation cannot continue its unwise missions funding.  An examination of URCNA giving reveals that the majority of the money goes to support Dispensational, Arminian, CRC, and Baptist parachurch organizations.  Meanwhile, URC church plants are starving.  The rifle approach is the fix, namely following Article 47 of the Church Order and making URCNA church plants the priority in giving.