From Reformed to secularized churches? (6)


Centralization and freedom

The openness within the RCNlib not only fostered tolerance in doctrine and confession but also became evident in daily life. Prof. Dekker draws attention to this in chapters on ‘church life’ and ‘ethical matters’.

He first describes the increasing organizational growth within the RCNlib through the establishing of all sorts of national agencies and centres with their officials. This was evident in the work of mission, evangelization, deacons and congregational development. All this occurred at the cost of the work of office bearers and the involvement of the church members. It also led to professionalization and centralization. As example, Prof. Dekker refers to the recent establishing of an association for church workers. In this way church members have increasingly found themselves divorced from all sorts of church matters. This is reflected in the declining interest in the annual ‘School Day’ of the Theological University at Kampen.

 

Prof. Dekker sees a relationship between this development at the national level and the freedom that the local churches can permit themselves. A quotation from the 2011 RCNlib Year Book referring to the new draft Church Order (known as work order) clarifies this:

In general it is striking that in this work order (the new draft Church Order), various matters are not so fixed as the churches were used to. This reflects the growing diversity amongst the churches, in which you must find your way.

As example of this diversity Prof. Dekker refers to the many baptism and holy supper forms, the freedom to join a congregation of one’s own preference and the new types of pastoral work whereby congregational members are enlisted into the work of office bearers. In all this Dekker sees no difference between what is happening in the RCNlib and the way that the synodical churches went (page 71).

Offices

In certain ways the ministry has become a profession like other professions. The ministers’ association has become a professional group. Moreover, the special position of the minister, as minister of the Word, is adversely affected by placing it on the same level as other professions and by the introduction of church workers. Quotation from 2001: ‘The fact that the minister of the Word is no longer placed on the same pedestal as previously , is gain’.

As for the office of elder, Dekker observes that in over half the congregations it is difficult to find office bearers. The pastoral work is now organized differently in many congregations: the elder has become more a coordinator of other members who are actively involved in the pastoral work of the congregation. In some of the congregations the yearly home visits prescribed in the church order, are no longer made. Sometimes they proceed to mutual pastoral care or mini-wards (page 73). Here again Dekker sees much similarity to the way the synodical churches developed (page 74, 123).

This certainly also applies in respect to women in office. Dekker points out once again how active voting rights for women was introduced. That happened a mere 15 years after the decision of the GS Groningen Zuid 1978 ‘that it is not in harmony with the submissiveness that Scripture gives to the position of women in the congregation, to be given an own independent voice’. And therefore it declared ‘that the current long-established rule is not to be changed’.

However, at the General Synod of Ommen 1993 it was decided overwhelmingly (with merely one abstention) that confessing sisters can no longer be withheld from taking part in voting for office bearers. It was emphasized in the grounds, that the arguments are not based on the spirit of the times but on what is commanded by Holy Scripture (page 77).

As could be expected, says Prof. Dekker, this would inevitably lead to a discussion on whether the offices in the church could be open for women. And that’s exactly what happened. In the 1990s this was actively discussed, and at the most recently held synod it was decided to investigate whether it is permissible on the basis of Scripture to appoint women to the offices of deacon, elder and minister.

Prof. Dekker sees this as a direct consequence of society’s changed views of the position of women and as illustration refers to the RCNlib’s changed form for marriage. The earlier form used in the RCNlib said that man ‘as head, has authority over his wife’ and that the woman is to ‘accept his leadership in obedience’. However, the new form for the solemnization of marriage no longer speaks of ‘authority’ and ‘leadership’; the position of the man and that of the woman are now described as being more equal. ‘When Gods Word speaks of the relationships and responsibilities in marriage it is first the unity that is accented.’

The church services

Prof. Dekker did no ‘fieldwork’. That implies also that he did not attend the worship services of the RCNlib as part of his investigation. What we ‘know’ about the phenomenal liturgical changes that have occurred in local RCNlib congregations therefore could not be featured in his book. However, he does pay attention to that what entered the RCNlib, as a result of synod decisions, on liturgical innovations, including the introduction of the Songbook (Het Liedboek voor de Kerken) into the churches after the General Synod of Berkel & Rodenrijs 1996.

Also here Prof. Dekker makes astute observations about the changes taking place. He recalls an earlier remark of Prof. J. Kamphuis about the Songbook (Liedboek) as a collection of songs of the ‘false oecumenical movement’ which played ‘a powerful role in establishing an unscriptural ecclesiastical unity’ (page 83). But after 1996 it was impossible to turn the tide: despite a ‘flood of objections’ lodged at the General Synod of Zuidhorn 2002/2003 work continued on a new collection. Prof. Dekker: ‘and then at last a decision is made to participate in Liedboek 2012, a decision that is radically different to the original refusal to adopt the Songbook (Liedboek)’.

Regarding the church services Prof Dekker refers to the quiet introduction of the simultaneous church services for children, the ‘open’ Holy Supper celebrations in which guests from outside the churches can take part, and the decline in church service attendance. The open Holy Supper celebrations are only casually mentioned by Dekker (page 84). Yet also here much more could be said in relation to his investigation. For here we see, as a result of the openness of the RCNlib, all the marks of the true church at issue: the absence of admonition and discipline and therefore an impure administration of the sacrament, coherent with a doctrine of false ecumenism. .

Prof. Dekker does go into the decline of church attendance more deeply (page 79-81). He quotes the 2003 Year Book (!):‘from experience we learn that many find going to church only once per Sunday is sufficient’. In 2009 deputies declared ‘that people have different thoughts about the need to have a second church service and catechism sermons as stipulated in the Church Order’. They decided to ‘formulate this in a more open manner’. In the sitting of synod in September 2012 it was actually decided by a majority to stipulate that the congregation should ‘as a rule’ hold two services per Sunday. Prof. Dekker: ‘the developments on this point are changing more rapidly than many had thought possible’ (page 81).

Ethical matters

Prof. Dekker notes a shift taking place in the church life of the RCNlib in general whereby ‘the emphasis on dogmatic questions, on the doctrine and the confession, has been replaced by a situation in which behaviour, way of life, and thus ethical matters become more important (page 105). He also points to the link between changes in church life on the one hand and changes in walk of life, ethics, on the other. In his book he points to these changes in the area of marriage and divorce, homosexuality, and lifestyle (including Sunday observance).

Here we only mention the most important points. In the early 1990s Prof. Douma still stated that the churches ‘adhered to the old established norms in relation to marriage’. But even then he had to observe: ‘Many began to consider the phenomenon of ‘living together’ quite normal. Later (2010) it was explicitly stated that living together before marriage was on the increase (page 107).

It is becoming repetitious, but also in relation to marriage and divorce Dekker sees a parallel with the synodical churches. He notices that church policy on divorce is adjusted to accommodate the changing practice. He calls it a ‘nuanced position of the ecclesiastical point of view’ when deputies (at the General Synod Zuidhorn 2002/2003), ‘approach the Bible in a different way than was formerly the case , and attempt to approach the questions on divorce and re-marriage from the Bible as a whole’. That leads to an ‘understanding for the hardness of hart, also in our time. Sometimes there is just no other way.’ At first there is still a plea not to solemnize a second marriage in church. But Prof. Dekker quotes the 2009 Year Book about the decision of the synod of Zwolle Zuid 2008: ‘At the synod the subject of divorce came up for discussion again; it is decided that a second marriage of a divorcee may be solemnized in the church if the consistory agrees with that marriage. A previous synod had refused this.’

Concerning homosexuality Prof. Dekker observes that the official position (Synod Zwolle-Zuid 2008) continues to be that the living together of two homosexuals in an active relationship is wrong. However, Prof. Dekker fails to mention that in the same decision the synod refused to declare that this living together under promise of excluding sexual relationship would also be worthy of discipline. It has been directed back to the consistory, ‘as this belongs to the pastoral room that a consistory has in concrete situations’ (Acts, art. 52). Meanwhile, the RCNlib has jointly with the Nederlandse Gereformeerde Kerken (NGK) developed a website offering ‘assistance to local churches in relation to homosexual congregational members’.

In the last paragraph of this chapter, just before his conclusion, under the heading ‘lifestyle’, the issue of Sunday observance is finally raised again (page 115). Remarkably, however, Prof. Dekker concludes that on this point there appears to be a noteworthy difference with the synodicals. He motivates this by saying:

That this matter is still the subject of vigorous discussion in this century (and the difference of opinion on this could even lead to ‘the new liberation’) indicates that this is, in the life of the liberated-reformed people, an important point.

He says no more on this. We are of opinion that Prof. Dekker makes a mistake in this assessment about the Sunday observance within the RCNlib. He has failed to notice the fundamental change of course. Consequently he has not considered this matter in the light of the ongoing revolution described in his book . In our Liberation of 2003 we had to see the departure from Gods law concerning the Sabbath as symptom of an overall decline (see the brochure Laten wij ons bekeren/ Let us repent of 2002). It is also remarkable that Prof. Dekker does not link this matter to what he observed as the decline in church attendance in the RCNlib (page 79). Could the masked words of the document ‘Zondag, een heerlijke dag’ presented by deputies to Synod Amersfoort 2005, have played a part? Perhaps the absence of fieldwork and the one-sidedness of his sources is to blame.

Next time we hope to present our conclusions with an evaluation of the developments within the RCNlib as presented by Prof. Dekker. We will then also respond to reactions on the publication of his book.