Wednesday, July 2, 2008

CREC: History of the CREC

My wife and I have attended Trinity Evangelical Church, located in Larwill, Indiana, for two years. Look us up on the web: http://www.trinity-evangelical.org/. Trinity is currently a candidate church in the CREC (Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches). Look them up on the web: http://www.crechurches.org/.

In 2004, at the eighth Presbytery of the CREC, a report on the history of the CREC was presented; the concluding paragraphs stated: We in the CREC are recovering from 20th century fundamentalism and pietism. As pietists, we tried to be relevant to culture and to make a difference, but we learned that the more relevant we tried to become, the more shallow and fragmented, and at last, the less relevant, we became. As fundamentalists, we wanted to hold up the Bible as our standard of truth, but we came to learn that without owning the church as the “pillar and ground of the truth,” a high Bible is no longer a precious Covenant document, but Gnostic emptiness. God protected us from ourselves. He protected us through all our silly political lobbying, our taste for Contemporary Christian music, and our media-frenzied vision for ministry, even as we neglected the church. He has been kind to show us our folly, and to restore us to our mother. We in the CREC are in love with our creeds and confessions and liturgies and our church government. For our merciful God has rescued us out of the 20th century.

I relate to that history, especially the parts about being rescued from ourselves by a merciful God.

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