The Messy Reformation

Recorded in May 2022, weeks before Synod 2022. First of three reruns in the Before We Knew series, pulled from the years before the CRCNA's direction was settled.
A solo episode. Jason works through the fear of the Pharisees — Matthew 21:45-46, Mark 11:18, Luke 22:1-2 — where the religious leaders intend to arrest and kill Jesus and hold back because they fear the crowds. He applies it to the delegates heading to synod, alongside 1 Corinthians 16:13: be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
He then describes his own fear. He shakes when he speaks up in a group. A year or two into ministry as a youth pastor, he sat through a contentious congregational meeting, disagreed with where it was going, and said nothing, because he was afraid of what speaking would cost his position and his relationships. He drove home resolved never to do it again. The definition of courage follows: not the absence of fear, but fearing God more than men and moving forward anyway.
The second half takes up the arguments circulating before synod — fear of damage, fear of disunity, fear of a rash decision. He names delay as a tactic rather than caution, argues that smaller forces stretch out a fight when they know the numbers are against them, and holds that the majority in the pews were orthodox on sexuality. He cites the Chesterton line that a soldier fights for what is behind him rather than against what is in front of him, and lists what he longs for: a denomination he is not ashamed of, one that disciplines false teaching, that hires people worth being excited about, that is known for standing firm.
He closes on 1 Corinthians 15:10 — Paul working harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God — and argues that courage comes through faith rather than from within. The episode ends with Acts 20:22-24 adapted to synod: going constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what waits, counting his life of no value if only he may finish the course.
Timestamps:
0:00 — Series intro: why we are running these
1:55 — Original episode begins: one odd week before Synod 2022
2:22 — The fear of the Pharisees
2:39 — Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 22
4:07 — 1 Corinthians 16:13: be watchful, stand firm
4:30 — "I'm trembling, I'm shaking"
5:06 — The congregational meeting he stayed silent in
5:57 — What courage actually is
7:05 — "Fear God more than you fear men"
8:27 — Delay as a tactic
8:42 — How smaller forces beat larger ones
10:26 — The Chesterton line
11:44 — "I long for the day": what the CRC could be
13:08 — Telling the story of how reformation happened
14:43 — Courage comes from the Lord, not from within
15:07 — 1 Corinthians 15:10
16:31 — Acts 20 adapted to synod
17:42 — Closing
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If Synod's new ten-year church-planting vision is going to mean anything, it has to land somewhere ordinary: in one Christian noticing another. Part 2 of our conversation with Ralph Wigboldus starts exactly there. Asked how a small, tired congregation actually begins to raise up leaders, Ralph is refreshingly concrete. Stop living in silos. Don't be afraid to cross the room and talk to someone thirty or forty years younger than you. Discipleship happens with people you know.
Willy grounds it in his own story, and Ralph answers with a testimony that shows why he's Reformed to the bone: after a season of rebellion, angry at God, others could have written him off, but it was God who held on to me, not the other way around. From there the conversation turns to two of Synod's harder debates, the WCRC decision and the question of whether a digital-only ministry is a church, and to Ralph's conviction that in an anxious, disconnected world the church's calling is to draw people out to embodied community.
What carries the episode is why Ralph came home so full. After everything, he's still very much in love with this denomination. Synod felt like a family reunion. He closes with a charge for a hardening culture: in Canada a new law could brand Scripture as hate speech, and he and his co-pastor won't turn off the livestream to stay safe. Christ's work is not near finished, so speak boldly and share the gospel in love.
Timestamps:
0:00 — Intro: Calvin's Geneva and raising up leaders
2:52 — "It's on us": the denomination's charge comes home
3:30 — What can small local churches actually do?
4:52 — "Cross the room": discipleship with people you know
5:20 — Willy on the mentors who poured into him
7:34 — "It's not about what's there for you"
8:46 — Raising up leaders isn't just the pastor's job
10:41 — Don't write people off for a few rough edges
11:05 — "God held on to me": Ralph's testimony and why he's Reformed
13:40 — Anything else from Synod? The harder debates
13:59 — The WCRC decision and the scolding that followed
15:45 — Why a digital-only ministry isn't a church
17:11 — What Ralph learned about himself: still in love with the CRC
21:08 — Synod as a family reunion
23:47 — Rejoicing over the virtual-church decision
24:52 — First-time delegates and a more engaged church
25:57 — The youth advisors who impressed everyone
27:09 — Looking ahead to Synod 2027
29:53 — Closing words for a growing audience
30:44 — Bill C-9 and the courage to speak boldly
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Ralph Wigboldus has been in the boiling water longer than most of us. A senior pastor in Woodstock, Ontario, and a six-year veteran of the Council of Delegates, he came to Synod 2026 tired and half-hoping someone else would carry the load. He left overjoyed. In Part 1 of our conversation, Ralph gives American listeners something they rarely hear clearly: the Canadian side of the last decade, from the fight over financial autonomy to the push for a separate, more progressive denomination that finally fell flat.
This is the encouraging episode. Where 2022 and 2023 felt like trench warfare, Ralph describes a Synod marked by mutual love and respect, disagreement handled with grace. He walks us through his advisory committee's work on Resonate's ten-year church-planting plan and what struck him most: this wasn't pitched as a gimmick to arrest decline, but as the plain mission of the church, regardless of the numbers.
Under it all runs the refrain we've carried for two years now: the CRC is moving out of the fight stage of this Reformation and into the build stage. Ralph reaches back to the Reformation itself, and to Calvin's Geneva as a nursery for church planters, to make the point. By the end the denominational vision has come home to a single sentence: it's on us. Part 1 leaves us right on the edge of the practical question we take up next.
Timestamps:
0:00 — Intro
2:15 — Meet Ralph Wigboldus: Woodstock, Ontario, and a ministry built on team
3:06 — Why team ministry has been a lifelong blessing
3:38 — Calvin Seminary and a through-and-through CRC identity
4:49 — "I have yet to meet a pastor good at both preaching and pastoring"
7:11 — Six years on the Council of Delegates: the Canadian story
10:31 — The overture to separate, and why it fell flat
11:14 — Disaffiliation, independence, and grieving the losses
17:27 — The peace that came on the other side
17:43 — Ralph's overall thoughts on Synod 2026
18:28 — "We've turned a corner"
22:27 — Serving as a committee reporter
24:36 — Committee 6: Missions and Congregations
24:56 — Resonate's ten-year church-planting plan
26:48 — Excitement on the floor: the mission of the church
29:04 — From the fight stage to the build stage
30:19 — The URC, the Reformation, and churches by another name
31:12 — Calvin's Geneva as a church-planting nursery
32:05 — "It's on us": bringing it home to the local church
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In the second half of our post-Synod conversation, Zack Flipse and Jason move from how Synod 2026 felt to what it means for the work ahead. There's encouragement, but there are also some concerns. The biggest thread here is a worry both share: the CRC has an exciting church planting vision, but plant churches poorly and you can do damage to the denomination. Reformation isn't just about doing more; it's about doing it in a way that fits our ecclesiology. That's why Zack keeps half-joking that we need a study committee on ecclesiology, and why he's unembarrassed to say it: "I want to be part of a denomination that's doing theology."
From there the conversation ranges widely. They name the three streams of the CRC—confessionalist, pietist, transformationalist—and make the case that the church is stronger for holding all three. They look ahead to the Christian nationalism study report, arguing the Dutch Reformed tradition is uniquely equipped to speak here, with Kuyper and Bavinck in our own lineage—so long as we actually do the theology rather than just point back to it. And they return to Jason's hobby horse since day one: a denomination is healthy when local churches are engaged, not when they outsource their convictions to Grand Rapids.
Zack shares the kids' Heidelberg Catechism project he makes with his daughters—question one, "What gives you comfort? That I belong to Jesus"—because instead of complaining that the resource didn't exist, he decided to build it. Then Jason gives him the final word, and Zack delivers the line that names the whole vision: "Figure out what you can do to plant a church so that more people worship Jesus tomorrow than worship Him today. Let's plant some churches."
Timestamps:
0:00 — Recap: naming gifts and raising up leaders
2:15 — Satellite options and the uneasiness around multi-site churches
4:01 — The ecclesiology study committee that didn't pass
5:07 — "I want to be part of a denomination that's doing theology"
6:39 — Planting churches well: the danger of doing it poorly
7:55 — Discouragements: pressure to skip process
9:22 — "We found out in 2022": differences in how we read Scripture
10:35 — The three minds: confessionalist, pietist, transformationalist
12:04 — The Christian nationalism study report and our tradition
12:39 — Why the Dutch Reformed are uniquely equipped: Kuyper and Bavinck
21:30 — A healthy denomination means local churches engaged
23:03 — An overture on categories for church membership
23:38 — Unified worship vs. faithful contextualization
26:51 — Zack's kids' Heidelberg Catechism on YouTube
30:48 — The Little Heidelberg Catechism and resourcing parents
31:44 — Final word: let's plant some churches
Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/Intro music by Matt Krotzer

Zack Flipse walked into Synod 2026 as a first-time delegate and came home energized. For anyone who remembers the synods of 2022 and 2023—the walkouts, the exhaustion, the open question of whether the CRCNA would survive—that's no small thing. In this first half of our post-Synod conversation, Zack and Jason compare notes across a few short but seismic years: from a denomination that felt like it might die to one that is, in Zack's words, finally "rowing in the same direction." This is the encouraging episode.
Zack served on the Committee for Education and Candidacy, and he walks us through the reports, the new seminary professor, and the candidates—double last year's number—who got a standing ovation on the floor. The two of them dig into the slow, hard work of rebuilding trust in institutions, why low trust isn't a uniquely CRC problem, and the sober math behind the 150-churches-in-three-years vision: a pastor shortage that demands we get serious about raising up leaders.
What carries the episode is Zack's testimony of belonging. After years of having to qualify what he meant by "Christian Reformed," he sat on the floor of Synod and realized he didn't have to anymore. "I belong in my own denomination. I love this." It's a window into what reformation actually feels like when it starts to take hold—not a victory lap, but a sigh of relief and a turn toward the work ahead.
Timestamps:
0:00 — Intro: post-Synod interviews with delegates, Zack returns
2:35 — How are you feeling after Synod? Coming home energized
3:14 — A first-time delegate's glowing testimony
3:54 — Prep, the 400-page agenda, and the website struggle
5:47 — Trust in institutions: owning the gossip, the broader culture
9:50 — The Committee for Education and Candidacy and the college reports
11:40 — A new seminary professor with a heart for boots-on-the-ground ministry
14:19 — Double the candidates, and 80% of churches giving ministry shares
16:19 — Standing ovations and the question of encouragement
17:26 — Moved to tears: "I belong in my own denomination"
22:57 — The 2023 contrast: when Jason wept fearing the CRC would die
24:38 — East or west, not left or right: arguing about how, not where
26:38 — The church planting vision and a 10-year plan
29:47 — Raising up leaders: commissioned pastors and the LDN
32:48 — The hard math: 350 new pastors and classes of a hundred
34:55 — Naming gifts and the on-ramps into ministry
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Part two of the recap opens with a quieter decision that says a lot: removing Our World Belongs to God from the Covenant for Office Bearers. As Willy explains, the real debate wasn't about the contemporary testimony's merits but about what an office bearer should be bound to — and Synod's answer was the ecumenical creeds and the Reformed confessions, nothing added. It's one more thread in a confessionalist turn that ran through the whole week, captured by a transformationalist on the floor who joked that the confessionalists are in the driver's seat, the pietists are riding shotgun, and the transformationalists are in the back seat — and said he was okay with that.
From there Jason and Willy celebrate two structural decisions: keeping Sunday as a real Sabbath in the middle of Synod, and decisively rejecting biennial synods. Willy, who sits on the COD and voted against the biennial proposal, says the lopsided voice vote shows the task force is out of touch with the denomination. Jason makes the deeper case for meeting yearly — this year delegates actually changed their votes mid-debate, which is what real deliberation looks like and exactly what gets lost when a church only gathers every two years.
The heart of the episode is the unanimously adopted ten-year church planting vision and the Saturday-night State of the Church address that set it up. Jason, no reliable fan of Zach King, offers a genuine correction: King earned his standing ovation, naming a pivot from a season of fighting into a season of building — an Antioch moment of discipleship, leadership development, and healthy church planting. The goal is concrete and audacious: 150 new churches in five years, about three per classis. Both hosts ground it in the pastor shortage and the hard work of legacy churches, but the encouragement is unmistakable. Double the candidates showed up this year. Young confessional men are coming. So stop waiting on the denomination, Jason says — do the work, grassroots.
Timestamps:
0:00 — Intro: the gospel covers this synod
2:07 — Removing Our World Belongs to God from the Covenant for Office Bearers
4:07 — Doubling down on confessional identity: the driver's-seat line
6:29 — Decisions about Synod: the days and biennial synods
7:20 — Keeping the Sabbath and rejecting biennial synods
11:02 — The big theme: the ten-year church planting vision
11:51 — Zach King's State of the Church address and a standing ovation
13:10 — An Antioch moment: from fighting to building
15:03 — 150 churches in five years; three per classis
18:21 — The pastor shortage, leadership development, and legacy churches
22:24 — Double the candidates: young men returning to the CRC
22:54 — Post-millennialism banter
23:41 — Final thoughts: happy warriors and grassroots work
Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/Intro music by Matt Krotzer

Jason and Willy are back with their annual post-Synod recap, and the mood is different than it used to be. This isn't a denomination bracing for a fight; it's one taking stock of how far it has come. Willy is relatively satisfied with Synod 2026 — a give-and-take week with real wins and real losses — and Jason agrees, framing his disappointments as wisdom calls rather than make-or-break ones. The throughline this year, borrowing a line from Derek Buikema, was a willingness to stop deferring everything to process and just make decisions now.
The biggest win is the virtual church decision. After leaving the door cracked last year, Synod acceded to the Atlantic Northeast overture and declared plainly that a church meeting exclusively online is not a true church — rooted in Acts and the Belgic Confession, and framed well by Chad Steenwyk as chair. The biggest loss is the Classis Wisconsin overture for a study committee on Reformed ecclesiology, which failed 106 to 71. Jason's frustration isn't the defeat but the reason: the whole debate collapsed into a conversation about money and pragmatism — the very disease the overture was trying to treat. His verdict on the leading floor argument is unprintable-adjacent: it sounds good, but it's crap.
The episode closes on the two-year Christian nationalism study committee. Both hosts are skeptical, not because the issue is unimportant but because nobody can define the term — a point Al Mohler recently made by calling it a rebrand of "fundamentalist." Jason is genuinely thankful Synod refused the overture's proposed definition, but he expects two years of study to produce a definition that helps no one. What stings most is the contrast: a committee for the buzzword, none for the root issue. So the Messy Reformation will do the ecclesiology work itself — grassroots.
Timestamps:
0:00 — Intro and overall thoughts on Synod 2026
3:14 — Willy: relatively satisfied; a give-and-take synod
5:22 — "We're just going to do it now": Synod's new decisiveness
6:35 — The virtual church decision: online-only is not a true church
9:18 — Digital church versus digital ministry
9:35 — The Classis Wisconsin ecclesiology overture fails, 106 to 71
13:21 — Pragmatism on the floor: "his argument sounds good, but it's crap"
14:05 — The cracked-foundation analogy and planting Reformed churches
16:03 — An invitation to fund Reformed ecclesiology work
16:44 — The Christian nationalism study committee
18:19 — Al Mohler: a rebrand of "fundamentalist"
20:08 — Thankful Synod didn't adopt the proposed definition
21:12 — Chasing a ghost: two years, and a committee for the buzzword but not the root
Join and support us on Substack: https://themessyreformation.com/Intro music by Matt Krotzer

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

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

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