Virtual Church??
One of the discussion points that stood out to me at this year’s Christian Reformed Church Synod was the topic of virtual church. You can read more about the decision at this link: https://www.thebanner.org/news/2025/06/synod-gives-virtual-churches-more-time-to-experiment
As a current servant in the CRC, I'm thankful for the work of Synod and the people who went and poured their time into the discussion.
That being said, the overall discussion seemed to shift and move on the floor from the discussion being had within the committee reports that were made. Poor definitions were used, and often times words like "community," "gathering," "group," and "people" were used.
My current interest and credentials - 5 years of digital full-time ministry from 2013-2018 (the ministry was fully funded through churches and individuals' gifts, with additional part-time employment supplementing my family and income. We grew to a team of 1 full-time (me) and 3 part-time employees before we ended our work. This was an era pre-Zoom, and we tried to convince and serve the church to grow its efforts in using the internet as the new "Roman road" that can allow for all sorts of ministry opportunities. I now serve as a pastor at a CRCNA church.
All that said, I'm firmly opposed to online "churches". I am not opposed to online communities, groups, ministries, outreaches, evangelism, teaching, bible studies, prayer meetings, etc. We used all those (and I still am active in using many of these things) for various (I believe) God glorifying purposes. Those individual things unto themselves are activities, and they are not a church as classified, defined, and spoken of in the scriptures - as our seminary theologian at Synod spoke to (that the NT use of the word for church is a gathering of people together) and summarized in our confessions.
Many of the speakers and synodical representatives got caught up/had cross definitions of what was at stake in the discussion, and I hope we can narrow down (read focus in) our future efforts and statements based on the understanding and scope of what the task force is asked to do.
Are there any online-only churches? No. Are there churches that meet together using the internet? Yes. Are there good ministries that exclusively use the internet? Yes. Are those online exclusive ministries the church? No. Just as a church cannot be a church via ONLY distance communication letters (think "can a church be a pen-pal church writing emails or letters?"), So too, a group of dispersed people cannot be a cohesive body assembling together, showcasing the 3 marks of the church exclusively online.
Should a future Synod speak to this is a clear manner that appropriately affirms what the scriptures teach regarding a true church (which is bound together by regularly living out the Christian witness together in person), it will be a good thing. And that Synodical decision doesn't END any of the good ministry going on. Many of the active leaders in the CRCNA presently using the internet for various good ministries, have spoken to how clearly they direct and encourage people not to think of themselves as their "online pastor", but instead, those leaders direct people to local congregations to experience and contribute to the life of the body in person.
I am a big fan of tech. I use it a ton. I've been blessed to give 5 years of my life, my wife's life, and my children's lives to using the internet to speak with real, live, actual people in more than 15 countries, thousands of times, about who Jesus is and why he matters. That ministry is not a church. Evangelistic efforts done even in person are not a "church".
Covid-19 has exposed much of the dead and rot in our theology of the church, and this Synod and our discussion on the floor gave full vent to the awful ignorance that runs rampant among us on the nature, purpose, role, blessing, work, life, and even the definition of the church. One of the things COVID did was get many churches to stream their services. And that's great. I know many people who previously for various reasons, did not attend gatherings and felt like, for the first time, with their church forced to go online, they could receive something from their church. That awful reality exposes our churches as being "places" rather than "people". The people of those churches ought to have been visiting with those people, going to them, celebrating the sacraments with them, etc. No one in the church should go months, or years, without Christian fellowship simply because their local church was unwilling to go to them and only was willing to meet together....well....apart from that brother/sister.
That is just the tip of the iceberg, as church discipline has dropped off a cliff (it was already sliding throughout the 00s and the teens) since Covid. And that's before we speak of the sacraments being utterly mischaracterized and frankly turned into bastardized humanistic rituals (You can take communion alone at home!.....um....isn't the entire point of the "bread that we break" an activity we do together???) rather than proclamations of the Lord's death until he comes. That's before we mention how baptism has simply become a thing of the past in many of our congregations.
I'm going to be giving a lecture in the coming months on just how damning Covid was for our churches at a theological level and how much of our theology has become informed by the fears and moods and times of our present age rather than the scriptures.
I'll end this by stating this hopefully not too dramatically, but with sober and Christ-like concern. This virtual church discussion is of greater importance to the church than the HSR stuff that just became a dominant talking point for the last X years in our denomination and wider church, and broader culture. If the church of Jesus Christ doesn't recognize or know the church, we are not the church at all.
As we finished a watch party of Synod last week, someone asked me, "Is this virtual church question a salvation issue?". I said, "No, I don't think so, but it takes about as high a priority as it can without being a salvation issue". The reason why this is even bigger than the HSR is because the HSR dealt with a relatively (population-wise) minor issue that arose from a single church ordaining a single person to a single term of office (in the most recent round of CRCNA sexuality discussion). This virtual church discussion impacts every church in who exactly we understood the Lord Jesus came to save, and what that body is that he is building here in his precious bride, the church.