Growth, Challenges, and the Road Ahead for the URCNA

This article is based on a Marscast interview with Dr. Cornelis Venema, President Emeritus and Professor of Doctrinal Studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary, who continues to serve the United Reformed Churches in North America.

From roughly 36 churches gathered in Lynwood, Illinois, in 1996 to over 140 organized congregations spanning North America today, the United Reformed Churches have grown substantially over the past three decades. But numbers tell only part of the story. The federation's growth has involved mergers, church plants, theological debates, questions about seminary education, and ongoing challenges in missions and church planting. As the URCNA enters its fourth decade, understanding where it's been helps clarify where it might be headed.

The Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches: A Forgotten Chapter

One easily forgotten part of the URCNA's story involves churches that left the Christian Reformed Church even before the consistorial conferences began meeting or the Alliance was formed.

As early as the late 1970s and into the 1980s, some consistories and members of the CRC were sufficiently troubled by developments in the denomination that they departed. One of the first was a congregation in Listowel, Ontario, in 1979. These churches—never more than about 14 congregations in the US and Canada—would meet annually for what they called a "conference," their own kind of gathering without an official name.

By 1988, two years after the original consistorial conference had taken place in Lynnwood, these churches proceeded to federate themselves. They revised the CRC's church order, adopted the Three Forms of Unity, and called themselves the Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches (plural), deliberately identifying themselves as the continuation and perpetuation of what the CRC once was but no longer remained.

This raises an obvious question: If there was already a federation of churches that had left the CRC over the same concerns, why did a new federation form in 1995-96?

The Perception Problem

The answer is sensitive but fair to acknowledge: there was a perception among those forming the URC that the original churches' departure and the eventual formation of the OCRC may have been somewhat premature.

Local church circumstances played a role. The attitude and disposition of those who had left early—for example, in western Washington state, where some formed OCRC congregations—sometimes included a certain view toward those who remained in the CRC at the time. There was a bit of a perception among some in the OCRC that the formation of the URCNA was late in coming, and perhaps those forming it weren't quite as solidly committed as those who had left earlier.

These are anecdotal aspects of a complex story. But what matters for understanding the URCNA's growth is what happened after the URC was formed.

The Long Road to Unity: 1999-2008

After the URC was formed, engagements between the OCRC and URC took place, even at the synodical level.

The 1999 Synod in Escondido received an informal letter from the OCRC. This came in response to an overture from URC churches suggesting that the OCRC join them—there was no need to perpetuate separate federations with the same church order and confessions. The sentiment was: we're united in conviction, so let's formally unite.

But the OCRC response was cautious: "We don't know about your churches and federation on the question of creation."

The OCRC had taken an official synodically adopted position on the account and doctrine of creation. Their position was emphatic that any view other than the report's "solar days" or "ordinary days" was unacceptable. The framework view—which reads Genesis 1 as a literary framework rather than a strict chronological sequence—was ruled out of court altogether. Yet there were (and are) within the URC some office bearers who favor the framework view.

The OCRC made clear: "We can't join you until we know what your position is on creation."

The 1999 Creation Resolutions

In answer to that concern, the 1999 Synod adopted several resolutions respecting how the URC should read the account of creation and understand the doctrine of creation.

These resolutions became the occasion for some controversy within the URC, but they clearly suggested that the account should be read as describing what God did in calling the world into existence out of nothing in a sequence of six days—chronologically sequenced, distinguished by evenings and mornings, and not day-ages.

The language adopted didn't use the term "ordinary days," nor did the resolutions require insistence that the days were of a particular length. But they were not day-ages, and there was no room for any sort of evolutionary view that the world came to be as it is over a long period of time.

The resolutions were straightforward, saying not much more than the Belgic Confession says in its article on creation: God created the world, and when He finished His work of creation, all creatures were fixed according to their kind. This ruled out any kind of doctrine of evolution, certainly macroevolution or naturalistic evolution.

The resolutions weren't entirely satisfactory to all of the OCRC churches. But most of them did eventually join the URC.

Growth by the Numbers

The URCNA has experienced growth both through congregations joining and new congregations being formed.

The federation started with three classes and roughly 36 churches. Today, there are eight classes, approximately 140 organized churches, and a total membership of possibly 25,000.

The Question of Theological Education

The URCNA does not have one officially designated seminary. This is by design—the federation has not established a denominational seminary like the CRC's Calvin Theological Seminary.

Yet Mid-America Reformed Seminary occupies a unique position in serving URC students. The seminary was built on a curriculum tailored to the specific needs of confessionally reformed ministry, including dedicated instruction in catechetical preaching, as required by the URC church order.

This commitment to thorough confessionally reformed training has attracted students not just from the URC but also from the OPC, PCA, CRC, and even Reformed Baptist backgrounds. For URC students, Mid-America offers comprehensive training in URC polity, history, and liturgy. Similarly, it provides a Presbyterian polity and history course for students with Presbyterian backgrounds so that graduates are equipped to serve their specific denominations effectively.

The Intertwined Histories of Mid-America and the URC

The histories of Mid-America Reformed Seminary and the United Reformed Churches are very much intertwined—one corresponding to the other.

Mid-America grew out of a desire to bring about renewal and restoration in the CRC through a different approach to theological education. The original founders of the school had no intention of seeing a new denomination formed or separating from the CRC. Their whole interest was to revive and sustain confessional integrity in the Christian Reformed Church.

Over time, that proved not to be possible. When the URCNA formed, it meant that the primary constituency of the seminary that had previously been in the CRC was now in the URC.

Because of this close interrelationship, Mid-America's entire curriculum and requirements are very much oriented to doing what the URCNA has historically decided is the work of a seminary in service to the church.

The Church Order Appendix on Theological Education

The URC church order includes an appendix that describes an ideal curriculum for a seminary well-suited to prepare men to serve in the URCNA. It should have:

A course on catechetical preaching
Instruction in the history of the denomination
Teaching in its polity
A high regard for the federation's positions on various theological questions

When this appendix was adopted at Synod Nyack, it came from an overture from classes in Michigan. Some suspected the appendix was written by strong supporters of Mid-America as a way of inserting into the official record a preference for Mid-America as the place where students should be trained.

That suggestion was firmly rejected—it was not a conspiracy. But it is absolutely the case that if you're looking for a seminary that does what the URCNA's church order and its appendix describe should be done by a seminary, Mid-America is uniquely positioned.

Mid-America is not the official seminary of the United Reformed Churches—not a federational seminary in that sense. You could argue it's therefore an independent seminary. But frankly, considering the boots on the ground and the intertwined history, the school is uniquely connected to the URC.

The Problem of Historical Amnesia

Here's a revealing observation: there's now a whole generation growing up in the URC that doesn't know the nature of that close connection between Mid-America and the URCNA.

URC students who are now considering seminary sometimes treat Mid-America as just one of six options, without understanding the historical relationship or the intentional curricular alignment with URC needs. This represents a failure to attend to history.

The longer one observes this dynamic, the more sympathetic one becomes to the notion of a more formal relationship between seminary and federation. Seminaries exist by virtue of the support of the churches, and they have nothing to do but serve those churches as best they can. The relationship between Mid-America and the URC is extremely close, even if not officially formalized.

Missions and Church Planting: Areas of Struggle

Missions and church planting are areas where confessionally reformed churches have sometimes struggled to gain momentum. The URCNA faces real obstacles in this pivotal work.

Part of the challenge is structural. The URC values the autonomy of local churches and is wary of denominational agencies that might overreach. This makes it difficult to coordinate large-scale mission efforts or provide substantial support for church planting.

Another challenge is cultural. The URCNA's roots are in Dutch-American and Canadian Reformed communities. Breaking out of ethnic and cultural patterns to plant churches in diverse contexts requires intentionality and resources.

There's also the question of theological education for church planters. Planting churches requires not just doctrinal knowledge but practical skills, cultural awareness, and entrepreneurial initiative. Traditional seminary training doesn't always equip men for these challenges.

Yet progress is being made. The dozen or more church plants across the US and Canada represent real movement. Classes are taking initiative in supporting church planting within their regions. And there's growing recognition within the federation that if the URC is to have a future beyond its founding generation, it must be more than a haven for refugees from other denominations—it must actively plant and grow churches.

The Challenge of the Next Generation

Perhaps the most significant challenge facing the URCNA is generational. The federation is 30 years old—approximately one generation. A whole new generation of members has grown up in URC churches who didn't live through the controversies in the CRC, didn't attend the consistorial conferences, and don't viscerally understand why the federation exists.

For this generation, the URCNA is simply their church—not a hard-won refuge from theological compromise, but the only Reformed church they've known. This creates both opportunity and risk.

The opportunity is that younger generations can move beyond a reactive posture. Rather than defining themselves by what they left behind, they can focus on a positive vision—what they're building, where they're going, what they're proclaiming.

The risk is that without understanding the history, younger generations may not value what was preserved at great cost. Confessional subscription, the regulative principle of worship, catechetical preaching, hard-won commitments rooted in deep convictions about Scripture, the church, and the gospel.

Looking Ahead: What Will Define the URCNA's Fourth Decade?

As the URCNA begins to move through its fourth decade, several questions loom large:

Will the URC mature from a federation focused on preservation and consolidation into a truly outward-facing missionary church? The first three decades have been marked by steady but modest growth. The next three will reveal whether it can plant thriving congregations and expand its presence in diverse communities.

Will theological education remain robustly confessional while equipping men for the contemporary challenges of ministry? New generations need training that combines confessional depth with practical preparation for 21st-century ministry, and Mid-America Reformed Seminary is designed to provide it through its curriculum and Ministerial Apprenticeship Program.

Will the ethos of independence give way to stronger denominational cooperation? The pendulum swung away from the perceived overreach of CRC agencies toward local church autonomy. Finding the right balance—respecting local church government while cooperating meaningfully at the classical and synodical level—remains an ongoing challenge.

Will younger generations embrace the confessional commitments that gave birth to the federation? This is perhaps the most crucial question. Every denomination is only one generation away from losing its identity. Teaching, mentoring, and passing on the Reformed faith will determine the URCNA's future more than any structural or programmatic initiative.

Conclusion: Faithfulness and the Future

The URCNA is a young federation. Whatever challenges lie ahead are real, but so is the faithfulness of God who has brought it this far.

The federation exists so that its congregations would be places where Christ's Word is faithfully preached, where the sacraments are rightly administered, and where discipline is lovingly exercised. These marks of the true church, articulated in the Belgic Confession, remain the URCNA's calling.

Growth in numbers matters, but not as much as growth in faithfulness. The question isn't ultimately whether the URCNA reaches 200 or 300 churches, but whether those churches proclaim the gospel clearly, remain confessionally reformed, and whether they pass the faith on to the next generation.

From a handful of troubled consistories meeting in Lynnwood to 140 churches across North America, from the merger with the OCRC to ongoing church planting efforts, from navigating creation debates to training ministers in seminary, the story of the URCNA's first three decades is one of faithfulness amid challenges.

The next chapter remains to be written. But if the past is any indication, it will be written by churches and office bearers who take their confessions seriously, who value ecclesiastical order, who insist on biblical worship, and who believe that the Reformed faith is worth preserving, not as a museum piece, but as living truth to be proclaimed to every generation.