From: Darrell128@aol.com Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 04:59:02 -0500 (EST) NR #1996-116: Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship Votes to Let Federated Churches Stay After Most Federated Churches Leave At its September 26 meeting at Reformed Heritage Community Church, the Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship finally passed a hotly-disputed amendment to the Articles of Fellowship allowing federated as well as independent churches to be full voting members of the Regional Fellowship. How much influence that decision will have is questionable - while the 18-member fellowship originally had eight federated churches, two have withdrawn and four of the remaining six didn't send delegates. Letting federated churches remain in the Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship was highly controversial when the fellowship had a 10-8 ratio of independent to federated churches, and it was only marginally less controversial with lowered stakes. NR #1996-116: For Immediate Release Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship Votes to Let Federated Churches Stay After Most Federated Churches Leave by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service HOLLAND, Mich. (October 31, 1996) URNS - At its September 26 meeting at Reformed Heritage Community Church, the Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship finally passed a hotly-disputed amendment to the Articles of Fellowship allowing federated as well as independent churches to be full voting members of the Regional Fellowship. How much influence that decision will have is questionable - while the 18-member fellowship originally had eight federated churches, two have withdrawn and four of the remaining six didn't send delegates. Letting federated churches remain in the Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship was highly controversial when the fellowship had a 10-8 ratio of independent to federated churches, and it was only marginally less controversial with lowered stakes. "We are a feeble organization at this point and extending ourselves too broadly could prove fatal," warned Rev. Ray Lanning of the Independent Reformed Church of Cutlerville. "I can't help but to think back to the frustrations of the last few years in the Alliance of Reformed Churches. Certainly we could invite the federated churches to send classical representatives to our meetings and we could send fellowship representatives to their classis; that is the way things have been done in Reformed circles." However, other opponents of the federation urged caution in dealing with the motion that could send a very unwelcome message. "I have sympathies in agreement with our previous speaker; I think Rev. Lanning may be right that they have no need of us, but we should not say that to them," said Rev. Paul Murphy of Dutton Independent Reformed Church. "Some of us have been excluded in the past and we didn't like that, so why should we do that to them?" Elder Jack Haagsman on Beverly CRC (Independent) of Wyoming, one of the two pro-federation delegates to the meeting, urged the regional fellowship not to close doors. "We, for our children's sake, need to stand together," said Haagsman. "I think we need to be very careful not to say we and the federated churches are different; we are not." After debate, the regional fellowship adopted the motion in an amended form specifying that members of the Alliance of Reformed Churches and the federation were entitled to membership upon request, and that other churches could be admitted upon examination. The proposed amendment will now be referred to the churches, and will take effect if a majority of the regional fellowship's 16 remaining churches ratify the amendment within a year. In other business, the regional fellowship continued its discussion of the nature of broader assemblies and approved a set of principles for church order initially discussed at the previous April 20 meeting, including that "Reformed Churches ought to gather their Church Order out of the Word of God and therefore be considered binding" and that the scope of such church orders should be limited to "only those things taught by the Word of God or deduced therefrom by good and necessary consequence." The regional fellowship also voted to delegate Elder Bob Knaack of Messiah's Independent Reformed Church of Overisel and Elder Peter Yonker of Reformed Heritage Community Church of Holland as observers to the upcoming November 7-8 interclassical conference of Christian Reformed conservatives, and designated Cornerstone Church of Hudsonville as trustee for the funds of the regional fellowship. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1993-012: Independents and Conservative Christian Reformed Leaders Plan New Regional Fellowship in CRC's West Michigan Heartland #1994-022: Midwest CRC Seceders Move Toward Regional Organization #1994-039: Canadian Independent Reformed Churches Organize "Ontario Regional Fellowship of Churches" #1995-015 Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship Holds Fifth Meeting; Discusses State of Alliance of Reformed Churches #1995-027: Western Independent Churches Organize Regional Fellowship #1996-015: Lake Michigan Regional Fellowship Calls Special Meeting to Deal with "Crisis" of Federation #1996-088: Interclassical Conference of Christian Reformed Conservatives to be Asked to Create Nongeographical Classes; Minority Urges Immediate Secession from Christian Reformed Denomination #1996-104: New Denomination Born: Most Christian Reformed Seceders Organize as "United Reformed Churches of North America" Contact List: Elder Jack Haagsman, Editor, The Reformed Trumpet 4120 Grandview Terrace SW, Grandville, MI 49418 H: (616) 538-3322 Elder Bob Knaack, Messiah's Independent Reformed Church A6472 - 140th Ave., Holland, MI 49423 H/O: (616) 335-5516 Rev. Ray Lanning, Pastor, Independent Reformed Church of Cutlerville 1088 Harvester Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49508 H/O: (616) 554-0001 Rev. Paul Murphy, Pastor, Dutton Independent Reformed Church 6940 Hanna Lake Rd., Caledonia, MI 49316 O: (616) 698-7467 Elder Peter Yonker, Reformed Heritage Community Church 3984 North 168th Ave., Holland, MI 49423 O: (616) 399-1009 To Reach United Reformed News Service Regional Office Staff, Contact: Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer [For news tips or content-related inquiries] Voice: (616) 674-8446 * FAX: (616) 674-8454 * E-Mail: Darrell128@AOL.com PO Box 691, Lawrence, MI 49064-0691 Greg Rickmar, Circulation Manager [For missing or back issues, subscription inquiries, or address changes] Voice: (616) 968-5110 * FAX: (616) 966-3659 * E-Mail: grickmar@msn.com Box 583, Battle Creek, MI 49016-0583 .c1.World Wide Web Site: "http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/reformed/reformed-home.html" ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-116.txt .