Last week David and I told our pastor that we had decided to become members. We really like the church we have been attending the past four months. Caroline is happy as a clam there which is a huge answer to prayer. It was a fairly easy decision other than my hang ups with a few things about the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) as a denomination. But as David and I discussed, I’m never totally convinced about any decision we make so the fact that I’m 90% there is acceptable for us to move forward.

A couple of things confirmed to me that this was the place to be and that this is, God willing, the end of a very long journey for us. One thing that we appreciate is that the pastor was not raised in the CRC and he didn’t grow up in Grand Rapids. That might seem like a strange thing to care about and I think you might have to live here to fully understand it. The CRC has historically been very Dutch and very interconnected in West Michigan. Many CRC churches in Grand Rapids have multiple generations of the same family attending church together and they have been there for 30 or 40 or more years. Everyone in the CRC knows everyone. (OK, not literally, but very close to it.) It can be easy to feel like an outsider if you aren’t a part of that natural community.

So we’re glad our pastor did not grow up in the CRC. He has had a wide range of ministry experiences outside of the CRC and actually became a pastor only recently. He will admit to having some Baptistic leanings (as I still do) which I also really appreciate. And he preaches the Word. Woo hoo!

But the biggest thing for me is what I have observed about families and women in the church. There are at least three other homeschool families so we will not be the first or the only. Others have gone before us and I’m very glad for that as the CRC tends to be heavily into Christian day school. In addition, two of the homeschooling moms are deacons. One of them I know previously from BSF and the other I’ve just started to get to know. Both of them are smart, godly women. They are close to my age. I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to be in a church where women homeschool, have leadership roles, and aren’t afraid to be smart. Not only are they not afraid to be smart, but their wisdom and maturity is truly appreciated and utilized, not just given lip service. One of the women is chair of the council. Women of all ages participate freely and visibly in the services in things such as reading Scripture, praying and leading worship. Women being actively involved is extremely important to me personally as well as very important in wanting to raise Caroline in a church where she sees this modeled.

Over the past ten years or so David and I have gone through a long journey regarding the issue of women in the church. I went from a place of great freedom and joy where I was utilizing my gifts freely and thankfully to a place of bondage and now back to a place of freedom.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on a series about this topic and I plan to start posting it soon. The series is “Exploring a Woman’s Freedom in Christ.” I hope what I write will be of benefit to those who read it. I haven’t written an exhaustive theological treatise on my views. Every topic I will touch on has entire books written about it so I am just barely scratching the surface. I’m not striving to present an air-tight argument for each point. Instead I am going to share some of the key factors that made me free again after allowing myself to be put in bondage by the teachings of others. I hope the posts will prompt some good discussion and that God will be glorified by the results. I will not have an answer to every question and I’m not even going to promise to try to address every question that might be raised in the comments. But I am going to share what I have learned and what has brought me much freedom in recent weeks and months.

I hope many will be blessed by it. 😀