“Vision 21”—a real nightmare! A concerned member and ex-elder of another congregation phoned me and said he couldn’t sleep after be had read this document. Little wonder.

The late Dr. K. J. Popma in his seven-volume work on the Heidelberg Catechism often wal’ns against hierarchy and over-organization in the church of the Lord Jesus. He rails against the mentality which would, in his words, organize the church to death. We have an example of that mentality in this document. In many respects it represents the application of Madison A venue business techniques to the church of Christ. And that is grossly evil. The Bible presents such a different picture of the church. Fact is, we find precious little in the Bible about anything that even comes close to what we know today as our “denominational setup.” All the emphasis in the Scriptures is on the local congregation, and that congregation has fellowship with other like-minded congregations, but local autonomy is strong and there is very little of any tight-knit organization. In the future I hope to address this topic a bit more.

To be sure, there are statements in this document to the same effect. It wishes to maintain our basic presbyterian system with original authority vested in the consistory of the local church. The intent is no doubt a good one. But meanwhile this document takes a giant step further in the direction of hierarchy and centralization! And that is the last thing we need in our churches. We desperately need decentralization, not further centralization. We already have far too much “boardism” and “executive committeeism,” and now this document recommends the establishment of what one could call a “super-board” with frightening powers! It is enough to make the hairs of one’s head stand on end! The good Reformed statements that one can find in this document are buried beneath a mountain of administrative and organizational rubble.

We read over and over again (ad nauseam) of the “executive board of synod” which is an “administrative arm of synod” with almost superhuman powers. All the power of the denomination would be vested in this “executive board” for all practical intents and.purposes. As said earlier, we already have a maze of organizational techniques in our church. Says the report, “The Chr. Ref. Church entered 1986 with five major bodies, a Synodical Interim Committee, fourteen standing committees, and a dozen study committees.” It is enough to give one the creeps, and to rob one of sleep. We ought to have a radical dismantling of the whole affair. And perhaps the committee thinks so too. But now they want to replace it with something much worse, and what they propose will get us from the frying pan into the fire. It is hard for me to imagine that a committee of Reformed people could come up with a document like this. It ought to be radically rejected by the synod of 87 and buried till the Lord returns. And let us instead take steps, major steps, toward dismantling the bureaucratic machinery of the CRC, and return to the simple and uncomplicated church structure of the New Testament. It would do our churches a mountain of good.

The good Lord have mercy on us if we adopt this plan. We could then write “Ichabod” across our denominational face.