So what's your status in the CREC?
I continue to get questions about East River Church’s standing in our denomination, the CREC. It’s a fair question. In short, a recent change in the CREC’s constitution has resulted in our church’s existing constitution being at odds with the CREC requirements. We need to come up with some sort of solution. Thankfully, we’ve been allowed until the next church council (2026) to figure out what we are going to do. We going to take our time to figure out the solution. So, we remain in the CREC but we do have an issue that must be resolved in due time.
For those who want a more detailed explanation, here is something I posted to my social media accounts a while back.
Let me explain how the recent change to the CREC’s Book of Procedures (BOP) affects credo-baptist or credocommunion churches. East River Church is an explicitly credocommunion church and always has been. Our constitution and bylaws state:
It is the desire of ERC to respect the governmental actions of other churches as much as possible. No one baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is to be rebaptized. However, we are a credo-communion only congregation and therefore will ask that all prospective members consider this prior to transferring membership. We will make every attempt to honor and acknowledge the work of other sessions insofar it doesn’t bind the conscience of our own session and threaten the unity of our congregation.
And:
Sacraments belong to the Church and not to families. All baptized members, including children, are admitted to the table by elders on the basis of a credible profession of faith. The credibility of their faith is to be determined through an elder interview involving at least two session members. Parents are welcomed to sit in on the interview. There is no age requirement to be admitted to the table.
In essence, we will uphold the communicant status of any transfer member as long as it doesn’t contradict our confession or constitution. Communicant status conferred by baptism alone, without any confession of faith, is at odds with the Westminster Standards and our constitution. Hence, we would require that member to give a profession of faith to our elders.
We knew we were entering a predominantly paedocommunion denomination when we decided to plant the church in the CREC. So we sought to be as accommodating as possible by having an extremely simple table interview. Our elders ask four questions:
Who is Jesus?
What did he die on the cross?
What are some sins for which he has forgiven you which you are thankful for?
Why do we take the Lord's supper?
Although we wouldn't find it inappropriate for an elder's board to require more, we do believe it would be inappropriate to request any less. In essence, our current practice is an irreducible minimum conceived as a compromise to maintain the spirit of unity within the CREC.
Our practice was allowed by the CREC’s Book of Procedures when our church came in, both as a mission and later as a member church. Here is the text from the Book of Procedure prior to the recent change (emphasis mine):
In the transfer of members from one CREC church to another, differences arising from issues such as membership, paedo-baptism and paedo-communion, must be handled with pastoral sensitivity. Receiving churches do not have to adopt or practice such variations, but they should do all within their power to accommodate them.
And:
Controversies within a local congregation regarding matters arising from differences between our various confessions will not be adjudicated beyond the local church level. All churches agree to work cheerfully and carefully in their study of doctrinal differences, and to strive for like-mindedness with one another (Rom. 12:16; 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 3:16).
There has been a significant change for those of us who are explicitly credocommunion.
As our presiding minister, Uriesou Brito, clarified on Twitter:
Our BOP, Article XIII, now reads: “Therefore, all CREC churches agree to recognize the sacramental actions of other CREC churches by accepting the baptismal and communicant status of their members regardless of any confessional differences between churches.”
And:
The emphasis here is not on what the family chooses but on what the leadership of the family's previous church chose. In other words, the Baptist church or a credo-only church would affirm what the session believed in the last CREC church as valid and would continue to affirm in their congregation what was upheld in the previous. In other words, there would be a premise of continuity and consistency in sacramental practices throughout all of our 130 churches.
Hence, now we would be required to allow a transfer member to take communion if they were conferred communicant status on the basis of baptism alone by their previous elders' board. This is at odds with our confession, constitution, and conscience. While it allows a form of sacramental unity through the denomination, it potentially inserts a divided practice within a credocommunion congregation.
Therein lies the rub.
Again, there is a reciprocal spirit of generosity between our church and the churches of the CREC. It’s nice to be able to deal with differences without drama. All of this is a matter of public record. There is no dirty laundry or backroom stuff. When our elders decide on the right solution, I’ll be sure to announce it to our church first and then to the public.