What Free Reformed Christians believe, and how they worship
The Free Reformed Churches of North America are a small federation of about twenty congregations formed by post-war Dutch immigrants from the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken, known for psalm singing and experiential Reformed preaching.
What Free Reformed Christians believe
The Free Reformed Churches of North America (FRC) describe themselves as “a confessionally reformed denomination with churches throughout North America.” They hold the three ecumenical creeds and the Three Forms of Unity, and stand in the line of the Secession of 1834, when orthodox believers left the Dutch Reformed Church and formed what became the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken, with which it is still in fellowship. Post-war immigrants from that church found that the Christian Reformed teaching on the covenant presumed too much about the regeneration of baptized children; covenant children, the FRC’s history says, “needed to be taught that they were born in sin and are in need of salvation and that they must be born again.” Congregations formed in the 1950s and adopted the name Free Reformed in 1974.
The distinctive note is experiential preaching: not only what God has done in Christ, but how the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to know their misery, flee to Christ and live in thankfulness, following the Heidelberg Catechism, whose “well-known experiential character” the FRC prizes. Members speak often of personal conversion and of self-examination before the Lord’s Supper.
Worship: what a service is like
There are two services each Sunday, with the Catechism normally preached at one of them. The liturgy is simple and traditional, and the singing is almost entirely metrical psalms from the Psalter, a book with roots in the 1912 United Presbyterian psalter. Sermons are long, searching and applied to the heart. Infants are baptized with the Reformed form, and the Lord’s Supper is celebrated a few times a year, preceded by a preparatory sermon. Dress is conservative; in some congregations women wear head coverings.
How Free Reformed churches are organized
Each congregation is governed by a consistory of minister, elders and deacons; congregations meet in classes and an annual synod. The federation has about twenty congregations, most in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Ministers are trained chiefly at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, shared with the closely related Heritage Reformed Congregations. The FRC belongs to the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council.
Compared with Reformed churches
The Free Reformed share the confessions, infant baptism, two services and male office-bearers with the Canadian Reformed and United Reformed churches, and all three belong to NAPARC. The difference most discussed is the doctrine of the covenant and its effect on preaching. Canadian Reformed preaching addresses the congregation as God’s covenant people called to believe the promise; Free Reformed preaching addresses the same congregation with the same promise but dwells more on the Spirit’s inward work and the danger of resting in outward membership. Free Reformed worship is the most austere in song of the four, and its members more often keep older customs of dress and Sabbath observance.