Notes on the History of Article 7
Appendix B
From Agenda for Synod 2007 (310-311)
Historically, the churches of the Reformation maintained that a thorough theological education is a requirement for admission to the ministry of the Word. However, almost from the very beginning, those same churches also provided for exceptions to that rule. The first such exception was put into a Church Order at the Synod of Dordrecht in 1574. It spoke of the qualities that must be present in those seeking to be declared candidates: "godliness, humility, spiritual discretion, wisdom, and the native ability to preach the Word." Interestingly, Dordrecht's provision was used infrequently except for four main "waves" of admissions: (1) in the 1570s when the Dutch Reformed Church was establishing itself in what had recently become a country free from Spanish occupation, (2) in the early 1600s when the Arminian controversy created great need, (3) in the mid 1800s when the churches of the secession of 1834 looked for "like-minded" ministers, and (4) in the late 1800s after yet another secession from the state church in 1886.
One of those who was admitted under this article shortly after the 1834 secession was W. H. Gispen, who became a well-known preacher and leading churchman both in the secession churches and the later Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN). In 1880 he published an essay reflecting on the use of Article 8 (as it was then called). In it he wrote:
The reason to make frequent use of the provisions of Article 8 no longer exists. For our church too the heroic age is a thing of the past. We are moving more and more into ordinary church life and are getting established conditions. If there is someone here or there-a teacher, a tradesman, or someone else without academic training – who has "singular gifts," let us send him to the seminary in Kampen, and let us in that way demonstrate our love for the Church, and in that way advance the happiness of this brother, so that he will not be burdened throughout his life with the thought, "I am only an Article 8 man!
In accord with this sentiment, the 1893 synod of the GKN (a union church made up mostly of members who seceded in 1834 and 1886) decided to "put the brakes" on the last "wave" of admissions by declaring: “The Reformed churches do not acknowledge any other route to the ministry of the Word than that of theological studies, except only in those extremely unusual cases where, by way of great exception, the Lord in his sovereign mercy bestows the necessary gifts through other means” [freely translated].
True to this tradition in its Dutch roots, the CRC has always been committed to requiring extensive formal theological education for its clergy. Recognizing that the Holy Spirit sometimes uniquely equips people for ministry, the Church Order of the CRC includes a long-standing provision to admit to the ministry of the Word those who do not have the prescribed theological training. Church Order Article 7a currently reads:
Those who have not received the prescribed theological training but who give evidence that they are singularly gifted as to godliness, humility, spiritual discretion, wisdom, and the native ability to preach the Word, may, by way of exception, be admitted to the ministry of the Word.
Until recently, this article was very strictly applied, and there were very few pastors who were ordained to the ministry of the Word under Article 7 in the CRC – even during the times of great need around the turn of the twentieth century. However, since 1980 there has been an appreciable change in the application of Article 7. Of the approximately sixty persons who have been admitted to the CRC ministry under this article during our entire denominational history almost all were ordained after that date. What had always been considered to be a highly exceptional possibility has come to be regarded as a regular route to ministry.
