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Welcome back to the Messy Reformation.
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My name's Jason Ruis, and I'm the associate pastor at Bethel CRC
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and chaplain at Central Wisconsin Christian in Waupun, Wisconsin.
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My co-host is Willy Krahnke.
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He's a member at Pease CRC in Pease, Minnesota.
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We're just a couple of guys who love the Christian Reformed Church
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and want to see Reformation happen in our denomination.
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But we realize that whenever Reformation happens,
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in the history of the church, things get messy.
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And after the last couple of synods,
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and as we move into this rebuilding phase of the Reformation,
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things continue to be messy in the Christian Reformed Church.
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So we're taking the opportunity to have conversations with pastors
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and leaders throughout the Christian Reformed Church
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to find out what's going on in our denomination,
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but also to talk about what Reformation
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and rebuilding might look like.
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If you haven't already, take a moment to click subscribe
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so you don't miss any of our upcoming content.
20
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We're dropping episodes every single Sunday evening.
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00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:17,260
It's also important for you to know
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00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:19,160
that you are our marketing plan.
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We rely on you to spread the word
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about what we're doing at the Messy Reformation.
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We rely on you to share our content,
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And we also rely on you to give us five-star reviews and provide good feedback for this podcast.
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You can also support us financially on Patreon or Substack.
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All the money raised is used to build the platform of the Messy Reformation.
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00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,900
With all that said, we're going to get this week's episode,
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which is a quick update from me about where we've been and where we're going as the Messy Reformation.
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Alrighty, well, I am back with a little bit of an update episode for all of our listeners.
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It's been a while, and people have taken notice that we haven't posted for a few weeks.
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And before that was a few rerun episodes.
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Now, the rerun episodes were intentional.
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We did want you to think back, to remember a little bit about the conversations that we were having three, four, five years ago before all of these fights happened.
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Just to hear the different tone of voice coming from me and some of our guests, Willy and Dan, and hear the contrast between those conversations and the conversations we just had about Synod.
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It's such a huge shift in what the conversation has been.
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And I really want us to know that.
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I want us to take a moment to realize how good God has been to us in the Christian Reformed Church.
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He has done great things.
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And it's always easy for us to kind of move on to the next fight and the next thing
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and not take time to look back and reflect on everything that God has done.
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So those were intentional, but it's been a couple of weeks again,
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and we haven't posted anything, and people have been checking in,
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and I appreciate that.
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I've had a few text messages saying, hey, is everything okay?
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I haven't seen anything posted for a bit.
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And that makes sense because we've been doing this for almost six years now.
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We haven't really missed a week, maybe a few weeks here and there, but we haven't missed much for a long time.
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And the only time we did miss about two or three months is when I almost died.
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So I appreciate people's concern and checking in on us and making sure everything's good.
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And the answer to that is, yes, everything's good.
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The other answer is, you know, people are wondering, okay, is the Messy Reformation dying?
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Is it thinking of going out of business?
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And the answer is no, that's not what's going on either.
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Just a couple of things happened over the summer that led us to this point.
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On the one hand, Dan DeGraff, his church, blessed him with a sabbatical throughout the summer.
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And so he took the summer and stepped away from some of his additional responsibilities, including the Messy Reformation.
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And I was super thankful that he had that opportunity to take that sabbatical.
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So that left us one man down over the summer.
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And then for those of you who know, I've had a really kind of crazy and hectic year stepping
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into two new roles, one at the church and one at the school.
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And so I also took the summer to kind of function like my own sabbatical.
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I took it easier this summer and stepped away from some things.
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And so two out of the three of us taking a three-month break has kind of left us on our hind foot here getting back to things.
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And so that's part of just what happened.
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And then, again, for me, I'm coming back.
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The beginning of the school year is always crazy.
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September is kind of nuts.
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And so it's just taking us a bit to get going.
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And so logistically, that's just some of the reason why we haven't posted for a bit.
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But it's also given us an opportunity to just take a step back and think.
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Before we dive back in and really start posting a bunch of content, we've kind of decided to take a moment and just have some conversations.
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A lot has changed in the CRC in the last six years.
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And for about five years, the conversations have been really clear what the main conversation we needed to be having and what we needed to be focusing on in the Christian Reformed Church.
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And now that those big conversations have basically been wrapped up, I mean, there's still plenty of issues to deal with, but it's not as clear what's the big issue we need to focus on.
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And there's a little disagreement about that.
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And so what we're trying to take some time to think about is what role does God have for us in the church right now?
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What role does the Messy Reformation play in the life of the Christian Reformed Church?
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We don't want to be just having conversations for conversation's sake.
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We don't want to just keep plodding and putting out episodes just for the sake of putting out content.
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We want to make sure we're doing what God has called us to do,
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and we want to be doing work and putting out content that really blesses the Christian Reformed Church,
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that builds people up, helps draw them closer to God, helps equip them to go out and serve the church.
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And we recognize there's still a lot of work that needs to be done before Reformation is complete.
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And we also know that Reformation is never complete in the church.
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And so there's a lot of work to be done in the Christian Reformed Church,
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but we're just taking this break to think about that.
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We're planning on getting back and having regular episodes.
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continue to run into people who talk about how much this podcast has blessed them. It's such a
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humbling thing for me to hear that God has used us in this process to build up and strengthen the
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church in such a powerful way. And so I don't see it going anywhere in the future, but we're just
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taking some time to kind of rethink maybe what the unique role God has given us in the church.
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And so it might be a week or so or a couple of weeks before we actually get some more content back.
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So if you're worried that the Messy Reformation is going away, it's not. We're just taking some
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time to think. One of the things that I want to do is I've put together a survey that I really
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love our listeners to fill out about, you know, what you've liked about the Messy Reformation
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over the years, maybe what you'd like to see us do, what's blessed you, you know, how you think
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we could bless the Christian Reformed Church.
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You know, one of the struggles of a podcast
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is it's always such a one-way conversation.
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We don't get to hear from our listeners very often.
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And so we're hoping that this survey we're going to put out,
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you can find it in our sub-stack post
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that's going to be connected with this episode.
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That this survey is one way for us to kind of hear
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from all of our listeners to get some feedback from you and get some direction from you about
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where do you think the CRC is going? What kind of conversations should we have? Maybe this podcast
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needs to shift and look a little bit differently now that the CRC has moved into a different phase
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of reformation. We've talked about that, right? We've talked a lot about how we're moving into
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this building phase of the denomination. And so I think that means our podcast needs to shift and
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focus more on this building phase. But the question is, what does that look like for us? That's some
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of the things we're trying to wrestle with. And we want your feedback and your thoughts and your
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opinions on it, because, you know, we're not the smartest people in the world. And, you know, one of
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the big things I've said repeatedly over the years is it's actually part of our theology. We believe
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that the Holy Spirit speaks clearer through large groups of people, which is why we have classes
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and we have Synod, because we feel like when the church gets together, the Spirit speaks clearer
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in those groups. And so we want to hear from you guys and get a clear feel for maybe where God is
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calling us to move this platform in the future and what some of the needs are in the Christian
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Reformed Church that we need to be addressing and dealing with. And so, yeah, I encourage you to
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take it, help us get a better understanding of who you are and why you're listening and where
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you think we're going to go. And after we take some time to, you know, process this feedback and
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have some of these conversations, we're going to set a direction and then we're going to
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get back to it and start doing the work of recording episodes and having conversations
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that are equipping the saints for works of ministry, that are leading reformation, that
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are helping kind of network people together.
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I'm hoping that next summer we'll get back to having a Messy Reformation conference here in Wisconsin.
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And we run that differently than any other conference I've been a part of.
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And a lot of pastors mentioned how that blessed them.
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So we're hoping to do that again.
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And so we're just trying to kind of take a moment, use this break as an opportunity to kind of reorient, re-gear, think about where we're at.
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Think about where the denomination's at.
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Think about how we can bless the church before we dive back in.
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And so be patient with us.
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Be praying for us.
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And once we get back, we pray that because we took this time
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and this little break to think through where God may be sending us,
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that as a result of this little break,
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we'll actually have a bigger, stronger, more effective impact
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on the kingdom of God and that we'll be meeting some of the bigger needs that are in the Christian
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Reformed Church. So we really appreciate all the support you guys have given us over the years.
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This has gotten so much bigger than any of us ever imagined it would be. And God's used it in ways
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bigger than we ever thought. And so it's been such a blessing. And so we want to steward this well.
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And so be praying for us, that God would give us direction,
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and that as a result of this break, his kingdom would be strengthened,
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and his church would be strengthened, and the CRC would be strengthened,
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and that we would continue moving forward,
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continuing to fight the good fight in this Messy Reformation.
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That's all we have for this week.
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If you want to help us out and support the Messy Reformation,
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another thing you can do is sign up for our newsletter through Substack.
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That way you'll get episodes and summaries sent directly into your email inbox
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It also gives us the ability to communicate with our audience
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Which is one of the biggest struggles of a podcast
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So head over to the Messy Reformation on Substack and sign up for our newsletter
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But until then, don't forget this is Christ's church
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And he bought it with his blood
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And we've been warned that wolves will come in trying to destroy the flock
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so keep a close watch on your life
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and on your doctrine
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preach the word in season and out of season
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and keep fighting the good fight
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in this Messy Reformation
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Welcome back to the Messy Reformation.
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My name's Jason Ruis, and I'm the associate pastor at Bethel CRC
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and chaplain at Central Wisconsin Christian in Waupun, Wisconsin.
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My co-host is Willy Krahnke.
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He's a member at Pease CRC in Pease, Minnesota.
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We're just a couple of guys who love the Christian Reformed Church
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and want to see Reformation happen in our denomination.
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But we realize that whenever Reformation happens,
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00:00:39,450 --> 00:00:42,440
in the history of the church, things get messy.
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00:00:43,820 --> 00:00:45,400
And after the last couple of synods,
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00:00:45,540 --> 00:00:48,540
and as we move into this rebuilding phase of the Reformation,
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00:00:49,260 --> 00:00:52,480
things continue to be messy in the Christian Reformed Church.
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00:00:53,500 --> 00:00:56,940
So we're taking the opportunity to have conversations with pastors
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00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:58,880
and leaders throughout the Christian Reformed Church
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00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:01,540
to find out what's going on in our denomination,
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but also to talk about what Reformation
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and rebuilding might look like.
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If you haven't already, take a moment to click subscribe
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00:01:09,700 --> 00:01:11,360
so you don't miss any of our upcoming content.
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00:01:11,940 --> 00:01:15,060
We're dropping episodes every single Sunday evening.
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00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:17,260
It's also important for you to know
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that you are our marketing plan.
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00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:21,780
We rely on you to spread the word
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about what we're doing at the Messy Reformation.
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00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:26,140
We rely on you to share our content,
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And we also rely on you to give us five-star reviews and provide good feedback for this podcast.
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00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,540
You can also support us financially on Patreon or Substack.
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All the money raised is used to build the platform of the Messy Reformation.
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00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,900
With all that said, we're going to get this week's episode,
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which is a quick update from me about where we've been and where we're going as the Messy Reformation.
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Alrighty, well, I am back with a little bit of an update episode for all of our listeners.
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It's been a while, and people have taken notice that we haven't posted for a few weeks.
33
00:02:16,340 --> 00:02:19,000
And before that was a few rerun episodes.
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00:02:20,940 --> 00:02:23,620
Now, the rerun episodes were intentional.
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00:02:24,020 --> 00:02:35,340
We did want you to think back, to remember a little bit about the conversations that we were having three, four, five years ago before all of these fights happened.
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00:02:36,510 --> 00:02:51,640
Just to hear the different tone of voice coming from me and some of our guests, Willy and Dan, and hear the contrast between those conversations and the conversations we just had about Synod.
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It's such a huge shift in what the conversation has been.
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And I really want us to know that.
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I want us to take a moment to realize how good God has been to us in the Christian Reformed Church.
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He has done great things.
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And it's always easy for us to kind of move on to the next fight and the next thing
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and not take time to look back and reflect on everything that God has done.
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So those were intentional, but it's been a couple of weeks again,
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and we haven't posted anything, and people have been checking in,
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and I appreciate that.
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I've had a few text messages saying, hey, is everything okay?
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I haven't seen anything posted for a bit.
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And that makes sense because we've been doing this for almost six years now.
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We haven't really missed a week, maybe a few weeks here and there, but we haven't missed much for a long time.
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And the only time we did miss about two or three months is when I almost died.
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So I appreciate people's concern and checking in on us and making sure everything's good.
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And the answer to that is, yes, everything's good.
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The other answer is, you know, people are wondering, okay, is the Messy Reformation dying?
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Is it thinking of going out of business?
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And the answer is no, that's not what's going on either.
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Just a couple of things happened over the summer that led us to this point.
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On the one hand, Dan DeGraff, his church, blessed him with a sabbatical throughout the summer.
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And so he took the summer and stepped away from some of his additional responsibilities, including the Messy Reformation.
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And I was super thankful that he had that opportunity to take that sabbatical.
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So that left us one man down over the summer.
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And then for those of you who know, I've had a really kind of crazy and hectic year stepping
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into two new roles, one at the church and one at the school.
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And so I also took the summer to kind of function like my own sabbatical.
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I took it easier this summer and stepped away from some things.
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And so two out of the three of us taking a three-month break has kind of left us on our hind foot here getting back to things.
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And so that's part of just what happened.
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And then, again, for me, I'm coming back.
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The beginning of the school year is always crazy.
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September is kind of nuts.
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And so it's just taking us a bit to get going.
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And so logistically, that's just some of the reason why we haven't posted for a bit.
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But it's also given us an opportunity to just take a step back and think.
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Before we dive back in and really start posting a bunch of content, we've kind of decided to take a moment and just have some conversations.
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A lot has changed in the CRC in the last six years.
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And for about five years, the conversations have been really clear what the main conversation we needed to be having and what we needed to be focusing on in the Christian Reformed Church.
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And now that those big conversations have basically been wrapped up, I mean, there's still plenty of issues to deal with, but it's not as clear what's the big issue we need to focus on.
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And there's a little disagreement about that.
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And so what we're trying to take some time to think about is what role does God have for us in the church right now?
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What role does the Messy Reformation play in the life of the Christian Reformed Church?
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We don't want to be just having conversations for conversation's sake.
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We don't want to just keep plodding and putting out episodes just for the sake of putting out content.
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We want to make sure we're doing what God has called us to do,
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and we want to be doing work and putting out content that really blesses the Christian Reformed Church,
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that builds people up, helps draw them closer to God, helps equip them to go out and serve the church.
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And we recognize there's still a lot of work that needs to be done before Reformation is complete.
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And we also know that Reformation is never complete in the church.
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And so there's a lot of work to be done in the Christian Reformed Church,
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but we're just taking this break to think about that.
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We're planning on getting back and having regular episodes.
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continue to run into people who talk about how much this podcast has blessed them. It's such a
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humbling thing for me to hear that God has used us in this process to build up and strengthen the
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church in such a powerful way. And so I don't see it going anywhere in the future, but we're just
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taking some time to kind of rethink maybe what the unique role God has given us in the church.
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And so it might be a week or so or a couple of weeks before we actually get some more content back.
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So if you're worried that the Messy Reformation is going away, it's not. We're just taking some
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time to think. One of the things that I want to do is I've put together a survey that I really
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love our listeners to fill out about, you know, what you've liked about the Messy Reformation
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over the years, maybe what you'd like to see us do, what's blessed you, you know, how you think
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we could bless the Christian Reformed Church.
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You know, one of the struggles of a podcast
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is it's always such a one-way conversation.
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We don't get to hear from our listeners very often.
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And so we're hoping that this survey we're going to put out,
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you can find it in our sub-stack post
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that's going to be connected with this episode.
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That this survey is one way for us to kind of hear
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from all of our listeners to get some feedback from you and get some direction from you about
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where do you think the CRC is going? What kind of conversations should we have? Maybe this podcast
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needs to shift and look a little bit differently now that the CRC has moved into a different phase
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of reformation. We've talked about that, right? We've talked a lot about how we're moving into
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this building phase of the denomination. And so I think that means our podcast needs to shift and
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focus more on this building phase. But the question is, what does that look like for us? That's some
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of the things we're trying to wrestle with. And we want your feedback and your thoughts and your
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opinions on it, because, you know, we're not the smartest people in the world. And, you know, one of
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the big things I've said repeatedly over the years is it's actually part of our theology. We believe
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that the Holy Spirit speaks clearer through large groups of people, which is why we have classes
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and we have Synod, because we feel like when the church gets together, the Spirit speaks clearer
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in those groups. And so we want to hear from you guys and get a clear feel for maybe where God is
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calling us to move this platform in the future and what some of the needs are in the Christian
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Reformed Church that we need to be addressing and dealing with. And so, yeah, I encourage you to
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take it, help us get a better understanding of who you are and why you're listening and where
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you think we're going to go. And after we take some time to, you know, process this feedback and
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have some of these conversations, we're going to set a direction and then we're going to
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get back to it and start doing the work of recording episodes and having conversations
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that are equipping the saints for works of ministry, that are leading reformation, that
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are helping kind of network people together.
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I'm hoping that next summer we'll get back to having a Messy Reformation conference here in Wisconsin.
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And we run that differently than any other conference I've been a part of.
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And a lot of pastors mentioned how that blessed them.
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So we're hoping to do that again.
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And so we're just trying to kind of take a moment, use this break as an opportunity to kind of reorient, re-gear, think about where we're at.
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Think about where the denomination's at.
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Think about how we can bless the church before we dive back in.
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And so be patient with us.
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Be praying for us.
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And once we get back, we pray that because we took this time
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and this little break to think through where God may be sending us,
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that as a result of this little break,
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we'll actually have a bigger, stronger, more effective impact
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on the kingdom of God and that we'll be meeting some of the bigger needs that are in the Christian
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Reformed Church. So we really appreciate all the support you guys have given us over the years.
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This has gotten so much bigger than any of us ever imagined it would be. And God's used it in ways
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bigger than we ever thought. And so it's been such a blessing. And so we want to steward this well.
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And so be praying for us, that God would give us direction,
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and that as a result of this break, his kingdom would be strengthened,
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and his church would be strengthened, and the CRC would be strengthened,
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and that we would continue moving forward,
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continuing to fight the good fight in this Messy Reformation.
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That's all we have for this week.
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If you want to help us out and support the Messy Reformation,
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another thing you can do is sign up for our newsletter through Substack.
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That way you'll get episodes and summaries sent directly into your email inbox
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It also gives us the ability to communicate with our audience
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Which is one of the biggest struggles of a podcast
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So head over to the Messy Reformation on Substack and sign up for our newsletter
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But until then, don't forget this is Christ's church
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And he bought it with his blood
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And we've been warned that wolves will come in trying to destroy the flock
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so keep a close watch on your life
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and on your doctrine
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preach the word in season and out of season
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and keep fighting the good fight
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in this Messy Reformation
