the three main issues were rca position on homosexuality, the adoption of the belhar confession and complementarianism. beyond the three reasons university reformed church mentioned:" "we have a deep desire to belong to a family of churches where who we are as a congregation fits squarely with what our denomination does and believes." "we want to raise up pastors who do not fear that the ordination process is against them"."we want to work alongside churches that share our convictions." "we want to be in a denomination that sees us as occupying center ground, notsome extreme right flank". "the denomination(rca) has moved away from churches like ours." "we want to work alongside churches that share our convictions." "in practice, the rca is already well down this path [of endorsing homosexual activity] and that given the way our classical structure works those who stand for biblical orthodoxy can do little to stop it. we believe laboring in such a mixed denomination undermines the true nature of biblical unity, hinders our witness for christ, and does not represent the most effective avenue for ministry for urc in the years and decades ahead." "urc would be able to serve with greater integrity and disciple our people (especially ministerial candidates) more effectively if we were in a denomination that shares our complementarian convictions, rather than in one that is moving full speed ahead in the other direction." "we(urc) are troubled by the weak form of confessional subscription in the rca, the process for examining ministerial candidates, and our formal ecumenical ties with liberal denominations like the ucc, elca and pcusa". "we have often heard from visitors that though they lived in lansing for years they never thought to visit urc because it was an rca church or because of things they had heard about liberal leanings in the rca. how many others might be staying away because our denominational affiliation gives them the wrong idea about who we are and what we believe?"we do not recommend our rca seminaries. "we want to be in a denomination that sees us as occupying center ground, not some extreme right flank". "the rca connection inhibits interest in planting churches, the vision for training up pastors, and placement for new pastors." "we also feel a measure of distance between us and most churches in the denomination"."