Synod 2013 delegates celebrated the candidacy of 50 candidates for the ministry on Tuesday morning.
“Be bold as you use the gifts that God has given and developed in you,” synod president William Koopmans charged the candidates.
Calvin Theological Seminary president Jul Medenblik asked the candidates to be aware of three groups of people: the church represented in the room, those who taught them the faith in the past, and those they will minister to in the future.
“This moment is a moment of blessing . . . on the journey from student to candidacy to—we hope—ordination,” Medenblik said. “God desires to use you in the lives of others. He has gifted you, equipped you, and now he is the one who commissions you.”
Synod closed the session by laying hands on the candidates to bless them in their future work.
“Lord our God, we stand in awe,” prayed Koopmans. “You are a great and faithful God. You pass the message from generation to generation to do your will. You raise up men and women to say ‘Here I am, Lord. . . . I have heard you calling.”
Synod 2013 is meeting at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. from June 7-14. For continuous Banner coverage of Synod 2013, please follow The Banner on Facebook or @crcbanner on Twitter. You can find more tweeting by following hashtag #crcsynod. News stories will be posted at www.thebanner.org several times daily. For CRC Communications releases, webcast, and live blogging, please visit www.crcna.org/synod. Unless noted otherwise, all photographs are by Karen Huttenga.
About the Author
Roxanne VanFarowe is a freelance writer who claims both Canadian and American citizenship and grew up in the Christian Reformed Church. She is a member of Blacknall Presbyterian Church in Durham, North Carolina.
