Board of Trustees Endorses Diversity in Leadership Report After Costs Significantly Lowered

The Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church encouraged Synod 2013 to adopt the Diversity in Leadership Report that is on its agenda after the budget being requested was reduced by 80 percent.

One of the key recommendations in that report is to hire a director of diversity for two years at a cost originally pegged at $1 million.

The endorsement came after members of the Diversity in Leadership Planning Group (DLPG II) agreed to revise its budget to ask for $200,000.

In a report to the Board of Trustees, deputy executive director Peter Borgdorff wrote, “In earlier communications to the Board, the administration expressed significant concern about the viability of the recommendations. We are grateful to report that we have reached an understanding, subject to synod’s approval, of a more modest but hopefully effective way forward.”

The Board passed a second recommendation that “synod instruct the [executive director] to develop a comprehensive strategy and organizational alignment that addresses all of the multicultural and ethnic-minority concerns that need to be considered and brings us closer to the goal of more closely reflecting the diverse communities we inhabit and the vision expressed in the book of Revelations.”