Synod approved the CRC Board of Trustees’ plan to support a healthy-churches initiative. The plan has two distinct parts.
The first is to create a Sustaining Congregational Excellence project through which smaller congregations can write grants to secure funding they can use to foster their health and growth. The model is based on the CRC’s Sustaining Pastoral Excellence program that has been widely successful, using a Lilly Foundation grant.
A $10 supplementary ministry share approved by last year’s synod will finance these grants.
The second part of the healthy-churches initiative calls for the CRC’s executive director to recommend the most effective way to structure the denomination’s ministries based on the priority of creating and sustaining healthy churches.
In questioning the scope of that recommendation, elder Harley Ver Beek, Classis Illiana, asked, “Is this a sneaky way of doing away with agency boards? . . . If so, I have a real problem with that.”
Executive director-elect, Rev. Jerry Dykstra, responded, “I hope it’s not seen as a sneaky way to do anything. It’s out in the open. It’s time we had a good look at structure. Could it result in that? I have no way of knowing.”
About the Author
Bob De Moor is a retired Christian Reformed pastor living in Edmonton, Alta.
