Synod 2016 approved a far-reaching new initiative for continuing education for pastors. Synod president Paul De Vries said that the issue of continuing education for pastors has long vexed the CRC, including such questions as who funds continuing education and how pastors and councils should be held accountable. He praised the committee making the new proposal for doing good work.
The centerpiece of the new proposal is the formation of a new Continuing Education Committee that would include members from existing ministries, including the Candidacy Committee, Pastor Church Resources, and Calvin Theological Seminary, augmented by volunteers.
The new committee is charged with creating a continuing education website with resources for pastors, encouraging councils of local churches to develop learning covenants with their pastors, developing continuing education resources and requirements, and more.
Funding for the new committee would come in part from an existing fund within Pastor Church Resources. Other funds would have to come from sources like the CRC Foundation.
With this proposal, synod hopes to finally address the long-standing difficulty in developing a denomination-wide program of continuing education for pastors that would encourage most, if not all, pastors to participate in quality continuing education.
Synod 2016 is meeting at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., from June 10-17. For continuous Banner coverage, please follow The Banner Magazine on Facebook or @crcbanner on Twitter. You can find more tweeting by following hashtag #crcsynod. News stories will be posted at thebanner.org several times daily. Unless noted otherwise, all photographs are by Karen Huttenga.
About the Author
Clayton Libolt was the long time pastor of River Terrace Church in East Lansing, Mich. Since his retirement, he has served in a variety of interim positions. He is presently serving as the interim senior pastor of Sonlight Community CRC in Lynden, Wash.
