Agenda for Synod 2015 Available Online

The Agenda for Synod 2015 is now available on the Christian Reformed Church website on the Synod Resources page or the Synod 2015 web page, where you can also sign up to receive Synod News. Hard copies of the Agenda will be mailed to church councils later this month.

Synod 2015 will begin its sessions at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, June 12 in the B.J. Haan Auditorium on the campus of Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa.

First CRC of Sioux Center will serve as the convening church. Rev. Mark Verbruggen, pastor of First CRC, will serve as the president pro-tem until synod is duly constituted and its four officers have been elected.

In a preface to the agenda, Dr. Steven Timmermans, executive director of the CRC, requests CRC congregations to remember the synodical assembly in intercessory prayers on the Sundays of June 7 and 14.

“Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will equip the synodical delegates to serve in faith and obedience and will lead the Christian Reformed Church into new and challenging areas of ministry,” Timmermans writes.

Various issues will come before this year’s synod. These include the process the CRC will undertake to find a new editor for The Banner, the CRC’s monthly magazine.

There will also be an update from the Diversity in Leadership Planning Group, which was constituted by Synod 2013 and will be discussing its work in the area of promoting greater ethnic diversity in leadership in the CRC.

Two study committees will report to Synod 2015.

One is the Committee to Provide Guidance to Same-sex Marriage, which was mandated by Synod 2013 to explore issues and provide advice for pastoral ministry as well as to identify resources and recommend best practices for use by the churches in regard to this issue.

The other study committee is the Committee to Study Religious Persecution and Liberty.

Also constituted by Synod 2013, this committee was asked to provide “a Reformed framework that establishes a biblical and theological grounding for religious liberty and the injustice of religious persecution.” In addition, the committee was asked by synod to propose “individual and group action that empowers the church in our increasingly secularized North American setting to walk alongside and intercede on behalf of those who are subject to religious persecution or denied religious liberty at home or abroad.”

Also reporting to Synod 2015 will be the Task Force Reviewing Structure and Culture, and the Task Force to Study the Offices of Elder and Deacon.

There are a range of overtures as well, including one from Classis Grand Rapids East to Encourage All CRC Classes and Congregations to Recognize the Ordination of the Executive Director as a Commissioned Pastor.