BOT Affirms Request to Develop Unified Missions Agency Proposal

The Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church recently affirmed the request by the boards of Christian Reformed Home Missions and Christian Reformed World Missions to develop a detailed proposal to unify their agencies into one agency with a single global vision and mandate.

The boards of Home Missions (HM) and World Missions (WM) had agreed in February to work on such a plan and asked the BOT to affirm that initiative.

Now, after the BOT decision, HM and WM representatives are working to draft a plan that they will present to their respective boards for review in April.

The boards will then have a chance to decide on whether to move ahead with the plan, says Gary Bekker, director of WM.

Similarly, the BOT will also have the chance to review the plan and make a decision to move forward and send the plan on to synod, he says.

Dr. Steven Timmermans, Executive Director of the CRC, who is working with the agencies in coming up with the plan, says the move to unify the agencies makes sense.

The church, he says, is at a time when “geography doesn’t play the same role that it used to play in missions when World Missions’ work was far away and Home Missions’ ministry was just down the street.”

“This approach doesn’t work anymore when the whole world is often in our own backyard,” said Timmermans.

Moses Chung, director of HM, says his agency is already hard at work preparing a detailed plan for consideration by the HM board when it meets again in April.

“Right now we are full speed ahead in creating this plan. This is a high priority, and I am excited about what is happening so far,” says Chung, adding that a consultant has been hired to help in the process.

Chung says, although this is about strategy and structure, it is also about how God best wants the agencies to do ministry in today’s global world, both at home and abroad.

In fact, a key part of this process is prayer, seeking God’s will for how the CRC can best do ministry, he says.

Since 2008, at the instruction of their boards, the two agencies began to collaborate on specific projects in areas of ministry where HM and WM can serve together without regard to geographic boundaries.

Chung says there are many examples of where global and local ministries can meet in North America today. He points to college campuses that have thousands of foreign students who can be reached with the gospel and then return home to spread that message in their respective countries.

“I see great potential and possibilities in what this can mean for the church,” says Chung.

Bekker says, “Whatever organizational changes the current process leads to, what's important is that the Christian Reformed Church find ways to connect congregations and members with the work of the gospel nearby and faraway, to steward resources in ways that increase ministry, and that respond to the challenges of our times."