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CRC Agencies Propose Unified Mission

February 10, 2015

Last week, the boards of Christian Reformed Home Missions (HM) and Christian Reformed World Missions (WM) voted to instruct their directors, under the supervision of Dr. Steven Timmermans, executive director of the Christian Reformed Church, to explore the feasibility of bringing together HM and WM into an agency with both a local and global vision and mandate.

The directors have been asked to prepare a detailed plan for consideration by the boards when they meet again in April. The plan would lay out the steps necessary to enter into the process for significant structural change through the CRC’s Board of Trustees and synod. The decision whether or not to take the first steps toward becoming a unified mission agency will be made at that time.

As the pace of globalization has increased, the distinction between the mission fields of the two agencies has been shrinking. Aware of this fact, the boards of both agencies had instructed their directors in September, 2008 to collaborate on specific projects in areas of ministry where HM and WM can serve together without regard to geographic boundaries. A joint leadership team was formed to review collaborative efforts. Subsequent work was done under the supervision of the director of denominational ministries to accomplish the 2008 mandate.

Moses Chung, the director of Home Missions, and Gary Bekker, the director of World Missions, feel a strong sense of God’s call to unify HM and WM, and will be bringing a detailed plan to their boards in April for approval to move forward with this opportunity. If both boards agree, the proposal will be submitted for approval to the Board of Trustees when it meets in early May. From there it will be submitted to the congregations, who covenanted together to create these agencies, for reflection, input and response before a decision is made by a subsequent synod.

Please pray for guidance, wisdom and direction as this process moves forward.

For more information, see the FAQs that have been posted.