Prayer Makes a Difference at Synod 2015
Rev. Heather Stroobosscher
"This is a different Synod."
I heard that phrase several times during my week at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa at our denomination’s annual gathering of leaders.
I was a first-time delegate, so it wasn’t until the end of the week following many conversations with synod veterans that I came to understand what people meant by that.
During the weeks leading up to Synod 2015, I was part of a group of pastor and elder delegates who gathered each Friday to pray for synod.
We prayed for delegates and advisory committees, for officers, for the worship, for wisdom and revelation. And we intentionally prayed for a spirit of humility and unity among the body, that people would be willing to set aside their opinions and agendas in order to seek the Lord for his opinion. That happened.
In Sioux Center, a dear local woman named Rachel had set up a lovely prayer room. A dozen of us gathered each day at 7:30 a.m.—often varying people each day—and we prayed specifically for the work of the day, confessing our sin as a body, laying down our pride, and crying out to the Lord for his Holy Spirit to move powerfully. That happened.
We prayed that people would be in prayer on the synod floor. That happened. Throughout synod, delegates were in prayer at their tables or laying hands on each other, praying in twos or threes. I was both a participant and an eye-witness many times.
We prayed that when things got contentious on the synod floor, people would stop and pray. That happened.
Multiple times throughout the week—both in advisory committees and on the floor of synod—delegates or advisers interrupted the proceedings in order to ask if we could stop and pray before moving forward.
A pastor from Illinois. An elder from Ontario and another from the East Coast. A pastor from Southern California and a pastor from Grand Rapids. It happened over and over, and it was powerful.
Someone who goes to synod every year told me she’d never seen this before. "This was a different synod."
I’m blessed to have been a part of Synod 2015. I came home energized—refreshed through prayer, worship, and the body of Christ. Prayer was central to all of that. God gives us prayers to pray, we pray them, and he uses our prayers to implement his plans. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
