Synod Hears of Goat Canucks Goat

CRWRC Newsroom | June 23, 2009

Rev. Jerry Dykstra told Synod 2009 that the church can learn something from things like the Goat Canucks Goat project.

A few guys rollerblading in Canada during the hockey playoffs came up with an idea that led to CRWRC being able to distribute more than 1,000 goats to needy people in Africa.

The goat project is a wonderful example of the type of experimentation he’d like to see as the church moves forward in a tough economic environment, Dykstra said.

“We need the freedom to experiment, folks. We need to move from isolation to community and from competition to collaboration,” Dykstra told delegates Wednesday afternoon in his state-of-the-church presentation.

“Think of those guys on rollerblades. They were experimenting. Think of what they were able to accomplish.

Before Dykstra took the podium to give his presentation, the co-directors of CRWRC gave a presentation about the work the agency is doing to help stem the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Ida Mutoigo, director of CRWRC-Canada, also spoke about the serendipitous nature of the Goat Project.

A CRC member and his buddies were rollerblading and hanging out when they got the idea of donating money to CRWRC to buy goats as well as growing goatees as a show of support for their hockey team – the Vancouver Canucks. It has been a tradition for hockey players and fans to grow beards when their teams are playing for the Stanley Cup.

Even though their team didn’t get far in the playoffs, the goat idea took on a life of its own. A website was set up for donations and many media outlets ran the story. One Canadian TV network went so far as to send a crew to Kenya to interview the recipient of one of the goats, said Mutoigo.

Dykstra said the CRC must be willing, without veering from its biblical moorings, to take risks and learn to listen if it is to continue its mission of transforming lives and communities worldwide.

In order to build the body of Christ in the 21st century, the CRC needs to be open to change and to trying new ideas, he said. “We need to experiment, to try something new. If we fail, we pick ourselves up and keep going,” said Dykstra.

The church, in fact, has little choice but to build a different model for doing business, he said. The denomination must become more of a resource for local churches.

“Local churches have the answers and we need to connect the leaders of those churches so they can share ideas,” Dykstra said. “I see the denomination as being a catalyst in connecting churches for ministry.”

- Chris Meehan, CRC Communications