Boot, De Vries Speak of Cooperation

Rev. Joel Boot, executive director of the Christian Reformed Church, recently joined Rev. Tom De Vries, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America, to provide the General Synod of the RCA an update about the cooperative ministries being undertaken by the two denominations.

The RCA’s General Synod met through today on the campus of Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill.

Speaking to General Synod, Boot said that he first met De Vries when they sat together at an ecumenical luncheon at the CRC's synod last summer. Following the meal, a Nigerian guest told them, "When I see the two of you, I see the heartbeat of God."

"It was a revelation how important our collaborative, cooperative ventures can be all over the world," Boot said.

The CRC and RCA work in partnership to start new churches in targeted areas called Kingdom Enterprise Zones. This work is featured in RCA videos detailing the ministry that has taken place as the result of the cooperation.

The denominations collaborate in other areas, including disability ministries, shared technology, and mission.

In an address to the synod, De Vries cited, as an example of this move toward a closer relationship, the work that has grown between RCA and CRC congregations in Ripon, Calif.

The churches, he said, “are taking the lead in the community” to serve and to bless the community through feeding, tutoring and a pre-school ministry.

These churches also helped to form the first-ever classis meeting between RCA and CRC representatives earlier this year. The meeting, said De Vries, is yet one more example of “ecumenical efforts and endeavors” that the denominations have taken.