Global Vision Implementation Team 2026 Update

Over the past year, the Global Vision Implementation Team has been working to help the CRCNA navigate a rapidly changing ministry landscape shaped by growing global relationships. Formed after Synod 2024 affirmed the Global Vision Team report (Acts of Synod 2024, pp. 690-709, 807-9), the implementation team was tasked with helping the denomination reflect on what closer partnerships with churches outside North America could look like in practice.

The team’s work responds to a growing reality within the CRCNA: nearly 25 percent of congregations are now made up mainly of non-Anglo members, many of whom are immigrants who maintain deep ministry connections with their countries of origin. Across the denomination, pastors and ministry leaders are preaching, teaching, mentoring leaders, and helping to plant churches abroad through online ministry, travel, and ongoing partnerships. In some cases those churches have expressed interest in formal relationships with the CRCNA.

One development that helped to spark those conversations came in 2021–2022, when Classis California South began discussions about affiliating a group of churches from Venezuela led by Pastor Jose Piñero. As classes and congregations encountered similar situations, denominational leaders recognized the need for greater guidance and discernment around global partnerships.

Since its formation, the Global Vision Implementation Team has focused on listening and learning. The team distributed a denomination-wide survey, met with classis leaders, and engaged immigrant and diaspora ministry leaders across the CRCNA to better understand the kinds of global relationships already taking place throughout the church.

“The greatest progress we’ve made has been through conversations with congregations and classes that are already involved in international ministry relationships,” said John Medendorp, chair of the team. “Getting a fuller picture of what God is already doing through these connections has been incredibly eye-opening for us.”

Those conversations revealed a wide range of ministry partnerships already happening throughout the denomination. Team members have even experienced some of those budding partnerships firsthand. 

Along with Medendorp, the team includes the following members: 

• Eric Sarwar, a church planter among the IndoPak diaspora in California and the director of a school of worship in Karachi, Pakistan.
• Stan Kruis, a retired career missionary for Resonate Global Mission in the Philippines and China who currently serves as pastor of missions at LaGrave Avenue CRC, Grand Rapids, Mich.
• John Harold Caicedo, a pastor in southern California and president of Consejo Latino. 
• Mario Matos, an ordained minister in the CRC of the Dominican Republic and the director of a leadership training institute in the capital. 
• Daniel Kang, a pastor in Modesto, Calif., and a leadership trainer in Korea.
• Ahnna Cho, a campus minister in Denver, Colo. 

The team is supported by Zachary King, general secretary; Susan LaClear, director of Candidacy; and Melody Van Arragon of the Office of General Secretary.

As the team listens and works in these contexts, it has recognized that few existing resources address the realities churches are now navigating, said Medendorp. In response, this year’s report focuses on practical resources, ongoing conversations, and key questions that churches and classes may face as they pursue deeper global partnerships.

The team has identified three primary areas for continued discussion: polity, practice, and theology. Team members are exploring how the CRCNA’s Church Order and ministry structures might apply in different cultural contexts, how ministry practices shaped by North American realities translate globally, and what theological alignment should look like among affiliated churches in diverse settings.

Rather than proposing quick solutions, the team hopes to create space for thoughtful discernment and continued dialogue across the denomination and with global partners themselves.

“Our denomination is at its best when we are learning from and with the global church,” said Zachary King, general secretary of the CRCNA. “These relationships help us move beyond older models of ministry toward mutual partnerships rooted in shared learning and mission.”

As the CRCNA continues to become more globally connected, the Global Vision Implementation Team hopes its work and report will help congregations and classes faithfully navigate these emerging relationships while fostering partnerships marked by humility, collaboration, and shared mission.

To learn more, see this webpage featuring the Global Vision Implementation Team’s 2026 report (and other resources).