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Better Together Report Going to Synod 2016

May 31, 2016

Under Church Order Article 17, an average of 17 ministers have been released from ministry at their churches every year for the last six years, says a report going to Synod 2016.

These numbers mirror the sharp rise in Article 17 cases over the last several years in the Christian Reformed Church. Article 17 is the process by which a pastor is separated — for any number of reasons — from a congregation.

“Pastors are stressed, as trending challenges in the denomination and wider culture result in more and more expectations of them,” says the report titled Better Together.

Similarly, congregations, church councils, classes, and lay leaders, all of whom play key roles in the Article 17 process, are  experiencing stress as they deal with complex issues and conflicts and “don’t know how to work the system in healthy ways,” says the report.

Better Together was an initiative formed after Synod 2012 took note of the rise in Article 17 releases and gave the CRC Board of Trustees and the Pastor-Church Relations office (PCR) the task of discovering how to best address the issue.

In order to carry out out its mandate, PCR created the Better Together Delivery Team “to work with classis functionaries to explore some of the underlying issues and to uncover possible interventions for reducing and preventing the types of conflicts that can lead to Article 17 releases.”

Through interviews, questionnaires, and gatherings of representatives from clusters of classes, says the report, several themes and issues were identified and recommendations on dealing with the problem were developed and presented to PCR and others.

“What has amassed is a treasure trove of stories, wisdom, pain, hope, weariness, love for the church, and a collections of what are hoped to be promising practices,” says the report.

Emerging from this process have come these outcomes:

  • A grassroots approach is being used for building relationships among regional pastors and to promote an ongoing effort to clarify the role and authority of the regional pastor.
  • PCR is working in a number of ways to enhance the practice of church visiting.
  • Continuing to advance the work of mentoring new pastors.
  • Supporting the ministry of classical church counselors, especially through finding ways to appoint the best people to this position and to make sure they are informed about the issues with which they will be dealing.
  • Formation of a Classis Renewal Group, whose role, as directed by Synod 2015, is the “examination of the nature, scope, and purposes of classes, with the objective of boldly exploring and innovatively addressing revisions to structures and to the Church Order that will enable classes to flourish.”
  • A classis renewal coordinator, Rev. Al Postma, has been hired to work with the Classis Renewal Group and to implement the Better Together initiatives.

The final report can be read here.