Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterian Church Representative Addresses Synod
Nate Dreesmann, Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterian Church (ECO)
Karen Huttenga
As one of several presentations by ecumenical partners, Nate Dreesmann brought greetings to Synod 2017 from the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterian Church (ECO), a five year old denomination of 120,000 members in 340 churches. He said that he looks to learn from the Christian Reformed Church and to continue to collaborate in ministry.
Dreesmann told synod delegates that congregations coming into ECO are asked to shift from being clergy-centered to an unleashed laity, from safety to risk-taking, from homogenous to preparing all God’s people for a post-Christian culture, from attractional to missional attractional.
“We did not know how to fully equip our churches for these shifts,” he said. “We are beginning to cultivate relationships. We desire to share what we’ve learned and be in the posture of learners from those who do better than we do.”
He noted that ECO already has strategic partnerships with the Christian Reformed Church and World Renew. He says that it makes sense for them to continue to work together to have a great impact.
“We ask for your prayers for what we are doing and to hear how we can pray for you as co-laborers with you to work together to accomplish our mission of making disciples for Jesus Christ.”
For continuous coverage of Synod 2017 including the live webcast, news, video recordings, photos, reports, liveblog, social media links, and more visit www.crcna.org/synod.
