CRC Launches Search for New Mission Agency Director

The Christian Reformed Church in North America has launched a search for a person to serve as the director for the new agency being formed by the unification of Christian Reformed Home Missions and Christian Reformed World Missions.

In opening the search for the director, the CRCNA’s Board of Trustees (BOT) in late September approved a job description and asked that an announcement be posted about the position. In addition, a website detailing qualifications for the job is available at crcna.org/NMAdirector.

The BOT also set criteria for a search committee for the new director. At the same time, it determined that in 2019 it will review whether the model of one director is sufficient to cover the binational and international needs of the new agency.

“We are moving ahead very quickly, and things are starting to come together,” said Colin Watson, Sr., the CRCNA’s director of ministries and administration.

“Meanwhile, we have work to do as we move ahead to July 1, 2017, when we will officially create the new mission agency.”

Among other things, the job description for the new agency director says that the CRCNA is looking to hire someone who will advocate “for the biblical vision for a diverse denomination through support for intercultural church and ministry development, for diversity in the new mission agency staff, and for reconciliation and antiracism plans and efforts.”

Besides seeking a new director for the new mission agency, the new structure calls for positions including a director of U.S. teams, a director of Canadian teams, and two directors of international missions, one for Europe and Asia and the other for Africa and Latin America. In addition, there will be a director of capacity building and innovation and a director of mission support. These positions are expected to be filled with existing agency personnel.

The goal, said Watson, is to identify a new director of the new agency whom  the BOT can recommend next spring for approval by Synod 2017 in June.

Even as the search is on for a new director and other aspects of creating the new organization unfold, the two agencies are already combining their efforts in various locations, said Watson.

“They are finding ways to do mission work together in communities where the world has come to the shores and neighborhoods of North America,” he said.

Some examples of these efforts are ongoing outreach ministries in such cities as Montreal, Que., and Houston, Tex.

Other efforts have also taken place in which World Missions staff and Home Missions staff have joined international resources with local ones.

For instance, this summer, representatives of the two agencies coordinated a meeting of CRC pastors with Arabic and Farsi-speaking Christian ministries doing work with Muslim immigrants in the Toronto area.

“We will be and are working in communities that have become multiethnic and multicultural, and we are finding ways to engage with these communities. We are excited to consider what God will be doing through this new agency,” said Watson.