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Synod Encourages Support for Seminary Students

June 15, 2017

When men and women decide to go into ministry, they often have to make many sacrifices. Synod 2017, attempted to lessen one of these challenges by adopting several recommendations related to funding for seminary students.

Like education everywhere, seminary education has become expensive. In 2016, synod, the general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), appointed a task force to explore a number of funding-related questions. This including looking at how classes (regional groups of churches) support the students from their region. It also included exploring the financial challenges faced by Canadian students who wish to attend Calvin Seminary, the denominational seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The task force said that the financial challenges faced by students have had an impact on the ministry of the CRC. As a result, they made a number of recommendations, all of which were adopted by Synod 2017. 

These recommendations included urging student funding teams in the classes to conduct annual interviews with students, to develop clear guidelines for funding, and to work together, across classis boundaries, if possible, to help fund students.  They also recommended giving preference students who are pursuing their divinity degree at Calvin Theological Seminary.

Most of the recommendations passed without comment.  After several recommendations had passed, one delegate, Robert Boersma of Classis Grand Rapids South, stood to say that the issue of student funding matters.

“I want the body to feel the weight of what we are talking about right now,” he said, sharing about his own financial struggles as a second career seminary student and the stress it caused his family.

With that, the synod went on to finish the list of recommendations.

For continuous coverage of Synod 2017 including the live webcast, news, video recordings, photos, liveblog, social media links, and more visit www.crcna.org/synod.