Faith Alive Reduces Staff

Faith Alive Christian Resources, the publishing ministry of the Christian Reformed Church, has had to make another round of personnel cuts as part of an ongoing move toward consolidation of its operations into an overall, denominational  faith formation program.

The reductions, entailing probably three positions and one retirement, come on top of the loss or elimination of several others positions late last year.

The cutbacks are for the most part the result of a range of challenges --financial and otherwise -- that Faith Alive has been facing in a quickly changing marketplace for Christian publishers.

These changes have caused Faith Alive with the guidance of the CRC’s Board of Trustees to review its ministry and mission and to make adjustments and changes, including staff cuts, accordingly.

“The Faith Alive team has faithfully and with excellence fulfilled this calling in spite of the many challenges publishing in general and Faith Alive in specific have faced,”  Mark Rice, director of Faith Alive, wrote in a memorandum to CRC staff.

“The people here are very close, having spent many years laughing, crying, doing ministry, and sharing their lives together. That’s why these reductions are so painful.”

Because Faith Alive had been facing financial struggles, the denomination needed to determine how to best address the financial picture, says Rice.

But its more than just finances. There is the need for Faith Alive’s functions to be realigned so they can be integrated into the CRC’s faith formation effort that seeks to better serve the needs of local congregations.

The CRC is responding to the reality that church membership is dropping, especially among young people, and local congregations no longer see their denomination as being as relevant as they did in the past.

Keeping this in mind, the CRC is taking an overall look at how to best realign many of its ministries and functions to better serve the needs of CRC congregations.

Despite the loss of personnel, Faith Alive actively continues to publish, sell, and market its existing product lines of Reformed resources.

“While staff placements into new functional groups is still ongoing, what is clear is the core publishing functions of Faith Alive will continue but in a contracted, more focused manner, realigned into different areas, and requiring less staff,” writes Rice.