Justice Staff Meet with Minnkota and Columbia Reps Over Lunch
(L-R): Rob Toornstra, Mike Hogeterp, Kate Kooyman, Josh Christoffesl, Roger Sparks, Reggie Smith, and John Byl.
An impromptu lunch helped open doors to communication about a potentially contentious issue facing this year’s synod. Delegates from Classis Minnkota and Classis Columbia sat down for lunch with employees of the Christian Reformed Church’s social justice agencies on Tuesday, June 12 to talk about their work.
Minnkota and Columbia made overtures (requests) to Synods 2017 and 2018, objecting to various aspects of the agencies’ justice work.
But an informal chat begun at coffee time led to a longer lunchtime conversation -- a conversation that everyone at the table described positively.
“We felt they were listening well, hearing our concerns and responding well,” said Rob Toornstra of Classis Columbia.
“This conversation felt better at a table,” said Mike Hoogeterp, director of Canada’s Centre for Public Dialogue. “It felt like a faithful way of engaging. Way better than Facebook.”
“We had a wonderful conversation which built on our conversation last February,” Sparks said. Last February, Classis Minnkota delegates met with agency staff over the same issue, at Synod 2017’s instruction. “We shared with them that advocacy goes over better with our constituents than actual lobbying.”
“Given the polarization here in the United States, this kind of face-to-face communication is really important,” said Kate Kooyman, justice education team member for the Office of Social Justice.
While at lunch, they talked about removing a Do Justice blog post in response to concerns raised at last year’s synod. “[Removing the blog] was not an easy decision for us,” said Hoogeterp. But in the end they removed it “because it was an obstacle to meaningful conversation.”
“[That helped us know that] they were really listening to us,” said Roger Sparks of Classis Minnkota.
The two parties discussed justice-related overtures from those classes, which have not yet been discussed by synod.
“Our goal is not to say justice doesn’t matter, or to get rid of the Office of Social Justice, but to say ‘How can we do this well?” said Toornstra.
Both groups acknowledged that tensions remain in their relationship, but added that addressing their differences openly was helpful.
“We invited them to come back to continue the conversation,” said Toornstra. “We need to be challenged in the area of what it means to do justice.”
