Report Details 'Dramatic' Changes in the CRC

The Christian Reformed Church plans to hold regional meetings across North America, starting this fall, to discuss a report that outlines new challenges churches face in ministering effectively in their communities.

“The church in North American society is in a stage of dramatic flux,” says Rev. Joel Boot, executive director of the CRC, in a letter to churches.

“The Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church in North America recognizes this and has asked the agencies and ministries of the CRCNA to fundamentally reframe the existing Ministry Plan.”

Boot says that there “is a deep conviction that the plans and strategies carried out at a denominational level need to be more closely connected with classes and churches – and vice versa".

“At every level we are asking the question: ‘How do we carry on fruitful ministry in such a time as this?’ We think this deserves discernment, reflection, and discussion together.”

The first of these meetings will occur in early October at Alger Park CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich. Letters have just gone out informing churches in the West Michigan area of the meeting and inviting them to send representatives who can review the report as well as offer responses to it.

Regional meetings will also occur in southern California; Denver/Red Mesa; Alberta; in the Chicago area; in New Jersey/New York; southern Ontario, and on the West Coast of Canada and the US.

Boot says in the letter that the report describing the various issues confronting the CRC was compiled over the last two years by the CRC’s Strategic Planning and Adaptive Change Team (SPACT).

The report offers members in the U.S. and Canada an overview of  the many changes and social forces, both inside and outside the church, that are facing the denomination.

Some of these include an aging and declining membership, the flight of youth from the church, diminishing loyalty to the CRC, and questions over worship, liturgy and belief.

After hearing from churches and classes in the upcoming meetings across North America, the team will bring its findings to the CRC’s Board of Trustees which will help to further the process.

“It is important for denominational offices and ministries to connect with churches and classes in order to address our challenges and context together,” says Andrew Ryskamp, the U.S. director of World Renew and a coordinator for the SPACT project.

“These conversations are another step in making that connection more concrete. We need to hear and learn from each other.”

Of the questions that need to be asked, says Ryskamp, are: "What place does Reformed theology have and what does it have to offer in the context of so much change? If we as Reformed Christians care about the renewal of all things, how are we living it out on all levels?"

At the same time, he says, the CRC has an idea of areas that need to addressed. These areas are called the “five streams” and consist of: faith formation, global missions, servant leadership, gospel proclamation and worship, and mercy and justice.

Synod 2013 endorsed the concept of the five streams. “We want to flesh out and adapt this framework with the involvement of members across the denomination,” says Boot.

“Our desire is to hear the vital voices of the CRC members.”
 
CRC communications staff will be providing additional information through bulletin announcements, e-mail news, The Banner,  and various social media.

“We need, more than ever, to learn from each other as we adapt to our changing realities,” says Boot.