Moving Synod
I have a few minutes, so I thought I’d post a comment about a topic that’s been grating me since I first heard about it. Wes mentioned it in his report last night (albeit, he glossed over it so quickly most people probably didn’t notice it), but there’s a fair amount of talk, just below the surface, about moving General Synod from June (or during the summer) to January (or during the winter).
The theory, as I’ve been told, goes like this: If we move synod, we can change the way it works. We can have a “warm” synod during the “cold” time of year. We can meet at a similar time as other denominations and share resources and planning, and (as Wes said in his report) we can …
General Synod with other events, such
as the gathering of our new church
development pastors, the training of
coaches for pastoral networks, the
resourcing of elders and deacons, and
other occasions where RCA members
are equipped to carry out Our Call.
The delegates to synod would do their
tasks of governance, while hundreds of
others would be strengthened for the
missional engagement of our congregations.
Workbook, Page 60b
There are problems here….
1) The change in schedule prevents college students and seminary students from the same kind of participation they’ve been able to have recently (and, I thought, the denominational leadership was trying to foster.)
2) The suggestion is that such a meeting could be “self supporting” but I don’t buy it. Either the registration, travel, housing and food would be so ghastly high that many of us couldn’t afford it or the denomination would pick up the bill and our assessments would go through the roof.
3) Related to the funding issue, this would prevent us from holding synods at our colleges - since they would be “in session” and it’s well-known that our colleges are the least expensive place to hold our denominational meeting.
and
4) This is the one that concerns me the most: Holding synod away from our colleges (as would obviously be necessary) diminishes the, already low, connection between the denomination and our educational institutions. I grew up outside of Orange City, went to college in Pella and live near Holland - that prepared me to be able to advise our youth as per which of the RCA colleges might be a good fit for them. Most ministers, though, do not have that advantage. Synod is the only substantive connection they have with the colleges. The relationship between the churches and the colleges is already weak, this could very well be the final nail in the coffin.
Grace and Peace,
`tim
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