Time to take a breath (and worship)

Well Saturday night's session is over. No more synod until 2:00 tomorrow afternoon. Synod members will worship in Holland and all over Southwest Michigan tomorrow. It will be a time of rest and re-creation. A well deserved time.

Just want to share two more things about today. I attended the Advisory Committee on Leadership. We had a couple of "minor" things to deal with about recommendations coming to the floor, which we took care of, but the "extra" thrown in for us was the diamond in the rough. Ken Eriks and Ellen Rathmeyer (not sure I spelled that right) shared a newly developing training process for Consistories that highlights leading a mission-minded or missional church. It was GREAT stuff and should be brought to every consistory in the denomination and as soon as possible. They say they have a few things to fine tune about it yet, but I couldn't imagine it being much better. If you read this, insist that your consistory contact Ken or Ellen and schedule a time to have them in your area.

The second item regards the celebration of 30 years of women in ordained ministry in the RCA. The Celebration was extremely well done and honored ground breaking pioneers, as well as blessed the many ordained women of the RCA, both now and in the future. The evening concluded with a sermon from Barbara Skinner. Her wit and wisdom came through and her challenging words hit their mark in the hearts of delegates and guests all around DeVos fieldhouse.

We will be ready to reengage come tomorrow afternoon, I am sure!

Oh, I have a P.S. There was a motion made for us to reconsider the elimination of Synod next year. That will be done with new business on the last day.

It gets better and better

Our day started with worship at 8:00 in the DeVos (of Amway fame) Fieldhouse. My friend Marlin Vis, whose house I'm staying at, preached. I know that he was nervous. He had a very important and poignant message to deliver to the Reformed Church in America and I watched over the last two days as he wrote and rewrote his sermon 4 times. I'm not sure he even preached one of those messages, but what he gave to the General Synod and to our denomination was a gift that everyone should hear. I HOPE, HOPE, HOPE that it was recorded so others can hear it.

Marlin shared the importance of making decisions at synod, as in life, that benefit and bless the children. They suffer when we mess up. He assured us, even as he affirmed us that we all love Jesus and come to the decision-making table to better the church of Jesus Christ and his kingdom in this world. "So," he chided, "put down your swords...put them down!" If you can't you don't know your neighbor well enough, or maybe you don't know Jesus well enough.

His forceful delivery concluded with the singular statement, "You know I'm right!" And he was right. But, let me add a personal note. I've known Marlin (PeeWee in those days) for over 42 years. And Marlin has always been right--just ask him. The difference, Marlin has always been right in a cocky (and funloving) way. Today, he spoke in sincere, Christ-like humility, and HE WAS RIGHT! And we all knew it too. Thank you, Marlin, for a great gift.

It was a big day today!

WOW! We started today with a session with our advisory groups. The morning was uneventful, until we convened as in full session and had the president's address. Carol did a remarkable job. She was winsome, engaging, straight-forward, and to some aggressive. I found her remarks right on the money. She spent time talking about our identity as the Reformed Church in America. Two items she hit right between the eyes were baptism and the Commissioned Pastors process. She highlighted our Reformed perspective of God's power and mystery at work in the sacrament. She stood firmly in the camp of infant baptism and addressed the issue of churches not involving themselves in including children in this blessed, inclusive event, focusing only on adult baptism. Some were offended. Also, she rightly so, identified the Commissioned Pastor track as being woefully without consistency in the training afforded those training in this area. While some were again offended, I know, her words rung with truth. We will need to address these issues in ways that benefit us and call us to even greater future ministry. Thank you Carol!

Then we passed by a 120-100 margin a resolution to skip the 2010 synod, in favor of saving the money it costs to put a synod on. This will not be effective, unless 2/3 of the classes vote to ratify the decision. I hope they don't do it. We will save, by their admission, about $1 per member in assessments over the next two years by doing this and will lose the time spent together being a family of God in this place and time. We'll see.

Our second Advisory group meeting in the afternoon provided a little insight into the struggle I believe we will have later in dealing with the Church Herald situation. There is a desire by the CH to be again the recipient of Assessment funds to pay for the magazine for everyone. I sense a big resistance to that idea, yet there is no common consensus to know what to do. It could be a big free for all.

Tonight, Wes gave his General Secretary's message. It was wonderfully presented and encouraged the church in what has been going on in the RCA. Our Call is being implemented with new churches being established all over the USA and Canada. 188 church plants are currently under way with several others to follow.

Lastly, we celebrated the careers and tenure of RCA staff, rejoiced with over 55 RCA churches who are above and beyond faithful in their mission giving, and united with the brand new Dominican Reformed Church, founded two weeks ago under the tutelage of the RCA. Pictures were shown of the 21 ordinations, dozens of baptisms, and several churches founded in the Dominican Republic on the May 24 weekend. It was a great night of celebration.

Opening Night of Synod a Big Success

Delegates have arrived; friends, both new and old, have been contacted. We sat down and listened and questioned concerning the Belhar. And we have worshipped. How wonderful to gather as Christian brothers and sisters from around the USA and Canada and with others from beyond those boundaries and sing praises to God, to pray and worship, to hear the word of God shared and to be fed from his table. It was a spectacular opening to this year's synod. Praise be to God!

I am excited about what we will do and what we will accomplish to lead the Reformed Church in America forward. It was and will be a fun and challenging journey.

Also, got to greet and hug Mary Kay Schoon after worship (she was in the combined choir). We had tears in our eyes as we reminisced about Jon Mark, her husband. Hopefully, we can get together for lunch when my wife, Harriet, arrives on Monday. Also ran into to Ripon boys - Glen Spyksma and Jim De Hoog. It was fun to catch up on their lives too.

Until later, may you know the peace of God deep within your soul!

Holland: Here we come!

I arrive in Holland today. I am looking forward to synod, but seeing friends again is the best. And for me that means, among other things, that I get to stay with my friend Marlin Vis. Marlin is one of the two leading worship during synod. So late into the evenings, we'll get to debrief not only synod, but also worship. That will be lots of fun sharing what we think happened on the floor AND BEHIND THE SCENES. Things happen at synod in both places.

Oh, one other thing.... The other person leading worship is Janelle Koolhaas (sorry, Janelle, I don't remember your married name right off the top). Anyway, Janelle's grandfather was one of my parishioners the first 7 or 8 years I was in Redlands. He was a great man who left a great legacy. Janelle is part of that legacy!!