The 2009 General Synod is only days away. A number of MFCA candidates will be joining students from New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS) and Western Theological Seminary (WTS) for the General Synod Seminarian Seminar (GS3). This experience has always been rewarding for all the participants and it is noticeable in who has been involved in GS3 when ministers come to General Synod as official delegates – they clearly know the procedures and have the confidence for full participation.
The other thing that allows people to participate more efficiently in the life of the denomination is the RCA Polity course. Each RCA minister is required to take polity and the MFCA offers the course as a summer intensive and a distance online course. The winter 2009 course has just finished with nine students enrolled this year. As part of the course dialogue I include topics that are current and relevant to the life of the denomination. Topics such as the Belhar Confession, the conscience clauses, Our Call, and the missional structures report have been the focus of the class discussions. This year’s participants had some great ideas and I believe these individuals will be difference makers in the RCA of the future.
As a final assignment I ask the students to write an overture that they believe deserves to go to this year’s General Synod. There were a number of mock overtures submitted that had merit and could have been submitted to General Synod. I will include one of them below. This overture was chosen because it does an excellent job in making the case for what it proposes as well as represents something that I believe needs further consideration by the denomination. Not only do I believe that we need to break down structures in such a way that we have fewer classes and regional synods allowing us to call people into staff positions where they can use their expertise and give their full time attention to their area of responsibility. But, I truly believe that the supervision and oversight of those preparing for ministry, both ordained Ministers of Word and sacrament and Commissioned Pastors, need more focused and quality attention by qualified individuals. The only way I see this occurring is if we do not assign this responsibility to 46 different classes – most of which do not have the resources and expertise to do this well. I believe that we need to identify a small number of assemblies (this overture suggests four) and one professional educator / facilitator per assembly who has as their sole responsibility of this function.
I hope you appreciate this overture as much I did:
The Classis of “A,” the Classis of “B,” the Classis of “C” and the Classis of “D” (or all of the classes of Region X) overture the General Synod to generally affirm the concepts of the Missional Structures Task Force Report of 2007 as a catalyst toward the fulfillment of “Our Call;” and further, to instruct the General Synod Council to restructure denominational assemblies so as to better support our missional ecclesiology, by which 1) our 8 regional synods are reduced to 4 regional synods whose primary purpose is to facilitate learning and growth of pastors and churches toward the discipleship, leadership, mission and multi-racial future aspects of “Our Call,” and 2) our 46 classes are reduced to 20 classes whose primary purpose is to provide leadership of the pastors and churches toward the church revitalization and church multiplication aspects of “Our Call;” with basic judicatory responsibilities remaining the same in each assembly except that the regional synods bear the responsibility of supervision of students of theology; and finally to report all of the above to the General Synod of 2011 for adoption.
Reasons:
1. The Missional Structures Task Force completed their assigned charge by the General Synod of 2005 with excellence, and the 2007 report of the task force merits our blessing and affirmation.
2. As a group empowered by the General Synod and the Lord to conduct missional reflection on the structure of our present 4 assemblies, the core conceptual recommendation of the Missional Structures Task Force should be accepted, which is that the present structure of our assemblies has not been able to effectively empower the missional engagement of our congregations and thus needs a fundamental change in the number and relationship of assemblies (Missional Structures Task Force Report 2.2 2007, pp. 11-12).
3. Whereas the Missional Structures Task Force called for not less than “15 middle assemblies” to replace the 8 regional synods and the 45 classes, we believe that the existing structure of 4 assemblies has been an important part of our history and has been effective over the life of the denomination. It is important that we approach the necessary change within the existing infrastructure (Missional Structures Task Force Report 2.2 2007, pp. 21-22).
4. “Our Call” necessitates that we change our approach to being missional. It is rooted in church revitalization and church multiplication. We must leverage our greatest structural strength, which is the lower assemblies of consistories and classes, to lead into our denominational vision. In order for our lower assemblies to lead in this way, they need to be released from some of their administrative burden.
5. Our current structure of 8 regional synods and 46 classes is not effective. It is unacceptable for us to continue the duplicity and inefficiency of such a large number of assemblies. Our best strategy for addressing these problems is to reduce the total by approximately one-half. This amount of reduction is “doable” by keeping some level of consistency while also enacting enough change to make a substantial difference in being missional.
6. By reducing the number of regional synods and classes, we will be able to be more focused and aligned as a denomination and to pool resources for instituting greater helps toward our end.
7. The specific purpose of regional synods has been questioned in the past. While they do good work and support our polity well, they have not been employed as significantly as possible. "Programs designed and staffed by regional synods may be among the most effective, simply because they have been developed to meet the unique needs of a specific geographical area" (MGS 2000, p. 433). The emphasis of regional synods toward learning and growth initiatives for our pastors and churches will bring the focus that has been missing for regional synods and at the same time bring the leadership we need.
