Reflections on the Leadership Landscape of the CRCNA

Part 1:  The Committee and Some Background Thoughts

First, let me introduce you to the Candidacy Committee. It is comprised of nine enormously wise and caring individuals who have been elected by synod to oversee the pathways to ordained ministry in the CRCNA. They are passionate about providing the church with healthy, competent candidates for ministry. I’ve seen them take on difficult conversations with such incredible grace, care and wisdom–making tough calls when needed. And what I appreciate the most about this committee is the way they approach candidacy decisions with a discerning and surrendered heart– listening to God and each other in order to discern God’s will.

The work we do together is exciting because we get to have conversations with the amazing leaders God is bringing into our denomination. When you’ve been immersed in your context for a while, it’s easy to lose sight of its beauty and goodness. So as these leaders look at us with fresh eyes they remind us of some of the good things that we have going for us. They are drawn to some of our core values–the ones that have shaped who we are as a denomination–such as our high view of Scripture, and more specifically, our Reformed theology. Many come from traditions where theological training was not valued and they’ve seen bad theology wreak havoc on the church. So they care that we care about our pastors receiving good theological training. 

They also appreciate the well-formed character they find in a lot of CRC people. Since qualities like humility, kindness and gentleness are lacking in the world today, they are drawn to our pastors, leaders and members who exhibit those qualities. They rave about our abuse of power training and our code of conduct. It makes them feel safe to hear us addressing and trying to prevent spiritual abuses.

And since many come from independent churches and long to become deeply rooted and connected in a larger body, they really appreciate our covenant commitment to each other. They want to be part of that “family dynamic” and they appreciate the  accountability our structures provide. Most of them eventually even appreciate the fact that we have rigorous processes for ensuring that they are vetted and equipped, because they want us to get to know them well.

These values that are woven throughout our church order, our candidacy processes, our worship services and our educational spaces– are the qualities that cause emerging leaders to trust us. I begin by highlighting them because they are the “whys” that undergird many of the “hows” that I’m going to talk to you about this morning.

Reflections on the Leadership Landscape

If you’ve had a chance to read the Candidacy Committee report, you saw that the committee has been working to get a clearer picture of the “leadership landscape of the CRCNA”. We believe that leadership development is a key factor in addressing the membership decline in the CRCNA. So we did a little research last fall, including a survey that went out to classis leaders. The feedback from the survey gave us some data to consider, which probably just scratches the surface of showing us the whole picture, but we shared it transparently with you in our report with an invitation to process your own thoughts and observations and share them with us.

One thing that seems pretty clear is that we’re in a season of pastoral leadership shortage, and that’s probably no surprise to anyone, since many of you have felt or experienced it in your own settings. We know that this isn’t just a CRC reality, but one that’s been felt across many denominations. Some of the factors are ones we have very little control over, like big cultural shifts, and some we have more control over. But even with those factors beyond our control, we have a choice about how to respond.

We can respond in unproductive ways such as denial–continuing on in the same way hoping for better results. Or defeat–moaning and groaning about the times we’re in and making doomsday predictions about our future. Or the worst response I think–panic! This would lead us to compromise our values and lower our standards for leaders and just get warm bodies to fill spots.

I’ll be honest with you that I was a little nervous to release this report because I could imagine people jumping to any or all of those responses. But I believe we are capable of a much more productive and healthy response–as children of the Living God with the Holy Spirit living in us. 

We can listen for what God might be telling us about ourselves and our emerging leaders and lean into His help, knowing that He wants his Church to thrive more than we do!

 

So let’s start by doing what Jesus told his disciples to do when they were in the middle of a leadership shortage. 

Seeing that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few, he  told them…. Pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into the harvest field. The Candidacy Committee asked me to invite you to pray this prayer from Luke 10:2 with us this year.  They suggested that you might even consider setting an alarm on your cell phone for 10:00am and 2:00pm just to remind yourself to pray that prayer each day.

(Testimony: After this presentation, I was told by a member of the Candidacy Committee, Rev. Andy Sytsma, that he has been faithfully praying this prayer at 10:02 every morning and 10:02 every evening for a few months and, since that time, three different people have come to him expressing their desire to pursue pastoral ministry!)

Then as we trust God to do the work that only He can do–calling and stirring up hearts–let’s now turn to thinking about some of the things we might be able to do.

My future posts will highlight a few of the challenges that people mentioned in the survey, and offer a few suggestions of ways we might consider addressing them. Again, our desire is to process this together, so we welcome your feedback, pushback, and input.  But we want to suggest a few small adjustments that we think could make a big impact. Stay tuned!