BOT Highlights - May 2014

Grand Rapids, Mich. – The Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church in North America met on May 1-2 at the CRC offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

During this meeting the Board:

1. Appointed Rev. Darren Roorda to be the Canadian Ministries Director of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, pending ratification by Synod 2014. Rev. Roorda currently serves as senior pastor of preaching and administration at Community CRC in Kitchener, Ontario. He was a member of the Board of Trustees, but resigned prior to being appointed. He also serves on the Strategic Planning and Adaptive Change Team (SPACT). The Board thanked the CMD search committee and dismissed them with gratitude. The Board also expressed its gratitude to Mr. Ben Vandezande for his service as the interim Director of Canadian Ministries.
2. Heard reports from Executive Director Rev. Joel R. Boot and Dr. Steve Timmermans, the ED designate, about meetings that are taking place to prepare for a transition in leadership following Synod 2014. Dr. Timmermans reported that he hopes to begin a search for a Director of Ministries and Administration in the fall of 2014.
3. The Board also made provisions to ease the transition by deciding that, following the appointment of a new ED, Rev. Boot will serve as interim Director of Ministries and Administration for a period of about nine months, and Dr. Peter Borgdorff will serve as Special Adviser to the Executive Director and Ecumenical Relations Coordinator, also for about nine months.
4. Elected officers for the coming year. Officers for the CRCNA-Canada Corporation are: Ms. Katherine Vandergrift, president; Rev. Trevor Vanderveen, vice president, and Mr. Garry Sytsma, secretary. Officers for the CRCNA-Michigan Corporation are: Rev. R. Scott Greenway, president; Mr. Chris Van Spronsen, vice president, and Rev. Kenneth A. Baker, vice-all. Officers of the binational Board are: Ms. Vandergrift, president; Rev. Greenway, vice president, and Rev. Vanderveen, vice-all.
5. Received an update from the Strategic Planning and Adaptive Change Team (SPACT) about the progress of the strategic planning process. Board members also spent time reviewing the adaptive challenges identified by the team and providing feedback. The final document is to come to the Board at its meeting in September 2014. (Information about the work of SPACT is available on the web at www.crcna.org/spact.)
6. Resumed its review of the report of the Binationality Task Force and made a number of decisions arising from that report. Among them, the Board:
   1. Committed to implementing the mandate described by the report to Synod 2000, calling for it to convene conferences in Canada and the United States for the purpose of developing a vision and strategy for ministry;
   2. Instructed executive leadership to engage senior staff to explore and develop relationships with congregations and classes to discern how God is at work; to collaborate on projects, and to engage in shared initiatives for ministry locally, regionally and nationally;
   3. Endorsed the description of the work of the senior leadership team, which includes modeling binationality as an authentic leadership value;
   4. Instructed the executive director, together with the executive committee of the Board, to review the report that went to Synod 2000 regarding the mandates, purposes and functions of the Canada and Michigan corporations and the Board of Trustees;
   5. Instructed the executive committees of the two corporations, together with the executive director and the Canadian ministries director, to clarify the lines of accountability and related protocols to ensure that authority is commensurate with responsibility, especially in the case of the CRCNA-Canada Corporation and ministries in Canada.
7. Heard from representatives of the 2012 Denominational Survey Task Force and made a variety of recommendations aimed at increasing the participation in and reporting of future surveys, in order to make them more representative of and useful to the church.
8. Appointed Mr. Kyle Lim, Mr. Clifton Sanders, Mrs. Sue Silversmith and Rev. Michael R. Wagenman to the Race Relations Advisory Council, and Mr. William C. Padding and Rev. Michael J. Vander Laan to the Safe Church Ministry Advisory Committee.
9. Ratified appointments made by the CRCNA-Canada Corporation of Mr. Tal James, Ms. Yvonne Schenk and Ms. Lori Ransom to the Canadian Aboriginal Ministries Committee; Ms. Bronwyn Martin to the Kairos Dignity and Human Rights Circle; Ms. Hannah De Jong to the Kairos Movement Circle; and Ms. Rachel Boehm-VanHarmelen and Mr. Co Vanderlaan to the Committee for Contact with the Government.
10. Heard reports from the Office of Social Justice and Back to God Ministries International.
11. Learned that Ministry Shares receipts are coming in at eight percent below budget and are down three percent from last year, partly because of the decline in the value of the Canadian dollar compared to the U.S. dollar.
12. Approved the unified ministry budget for the coming fiscal year and recommended that synod approve a Ministry Shares amount of $336.12 for 2015. This is a one percent increase over 2014.
13. Next meetings:         

• Sept. 25-27, 2014, simultaneous board meetings in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Feb. 26-27, 2015, in Burlington, Ontario
• May 7-8, 2015, in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Sept. 24-26, 2015, simultaneous board meetings in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Feb. 25-26, 2016, in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• May 5-6, 2016, in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 2016, simultaneous board meetings in Grand Rapids, Michigan