This week marked the beginning of Synod 2025—the annual gathering of delegates from across the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA). Synod is where we come together to worship, discern, and make decisions that shape the life of our denomination. For many, it’s a week filled with prayer, conversation, worship, and ultimately the work of following the leading of the Holy Spirit.
However, I'm sure many of us have questions about what Synod is and how it works! Here is a quick guide.
What Is Synod?
Synod is the highest governing assembly of the CRCNA, which meets annually to deliberate on matters of doctrine, church order, and ministry. It serves as a forum where representatives from all corners of our denomination come together to seek God's will for our journey together.
What Is a Classis?
The CRCNA is organized into regional bodies known as classes. There are currently 49 classess in the CRC! Most of them are regional. There are 11 classes in Canada, 37 in the United States, and 1 that spans both countries! Each classis is a group of congregations that collaborates to support local ministry, provide mutual accountability, and connect churches to the broader denomination. These classes play a vital role in the governance and mission of the CRCNA, and part of this includes the selection of delegates to Synod, the denomination's highest decision-making body.
Each classis selects delegates to represent them at Synod. Typically, this includes a minister, an elder, a deacon, and an additional officebearer. These delegates are entrusted with the responsibility of bringing regional perspectives to the broader discussions, ensuring that the diverse voices within our denomination are heard and considered.
Why So Many Elections and Meetings and Synod?
This actually has a lot to do with history! Way back before the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church was the largest church in Europe. It had (and still has) a structure of church government called "episcopal polity," which means that authority basically flows from the top of the church (in the case of the Roman Catholic Church, the pope) down. Other churches like this include the Anglican church and the Episcopal church, and the Orthodox churches.
After the Reformation, many Reformed churches (of which the CRCNA is one) developed a new type of church government called "synodical polity," which means that the authority in the church is shared among elected elders and larger denominational assemblies. There isn't a single individual who holds the authority to make decisions; instead, it's shared among a group of people who are elected by individual churches in the denomination.
Some other denominations, such as Baptist churches and non-denominational churches, have another type of governance called "congregational polity," which means that every individual congregation is autonomous and can make its own decisions.
But, let's get back to Synod 2025 . . .
What Do Delegates Do at Synod?
Delegates engage in a variety of activities during Synod:
- Advisory Committee Work: Before Synod convenes, delegates participate in advisory committees that delve into specific topics, preparing reports and recommendations.
- Deliberation and Decision-Making: In plenary sessions, delegates discuss and vote on the recommendations brought forward, shaping the direction of the CRCNA on various issues.
- Worship and Fellowship: Synod is also a time for communal worship, prayer, and building relationships among delegates from different regions.
Pursuing Unity in Diversity
In a world increasingly fractured by division, Synod offers us a chance to model something different: a community where love makes space for hard conversations, where truth is spoken in humility, and where we remain deeply connected even when we don’t all see things the same way.
As Synod begins, let’s commit to praying for our delegates—for wisdom, grace, courage, and gentleness. Let’s pray for our churches, that we would be rooted in Christ and open to one another. And let’s pray for ourselves, that we would live out the unity that Christ has already given us—not by ignoring our differences, but by holding them together in love.
Comments
How can Synod 2025 intentionally equip and empower younger generations to participate meaningfully in the future leadership and theological discernment of the CRCNA?
Hi Anna,
I would offer that the job of equipping and empowering younger generations is likely a much more local duty/gift/opportunity than it is a synodical role. From my experience here are some ways I think we can accomplish the goal you highlight at the local level:
That is far from an exhaustive list, but I think begins to offer some ideas. What I think we can know for sure is that we must be intentional in raising and equipping the next generation of leaders. The world is ever seeking to catechize them, and we must be diligent in countering that catechesis with a pure and God-glorifying vision of the world. Disciples don't fall out of trees, but must be formed.
I kind of get tripped up with the term heading unity in diversity. To me it sounds like an oxymoron, an expression using “smooth words” (Romans 18:18)to cause confusion. Would it not be much better to seek unity in harmony?
For there to be "harmony" there must by definition be a "diversity" of notes. If there are no differences involved, you can only call it unison or uniformity. Harmonies create unity by forming a pleasing chord out of different notes. Do you think Synod's goal should be complete uniformity?
Hi Andi,
I think questions of uniformity and diversity are not parsed well without context. Diversity of what? Uniformity in what? By definition a confessional church seeks uniformity in the doctrines spelled out in her creeds and confessions. As such, uniformity is inescapable for the CRC and quite desirable. This is consistent with the biblical call to guard the good deposit and watch our doctrine and life closely. But a church is also by definition a diverse place, because we are all unique, and we are all gifted differently (1 Cor. 12). In that way the church is indeed akin to a choir with a full harmony of parts. Neither diversity nor uniformity can be a pure goal unto themselves.
It seems then that synod's work is both/and - pursing and embracing both uniformity and diversity as each is commended to us in Scripture.
Where we go wrong, it seems to me, is when we prioritize uniformity in people and diversity in doctrine. Seeking uniformity in people/giftings/background/ethnicity leads to unrighteous judgments, sectarian impulses, and devaluing of image bearers. Seeking diversity in doctrine leads to false teaching, immorality, and unfaithfulness to the witness of the Word. Different notes of doctrine do not necessarily create harmony, but create dissonance when not concordant with God's Word. For better or worse there will be seasons when one of synod's primary tasks will be rooting out dissonant notes of doctrine. And as in the past with kinism, synod also had much to say about the wrong kind of sought uniformity, namely the uniformity of persons.
May God grant that both uniformity and diversity shine in all the right ways in and through synod and indeed also in our churches and homes.
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