Accredited Reformed Training in Your Own Backyard

God is at work in our denomination. In 2024, He drew our attention to our pastoral shortage and the need to start identifying and training leaders.  In 2025, He began stirring up excitement in the hearts of many pastors and leaders to organize ourselves for that work of equipping (that's been evident through overtures at synod, the SEAPI gathering, the Multiply conference, and other good conversations). Now in 2026, the challenge for many classes will be to develop concrete plans and programs to train lay leaders, licensed exhorters and commissioned pastors.

We approach this work with these realities in mind: 

#1 The classes of the CRCNA possess a wealth of knowledgeable, well-formed pastors (this is a very strong asset!), both active in ministry and retired, who are, or could be, very effective mentors for emerging leaders.

#2 Classis leaders are busy ministers who have very little extra time and energy to spare, and the thought of developing a program for leadership development can feel overwhelming or impossible to many of them

#3 There are passionate and talented young people in our churches who have the potential to bring leadership if they receive encouragement, mentorship and support from people they trust

So how can these three factors add up to equal strong, effective classis leadership development pathways that can strengthen our churches, classes and denomination? We believe that there is a way, through partnership, and we want to explore those possibilities together at the CMLT Gathering in Phoenix on February 3-5. 

Members of the Classis Ministerial Leadership Teams (aka Student Fund Committees, Candidacy Committees, etc.) of each classis have been invited to attend, but others who are passionate and deeply invested in leadership development are also welcome! The denominational Candidacy Committee and Calvin Seminary are teaming up to host this event, with the goal of coming alongside any classes who desire to make a concrete plan for training local leaders in contextual, effective ways.

This is what we believe is possible, if we partner together:

1. Every classis could develop a clear, effective training pathway for lay leaders and commissioned pastors. And classes that already have effective programs could strengthen them through additional resourcing, mentoring and assessment by the seminary.
2. These programs could be competency based, so that each person’s prior training and experience would impact their learning objectives.
3. These programs would be guided by local mentors and tailored to fit various leadership development goals and various contexts
4. Those local trainings would be accredited, and those credits would be stackable, so that after achieving a certificate someone could smoothly transition to an MA or MDiv at any point if desired
5. The cost for the individual and/or classis for each leader in training could be less than a monthly car payment for a cheap or used car (we’re talking a Dodge with over 100k miles, not a Lexus).
6. The manpower needed from classis would be only 2 good mentors (trained CRC Ministers of the Word)

Some classes have already begun to train leaders through this partnership! Both the Commissioned Pastor Certificate program and the Empower program have been increasingly used by those seeking theological training and formation for ministry. Here are a few examples:

Classis Southeast’s “222 Seminary” that was highlighted at the Multiply conference is actually just Classis Southeast’s local expression of the Empower program, piloted by CTS to explore how this kind of partnership could help a classis provide local, contextual training for their emerging leaders.

Campus Ministry at Grand Valley State University has partnered with Empower to train up young adult leaders who are now serving in church staff, council and other ministry positions. 

Classis leaders, we invite you to come and explore how your church or classis could develop an excellent, Reformed, accredited leadership training program in your own backyard! 

The CMLT Gathering will take place February 3-5 at The Casa in Phoenix, AZ. 

The registration deadline is coming soon–Dec. 12th! But there is still time for your classis to register 1-2 members of your CMLT (or other leaders who are passionate about leadership development).  Find out more and register through this Registration Form 

(Attendees are responsible for booking their own flights and sending the itinerary to [email protected] once booked, or entering the info into the registration form if they've already secured flights)