In a video call on January 31, the General Synod Council (GSC) finalized the makeup of the denominational restructuring team approved at General Synod in October.
The team will develop a plan for restructuring the denomination to “optimize the RCA’s sustained spiritual and organizational health,” according to its mandate from General Synod.
“This team is committed to the mission and vision of the Reformed Church in America,” says general secretary Eddy Alemán. “I believe and I pray that the Spirit is going to guide this team to restructure the denomination for faithful ministry for decades to come.”
Why a restructuring team?
The RCA’s Vision 2020 Team called for the restructuring team, which was approved by General Synod in October. The team aims to prepare churches who remain in the RCA for healthy and sustainable ministry. The Vision 2020 Team discerned that restructuring would be necessary for this to happen.
The Vision 2020 Team explored different possibilities for restructuring the RCA as part of its work, but felt that “a restructure should ultimately be detailed and implemented by those who remain with the RCA,” explained Vision 2020 Team member Thomas Goodhart during the team’s report at General Synod 2021. The Vision 2020 Team did offer advice about restructuring, urging affinity-based classes, pushing for an examination of the role of regional synods and the General Synod, and suggesting classes maintain authority over decisions related to ordination, marriage, and discipline of consistories.
That advice will inform the work of the restructuring team, along with instructions from General Synod to consider affinity synods. The restructuring team will bring recommendations to General Synod 2024. Those recommendations will not include a new mission agency; delegates voted down that Vision 2020 Team recommendation, instead affirming the work of RCA Global Mission and asserting that mission is core to the RCA’s identity, both in the past and moving into the future.
General Synod also approved the Vision 2020 Team’s recommendation to provide a pathway for grace-filled separation for churches who want to leave the RCA. Since synod, classis clerks have notified the General Synod Office of 74 churches that have filed paperwork to leave; about two-thirds of these churches filed their petition to withdraw with their classis before General Synod.
Who’s on the team
The restructuring team includes:
- Eddy Alemán, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America
- Dale Assink, classis leader for Central Plains Classis
- Greg Brower, pastor of Zion Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan
- Michelle Chahine, General Synod Council member, Regional Synod of the Great Lakes executive committee, elder
- Chad Farrand, classis executive for Classis de las Naciones
- Andrea Godwin-Stremler, trustee at Western Theological Seminary, executive director of New Revelations Collegiate Mission in Krum, Texas
- Dionne Harvey Parks, elder at Chosen Generation Fellowship Church in Carson, California
- Sung Kim, lead pastor of Grace Churches in Ann Arbor, Michigan, associate general secretary and chief operating officer of the Reformed Church in America
- Micah McCreary, president of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, General Synod professor of theology
- Sherri Meyer-Veen, pastor of Schoharie Reformed Church in Schoharie, New York, Faithwalking and Churches Learning Change coordinator for the Regional Synod of Albany
- Ina Montoya, elder at Jicarilla Apache Reformed Church in Dulce, New Mexico
- Young Na, pastor of Forest Park Church in Woodhaven, New York
- Andres Serrano, pastor of Iglesia La Senda in Corona, California, and coordinator for Hispanic Ministries of the Reformed Church in America
- Gildo Vieira, elder at Igreja Vida Nova in Toronto, Ontario
Additional resource people include Marijke Strong and Brian Keepers from the Vision 2020 Team, representatives from the Commission on Church Order, and Tim TenClay, pastor of Community Reformed Church in Manhasset, New York; resource people will have no vote. Bob Logan will act as a facilitator for the team.
How the team was selected
The General Synod Council (GSC) met by video call three times in January to finalize the team. Some team members were suggested by GSC; others volunteered.
General Synod had charged GSC with appointing a team of between 10 and 15 people, including “several executive RCA staff members, and of representatives from around the RCA drawn from regional or local assemblies that have expressed an intention to remain in the Reformed Church in America, and should be representative of the racial, ethnic, gender, age, socio-economic, geographic, and other forms of diversity present in the RCA.”
What the team will do
The team will develop a plan for restructuring the denomination to “optimize the RCA’s sustained spiritual and organizational health.” They will take into account research and guidance from the Vision 2020 Team as well as feedback from General Synod 2021.
The team will present its recommendations to General Synod 2024 for consideration.
This article has been updated to include the addition of Sherri Meyer-Veen to the team, approved by the General Synod Council at its March 2022 meeting.
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