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The General Synod Council will present Eddy Alemán to General Synod 2018 for approval as general secretary of the Reformed Church in America. The general secretary casts vision for the RCA and oversees the implementation of its mission.

At its spring meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, this week, GSC interviewed and affirmed Eddy Alemán for the position. GSC will present Alemán to General Synod 2018 for approval.

Alemán currently serves the RCA as director of strategic leadership development and coordinator of Hispanic ministries.

“This process has just been bathed in prayer,” says Nancy Van Heerde, GSC moderator and an elder from South Dakota. She praised the work of the search team, calling out its professionalism, approach, and depth. “It was so well done, and we so appreciate the work of the search committee.”

Search committee moderator Evan Vermeer says that out of 19 candidates, Alemán rose to the top because of his missional experience. “He has managed staff and managed budgets and done fundraising, and he’s got the education and he’s had the experience that a lot of people had. But Eddy’s missional mindset—Eddy’s experience in church planting, Eddy’s experience in outreach—really stuck out. That’s where we want to go. We want to take Jesus to a world as lost and broken as our mission and vision statement talks about.”

Vermeer says the search committee was looking for a person of God with integrity and leadership—guidance they had received from the General Synod Council.

After reviewing 19 applications, interviewing six applicants, and spending hours in discussion and prayer, the search team voted unanimously for Alemán. “That was a wow with me,” Vermeer says. “This was a great experience for me to watch the group work the way that it did. The Spirit was leading. It was amazing.” The search team was made up of 12 people from across the RCA.

Alemán was born in Nicaragua. At age 16, he fled the civil war there and moved to Canada as a refugee. He also became a Christian at 16. When he was 21, he joined an RCA church with his wife, Daysi, and their two small children. The church was Iglesia Reformada La Senda (now called La Senda Del Amor), a Hispanic church plant in Toronto.

Alemán’s experience at that church plant led him to plant several churches himself, first in Canada, and then, after earning an M.Div. from Western Theological Seminary, in Central California. He also earned an M.A. in New Testament from Fresno Pacific University Biblical Seminary. Later he was called to Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California, as pastor of Hispanic ministries and church planting. He joined the denominational staff in 2014. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in New Testament studies at University of Wales Trinity St. David.

“What we are seeing in Eddy Alemán is what we would want as our next general secretary,” says Van Heerde. “I was really impressed by his desire to call and to lead the church, utilizing the fundamentals of our faith—of prayer, of Scripture, of recognizing the work and leading of the Holy Spirit.

“Eddy believes Transformed & Transforming is the vision the church received from God, and that it is what we need to stay focused on—making disciples, developing leaders, and engaging in local and global mission.”

Alemán requests prayer for General Synod’s discernment process and, if approved, for his transition into the general secretary role.

Get to know Eddy Alemán with this in-depth profile.