A multi-year discernment process culminated at General Synod 2024, when the Reformed Church in America took steps toward a new structure that will best serve the Reformed Church in America for flourishing ministry now and in the future.
The recommendations for a new structure came from the restructuring team. After action at General Synod 2024, the approved changes will be considered by classes, then approved by General Synod 2025, as needed.
For an in-depth overview of the synod proceedings, read part 1 and part 2.
* denotes a constitutional change, which now needs approval by two-thirds of classes, then ratification by General Synod 2025. The other approved recommendations were assigned to various commissions or boards, who will bring suggested changes to General Synod 2025 and 2026.
The restructuring team was approved by General Synod 2021 at the suggestion of the Vision 2020 Team. The work of the restructuring team was to propose changes to the denomination’s organizational structure that better allow for living in tension, as well as one that is optimized for sustained spiritual and organizational health.
After years of disagreement on human sexuality, interpretation of Scripture, polity, and other tensions, the denomination appointed and tasked the Vision 2020 Team with considering how–and if–the RCA could live together in the tension. General Synod 2021 affirmed that the RCA should continue to live in the tension, and that people who no longer want to live in the tension have an avenue to leave, with the blessing of the remaining churches. Read more detail in the General Synod 2021 news summary.
The Vision 2020 Team thought of this “living in the tension” as a centered set rather than a bounded set. On some ranches, cattle are kept in fenced areas (bounded set–some are in, some are out). On larger ranches, fences aren’t practical, so ranchers will dig a few wells, and the cattle will stay close enough to the wells (centered set). Living in the tension is a centered-set approach: we commit to key things that we have in common and keep coming back to (like the water wells) but are not strictly bound on every matter.
The aim of the restructuring is a streamlined structure for a smaller denomination, recognizing the general decline in size of the North American church, as well as the departure of churches that preferred a “bounded-set approach” and have already transferred to other denominations or networks.
The work of the restructuring team was informed by guidance from the Vision 2020 Team, which did extensive research about possible structures for the future of the RCA. It encouraged the restructuring team to consider several options as it discerns what structure(s) to propose:
After being approved by the General Synod in October 2021, team members were appointed by the General Synod Council (GSC) by late January 2022. The team’s make-up is in accordance with the instructions from the General Synod: “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.” See who’s on the team.
For the first year, the team focused on spiritual discernment, gaining clarity and unity around where they believed God was calling the denomination to restructure for the future. As they engaged in a process of group discernment using the work of Ruth Haley Barton in her book Pursuing God’s Will Together, the team realized that in order to restructure, they must first know what outcomes that the proposed restructure needs to produce. The focus statement that the team believes God is calling the RCA to produce is “growing disciples who participate in God’s reign throughout the world.”
Since discerning that focus statement, the team’s process has included many feedback loops.
From October to December 2022, the team held Zoom calls with classis and regional leaders to get their feedback on this focus of growing disciples. From January to April 2023, the team held a series of in-person roundtable gatherings to share the team’s work so far and to gather feedback. These meetings were held around the U.S. and Canada, along with one Zoom call in May.
The team took into account research and guidance from the Vision 2020 Team as well as feedback from General Synod 2021 and 2022, various roundtable and Zoom meetings, and communications the team has received.
At General Synod in June 2023, the team shared a rough draft of three proposals. Delegates spent time discussing the proposals in small groups and in a plenary session, providing feedback to the team.
The team utilized the feedback it received from the spring roundtables and from General Synod to refine its draft proposals. It released a second draft of its proposals and held another series of roundtable events in the fall to gather feedback. Utilizing that feedback, the team further refined its proposals and released a third, penultimate draft of its proposals, which includes more specific language for General Synod recommendations. The team then shared proposals and elicited feedback by hosting a final set of virtual roundtable discussions from February 26-March 8.
The team published its final report in May 2024, and the recommendations contained in that report were presented to General Synod 2024 in June. Several recommendations involved changes to the Book of Church Order, including a significant set of amendments from the Commission on Church Order. As these are constitutional changes, the ones that have been adopted by General Synod 2024 will go to the RCA classes for approval. Those that receive two-thirds approval will then need the approval of a subsequent General Synod. Other recommendations referred work to the Commission on Church Order and other commissions and boards for report to General Synod 2025 or 2026.
First—and primarily—General Synod 2021 called for a new structure and created the restructuring team to develop a “restructuring plan for the denomination with a view to optimizing the RCA’s sustained spiritual and organizational health.”
We also believe there is good reason to restructure the denomination at this moment. We are a notably smaller denomination following the departures of churches after Vision 2020 decisions. Also, the average size of RCA churches has gotten smaller, which creates different ministry contexts and creates different needs for support and accountability. Relational connections and trust have declined as the RCA moved from a predominantly Dutch denomination where nearly all ministers of Word and sacrament attended the same two seminaries. We also need a structure that will allow us to keep up with the work God is already doing in making our formerly Dutch immigrant denomination into an ethnically, culturally diverse church.
The restructuring team brought its final proposals to General Synod in June 2024. Following General Synod decisions on those proposals, the Commission on Church Order will develop and propose changes to the Book of Church Order (BCO) to implement any proposals that were adopted. These changes will likely be considered by General Synod 2025. Any constitutional changes approved at General Synod require approval by two-thirds of classes and ratification at General Synod the following year. Changes to the General Synod bylaws (chapter 3 of the BCO) require the approval of a second General Synod but do not require the approval of two-thirds of the classes.
The tension could come from disagreement on any number of things that are not confessional. Looking specifically at LGBTQ marriage and ordination, the tension comes in that General Synod statements have repeatedly affirmed marriage between a man and a woman, yet the authority for ordination and supervision of ministers lies with the classis and not the General Synod. Consistories have authority over ordination of elders and deacons. On paper, at the General Synod level, the RCA is only supportive of traditional marriage, but in practice that is not always the case at every level of governance.
Votes on recommendations from the Vision 2020 Team were not about the RCA’s position on sexuality, but about how (and if) the RCA will live together in the midst of disagreement. Essentially, the RCA will continue to live in the tension, and people who no longer want to live in the tension have an avenue to leave. This General Synod 2021 news summary is a more detailed recap.
Now that the final recommendations of the restructuring team have been voted upon at General Synod 2024, steps toward restructuring are underway. These recommendations came after research, consultation with other leaders in the denomination, and exploration of what structures could best serve the denomination in the future. In response to what has been decided in 2024, the Commission on Church Order will develop and bring further proposed changes to the Book of Church Order the following year (though the commission has already brought a significant set of BCO changes this year at the request of the restructuring team). Other recommendations will immediately go to the classes for approval, before ratification by a subsequent General Synod. For the latest updates on the process, see the news stories below.
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