Leaders gathering for Synod 2026 of the Christian Reformed Church in North America have a sizable agenda to discuss and discern together. For starters, there’s a 106-page report (including appendices) from synod’s interim committee, the Council of Delegates, which is responsible for carrying out the work of synod between meetings of synod. It includes a total of 27 recommendations that encompass updates to the Rules for Synodical Procedure (including removing the parliamentarian position and eliminating the expectation that synod provide ministry-related learning opportunities); a review of the Dignity Team, a body developed in 2021 to offer “a pastoral response to abuse-of-power situations within the CRCNA”; a proposed charter for the Ministries Leadership Council; and the report of a Council task force to review governance costs.
Money
The cost report has been available to churches and classes (regional groups of churches) since it was adopted at a special video conference meeting in September. Five classes (Overtures 26, 27, 28, 29, and Communication 1) reject the Council of Delegates’ suggested measure of hosting synod every other year. Overture 30, referencing such a “drastic measure as no longer having a yearly synod,” asks for “budget and ministry-share transparency” by way of detailed line items, including salaries, to be included in the yearly synod agenda, and it wants the denomination to dedicate 50% of ministry-share money received from churches to mission work—15% to reFrame Ministries and 35% to Resonate Global Mission—starting in fiscal year 2027-28.
Overture 32 goes further than what’s recommended by the Council of Delegates and suggests a two-tiered ministry share system with mandatory “governance giving” (being unfulfilled would affect participation in assemblies) and flexible “agency/institution giving” (non-participation might incur a fee for accessing services).
Reports and Standing Committees
Synod 2026 will receive four reports assigned by Synod 2024: the Addressing Accountability in Pastoral Misconduct report, a follow-up on concerns in an overture that synod did not adopt; the report of a Task Force to Study Multisite Churches; the Defining Membership Task Force report, which lays out the doctrinal, sacramental, and ongoing discipleship aspects of church membership and has recommendations to “foster a commitment to the Reformed confessions”; and the report of the Task Force to Develop Church Order Procedures to Discipline Officebearers. Each has recommendations that Synod 2026 will deliberate and decide on.
Other assignments expected by Synod 2026:
- a vision, plan, strategy, and financial proposal for church planting for the CRCNA for the next 10 years—drafts of this plan, called for by Synod 2025, have been reviewed by the Council of Delegates, and a final version will come in the supplement to the agenda, available late May
- rubrics showing the desired qualities in board membership for various agencies and institutions of the CRCNA—coming in the agenda supplement
- a comprehensive review of the denomination’s membership in the World Communion of Reformed Churches—the six-page report from synod’s Ecumenical and Interfaith Committee recommends a “continued engagement, faithful presence, and critical participation in this global body.”
The EIRC is recommends church in cooperation status with the Nederlandse Gereformeerde Kerken, a Dutch denomination formed in 2023 by the reunification of the Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken (Dutch Reformed Churches) and the Gereformeerde Kerken Vrijgemaakt (Reformed Churches Liberated).
The committee’s five-year review of the CRCNA’s ecumenical relationship with the Reformed Church in America has begun. Data and interview results from its research and analysis of the intertwinings of the two denominations will be presented in the agenda supplement.
The reports of the EIRC and synod’s other standing committees—Candidacy, Historical, and Judicial Code—cover 43 pages. Candidacy, the committee to foster the development of the denomination’s pastoral leadership and ultimately recommend candidates for ministry, has a report reviewing the Commissioned Pastor Office, with recommendations to develop lay leader training pathways, affirm the training guidelines for commissioned pastors, and make changes to Church Order Article 23 and its supplement to better express “the specialized nature of the office of commissioned pastor and its distinction from the office of minister of the Word.”
Leadership
Also expected in the agenda supplement are a nominee for the permanent position of editor of The Banner (the interim role is currently filled by Lora Copley) and new appointments for the directors of ReFrame Ministries and Thrive, to replace the retiring Kurt Selles and Lesli Van Milligen.
Advisers
Synod 2026 won’t include any “ethnic advisers,” individuals appointed from ethnic minority groups within the CRCNA to be non-voting advisers to synod, for just the fourth time since the practice began in 1995, because the average representation at Synods 2023-2025 exceeded the set thresholds. A similar formula exists for calculating the need for women advisers to synod. None have been appointed since 2017, but the current rolling average indicates they would be required in 2027.
Overtures
There are 37 formal requests, known as overtures, and one communication on synod’s plate this year. Overture 75, carried over from 2023, requests a study committee to evaluate CRC polity to clarify relationships among the assemblies of the church. A new request, Overture 33, wants a study committee on Reformed Ecclesiology “to articulate the theological center of Christian Reformed congregations, synthesize the work of existing Synodical task forces, and offer guidance on the nature of the churches the denomination is called to plant.” Overture 31 doesn’t want to wait for a proposed study committee to create resources for potential merger of classes—it wants the Office of General Secretary to work with classes on this now. Overture 4 proposes streamlined guidelines for the production of study committee reports.
Several requests relate to Church Order, the repository of rules governing ecclesiastical life. Overture 11 says, “It is time to review the Church Order to require the involvement of synodical deputies in matters concerning the organization, affiliation, disaffiliation, and disbanding of congregations within the CRCNA,” mostly affecting Art. 38. The request wants a task force to attend to the revisions. Overture 13, from Classis Red Mesa, asks synod to remove the supplements to Arts. 4 and 7 that pertain to Red Mesa and are no longer relevant.
Overture 14 asks synod to establish a permanent standing committee to review and advise the Council of Delegates and synod on matters of Church Order. Overture 19 asks synod to amend church order to include ‘prayer’ in the description of ministerial calling, necessitating changes to Arts. 11, 12-a, and 25-b. Overture 22 proposes more neutral language and a simpler process for tracking membership. Overture 23 proposes a replacement for Church Order Art. 52, pertaining to the regulation of worship services, ensuring “that the biblical wisdom that has been developed over the church’s history be more practically communicated.”
Overture 3 wants a revision of the rules for overtures, so that initial processing by a church council and by a classis is not discounted. The request proposes overtures not approved by a council or a classis be accompanied by an appeal.
The current rules for overtures allow that a request not taken up by an assembly may be introduced directly to the assembly next in line. Overtures 7 and 8 are two such requests. Both relate to Church Order provisions for gravamina (formal expressions of concern with a point of doctrine), which were clarified by Synod 2024 and further defined by Synod 2025. Overture 9 also concerns gravamina. It asks that the regulations be amended to remove inconsistency and confusion. “Our polity must coherently support the covenantal nature of confessional commitment without assuming a uniform path of theological formation,” it asserts.
Connected to confessional alignment for leaders, Overture 6 requests that synod instruct the Council of Delegates and the Office of General Secretary to require that “all those employed at our denominational agencies, including but not limited to: The Banner, Resonate, Thrive, as well as all who populate volunteer boards, must show that they are professing members of a congregation in the CRCNA who fully support and defend the fullness of God’s Word and that the Creeds and Confessions of the CRCNA faithfully reflect Scripture’s revelation.” Overture 15 wants trustees and faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary to sign a covenant of confessional commitment annually. And Overtures 16 and 17 request “full confessional alignment for Calvin University faculty” and “full confessional alignment for Calvin University trustees.” Overture 18 wants synod to proactively articulate qualities desired in the next seminary president. Current president Jul Medenblik expects to retire at the end of June 2027.
Overture 5 asks that the membership requirements for the Council of Delegates be revised so that, moving forward, “membership is limited to current or former officebearers.”
Three requests (Overtures 34, 35, and 36) present concerns with the report of the Task Force to Develop Church Order Procedures to Discipline Officebearers, particularly its recommendations D and E, which propose additions to make it explicit that, “for the well-being of the churches, classes, or the denomination at large, classes and synod may guide procedures of discipline at the levels of local councils and classes, respectively, even if not requested by the minor assembly.” Two of the overtures want to defer the report by a year so legal implications and other concerns may be addressed; the third recommends specifically not adopting recommendations D and E, saying “the recommended changes create further tension between minor and major assemblies in place of the cooperation that is currently possible by minding the jurisdiction, nature, and domain of the authority of each assembly.”
Other significant requests in the agenda include inviting to synod and recognizing those retiring from ministry in the previous year (Overture 10), removing mention of Contemporary Testimony from the Covenant for Officebearers (Overture 12), updating vision and mission statements of the CRCNA (Overture 20), establishing a formal ecclesiastical relationship with the National Presbyterian Church in Mexico (Overture 24), and affirming the traditional Reformed understanding of Church and State as a guard against Christian Nationalism (Overture 25).
Synod 2026, the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is meeting June 12-18 on the campus of Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich. Find daily coverage from The Banner at TheBanner.org/synod. Visit crcna.org/synod for the agenda, advisory reports, recordings of plenary sessions, and to subscribe to the daily Synod News email.