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Whose Structure For What End?

Before Synod I was processing a lot of the structure material. You can find links to my ramblings on my Synod links pages.

I’ve been busy since Synod doing my day job but I’ve also been mulling over the issues.

In terms of the structure/culture issue one important presentation I haven’t had time to blog about in my advisory committee meeting. In case you’re unfamiliar with how CRC Synods work Advisory committees are usually where most of the important work gets done and when Synod works well its because the Advisory committees have done good work.

We received a report on the Collaborative Working Groups (CWG).You’ll find reference to these groups on pg. 188 of the 2014 Agenda.

When Faith Alive was dismantled the denominational offices had to figure how what to do with the staff that was still needed to maintain certain operations. Also the staff of the specialized ministry offices (Safe Church, SCORR, Pastor-Church Relations…) have always been kind of out there on their own without the kind of structure that agencies offer their staff. What came out of this in conjunction also with Home Missions staff were some collaborative working groups where they are experimenting with more flexible cross agency structures and partnerships that have in some cases coalesced around some of the 5 streams ideas. The experiment is in early stages but there is a lot of enthusiasm and optimism about what might come out if it. The report was positive and well received.

What do we want from this experiment?

• We want the North American “in support of” staff to better support the North American church
• We want denominational staff to be more responsive to cultural changes in the North American church
• We want to see a new culture develop, more permission giving, less controlling.

All of these are good things. Continue reading →