Ministry Candidates Introduced

Synod warmly welcomed 30 new candidates for CRC ministry this year.

Rev. Thea Leunk, chair of the denomination’s Synodical Ministerial Candidacy Committee, quoted Colossians 2 from The Message: “You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it!”

One-third of this year’s candidates came through a special training program for students who have studied theology at schools other than Calvin Theological Seminary.

All of the new candidates “have learned to read the Bible deeply, have learned its original languages, have learned how to preach with power and beauty, have learned how to administer the church, and have learned how to be missional in this world,” said Rev. Cornelius Plantinga Jr., president of Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Mich.

“It’s an exciting life, but not an easy life,” synod president Rev. Joel Boot told the candidates. “It’s a calling not that you have made, but that God has made upon you. He’s not only called you to this task but given you his Word to lead you.”