‘Change Is Necessary’: A Frank Picture of Rising Governance Costs and Diminishing Ministry Shares

Sharing a series of charts and graphics with the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates, chief administrative officer Shirley DeVries portrayed particular facts: what CRC agencies are able to spend on missions based on the giving from churches; trends in giving; how agencies are experiencing the drop in ministry shares; and despite the picture of valued mission, “how long before all ministry shares will be consumed by governance?”

A downward trending red line depicted straight dollars (no adjustment for inflation) of ministry shares—the undesignated giving from the denomination’s member churches pledged to support shared ministry and denomatinal costs. A trending upward blue line marked expected costs (which are increasing because of inflation) for things like the Office of the General Secretary, synod, and the Council of Delegates. If the trends seen since 2018 continue, governance costs would consume all of the ministry share giving by mid 2033.

DeVries told delegates, “I’ve taken you through all these charts to really make one point: Change is necessary!”

The stark picture underscores the importance of a Council task force, commissioned in February, to consider ways to reduce governance costs, fund synod, and steward time wisely. An interim report was presented at the Council of Delegates May meeting.

The Council used 30 minutes of its plenary time to discuss and evaluate possible scenarios presented by the task force, with table groups asked to consider strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of several possibilities: synod every other year; virtual synod; synod held at a venue in a major hub city; two-tiered ministry share system; classis assessment to cover synod and COD costs; two virtual COD meetings and one in person; reduce synod delegates from four to three per classis; reduce the number of classes.

Task force member Tom Byma, Classis Greater Los Angeles, said the group would continue meeting over the summer and have its final report in the fall. “It’s the COD who will make the decisions, not the task force,” he said. Several of the scenarios would require synod to make changes to Church Order or the rules of synodical procedure, which might take one synod to propose and another to enact the changes.

While the full Council of Delegates took up this discussion, Canada and the U.S. Ministry Boards received the ministry budgets and the joint ministry agreements describing how the two countries work together to fund and carry out the ministry, in their separate meetings.

ReFrame Ministries director Kurt Selles, who will be retiring in June 2026, described a sombre feeling over decisions of closing programs in the international media-focused ministry, and yet he has a “sense that God’s faithfulness will continue.” He asked delegates to continue to pray for ReFrame as they think about the future with smaller staff, less resources, and fewer programs. Nellie Kooistra, ReFrame’s director of administration, noted that ministry share giving is generally 8% below plan this fiscal year, but estate gifts have put ReFrame ahead of plan overall. The ministry’s 2025-26 budget uses $848,000 as expected ministry shares (a drop from $1,205,000 from fiscal year 2024/25). The approved ministry budget has revenue of $5,276,000 and expenses of $6,817,000, using reserves of $1,275,000 to bring the deficit to $266,000.

Resonate Global Mission director Kevin DeRaaf reported the team’s work toward a deeply reduced budget for 2025-26 “after completing a COD-mandated spend-down of financial reserves.” A $4 million cut from next year’s budget is about a 20% reduction of total ministry costs. “We are thankful for God’s provision and for our churches who continue to give generously, DeRaaf’s report said. “Despite what’s going on in the denomination, financial giving directly to Resonate clearly shows that the CRCNA still places a high priority on mission.”

Like ReFrame, Resonate is ”seeing a small drop in general giving and missionary support” this fiscal year, but estate gifts have brought year-to-date revenues slightly above the year-to-date budget. Changes to next year’s budget include “attrition of several workers who will leave through retirement and other personal factors,” an about $2 million reduction to the international budget through “reduction in staffing, program reduction, and reduced regional grant funding,” reductions to regional team staffing in its six North American regions, and a “shift away from grant funding for church plants and toward personalized, contextualized support for church planters.” DeRaaf noted “five consecutive years where Resonate’s ministry share revenue has been reduced by about 25-30% per year, and reduced disproportionately compared to the aggregate reduction in ministry share revenue.” The ministry’s marketing and communications budget has had a 12% decrease, along with the elimination of three full-time equivalent positions.

Thrive, the CRC’s congregational equipping ministry, used its floor time at the Council of Delegates meeting to report on findings from its Gather initiative, which just concluded its last of 10 gathering sessions to hear where God is moving and growing the Christian Reformed Church. The written report from director Lesli van Milligen noted recent loss of staff including the resignations of Amanda Benckhuysen, resource development team lead, and Katie Roelofs, a former worship consultant. Van Milligen wrote, “I remain optimistic that we will be able to find more flexible ways to continue to engage all the areas of congregational ministry.” She encouraged COD delegates to “help Thrive by serving as ambassadors in their classis, helping their constituencies by connecting the dots between the subtle and not-so-subtle support they are receiving from Thrive during (pastoral) vacancies, significant times of transition and times of challenge.” Van Milligen said, “Thrive’s ministry can be likened to yeast. The majority of time we are working in the background, helping congregations through difficult times, supporting them during a pastor search process or convening listening groups to discern the future of the church or allowing parents a space to talk about what would help them as they support faith formation in their homes. The work often leads to small steps in renewal or mission clarity, but many of the stories are not Thrive’s to tell” leading to challenges “when trying to do advancement work and why ministry shares continue to be an important way that all of the churches can support each other when congregations find themselves in need of Crossroads discernment for their future or resources supporting leadership development that reflect CRC policy and practice.”