Ministry Shares are ‘Irrigation System’ and Other Metaphors at February Council Meeting

The Council of Delegates of the Christian Reformed Church met by video conference Feb. 4-6, receiving ministry reports, updates on budget projections, and matters to share with Synod 2026.

Roberta Vriesema, director of partnership administration—a role that replaced that of chief administrative officer, filled by Shirley De Vries, who retired in January—presented projected budget numbers for the CRCNA, starting with a metaphor for the CRCNA organization, which she imagined as a community garden.

Comparing the denomination’s mission agency Resonate Global Mission to a corn crop, Thrive and its congregation-focused ministry to beans in many varieties, and ReFrame Ministries’ media mission to squash plants with their spreading tendrils, Vriesema pointed out how the “crops” sustain and nourish each other. “Corn provides the structure for the beans to climb. Beans fix nitrogen to fertilize the soil. And squash spreads on the ground, suppressing weeds and retaining moisture,” Vriesema said.

“Investing in local and global missions, similar to growing corn, also provides a steady base on which our beans and our other climbing crops can grow,” Vriesema said. “The work of Reframe, for example, in the Today (devotional), does a lot to nourish and make the growing conditions of our garden better,” she continued. “The many varieties of beans that we see, and the bean seeds that come from gardeners' home gardens are important. Each of our congregations has lessons that they've learned and can be valuable to others. … Investing in beans and in congregational health and well-being fertilizes the soil so that other crops can grow.”

The garden, Vriesema said, has a unique history spanning almost 170 years, with a fence and cornerposts representing the confessions as “firm boundaries on where and how our garden would grow,” and raised garden beds with an irrigation system “providing water to our crops and refreshment to our gardeners.”

The irrigation system is a representation of ministry shares, the pledged money member churches contribute to the running of the denomination. “While we can rely on ‘the rain,’ or ad hoc free-will offerings alone, it would mean that our harvests, then, are less reliable and prone to shifting weather and giving patterns,” Vriesema said. “Ministry shares allow us to pool resources and provide a steady and reliable stream of water to all of our crops all season long.”

The trajectory of ministry share giving has been declining, prompting the Council of Delegates to propose cost-saving measures, which it received in a report in September and will present for deliberation to Synod 2026.

Vriesema told Council members the numbers she presented weren’t final but based on current projections. With a base of 811 organized churches, the expected ministry shares for the 2026-2027 fiscal year are $13.29 million USD. They were $14.3 million USD in the 2025-2026 budget, with a base of 824 organized churches. (The projected—not actual—numbers for both years are combined ministry share dollars from Canadian and U.S. congregations, using a conversion factor of $0.72 for 26-27 and one of $0.70 for 2025-26.) Not every church submits a pledge. Drew Sweetman, Classis Muskegon, reporting for the finance committee, said 264 churches last year pledged $0.

Referencing Vriesema’s garden analogy, Canada-at-large delegate Linda Vansligtenhorst asked, “Do we have any strategies for getting those churches who don’t supply any irrigation to start watering the garden?”

General secretary Zachary King said the leadership team is carefully considering “how we can communicate better about what we would say is a covenant obligation to give towards the community of churches and the needs of supporting that community. We're trying to be responsive to those who have concerns, and so I think there'll be more (pledges) coming in the coming months as we're calibrating ourselves to this new reality with disaffiliated churches.” King said there’s been a loss of 5% to 7% of the congregations through disaffiliation, and “some of those churches that are disaffiliated have been churches that have given significantly.”

He also noted, “We have seen some churches come back to the ministry share giving system, and so to those churches, I want to say thank you.”

Endorsed Allocation Plan

Ministry shares are only part of the denomination’s total revenue, making up varying percentages of each ministry’s overall income. The Council of Delegates endorsed a ministry shares allocation plan, similar to the mechanism it endorsed in 2024, that would see ministry share revenue allocated first to governance and ministry support costs such as the Office of General Secretary, synod, the Council of Delegates, and the U.S. and Canadian ministry offices, then distributed to the ministries—Thrive, Resonate, ReFrame—according to their ministry needs, with allocations also provided to Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary. World Renew is funded completely outside of ministry shares.

Sweetman explained, “The methodology is we're looking at all revenue streams, and how ministry shares, using Roberta (Vriesema)'s illustration, provides the foundation for that. There are other revenue streams (outside of ministry shares) available at varying levels to the different agencies.” If much of a ministry’s budget needs are able to be met by fundraising or other income, its allocated portion of ministry share money is less. But if pledges increase, the governance and ministry support costs don’t take any more—“it automatically would go to the agencies,” Sweetman said.

The Council of Delegates’ financial discussions included questions about funding the renewed effort toward church planting, which the denomination committed to at Synod 2025. A fleshed-out 10-year plan is due to Synod 2026.

More Metaphors

General secretary King likened the necessary coordination of church planting to an engine: “Some of our most successful church-planting efforts have really been nurtured by a strong connection between the church planter, the mother church, and the classis, and then the denominational ministries. I often think of it like an engine, with a number of cylinders, and all of those cylinders have to be in harmony and moving together for the engine to provide the power and the torque needed to move the vehicle … which runs on the fuel of the Holy Spirit, of course.

“If we can get those cylinders working well, a small engine can do a big job,” King encouraged.

Mark VanDyke, Classis California, presented another botanical metaphor in devotions he led for the Council, joining the video conference from an almond orchard just on the verge of blooming. He referenced Jeremiah 1:4-12 and noted how the Hebrew language reinforces a parallel between the “almond branch” and the Lord “watching” to see that his word is fulfilled. The almond tree is first to sprout buds and last to be harvested, VanDyke said. “The tree is a living metaphor for how God watches from beginning to end to fulfill his purposes.”

Synod

The Council of Delegates processed several items to pass on to Synod 2026. It recommends “that synod declare the Office of General Secretary mandate to prioritize resources to help classes and churches navigate the process of limited suspension (Acts of Synod 2024, p. 892) complete, and to remove the requirement that classes report on the progress of such conversations.” It is also recommending that synod adopt revised Rules for Synodical Procedure that include removing the requirement that synod be served by a parliamentarian appointed each year; changing the deadline for distribution of study committee reports; allowing the director of ecclesiastical governance to join the general secretary on the synodical Program Committee; removing the proscribed distinctions between study committees and task forces; and removing the duplication of the Judicial Code, allowing it to remain only in the Church Order Supplement, Article 30-c. The Council appointed seven young adult representatives for Synod 2026: Corey Viss, Nathan van der Meer, Cruz Menchaca, Kaitlyn Hofsink, Kenneth Gonzalez, Samantha Teran, and Kyle Vannus. Benjamin Haan and Kyle Hoekema were appointed as alternates.

The Council of Delegates is proposing a significant schedule change for Synod 2027, having the in-person portion of synod run from 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 5, and adjourn no later than noon Saturday, June 12. Typical synods for the past several years have convened at 8:30 a.m. Friday and adjourned no later than mid-afternoon on Thursday. The Council is also recommending that Cascade Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., be named the host church of Synod 2027. The congregation will celebrate its 75th anniversary that year.

The Council appointed Alex Snider as interim delegate for Classis Lake Erie and recommends that Synod 2026 appoint him as a regular delegate. The Council also recognized the resignations of two delegates: Steven Hull, Classis Thornapple Valley, who is taking a regional connector position with Resonate; and Jae Young Kim, Classis Hanmi.

Ministry Board Updates

The CRC’s two ministry boards, one governing ministry operations in the U.S. and one governing ministry operations in Canada, met in separate video meetings Feb. 5. The U.S. Ministry Board heard from U.S. director of ministry operations Dan DeKam that the move last year into a smaller ministry support center has been helpful in increasing “our opportunities to become more familiar with each other, function better together and reduce overhead.” He cited a savings of almost $120,000 on electricity, gas, water, garbage, elevator, snow/grass, and cleaning and reminded, “We now have an endowed fund that will supply approximately $200,000 per year to cover basic expenses with enough left over to save toward necessary future capital improvements.” The U.S. board was delegated the responsibility of coordinating with the CRC Loan Fund as a formal intermediary to ensure its continued denominational alignment and operational success. Established by Synod in 1983, the Loan Fund operates solely in the United States and provides low-interest loans for capital improvement projects to churches and CRCNA-affiliated organizations. The U.S. board also elected its officers for the coming year: president Chuck Adams, vice president Eric Van Dyken, treasurer Lloyd Hemstreet, and secretary Christian Sebastia.

The Canada Ministry Board, prompted by questions through correspondence, discussed the structure and governance of three specific ministry committees referred to collectively as “Canadian Justice Ministries”: Committee for Contact with the Government (Citizens for Public Dialogue); Canadian Indigenous Ministry Committee; and Decolonization and Antiracism Collective (Intercultural Ministry). Formed for different purposes over time by either the (now defunct) Council of Christian Reformed Churches in Canada or the ministry staff, the relationship of these committees to the current Canada Ministry Board is unclear. The board requested its executive create an ad hoc task force to review and suggest a reporting and operating plan for the Canadian justice ministries.