Lora Copley Is Approved Candidate for Banner’s Editor-in-Chief

The Council of Delegates of the Christian Reformed Church in North America approved Rev. Lora Copley as its candidate to present to Synod 2026 for the long-term editor-in-chief appointment.

Copley is currently The Banner’s interim editor, serving since December 2025. The Banner’s most recent editor-in-chief, Shiao Chong, left the publication last June, shortly after Synod 2025 adjusted the magazine’s mandate, requiring that it now “represent the denomination publicly to the broader Christian church and to the world at large … in line with our confessions and synodical decisions, representing the CRCNA as its official publication.”

Synod is the CRCNA’s annual general assembly. It is responsible to appoint several denominational leadership positions, including seminary professors, the general secretary, and the editor of The Banner. The Council of Delegates, an ecclesiastical board of almost 60 members, works on behalf of synod in between meetings of synod.

The Council’s interview and vote to present Copley as candidate to synod is the second-to-last step in the editor search process, which began shortly after the interim editor appointment in December. Synod’s appointment will be the final step.

Two Council members, Ron VanAuken and Mark VanDyke, who both serve on a subcommittee of the Council called the Banner Advisory Committee, served on the editor search team that recommended Copley for the position. The same search team had worked to fill the interim position last fall.

Introducing Copley to the Council of Delegates at its May meeting, VanDyke said, “Many very qualified candidates came forth during the search for an interim editor, and Lora rose to the top of that list. Many more qualified candidates applied for the more permanent position, and Lora rose to the top of that again.”

Copley has served various parts of the CRC, including on the candidacy committee and on the Council of Delegates for Classis Red Mesa. She moved with her husband and four children to Iowa in 2022 and began directing Areopagus Campus Ministry at Iowa State University. Copley said she will soon leave that role. The ministry’s board has updated the job description for a new campus minister and will undertake a search process for a new director.

The position of Banner editor-in-chief is part time, with an allocation of 18 hours per week.

“I’m just one of the staff” responsible for the Banner production, Copley said, noting she will “try to be diligent that my Banner days are kept Monday to Wednesday. It is a challenge.”

VanDyke asked what she has learned in the interim role that will launch her into leading the magazine in the next season.

Copley said, “It’s easy to get tunnel vision on your particular part of the world, where you can lose sight of the big picture because you're so focused on the immediate.” She said Thrive’s Gather initiative over the past two years was really helpful to open eyes across the denomination to what God is doing in many pockets of the CRC. “The Banner has an opportunity to be a mini ‘Gather’ in print and online,” Copley said, drawing attention to “the small, ordinary, slow, everyday, local places (where) God is doing some of his greatest work.”

Copley will be presented as candidate for the next editor-in-chief of The Banner to Synod 2026, meeting June 12-18 in Grand Rapids, Mich.