In response to Classis Western Australia’s overture to appoint a Church Outreach Taskforce (Overture 3), Synod instead decided to appoint a person to the GROW workgroup to advance local church outreach, and to adopt the following mandate for that person: In understanding Task 2 of the Four Fold Task ‘To grow healthy churches which nurture and equip their members and, by God’s grace, expand numerically, become the mother-churches of as many fellowships and congregations as possible, and take further initiatives to penetrate structures of society with the gospel,’ and in the awareness that evangelism and outreach are core responsibilities of the...

It is encouraging to know that 84% of CRCA congregational members would support the development of new initiatives in the ministry and mission of their local church.    This is one of many findings in the recent NCLS (National Church Life Survey) survey conducted among CRCA churches.   While not all churches participated in the NCLS survey, the results are still a good sampling of the vitality of CRCA churches.    Over 1300 adult members participated, which is almost ¼ or 22% of the total adult membership in the CRCA.   The 17 participating churches represented large as well as small churches, churches from every...