Back Row: (left to right) Mr. Emile Schmid, Rev. Case Koolhaas, Mr. Bill Zwiep, Rev. Bart Keefer, Rev. Randy Opmeer, Mr. Cor Demeris
Front Row: (left to right) Mrs. Barb Laidlaw, Rev. Siebrand Wilts, Mrs. Laurie Heron, Rev. John Kapteyn, Rev. Carson Culp, Rev. Don Waterhouse, Mrs. Deborah Waterhouse 

The Regional Synod of Canada has just completed our Annual General Meeting.  We thank God for the spirit of mission and unity that prevailed at our meeting.  We are excited about the mission opportunities that lie ahead of God's church here in Canada.  We trust that a number of decisions will equip us better for the task which God has set before us.

We elected Case Koolhaas to be our new president and Bill Zwiep to be our new vice president.  We thank God for that gifts that each of these men will bring to their positions.

Left to Right: Rev. Case Koolhaas, President, Rev. John Kapteyn, Executive Secretary,
Mr. Bill Zwiep, Vice-President  

We spent considerable time determining how we can fulfill the mission.  We are in process of presenting a new mission statement which will reflect our call to mobilize the church in Canada toward its mission.  Our mission will be based on the Our Call of the RCA, and our initial focus will be on leadership development and discipleship.  We believe that change must occur within the people.  We should soon have our goals and action plans agreed upon in these areas and we hope to initiate a fund drive which will enable us to carry out our plans. More information on this will soon be sent to churches and classes. 

We decided to provide $500 scholarships to the members of the Synod and classes CP&D Executive committees to be 'One Thing' event next January in San Antonio with Reggie McNeal.  We will provide up to 40 grants and some may be made available to non-committee members.

We also decided to restructure our CP&D committee into 3 working teams- Leadership Development and Discipleship, Multiplication and Mission and Revitalization.  We will present this restructuring to the classes as it will require their participation within each team.

We increased the monies available for new church development grants from the Canadian Church Growth Fund, and extended the term of the grants by up to two optional years.  We continue to endorse the Commissioned Pastors program, Natural Church Development, Coaching, and Coached Facilitators Networking.  We will remind churches that grants are available for visioning and strategic planning.  We will establish a resource Library (online and in our office) for church planting.

We also plan to improve our communication by increasing the size of  Northern Lights and hope that the churches will be able to ,make copies at their locations to keep costs down.  We are asking for churches to advise us of potential point persons in each church to help with the flow of communication.  We are also seeking to communicate the good news of what God is doing in our churches more effectively on our website and through an e-mail newsletter .

We will also study the closing of the office at the Camp location, and determine to where our office should be moved.  This will be done by a the end of this year.

We also supported the Foundation Canada’s plans to begin a new campaign based on Our Call. 

Our budget was approved with an increase of $2.00 per member in assessment.  This is the first increase in assessment in many years.

We hope to finish the draft minutes of our meeting in the near future and will publish them on the website so that all the decisions can be read.

We are excited about the opportunities that God has placed before us and we believe we will be able to take advantage of these opportunities, only as we all work together as one team.  Our focus must be missional - in that the church does not exist for itself, but rather to bring God's truth into the world.