Well another Synod has passed, 20 something reports and a few overtures, numerous Church Council and Classis meetings in preparation and five days of deliberations brings Synod 2006 to a close. The question for me is, what is the take home value apart from enjoying Redlands hospitality and Queensland weather? Yes, the Queensland weather, I hate to admit as a Victorian was beautiful one day and perfect the next!

There is a great little book called "All I ever needed to learn I learned at Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum. It is a great read of divergent thoughts and reflections about life. I can’t quite say "All I ever needed to learn I learned at Synod" but I came away with two learnings that were shared by Alistair McEwan who brought greetings from the Reformed Presbyterian Churches. He made two simple yet helpful comments. The first is: learn what you do not know. The second is: what are the things you should have done and not left undone.

One of the frustrations of a Synod is that there is so much that we already know, and the temptation can be to stay within what we are comfortable with. The Redlands community helped the Synod by providing a challenging and stimulating range of devotions each morning that were intended to set the scene for a Gospel focus. This would seem obvious to be Gospel focused, but we know about the tyranny of the urgent, the primacy of what we know and the challenge to move into uncomfortable places. With readings and reflections from 1 Cor 9:24-27; Deut 15: and Luke 16; Gen 37:1-11; Matthew 21 and Luke 9:57-62 we were encouraged to consider God’s plan and strategy for his Kingdom, and what that might look like when lived out through our life as congregations and as a denomination. I was struck by the description of a revolutionary Jesus who invites us to move beyond "four steps to the right, four steps to the left, cross over the water". (Ask your Pastor or Elder delegate about this.)

One of the areas we do not know and we need to do is to position and move our denomination more creatively and imaginatively towards mission. The Intentional Ministry Formation workgroup laid out a grand challenge in shifting the way we think about and approach ministry formation. As a Synod, it was recognized that the critical areas for our churches are less about finding resources that will help us do mission. Resources are a plenty, and every church has easy access to them. The challenge is about identifying, nurturing and releasing people into ministry and service. That is not just "big M" ministry but "small m" ministry. In other words, it is about living out the call of the kingdom of God. In the coming weeks the churches will receive copies of the minutes that highlight practical areas across the full life of our churches that call for reexamination and assessment for ministry formation.

The RCYC provided another avenue for ministry formation of the development of the Internship program through the Resource Centre. This is where ministry experience can be combined with training that will result in a Certificate IV qualification. This could then be used as a springboard for further training at the RTC. It is anticipated that the establishment of the Internship Program will be complete at the end of 2006. In addition, a proposal for a national conference on "intergerationality" was approved as a vehicle to help our churches stay together across the generations.

Because of this shift in emphasis, Synod has decided to conclude the Home Missions coordinator position at the end of 2007, which will then be replaced with a Ministry Training coordinator. While the mandate and scope of this role is to be determined, the churches will be informed and applications will be sought towards the end of 2006. This means that John Reitveld’s role as Home Mission’s coordinator will come to an end. His contribution to the life of our denomination was acknowledged at the conclusion of the Synod.

Further to the call to Gospel ministry is the area of Church Planting. ROAD came with a bold proposal to provide resources and support for our denomination to continue to develop and take church planting seriously. This centered on the use of our denominational reserves. At the recommendation of the BOM, the required reserve for a triennnual period is 10% of the master budget, which is about $200,000. This means there will be around $360,000 available for church planting. The conditions of accessing these funds are that they be used for church planting projects and approval will be required by BOM and SIC. The message is clear … we are seeking to be serious about mission.

Mission of course, is not just what we do on our own soil, it is what we do in partnership with other communities in various parts of the world. It was exciting to see partnerships with people and churches in India through G.O.S.PE.L.; and the work of the Solomon Islands; the mission trips of individuals and churches helping our members develop a cross cultural view of the world and seeing how the Gospel impacts different cultures, and in turn impacts our own life and discipleship.

The work of World Relief reminded the delegates of the need of our world as we heard an accounting of where the denominational giving was spent, most notably in response to the tsunami recovery and support. It is sobering to be reminded of the challenge of HIV/Aids and the call to justice through an agency such as "The Micah Challenge". If you are interested in receiving further information you can contact the World Relief workgroup, for practical steps and actions you can take to participate in being a Gospel presence and witness.

As you can see, there are matters dealt with that indicate a shift and redefinition for our churches. If you like, the Synod, though it did not use this language, sought to find a "tipping point" where we can leverage our way forward together in the cause of the Gospel for the sake of those who have yet to hear and believe.

Of course, there are other issues that effect our mission because they call us to take care of the way we live our life together as God’s people. After a dozen years the work of the "Abuse" workgroup is now concluded with appropriate policies and duty of care documents and processes in place. There is a need for on going accountability, consultation and resources to the denomination which will take place through Leo Douma as advisor together with the Sexual Abuse Advice Committee’s in each state.

One of the vexed issues over the past few Synods has been the place of women as deacons within our churches. Synod agreed that the decision of 2003 to allow women into the office of deacon, did not justify a gravamen. Which left the Synod to find a way to respond to issues of authority and the place of women within our Church councils. Synod maintained the practice of local churches deciding whether they have a general and restricted church council, or have deacons meeting separately from Church councils as a local matter. However, where a Council decides to have deacons as a part of Council only men can be deacons; where Councils decides to separate deacons from Council, men and women can be deacons.

For yet another Synod, the issue of communication among our churches was considered through the work of Trowel and Sword. The current work team were commended for their efforts in working at the subscriber base and viability of the magazine through the publicity drive, surveying and editorial work of Geoff van Schie. The Synod has continued to commit financial resources of $20,000 over three years to T&S to enable the team to continue to develop the magazine and increase it’s readership.

Synod was blessed through the dialogue and conversations with fraternal delegates from various Reformed Churches with whom we are in various stages of Ecumenical relationships. There were delegates from New Zealand, South Africa, Holland and Indonesia. It was helpful to be aware of the continuing opportunity which is present for our churches in helping South African migrants find a home among the gum trees.

Like any meeting of Synod there are various issues that remind us that at one level life is about managing things and living with people.

Through the Work of the Pastor Church Relations Committee we were reminded yet again that healthy relationships between Pastors and Churches don’t just happen. They are nurtured and developed over time. Our congregations and pastors were encouraged yet again to take responsibility for this dimension of ministry life through appropriate pastor support groups, regional counsellors and supervision.

The financial underpinnings of our common life were considered through the BOM report, MAMA, Superannuation and finally the master budget. The detail as they say is in the fine print, the bottom line however is that the Synod paired back a potential Ministry Increase from 11% to 2%, and agreeing to an increase of prescribed offerings from 16 to 19 each year.

At the close of Synod, our Chairman Peter Abetz called the churches to continue the Gospel focus which had been evident in the meeting, conversations and decisions. In fact his final words were something like … "hold each other accountable to be Gospel focused, week by week, year by year". Without wanting to sound like Big Kev, this reporter’s view of Synod is that we have made significant steps as a denomination in moving towards our calling "a church reforming, reaching the lost for Christ".