Church Politics

For better or for worse, everyone who serves in ministry knows that the church has politics.  And no where does this come to clearer expression than when you through together a bunch of church representatives in an assembly or synod.  This July around seventy delegates of the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti met in Port-au-Prince for the annual General Assembly of the CRCH.  Some of the delegates were pastors while others were deacons.  There was a mix of both men and women as there are many deaconnesses in the Haitian evangelical churches (for the most part, Haitian churches do not have elders).  July's General Assembly was an occasion of great joy and also sadness.  The sadness was because one of the seven regions of the CRC of Haiti could not send delegates due a dispute between the regional representative and the pastors under his supervision.  Please pray that this dispute can be resolved as soon as possible so that the church can be whole.  There was also a milestone because a significant revision to the constitution of the CRC of Haiti was accepted by the Assembly.  While this may just sound dry to those unschooled in church politics, a solid constitution (church order) in a denomination can mean the difference between a united body of Christ or a splintered association of competing pastors.  Several new pastors were ordained (see above) and plans were laid for a denominational wide vote for new representatives for the Central Committee, which is the "board" of the CRC of Haiti (please see the picture above of Pastors Bellezaire Joseph, Camelus Anger and Gerald Paingue who are three members of the Committee).  Also, we rejoiced to hear a glowing report of what God is doing in the CRC of Haiti.  In the past year, 305 people received Christ, 173 of those were baptized, and of the baptized, 118 were young adults.  This occurred in a denomination of around 3000 members!  Please join us in prayer that the CRC of Haiti will continue to grow and that the church will seek the politics of the Christ and not those of the world.