Episode 280: Synod 2026 — Speak Boldly, Raise Leaders, and Share the Gospel — Ralph Wigboldus (Part 2)

“I am still very much in love with this denomination. I am so excited to be Christian Reformed…For a few years, I was watching the church from a distance. But now I’m right back here. I want to be a part of this and see things move forward…These are people that live far away, but we’re still one, and we’re still very much a part of the same family…We like being together as a denomination. It’s not like we wanted to be apart and let’s get out of here. No, we liked being together.” —Ralph Wigboldus

Summary of This Episode

Part 2 of our Synod 2026 conversation with Ralph Wigboldus picks up the practical question left hanging in Part 1: how does a small congregation actually begin raising up leaders? Ralph’s answer is concrete. Mature believers need to go out of their way to talk to younger people, ask about their school, job, or marriage, and get to know them, because discipleship happens with people you know. His main complaint is that congregations organize themselves into silos, with senior ministry, youth ministry, and everything in between kept separate, when older and younger members have a lot to give each other. Don’t be afraid to cross the room and talk to someone thirty or forty years younger than you.

Ralph also insists this is not the pastor’s job alone. When he sees potential in a young person, he names it and asks whether they have considered ministry, and he wants more elders and ordinary members doing the same. It does not always have to be ministry right away; it can be leading a praise team or a ministry group. Jason adds a piece of advice he got in youth ministry: don’t post a blanket bulletin announcement for new leaders. Write down the qualities you are looking for and keep watching for the person who fits, then tell them directly what gifts you see.

Willy grounds this in his own story. He did not come up through programs. He entered the workforce out of high school instead of college, and people in his local church invested in him, gave him opportunities, and taught him to receive them graciously. He ended up on the youth ministry team, worship planning, a praise team, and search committee, and when a ministry did not exist for his stage of life, he started one. His point: it is not always about what is there for you, but that there is a church family there for you, and from there you plug in your gifts. Both Ralph and Jason then share testimonies of being nearly passed over. Ralph rebelled against God after he was married and could easily have been written off, but people saw potential in him anyway, which is part of why he is Reformed: it was God who held on to him, not the other way around. Jason was rejected twice for a youth ministry position before the church gave him a shot. The lesson: don’t write people off for a few rough edges, and don’t just throw new leaders in without support.

The conversation then turns to two harder Synod decisions, both handled by Ralph’s committee. On the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Ralph supported the decision but was frustrated that delegates were repeatedly admonished and scolded afterward, when making decisions like that is exactly what Synod is for. He tied it to a wider desire at Synod to hold on to orthodoxy and think carefully about partnerships with those who won’t. On virtual ministry, he was glad Synod declined to call a digital-only ministry a church, especially after it had already turned down a study committee to define what a church is. Nearly every church now has a livestream for shut-ins, travelers, and distant members, but that is a component, not the whole thing.

Ralph says what he learned about himself is that after everything the denomination has been through, he is still very much in love with it. For a few years he watched from a distance, tired of the conflict, but Synod pulled him back in. It felt like a family reunion: reconnecting with people he had served alongside on the Council of Delegates, sharing meals, sitting at random tables. The 2020-2021 online synods were the opposite, with no coffee or conversation afterward. Jason echoes this, and notes that Synod reaffirmed the same instinct by rejecting biannual synods and choosing to meet every year. It also connects to the virtual-church decision: we are embodied people who need physical presence and live preaching, and that will only grow more valuable as the world becomes more artificial. Ralph adds that anxiety is rising partly because people are disconnected, so the church should draw them out. Roughly 60 percent of this year’s delegates were first-timers, and the youth advisors brought good questions and real faith. This matches what Zack Flipse told us in the previous episodes, that he had never felt more like he belonged in the denomination than after Synod.

Looking to Synod 2027, Ralph’s hope is that the ten-year church-planting strategy does not fade into another vision document nobody reads again. Churches should pray over it and come back ready to report honest progress, and keep debating with grace rather than hostility. He is considering letting his name stand to return. His closing word for the podcast’s growing audience addresses a hardening culture: in Canada, Bill C-9 could brand parts of Scripture as hate speech, and he and his co-pastor Gareth decided they will not turn off the livestream to stay safe. It is easy to despair, but there is a lot of good happening in the church and Christ’s work is not near finished. Wherever you are serving Jesus Christ, speak boldly and share the gospel in love.