Prepare for Synod with Me | Church Order & Synodical Procedure

Note: This is an audio transcription of this podcast and this video.

Introduction

I’m a first-time delegate to this year’s Synod for the Christian Reform Church, which is pretty overwhelming because we haven’t met for three years, the agenda is massive, and there are some pretty controversial and weighty topics on this year’s agenda. So, in order to make sure I’m ready and prepared for the gathering, I’m looking for advice from people who have more experience than I do and, since I know there are many other first-time delegates who are feeling the same way I am, I’m recording these conversations so you can prepare for Synod with me.

You can find the previous blog post here.

Pay Attention to Synodical Training

Roger: I’m glad they do some training now for delegates to Synod. 

The first time I attended—I was new to the CRC, just a few years—I had no idea how this whole thing worked. I voted against a motion and then I saw in the rules that you can ask them to revise a decision. And so I did that. They said to me, “Well, did you vote for it or against it?” I said, “Well, I voted against it.” And they said, “Well, you're not allowed to ask Synod to reconsider a decision if you voted against it already.” 

So then I felt like crawling under my table, because I just committed a major gaffe, you know, a huge procedural blunder. So, I kind of hung my head for a few minutes.

Read the Rules for Synodical Procedure

There are some things that it's good to know. That's why and—in case you don't have enough reading already—you can go to the CRC website, search for Synodical Resources, and you'll find a booklet called Rules for Synodical Procedure. And if you need some good bedtime reading, I'm sure that would be the time to do it. But it talks about some of those things: the way Synod is supposed to function, the role of the chairperson, what it means to offer an amendment, things like that. And it is kind of good to get a little refresher on that. 

Things may work differently at Synod than at Classis

Even if you know how things work in your classis, it may be a little different as Synod. So get acquainted with some of that. If I had done that, then I would have known not to make that procedural blunder back in my early days. 

I say that not to scare anybody. I’m just saying, “Be informed.”

Know How Majority/Minority Reports Work

Jason: Are there other aspects of the Rules of Synodical Procedure—particular aspects—that you think are really important for people to understand?

Roger: Yeah. The whole thing to about majority minority reports from advisory committees. It'd be good to know how that works before you get there.

Understand the Role of Parliamentarian

I think this one is actually important, especially with some of the topics coming up. 

So every Synod singles out somebody as—what they call—the parliamentarian, someone who knows how things are supposed to go in the meeting. If the chair of Synod is a pretty good parliamentarian, they may not lean too much on the designated parliamentarian. But some chair people are like, “Well, I don't know what to do next.” So they turn to the parliamentarian, and they say, “Well, according to such and such, this is what you should do.” Typically, the chairman will say, “Well, okay, let's do that.” 

The Parliamentarian is Just One Opinion

As a delegate, you might think, “Oh, okay. So the chairman asked the parliamentarian, the parliamentarian said this, therefore, it has to be that way.” Well, actually, it doesn't have to be that way.

And that might be very important. Depending on who the parliamentarian is, and how much technicality is going on—discussions and motions and so forth. The parliamentarian themselves might have a certain bias in a certain way and give advice in a certain way. 

Every Delegate Has the Right to Say “Point of Order”

But every delegate has the right to say, “Point of Order. I would challenge that advice and the chair’s decision.” 

Now, there you are—lowly delegate from wherever you are—challenging the chair. That can be a little intimidating. But if you have a good chairperson, the chair will not take that as an attack. The chair knows that's a procedural motion. It's not an attack. It’s a way that you as a delegate can say to the whole body, “Wait a minute here. We just heard one opinion from the parliamentarian. We should hear more than one opinion on this issue.”

Some things are so cut and dried and obvious, that you would never even think of challenging the chair on a ruling like that. 

It's a procedural thing. It's not that you're attacking the chair. You're just saying, “Hold on here. Let's pause and think about the advice that we were just given.” If it's good advice, great. But sometimes the advice is not that great and each member of the body has a right to question it. 

Jason: Yeah. It’s funny. We naturally think challenging the chair is challenging the person themselves. 

Roger: Yeah. You're not challenging him to a duel during the next coffee.

Jason: Exactly. You're just you're challenging the decision. 

Roger: You’re challenging the ruling.

Give Synodical Officers the Benefit of the Doubt

And, boy, I've never been a chair of Synod. I've been a chair of classis meetings and so forth. So, I think we have to give people the benefit of the doubt in some sense, you know. They're up there doing their best. They might never have been a chair of Synod before. There are a lot of eyes on them. They're feeling a lot of pressure. So whatever the parliamentarian says they're probably going to say, “Okay, let's do that."

Don’t Be Afraid to Say, “I Challenge the Chair”

So again, it's not an attack on them. It's saying, “Let's put the brakes on just a minute and think about this before we go that direction.” So don't be afraid to say, “I challenge the chair.” 

And also don't be surprised if your challenge is overruled. But that's just part of part of life at Synod. Sometimes you stick your neck out a little bit for the sake of your convictions and what you think is right. And sometimes you might be rewarded for that, sometimes you feel like you're rebuked a little bit, but it's a deliberative body. That means there's discussion back and forth.

Especially on the hot button issues, some people will walk away, sad, while others are rejoicing. And, depending on your perspective, and whatever the issue is, you will be doing one or the other.

Church Order Can be Ambiguous at Times

Jason: Are there other particular parts of the Rules for Synodical Procedure that you think are important to remember? 

Roger: I was thinking about this a little bit. I'm glad you asked. 

You’ll find that the church order is a little bit ambiguous in certain areas, which is not helpful. But I guess it has to be or we haven't found a better way.

Basically, Church Order says the authority of Synod over a classis is the same as classis over the local church. But in our polity, we believe the authority is vested in the local church. So what does that mean? It says it's the same—the one is the same as the other—but it doesn't really say what the other is. So that's a little confusing. 

So Church Order is a good guide. If we follow it, we will probably do things decently in good order. I'm just saying there is some ambiguity in some places. And maybe that's why you have different advice given in different things. 

Synod Has the Prerogative to Suspend it’s Rules

At the very end of the church order—I think it's the very last article—it says, basically, Synod has the right to suspend its own rules.

It doesn't say it quite like this. But the idea is that if—for the glory of God, the good of the church, and to honor the scriptures—we find that we need to suspend these manmade rules of procedure, Synod has the prerogative to do that.

Synod doesn't usually do that, but I have been at Synod and a question was asked the parliamentarian, “Is Synod allowed to do this?” A few years ago, the parliamentarian would say, kind of with a twinkle in his eye, “Well, actually, Synod can do whatever it believes it needs to do.” Everybody sort of chuckled: “We have more power than we thought we did.” 

Synod can do whatever it chooses to do. Now that's not written in the Church Order, but that is the many past Synods have functioned.

So, I'm just saying that if somebody says, “Oh, no, no. Synod is not allowed to do a certain thing” and you and your heart believe that Synod should do the thing that you've just heard it may not do. Again, don't be afraid to speak up. Whether you're saying point of order, whatever. And just say, “For the good of the church and the glory of Christ, we really need to do this.” 

We can suspend our rules. I think that's important, especially for first time delegates. You've never heard this before. Maybe you've never witnessed this before. So I would say watch for that.

Don't let Synod be boxed in by someone saying we can't do that. Synod has done a lot of things that they technically could not do, for better or worse. 

Jason: Yeah. I think that's in there because we see Scripture as having more authority than our Church Order—and our confessions have more authority than our Church oOrder. So, if we feel like our Church Order is not living up to—or is preventing us from honoring God and the scriptures—we would understand that we could override some church order stuff. We wouldn't want to do that regularly because that would be foolish. But in special circumstances, it makes sense, right?

Church Order changes require the next Synod to ratify the decision

Roger: And another thing too. We do have built into the Church Order a system of checks and balances, which is good.

For example, the church order is the way we have agreed to do things. so Synod 2022, for example, cannot radically change or significantly change part of the Church Order by itself. It can propose a change that will be ratified by next year’s Synod. 

So one thing to watch out for. Some people in the past have wanted to change the church order, and they didn't want to wait for the next year’s Synod to ratify something. So they got creative. They said, “Well, we aren’t proposing a change to the Church Order. We are proposing a supplement to the church order article under question.” And if you look at that change, you'd say, “Okay. The supplement contradicts what's in the article itself. Really, what you have proposed is a substantive change.” 

This may not happen at this year’s Synod, but if you see that happening, make a lot of noise. This is just not the way we are to do things. We can propose a change, but it takes next year's Synod to ratify it instead of trying to—dare I say—ram it through. 

Church Order Supplements Do Not Have This Same Requirement. 

Jason: Because the supplements don't need the ratification. That's why it's convenient to kind of go after them because you can get it all done in one shot. 

Roger: So like I said, this may not happen this year, but watch for that in the back of your mind. And if it happens, make some noise. You might be outvoted, but at least you've spoken your conscience and stood up for what you thought was important.