Who We Are

Back in the 1950s, deacons of the Canadian Christian Reformed church began creating “Diaconal Conferences”. These conferences would meet to share experiences and resources, develop workshops and training events, and find ways to assist each other and their congregations. In these early years, World Renew (CRWRC at this time) worked very closely with diaconates on both sides of the border.

In each region, these conferences were funded via a “ministry share” model, with a cost per professing member to help support their ministry.

Over time, the number of Diaconal Conferences expanded and contracted as the various local organizations merged and/or folded. Leaders of these conferences continued to meet during the late 1980s and early 1990s as deacons maintained a consistent desire to seek even greater levels of cooperation.

Then one day, in 1998, at a Classis Renewal Gathering in Chicago, Canadian folks representing the various Diaconal Conferences, along with representatives from Home Missions (now Resonate Global Mission) and CRWRC, met over lunch and began dreaming about pooling their experiences, resources, and training materials into a national organization that could oversee diaconal work across the nation!

It was an exciting time and, after a few more years of discussions the boards of the remaining conferences jointly approved the formation of Diaconal Ministries Canada in 2001.

A new Board was formally organized that year and consisted of one (1) representative from each of the twelve (12) classes of the Christian Reformed church in Canada. The Board approved a vision and mission statement and identified a number of strategic goals. Diaconal Ministries Canada soon hired a National Director, as well as other support staff, and began organizing training materials and timely regional events and creating a robust website.

At the same time, the funding model which had served each regional conference so well for so many years was approved to be adopted by the national organization.