It’s dangerous to daydream at Synod. If you miss a sentence here or there, you can lose track of the flow of discussion or even be thinking of the wrong motion altogether. Brad Johnston and I, who endeavor to report on Synod while also thinking about how to vote on each motion ourselves, constantly work to keep sharp focus when our minds and bodies get tired.

One surprise of the recent Synod was a motion from the floor to lengthen next year’s Synod to a full week. No one would say that this was the most significant issue that faced the 2023 Synod, but there certainly is a lot to unpack when considering it. Through much of our history, Synod meetings typically lasted a week. But within the past couple of decades time has been trimmed such that the Synod schedule is half a week.

Reflecting on the schedule discussion this year, it strikes me that this might be like the biological argument for intelligent design known as irreducible complexity. It is a black mark on the theory of macro-evolution that scientists cannot show good progressions between many of the creatures in the fossil record—including “missing links” between two organisms whose structures and functions are so complex that it seems extremely unlikely that some intermediary forms would have been able to survive. Often organisms have to be entirely one thing or entirely another to function.

The current half-week schedule for synods makes sense in many ways. Pastors are able to preach on the Sabbath Day at either end of synod, meaning that congregations don’t have to struggle to fill their pulpits while almost all RP pastors are at Synod. Pastors and elders can get back to their families. Delegates are encouraged to be efficient in their words and work for Synod, to not waste time.

The full-week Synod schedule also made sense. With the meeting beginning Saturday evening, delegates got to spend a full day in worship and fellowship with their brothers in Christ, a fitting way to start a difficult week of discussion and work, laboring to keep the unity of the Spirit when disagreements would be evident. There was time during the week for a full evening of prayer, and another afternoon for softball and recreation. Synod involves a lot of sitting and not much R&R; plus, it affects how you speak to your brother when you have to sit in the dugout next to him later in the week. There were times on the Sabbath and on Wednesday evenings to worship and socialize with local RP congregations—often several of them. Many pastors’ wives and children came along, something that is now extremely rare.

So this is a case of irreducible complexity—you can’t just tweak the schedule; you have to fully commit to one way or the other. And the world is certainly different than it was 40 years ago. This shows a small example of the complexities of making decisions in Christ’s church, when even the schedule for making those decisions requires a lot of wisdom.