Synod Approves Eddy Alemán as General Secretary

Alemán is a pastor, a church planter, and a nurturer of leaders—and now the sixth general secretary of the RCA

On Saturday, June 9, General Synod 2018 approved Eddy Alemán as general secretary of the RCA by voice vote. The vote followed a presentation by Alemán and a time of questions from the floor.

The role of general secretary includes casting vision for the denomination and overseeing implementation of its mission. A search team unanimously selected Alemán out of 19 candidates for the position. General Synod Council (GSC), the RCA’s governing board, interviewed Alemán in March and unanimously approved his candidacy. Today GSC presented Alemán to General Synod for final approval.

Speaking about his sense of call to apply for the position, he said, “Sometimes God calls us to places that we don’t want to go, but we need to say ‘yes.’”

Delegates asked Alemán about his Reformed theology, his leadership of the denomination in a contentious climate, and his commitment to supporting particular segments of the RCA, including women, specialized ministers, racial/ethnic groups, and small churches.

“We haven’t been able to master the great commandment of loving one another,” he said during the interview. “My hope is that we will do a lot that—a lot of listening. I’m glad that the vision team was approved and that they’ll help us to move forward. … We may not end up in my preferred place, but … we have a commitment to this group. This is my tribe. I have a commitment to this tribe.”

After extensive conversation between delegates and Alemán, synod voted overwhelmingly to approve him as general secretary.

Alemán joined the RCA staff in 2014 as director of strategic leadership development and coordinator of Hispanic ministries. In this role, he has overseen the leadership priority of Transformed & Transforming, the RCA’s 15-year ministry plan. He’s worked with pastors and churches to identify leaders, help those leaders grow, and develop systems that make leadership development a regular part of ministry. As coordinator of Hispanic ministries, he has worked closely with the RCA’s 65 Hispanic churches and with the Council for Hispanic Ministries. Under his leadership, the council set a goal to plant 50 new churches in five years. Within the first year of that plan, 20 churches were already in the works.

Previously, he has also served as a pastor and church planter in Ontario and California.

Alemán will be installed as general secretary on Tuesday, June 12, and will assume his new responsibilities as general secretary officially on July 1.

“I know this is a challenging time for us. … But God’s not done with the Reformed Church in America yet,” he said. “We have been doing ministry for 390 years and God wants to write the next chapter.”

Read a full profile of Eddy Alemán at www.rca.org/eddy. For more news from General Synod, visit www.rca.org/synod.