E&R Church. General Council. Committee on Vital Christian Living.

The General Council. Committee on Vital Christian Living was authorized by the General Synod of 1950 (112). The committee was to "concern itself with vitalizing the spiritual life of our membership by any and all means relevant to existing needs" (Proceedings of the General Synod 1951, 261). During its first meeting the committee developed the following statement of its purpose: "It shall be the purpose of this committee to bring together, point out and pick up what the various agencies of the church are already doing to revitalize the spiritual life of the whole church (ministers and members), to find new and creative ways of quickening interest and making methods effective in the local church...with the ultimate objective to deepen the faith and quicken the life of the church" (261). To carry out its purpose the committee developed eight programs: traveling missioner program, pastor's retreats and convocations, advent and Lenten letters to all ministers, column "Open Letter to the Laity" published in "The Messenger", an experimental Advent Family Altar published, an experimental lay retreat was held, a program of Preaching Conferences were held in twenty regional synods, and a tract entitled "Genius of the Evangelical and Reformed Church" was published. The committee was dissolved by action of the 1953 General Synod and its work divided between the Commission of Evangelism and the newly created Commission on Church and Ministry.