CRC Celebrates 150 Years of Ministry in 2007

December 27, 2007

In a year in which the Christian Reformed Church in North America celebrated its 150th anniversary, church members and representatives of denominational ministries reached out and responded to a range of local and world events.

In a year that saw floods in Bangladesh, war in Iraq, and ongoing strife in Darfur, the CRCNA stepped forward, in each of these cases as well as in many others, to provide everything from food and shelter to resettlement services for refugees.

Throughout 2007, the ministry of the church also offered spiritual comfort and education to countless thousands of people. A Christian school in Sierre Leone was established, denominational chaplains offered prayer and solace to gang members in Guatemala, and churches across the western U.S. rallied to help start the rebuilding of a Cambodian CRC in Utah that was hit by an arsonist in October.

At home in North America and abroad, the last 12 months have seen the church re-assess its past and reflect on its present challenges as it faces the future. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, offered a compelling overview of the denomination in a keynote address at the CRC’s 150th Anniversary Conference at Calvin College inSeptember.

“What is clear is that there is a widespread sense that the CRC has come to an important point in its history, and that is the time to think new thoughts and to take new steps for the next stage in the denominational journey …but we must not do so without also keeping our spiritual and theological memories alive,” said Mouw.

Here is a look at some of the news stories—the ones that made headlines and the ones that were reported without much fanfare—that give a glimpse at how the CRCNA fared in 2007:

  • CRC Communications rang in the new year of 2007 with a new denominational website for the CRC.
  • In February, an outbreak of violence forced missionaries with Christian Reformed World Missions to be evacuated from Guinea, West Africa. The situation got better and they returned in March.
  • In March, Christians in Canada gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the law abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire. “If we don’t remember, we can’t undo the effects of slavery,” Pastor Fred Witteveen, of Friendship Community CRC in Toronto, told the crowd at a special service of remembrance.
  • In April, a circuit court judge ruled that the building and assets of the Lamont (Mich.) CRC will remain with members of the church, not with a group that broke away.
  • In June, 12,000 worshippers gathered in the Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids to celebrate the denomination’s 150th anniversary.
  • Also in June, the CRC Synod decided to delete the word “male” from the Church Order, opening the door for women to serve as delegates to Synod. In addition, the Synod voted to “discourage the practice of infant dedication” and decided not to adopt a proposal of the 2006 Synod that would have opened the way for all baptized children to take part in communion, whether or not they had made a public profession of faith.
  • Late in June, the Back to God Hour announced that one of its media partners was taking advantage of YouTube, the popular Internet site by posting a fund-raising video.
  • In August, the United States government awarded the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee a $1.4 million grant to ramp up its work in Darfur.
  • In September, Odenor St. Cyr, the long-time director of the Haitian Program for Training Diaconal Organizations, was shot to death in Port au Prince. CRWRC helped to sponsor his organization.
  • In October, Calvin Theological Seminary received its largest single gift ever – more than $2 million from Sid Jansma Jr., president of Wolverine Gas & Oil Corp.
  • In November, more than 100 people marched through Nigerian communities to commemorate the one-year-anniversary of a peace agreement that the CRC helped to broker.
  • Also in November, the CRCNA announced that it will close its Grand Rapids printing plant operations in early 2008
  • In December, Faith Alive Christian Resources re-issued “Earth-Wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues,” a groundbreaking work on environmental stewardship by Calvin DeWitt. The re-issue of the book came out on the heels of a global warming summit in Indonesia at which the United States pledged support to help stop the warming of the planet.
  • Also in December, the CRCNA announced that it will host the inaugural meeting of the newly formed World Communion of Reformed Church in 2010 at Calvin College.
  • Besides the denomination’s 150th anniversary, 2007 also was the year in which the CRC’s Friendship Ministries and the office of Disability Concerns each celebrated its 25th anniversary.

To read all the stories from 2007, visit our newsroom.

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Chris Meehan