Sunshine Community CRC Sold

Sunshine Community Church, once one of the largest congregations in the Christian Reformed Church, has sold its facility and 77-acre site in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to a non-denominational church that plans to use it for a second campus.

“There is a sense of grief any time you do something like this,” said Joshua Blunt, lead pastor of Sunshine.

“There are a lot of good memories, hopes, and dreams that we’ll leave behind. But we have a growing excitement about our new vision.”

The Sunshine congregation voted in early August to sell their facility. Terms of the sale to Resurrection Life Church of Rockford, Mich., which has about 3,000 people attending services on weekends, have not been disclosed.

The facility features a 2,300-seat auditorium, two coffee bars, nurseries, conference rooms, a ministry center for youth, and soccer fields.

As final details of the sale are being worked out, Sunshine members will continue to worship on the current site while looking for a new place for worship and ministry in northeastern Grand Rapids, said Blunt.

“Our heart is for that part of the community, and we want to reach a younger demographic of underserved families,” said Blunt.

Begun as a chapel 1923, Sunshine CRC has ministered in four different locations. The current church building opened in 1989. At one time, said Blunt, more than 3,000 people attended services at the church every week. The number attending now is about 450 and includes many committed members who have been with the church for decades.

Over the years, the facility has also been the site for many graduation ceremonies, concerts, and Christian conferences.

“We see our future in being an outreach-based rather than a Sunday-focused ministry. We want to connect young families with different resources such as mentors and classes and training,” Blunt said.

Some churches today can follow the larger church model and do it successfully, but “it wasn’t working for us,” said Blunt.

“Sunshine’s ministry model once was to attract as many people as possible to come to the church on Sunday,” said Blunt. “We now think it is a lot more important to focus on what people are doing the other six days of the week.”

On its website, Resurrection Life says that it hopes to be worshiping in the new location by early 2017.

“Just as Sunshine is doing,” said Blunt, “Resurrection Life is pursuing a dynamic new vision, and it requires a facility configuration like the one at Sunshine Church.

“We are humbled to be able to work with another West Michigan congregation to give them a facility and property that fits their mission.”