My grandparents, parents have long been faithful members of the CRC.  What is keeping me here is the fact that the congregation of which I am a member remains faithful to God's word and I sense that the denomination is going in a direction that is unfaithful to Scripture.

I was born in GR at the "other" hospital- St. Mary's in the early 50s. My mother, whom I never met, gave me up for adoption to a couple that had no children and were not Christians. I lived in the area of GR that is now called Wyoming, and there was a chapel I walked by on the way to my school each day. Some of the kids in the neighborhood asked me to go to what they called Bible School, and soon I started disappearing Sunday mornings from home to go to Sunday school. My adopted mother followed me once and found out I was going to that chapel, and she started to attend services occasionally. My adopted dad became disabled and had to move to Arizona for his health; the evangelist of the chapel- Mulder, found out and stopped in our home and gave my dad a small Bible with a name and address in it of a person to contact if he ever needed help in AZ.

My mother and I had to sell the house and everything in it, and put whatever possessions in the car and travel to AZ to find my dad; once there, having no where to go we contacted that name in the Bible. After a bit of a struggle with life, and with the sincere help of a good Dutch AZ transplant from GR, we found ourselves out of gratitude attending that family's church in Tucson. After a time, I was baptized with my parents into the CRC family- I really do not remember much about the event, but my parents were pretty happy. Both of my parents died not long after that baptism, and the minister of that church took me in because no one wanted me.

Today I am still with the CRC- even though much has changed in my life.  I live in Montana; married to a wonderful girl who shares my love of the faith and church; graduated from a Christian high school and college; have three wonderful children and 6 grandchildren all baptized into the faith that I love and continue to share that love in their homes scattered around the country.

I still have that little Bible- it is a little worn; the chapel in Wyoming, Community CRC- rather appropriately named, is now a church that has replaced its mother church which folded because too many people moved away; after much study and teaching of history and polity-I now humbly serve as Stated Clerk for a CRC Classis.  I still remember my baptism in that little AZ church- unfortunately that church also has folded; and all the people who thought enough to take time and introduce the love of Christ to me a long time ago- they were CRC people.

It is this love of Christ, and the desire to share that same love with others that will perhaps be the most lasting legacy of the CRC...my church.

I am now, and will continue to be a part of the CRC legacy; sharing the love of Christ- a vision given long ago to a small boy walking alone:-)

I became Christian Reformed at age 19. I grew up in one of more conservative Reformed churches and remember many passionate arguments among my parents, aunts & uncles about which stripe of "reformed" had it right. One of the things that most stands out for me is that the Christian Reformed Church defines itself by what it stands FOR - all the others define themselves by what they are against.

I was born and raised in the CRC in Holland MI.  I caught my first glimpse of what the church is really all about when I was 18 and went on a summer mission assignment to Harlem, NY in '61.   All through high school and college I thought I was on my way to the ministry, but the further along I went, the more doubts I had about that vocation.  I did a two year seminary internship in the city in the midst of the racial crises of the late 60s, and then just dropped out rather than finishing seminary.  I wanted to put distance between me and most of the rest of my life including church.   So we went to a cabin in the woods far from  everything..... but in a little town 3 miles away there was a Lutheran church that enfolded us and we rediscovered God's grace.   Came back to Grand Rapids where I've worked for the denomination ever since.  There are things I deeply love about the CRC, and things I don't.   But clearly there is a history of faithfulness in this denomination, a history of being graced by God and responding in obedience.   I've been a member of my local congregation now for about 44 years.  These are my people, my family.   Here's where  I've been shaped by faithful preaching,  here's where my kids have been baptized, and here's where I found my support when I experienced the death of our daughter.   And here's where I'm committed to living out my own life of obedience and finding God's grace when I fail.   Here's where my marriage is nourished, my discipleship is nurtured, and my life is lived.  

I came with a member of another CRC church to visit the Hammond, IN CRC in October of 1992 during an evening service.  Carl Afman was the minister on staff at that time.  I felt comfortable enough to attend on a regular basis.  I became a member by professing my faith in July of 1993. I have grown spiritually at the Hammond CRC.  The Church family is warm and loving, I found a church where my spiritual gifts were discovered and explained to me.  I have been there now 18yrs. I am Christian Reformed because the growth of a christian begins with the teachings of Jesus Christ.  The CRC church is Christ centered on Prayer, Reading the Bible and allowing God to speak to you and through you. We believe in God the Father/Son/Holy Spirit. Jesus is my friend - I would have it no other way.

Like many America evangelicals I was completely over the feel-good lie of the Americanized gospel. From pre-millennial dispensationalism to straight out Arminius doctrine I had left the church, I have seen infidelity, theft, arrogance you name it- but the most egregious of all there sins was the fact that not even the pastors knew what they believed and why they believe it. As I began to study church history (in desperation to have church by my self) I began to study Luther & Calvin, it was through a slow process of understanding just how far the current false American church had fallen, and the wonderful joy of what she (the church that is ) once was and could one day be again I became Reformed.

My Pastor is truly a man of God; who very clearly know what he believes and why he believes it. Our church -Bradenton Christina Reformed Church BCRC in Florida is growing each day as we (through our Pastors leading) return to that which was lost namely: Christ; and what God has done in Christ to save sinners the coming judgment.

My story? That’s easy I got saved 2000 years ago on a cross by my savior Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with my church, my accomplishments, my decision; it is the loving hand of my gracious God and savior who called by his own will. That’s it there is nothing more…..

I became Christian Reformed when our family emigrated from Holland in 1953

Having been raised Anglican, and attended various other churches including a couple of Baptist churches, my wife and I were looking for a church we could both be at home in. Our family was split, with my wife and one daughter going to an Episcopal church, and I and my other daughter attending a Baptist church. (We knew it was time to find a church together when a well-intentioned person at the Baptist church grossed out my teenage daughter by asking if she thought I'd like to be introduced to a "very nice lady"!) We were invited to a service at our local CRC church, which was associated with the Christian school our youngest daughter attended. My wife was thrilled with the greeting she received from several people who knew her through the school (and the fact that I was "her other half" as against the reverse!) I quite simply heard preached the Bible I had been reading, having arrived through a long and complex theological road to a Reformed understanding of Scripture. Here we still are 20 years later.

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