After close to 70 years of serving as a home base for the Christian Reformed Church in North America and almost all of its ministries, the denominational building at the corner of 28th Street and Kalamazoo Avenue in Grand Rapids, Mich., is closed. Staff hosted an open house and farewell service attended by about 100 people Thursday, June 27.
Dean Heetderks, co-director of ministry services for the CRC and art director for The Banner, gave a history of the building that included a lengthy delay between when the building was first proposed—at the 1945 Synod, by what was then known as the Board of Indian and Foreign Missions—and the project approval by synod eight years later.
In between, several other sites around Grand Rapids and even Chicago were proposed for the building, including a site already owned by the CRCNA where The Banner was published at the time. Synod postponed construction several times because of concerns over the cost of real estate, labor, and materials.
“It took a lot of time to get here. A lot of time,” said Heetderks, who worked in the denominational building for 43 years.
Finally, though, the CRCNA purchased the 9-acre parcel at the corner of 28th and Kalamazoo in 1953. But even then, Heetderks said, there were questions over why that location was chosen.
“(It was asked) why recommend a site near the outskirts of the city (Grand Rapids) instead of downtown,” Heetderks said. “The reason (given was) that it was necessary nowadays to go farther from the busy, congested business district. Today (1953), with so many people using automobiles, it is more important to be in a location where there is ample parking space.”
The denomination broke ground on the headquarters in 1955 and moved into it the following year—“by the good hand of God … without any serious mishaps,” according to an introductory guide to the building shared with guests over the years. The two-story building cost $666,500 to build.
The denomination received so much mail at the new location that it was given its own zip code for a time by the United States Postal Service, a status it held until 2013.
The CRCNA expanded the building twice—in 1967 to provide space for what was then Christian Reformed World Missions and Home Missions, then again in the late 1980s.
“We know that through it all, and even the zip code changes, our good God stayed the same, and our calling to serve his church has remained,” Heetderks said.
CRCNA General Secretary Zach King offered a reflection based on Psalm 126, about the faithfulness of God through the twists and turns of life.
“When we think about this building and about this moment in the Christian Reformed Church, I think we realize the history of our denomination, the history of our churches, is not a straight, smooth path, is it?” King said. “It’s life. It has ups and it has downs. It has cul-de-sacs. It has challenges, and even sometimes breakdowns where we have to pull the tires off and put them back on.
“The thing I want to focus on is just the great blessing that God has been throughout the time of this building, 70 years, all of the good work that God has done through the people that have been part of this building, and all the good work that is yet to come.”
The CRCNA has purchased new office space at 300 East Beltline Ave. NE in Grand Rapids that will become the denomination’s ministry support center. Until that office space is ready for occupancy, the CRCNA will lease office space from the Reformed Church in America. The Grand Rapids-based grocery store chain Meijer has an intent to purchase the former denomination building property with plans to locate a gas station and convenience store on that corner. A Meijer superstore currently operates across the street to the west.
About the Author
Greg Chandler is a freelance news correspondent for The Banner. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
