Since 1983, the Christian Reformed Church’s Loan Fund has provided low-interest loans for church building improvements. In recent years, these loans have supported collaborative projects such as a renovation at Madison Church: South Hill (Grand Rapids, Mich.) that included space for a licensed early childhood center and a children’s ministry wing. In 2024 the Loan Fund financed Rudyard (Mich.) CRC’s classroom addition, which will also be used by a local Christian school.
Rudyard CRC is in Michigan’s rural Upper Peninsula. It was organized in 1901 by Dutch settlers and has been on the same piece of land for more than a century. The church started with a small chapel and later built a second building for classrooms to serve its growing congregation. Eventually the chapel was torn down, and the congregation built a new sanctuary attached to the classroom building. Some classrooms were removed to provide space for fellowship activities, meals, and gatherings.
As the congregation grew, Rudyard CRC saw a need for more space for youth ministry. It assembled a building committee to explore solutions. While it had been considering an expansion for quite some time, Rudyard’s fundraising capacity was limited. The congregation is in a small farming community without many members able to make large donations.
Despite the space constraints, the church’s youth ministry has flourished. God has entrusted Rudyard CRC with many congregational children and even more community children who attend the church’s GEMS (girls club), Cadets (boys club), youth group, and vacation Bible school programs. They had been making do with some additional effort—Cadets learned woodworking in the fellowship hall using equipment hauled to and from the attic each week; GEMS met in the narthex and sanctuary, where they set up and packed away their projects each week; and for VBS, the narthex and fellowship hall were partitioned with blankets for different age groups and activities.
At the same time, a small Christian school nearby was facing its own challenges of operating out of an old building that was inaccessible to people with disabilities. The school received a donation for improvements, but the donation would not fully fund the needed renovations or a new building.
Out of their shared financial limits and need for classroom space, an opportunity for collaboration between church and school was born. They developed a long-term site plan with a phased approach that would meet the church’s and school’s current needs and allow for future expansions. Rudyard CRC talked with commercial banks about securing a loan, but the requirements and rates still put the project out of reach. The CRC’s Loan Fund offered the low-cost financing Rudyard CRC needed to begin construction and bring the vision to life.
Nate Beelen, an educator and the church’s building committee chair, believes the church has a responsibility to be a light in the community by providing spiritual education to students in both the local Christian and public schools. In his holistic picture of education, he sees the church playing an important role by working with and alongside families to support the spiritual development of their children. This building project creates space for those opportunities to happen during school hours, in the evenings, and on the weekends. The church hoped to begin using the new addition by the start of the new year. “It wouldn’t have happened without the Loan Fund,” Beelen said.
The Loan Fund hopes to continue supporting churches and schools in their growth and is exploring the possibility of lending directly to Christian schools too. The Loan Fund’s lending activities are made possible by investments. It offers investment certificates with terms ranging from one to five years. More information can be found at crcna.org/loanfund.
About the Author
Layla Kuhl, CRC Loan Fund
