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Historical Profile: Common Ground Community Church

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Common Ground Community was organized as Calvary Reformed Church in 1915 as a daughter church of Third and Bethany. The congregation grew quickly under Dr. Martin R. De Haan, a physician who had been transformed from a faithful, life-long church member into a passionate disciple of Jesus Christ by a near-death experience at the age of 30. In his own words, "After a life of sin for 30 years I was born again of the Spirit in October 1921. Since then, my only hope and aim is to exalt Him, to whom be all glory forever and ever."

Less than a year later he decided to sell his medical practice and begin study for the pastorate at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. He graduated in 1925, and Calvary Reformed was his first pastorate. His passionate preaching drew crowds, but some of his teachings were outside of the Reformed tradition: De Haan believed that infants should not be baptized; only believers should be baptized, and that should be done by full immersion. He also promoted the premillenial view that Christ's second coming would precede a literal 1,000 year reign on earth.

De Haan came to dispute Reformed beliefs, and he was deposed as a Reformed Church pastor in 1929. De Haan led the vast majority of the congregation to form Calvary Undenominational Church (now simply Calvary Church) in 1929. He served as its pastor until 1938, when he resigned and went on to found Radio Bible Class (now RBC Ministries).

The church went through a "restart" in 2000 and adopted the name Common Ground Community Church. The "new" church began to worship in the Forest Hills Northern high school auditorium on Sept. 24, 2000 and moved to the original Calvary location on Sept. 16, 2001.

Names

Calvary Reformed Church, 1915-2000

Common Ground Community Church, 2000-present

Location

1515 East Fulton

Forest Hills Northern high school (2000-2001)

Visit the Common Ground Community Church website.

Pastors

Clarence P. Dame, 1916-18
Andrew Stegenga, 1918-19
Miner Stegenga, 1919-24
Martin R. De Haan, 1925-29, founder of Calvary Undenominational Church
Jacob Prins, 1929-34
Harry L. Brower, 1935-41
Jerry A. Veldman, 1943-48
George C. Douma, 1949-57
Donald K. Blackie, 1958-66
Peter J. Breen, 1967-79
James G. De Witt, 1979-present
Tom Archer, 1996-present

Membership

Rev. Martin R. De Haan was deposed in 1929. Over eighty percent of the congregation followed him to found Calvary Undenominational Church.

Heavy lines: green (lower) shows membership in families; blue (middle), professing members; red (top), total members. Thin lines: magenta (middle), non-professing members; orange (lower), inactive members; black (top), average worship attendance.

Source: Acts of Synod of the Reformed Church in America. Dates are year prior to publication date since data is gathered at the end of one year and published in the next.

For more membership data, click here.

Go to RCA geographic index or RCA chronological index.

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