In the summer of 1889, a dozen families living on the northwest side of Kalamazoo, met for worship in an apple orchard. The meeting was led by the missionary Rev. Joldersma. After a few meetings, they were permitted to begin meeting in the North Westnedge school, and formally organized as Third Reformed Church. A new building was built at 1101 North Westnedge Avenue. By the turn of the century, the congregation had grown to over four hundred members with three services on Sunday. And by 1903, we had our first pipe organ.
As more and more people were using the English language, the church decided to begin an English-language evening service in 1924. All other services and hymns continued to be in Dutch. By 1942, even the Sunday morning services were changed to English.
The church was strongly committed to outreach and missions. There was close cooperation with Reformed churches in Kalamazoo and in Holland, Michigan. The church continued to grow and many of its members were living in more suburban parts of town. So in 1977, ten acres of land on North 10th street were purchased and on April 12, 1981, the first service was held at the this location.
Jeff Porte came on the scene in 1987 and was installed as the Youth Minister. After seven years of effectively building up that ministry, he was asked to become the lead pastor in 1994. Jeff embraced the church’s long history of outreach, building disciples, missions, and cooperation with churches within the Reformed Church in America (RCA). Under Jeff’s direction Third Reformed has helped to start more than a dozen new RCA congregations in the greater Kalamazoo area.
Within a few years, it became clear that the current building was not large enough to serve the growing congregation. So, in 2000, a major expansion was built that included a 1,200-seat worship center as well as many more classrooms and amenities. In 2008, The Point community center was built to more effectively minister to the surrounding neighborhoods.
During that time, Third Reformed Church changed their name to Centerpoint Church, to clearly convey that we are a people who are committed to the centrality of the gospel and present a familiar and welcoming identity.
2020 was a monumental year for Centerpoint Church. God made it clear that our vision moving forward was to be “A renewed city, through a renewed people, to restore a lost and broken world for God’s glory.” We made the shift of being a church in the city, to being a church FOR the city. Many new programs and ministries were launched. And our commitment to being the hands and feet of Christ within our community was amplified. Given the new vision and identity, the branding of the church was re-envisioned to its current look and feel. This video explains our brand and why we present ourselves the way that we do.
Future
Centerpoint Church is excited to announce becoming a part of The Kingdom Network beginning in the fall of 2022.
After celebrating over a hundred and thirty-three years within the Reformed Church in America, Centerpoint Church has made the decision to leave the Reformed Church in America. This decision is based on the fact that Centerpoint Church’s beliefs and where Centerpoint Church
feels God is calling them are no longer aligned with RCA. As Centerpoint Church looks ahead to the Kingdom Network, its beliefs and values could not be more aligned with Centerpoint Church. Centerpoint Church is one of several previous RCA-affiliated churches in the Southwest Michigan area that have left the RCA and joined the emerging Kingdom Network. Alongside The Bridge Church, North Point Church, Hope Reformed, Martin CRC, and Centerpoint Church have hopes of developing their own local expression of the network in the Southwest Michigan area.
This local expression gives Centerpoint Church the ground to further step into its vision of renewing the city. “The RCA has been an important part of Centerpoint Church and my family. While it is a hard decision to leave, we could not be more excited about where we are going! The Kingdom Network is going to be a phenomenal family of churches, we get to put together our own local expression of the Kingdom Network right here in Kalamazoo as we pursue living into our vision of renewing the city.” - Jeff Porte.