The Meaning Behind Our Name

Living Hope

Our "first" name comes from 1 Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Our hope for living is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We don’t reminisce about a deceased hero. We serve a living Savior. That’s why we communicate the mission of our church like this:

Jesus is the Hope of the World
Know the Hope
Live the Hope
Share the Hope

We would love to help you know Jesus personally, live for Jesus daily and share Jesus freely with those around you.

Christian

Our next part of our name roots us in the universal church and its basic beliefs. Throughout the ages and throughout the world, Christians express their faith based on the Bible through the words of the Apostles’ Creed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit
the holy Christian church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Reformed

If the church universal is the trunk that gives us root, then the Reformed tradition and, more specifically, our own Christian Reformed denomination, make up the branch on which we grow.

This Reformed faith is beautifully expressed in the words of Heidelberg Catechism, Question and Answer 1:

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own,
but belong--
body and soul,
in life and in death--
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

For a contemporary statement of what the Christian Reformed Church believes see Our World Belongs to God.

For more information on the Christian Reformed Church in North America visit our denomination’s website.

Church

That brings us to the last word in our name - Church. For us a church is not so much a building, as it is a people - a people with a mission. Following the model of the early church (Acts 2:41-47) we devote ourselves to these New Testament values:

Supported by spiritual leaders and a congregation mobilized according to spiritual gifts, together with our brothers and sisters in our city and around the world,

In a culturally relevant, personally authentic, individually sensitive and intentionally excellent way.