About Us

"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." (I Cor. 12:12)

The Spirit’s striking description of the church in I Corinthians 12 ought to echo resoundingly in the heart of every believer. The church of God is Christ's crowning work. This is a church chosen in Christ eternally, redeemed in His shed blood, declared righteous based solely on His perfect work, and gathered out of every nation, tribe, and tongue. This church consists of countless different, unique individuals, distinguished by age, gifts, race, and circumstance of life, all perfectly formed into one body. Each member is necessary, having a unique place and function according to God's perfect plan. The glorious, blood-bought church of Christ.

The Byron congregation is a manifestation of that one church. It consists of many members, unique in themselves, with various gifts, trials, and circumstances as God determined. What a joy to be part of this body of believers where the love of Christ is manifested. Perfection is not our claim, except the perfection, that small beginning, that Christ has worked in each member by His Spirit. By faith we live and manifest to each other the love and kindness of Christ.

Many members, one body of Christ.

The original Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church (BCPRC) was formed in 1929. The congregation enjoyed Rev. George Ophoff as her faithful minister from 1929-1945, at which time the church disbanded. The Byron Center PRC had its second beginning when a group of Protestant Reformed adults from the Cutlerville/Byron Center area met in the library of Byron Center Township in the spring of 1981 to study the Canons of Dordt. From this class, the Hudsonville PRC consistory took a survey of how many were interested in starting a Protestant Reformed church in the area.

At a meeting held in March of 1983, 21 families indicated they were indeed interested in starting a new church. A feasibility committee of nine men was chosen to contact these families and draw up a budget.  A meeting was held in April when a request was filed with the stated clerk of Classis East to seek approval to form a new congregation.  The plan was for Hudsonville PRC to oversee the activities until Classis approved the request. Worship services began on August 7 at the Byron Center Christian Junior High School. Approval from Classis came on September 14. An organizational service was held on October 20, 1983, with 22 families and two single men making up the church family of the new Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church.

The Lord richly blessed these members by providing a new church building in Byron Center. The first services were held on August 14, 1988, with 41 families and seven individuals. In 2002, a foyer, four classrooms, a consistory room and library were added to the building.

We celebrated 25 years of existence in 2008. Two former pastors were invited to preach for us during our celebration. Other memorable events in our history include several women’s retreats sponsored by our church in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2013 and a men’s conference in 2012.

The denominational Synod of 2016 designated Byron Center PRC to call a home missionary and to work with him and the domestic mission committee to search out new fields of labor in the United States.  In September, 2017, Our then pastor, Rev. Spriensma, accepted that call and labored as our home missionary until early 2021, when he accepted the call from Cornerstone PRC to be her minister. In early 2018, we received our fifth minister when Rev. Andrew Lanning accepted our call after having served five years as the PRCA’s minister-on-loan to Singapore.

In June of 2018, our congregation was the largest it had ever been to date at about 125 families and 525 members. She was faithfully served by nine elders and seven deacons. A long range planning committee was assigned to study how best to respond to this wonderful growth — should we renovate and add on to our existing structure, or form a daughter church? In the infinite wisdom of God, we were led to the decision to form a daughter church, and Unity PRC was established in 2019. This reduced our large congregation to about 82 families.

In 2020, our congregation and denomination experienced a great deal of upheaval that resulted in approximately 42 families leaving our congregation and the denomination. This was a painful and trying time for the Byron Center PRC family, but our covenant-keeping God continued to faithfully keep us in His care and has blessed our remaining 44 family congregation in ways that continue to make us marvel. Though we received faithful preaching each Sunday through the seminary and ministers assigned by Classis East, we looked forward to receiving our own minister of God’s choosing to be our pastor and to lead us in the green pastures of His Word. 

In the summer of 2021, the Lord answered our prayer when he led Prof. Russel Dykstra, a longtime professor of the Protestant Reformed Seminary, who had recently been granted emeritation, to accept our call to be Byron Center’s sixth pastor. 

To our ever faithful Heavenly Father, we express our gratitude and give Him all the glory for the riches of His grace through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Ministers who have served our congregation:

B. Gritters, 1984 – 1994

D.J. Kuiper, 1995 – 2001

R. VanOverloop,  2004 – 2008

A. Spriensma, 2010 – 2017

A. Lanning, 2018 – 2020

R. Dykstra, 2021-

Article contributors: Mrs. Ardith Oomkes; Mr. Harlow Kuiper

The Protestant Reformed Churches in America are a denomination of 31 churches and over 7800 members in the United States and Canada. Founded as a separate denomination of Reformed churches in 1924, the PRC stand in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Their origin as a denomination was the doctrinal controversy over “common grace” within the Christian Reformed Church in the early 1920s, occasioned by that church’s adoption of the doctrine of common grace as official church dogma. The result of the controversy was that several ministers with their congregations were put out of the Christian Reformed Church. These men then established the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) on the basis of the truth of God’s sovereign, particular grace in Jesus Christ as taught in Scripture.

Foremost among the founders of the PRC was Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965), long-time pastor in the First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, MI; prolific author; professor of theology at the Protestant Reformed Seminary for 40 years; and outstanding theologian. In his book, A Half Century of Theology (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1977), the well-known Dutch theologian G.C. Berkouwer, acknowledged that “the unquestionably sharp theological thought of the American theologian Herman Hoeksema played an important role” in his theological development. In fact, Berkouwer chose Hoeksema as his “dialogue partner” (p. 98). The “dialogue,” however, was profound disagreement, particularly Berkouwer’s disagreement with Hoeksema’s staunch adherence to the Reformed doctrine of predestination.

Congregations are located throughout the United States, especially in the Midwest but also extending to Colorado, California, and Washington state in the west. Additionally, we have three congregations in Canada, two in Alberta, Canada (Edmonton and Lacombe) and one in Ontario (Wingham).

Holding the Presbyterian form of church government, the denomination is organized in two classes, Classis East and Classis West (the eastern border of Illinois being the boundary), which meet two or three times a year, and in a Synod, which meets annually in June. Without detracting from the principle of the binding authority of the major assemblies, the Protestant Reformed churches emphasize that each congregation is self-governing by a body of elders chosen out of the congregation (the “autonomy of the local congregation”). Hence, the name of the denomination — not “Church” (singular), but “Churches” (plural).

The churches endured a severe, internal, doctrinal controversy in the early 1950s in defense of the unconditionality of the covenant of grace (sovereign, particular grace applied to the covenant). As a result of this struggle, the denomination was reduced in size. However, at the present time there is stability and steady growth, lovely activity, and peace for these churches.

*Source: http://www.prca.org/prc.html#history