About

About

Beliefs & Confessions

Faithful to the Word of God

What do we, as members of the Canadian and American Reformed Church, believe? Our beliefs and confessions are rooted in scripture. Throughout the history of the Christian church, the main teachings of the Bible have been summarized in documents called creeds and confessions.

We have adopted three creeds as our own:

We have also adopted three confessions:

These creeds and confessions were developed over hundreds of years to help clarify historical differences in understanding scripture. We consider these creeds and confessions to be faithful summaries of the Word of God which are primarily used today for teaching purposes. As human documents, however, they only possess human authority. The Word of God alone possesses divine authority. Therefore, the contents of our confessions are always subject to, and tested by, the standard we find in the Word of God.

Our Broader Family

The Canadian and American Reformed Churches

The Canadian and American Reformed Churches are a federation of over seventy Christian churches throughout North America. We are defined by our intention to obey the call of Christ to be a unified church. What does this mean? It means that we help each other remain true to the Reformed faith. We accept each other’s members as if they were our own. We support each other’s pastors to preach the Word. And we all work together on major initiatives like missions and pastoral training. Our church is also affiliated with the United Reformed Churches and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

History

Our church’s Pacific Northwest roots began with the creation of the Lynden American Reformed Church in 1984. Eighty-five U.S. members had been worshiping in Abbotsford, BC for many years and felt it was time to start a church in their own country.

The first meetings in the U.S. were held at Covenant Christian School and in March 1985, we instituted to become our own American Reformed Church belonging to the Federation of American & Canadian Reformed churches.

Our first minister Rev. Art Van Delden was installed in November 1985. During his tenure we were able to purchase land further south on Northwood Road to build a parsonage and later a church building. We had our first service there in 1988. With some renovations along the way, this remains our meeting place.

In 1992, Rev. Van Delden left us for Australia and Rev. Bill Wielenga answered God's call to serve our church. After more than 30 years, he continues to faithfully serve and preach God's word as our pastor.

God blessed this church with fruitfulness and growth. By 2017, we had more than 400 members from every generation, which prompted another congregation to form in the Everson area in 2018.

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