Home / CRC Index / Mich. Index / Grand Rapids / Sunshine Community

Sunshine Community Church

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Sunshine Community was sponsored by Mayfair and organized in 1971. A number of members left when Rev. Vander Meer resigned his pastorate, left the Christian Reformed denomination, and began New Community Church in 1991.

Locations

1219 Bradford St. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505 (1923-49)
918 Benjamin Ave. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505 (1949-79)
3295 East Beltline NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505 (1979-89)
3300 East Beltline NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505 (built 1988)

Pastors

Edwin Visscher, evangelist, 1961-65
Lewis R. Vander Meer, 1972-91
H. J. Teitsma, 1979-82
T. J. Berends, 1986-87
Matthew Heard, 1993-present
Thomas Mayo, 1995-present
John Wilczewski, 1997-present
David S. Huizenga, 1997-present

Membership

Sunshine may be the largest congregation in the history of the Christian Reformed denomination; it is definitely the largest in metropolitan Grand Rapids.

Green (lower) line shows membership in families; blue (middle), professing members; red (top), total members; and magenta (thin), non-professing members. Note large drop in membership following departure of Rev. Vander Meer, who then founded New Community Church.

Red line shows nonprofessing members as a percentage of total membership.

Red line shows five year growth rate. A five year growth rate between 10% and -10% is considered stable; greater than 10% indicates a growing congregation; one below -10% indicates a church in decline. This makes no allowance for daughter churches. Note range of scale: due to incredible growth rates, use of normal scale is impractical.

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

Go to main Sunshine page.

Any comments? Please email .