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West Leonard CRC

Grand Rapids, Michigan

West Leonard CRC was organized in 1889 by members of Alpine Ave. West Leonard (then Crosby Street) was the seventh CRC congregation in Grand Rapids. Twelfth Street CRC merged with West Leonard in 1994.

Looking at membership data since the union, it is disappointing to find that West Leonard now has less families, less total members, and a significantly lower youth ratio than it did in 1994.

Names

Crosby Street
West Leonard

Locations

north side of Crosby St. near Garfield Ave. NW, 1889-1908
1053 Leonard NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 (built 1912, addition 19__)

Pastors

Geert Broene, 1889-1904
Frank Doezema, 1905-14
R. B. Kuiper, 1914-17
S. P. Eldersveld, 1918-20
J. P. De Vries, 1921-26
Richard Veldman, 1927-48
C. Vanden Heuvel, 1949-58
R. Leetsma, 1958-64
A. A. Mulder, 1965-70
E. J. Knott, 1971-78
D. J. Deters, 1979-84
H. J. Weidenaar, 1984-88
Arlan W. Koppendrayer, 1989-93
John L. Hoekwater, 1994-present

Twelfth Street, 1917-1995, cosponsored with Alpine Ave.
Bristolwood, 1961-66

Merger

Twelfth Street, 1994

Membership

Green (lower) line shows membership in families; blue (middle), professing members; red (top), total members; and magenta (thin), non-professing members. Note effect of merger with Twelfth Street CRC in 1994.

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.

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.

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