‘A hope-filled moment’: Reformed Church in America announces it's selling Michigan office
The Reformed Church in America has decided to sell a prominent ministry building in Michigan that the denomination has owned for over 30 years.
The denomination announced Monday that its General Synod Council voted in March to sell the Michigan Regional Center in Grand Rapids.
The 32,000-square-foot building, which was dedicated in May 1993, is owned by the RCA's General Synod Council and the Regional Synod of the Great Lakes, and includes the DeWitt Ministry Center.
Leaders said the building no longer fits the denomination’s needs. The sale proposal approved by the council states that the facility “far exceeds the staffing footprint and needs,” with its cost and excess space posing challenges.
GSC Moderator Joshua Scheid was quoted in the announcement as saying that the RCA was “deeply grateful for the MRC and for every ministry that has been supported within its walls.”
“This is a hope-filled moment for the RCA,” Scheid stated. “We are not retreating; we are repositioning for a new generation of ministry. A right-sized facility will help our staff maintain a right-sized focus for collaborative partnership with our churches as Christ continues to build his church.”
“We did not take the proposal lightly,” Scheid added, noting that the sale of the MRC building was first raised at a fall meeting and later revisited this year.
A portion of the funds garnered from the future sale of the building will go to purchasing what the RCA deemed “a right-sized facility” that is expected to be located in western Michigan.
The RCA maintains office space in Orange City, Iowa; New York, New York; and New Brunswick, New Jersey; the GSC has additional staff in California who work remotely.
Originally known as the Dutch Reformed Church in North America, RCA traces its origins to 1628 in the colonial town of New Amsterdam, which was later renamed New York City.
As with other religious groups in the United States, the RCA has experienced a considerable decline in membership and the number of congregations in recent years.
According to one report, among its organized churches, RCA has seen its total membership drop from nearly 105,000 people in 2022 to approximately 79,000 in 2024. Additionally, the number of member churches decreased from 659 in 2022 to 579 in 2024.
However, the denomination has seen modest increases among church plants. The number of church plants increased from 81 in 2022 to 99 in 2024, while membership in those congregations rose from 1,853 in 2023 to 2,446 in 2024.
