Second Christian Reformed Church sits on the corner of Front and Eighth Streets in downtown Lynden, Washington, where the original 1920s worship center is still in use, a 1978 education building stands across Eighth Street, and a remodeled house on 8th Street serves as the church office. The congregation was started in 1920 by thirty-one members of the Dutch-speaking First Christian Reformed Church in Lynden who wanted an English-speaking service, and a century later the same Front Street property still anchors the Second family.
Sunday at Second
Sunday morning worship begins at 10:30 am, with a second service at 6:00 pm. Both services center on God's Word and the congregation's response, combining the pastor's sermon with prayer, a mix of music, offerings, and time for baptisms during the morning hour. Missionaries and other guests regularly testify in worship about how God is at work. Each year the church observes the Christian year through services on Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost, and gathers for community worship on the National Day of Prayer, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Eve. Each summer brings an outdoor service, and the Christian Reformed churches of Whatcom County occasionally join for combined evenings.
Before and After the Service
Adult Sunday School meets at 9:20 am in two settings. In the church office, a teacher leads a discussion of the Heidelberg Catechism, working through its 129 questions and answers around the themes of guilt, grace, and gratitude. In the church basement, another class gathers for a small group study on Christian worldview. After the morning service, the church basement is set up for snacks and fellowship, and prayer partners, including the church elders, are available at the back of the sanctuary for anyone who would like to pray with them. On the fourth Sunday evening of each month, the congregation stays for a half hour of prayer together after the evening service.
Children and Youth
Sunday school runs from 9:15 am for children age two through eighth grade, with Little Lambs for the youngest and The Gospel Project curriculum for Pre-K through 8th grade. Drop-off is at the north door of the education building, where Pre-K through 5th grade gather for joint worship at 9:15 am before splitting into classrooms. The Sunday school offering each year supports ministries like Starfish Ministries in Haiti. A staffed nursery for infants and toddlers is available in the lower level of the sanctuary during worship, and every adult volunteer there has passed a background check.
Boys in 2nd through 8th grade can join Cadets, which meets on alternating Monday evenings at 6:30 pm in the education building. The year includes Snow Derby, pinewood derby, a midwinter camp night, and new badges. Girls in the same age range can join GEMS, also on alternating Mondays at 6:30 pm. The high school youth group meets on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the education building, while 9th through 12th grade students gather for Bible study at 9:00 am at Bethel CRC on Liberty Street.
Adults Around the Tables
The congregation offers a packed calendar of Bible studies for men and women. Men meet on the first and third Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:00 pm in the education building for a Bible study, and on Saturday mornings at 7:45 am at Fairway Café for a Bible study that comes with bacon and coffee. Sisters in the Lord gathers Thursday afternoons at 1:30 pm in the education building for a study of Hebrews. Friendship Circle, for women of all ages, meets on alternating Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm to study the book of James. A ladies' evening Bible study meets on Fridays at 6:00 pm in the education building, working through Galatians. Senior ministries offer fellowship events for those 65 and older every few months, with an annual summer barbecue at the Tjoelkers' home.
A Century on Front Street
Second CRC was formed on October 27, 1920, when thirty-one members of First Christian Reformed Church in Lynden left to begin an English-speaking congregation. The group met for a year in the Christian School before buying the property on Front Street between Seventh and Eighth for $1,500. They had money only for a basement, and that basement was their worship space until the church building was completed on November 1, 1929. The original parsonage, built in 1924 at Seventh and Front, was later moved to Grover Street and converted into church offices. An education building was added in 1978, the worship center was renovated in 2010 to make it more accessible, and the church office was remodeled in 2014 with its entrance now on 8th Street.
Over the decades, the congregation has run Sunday school, boys and girls clubs, ministries to prisoners and Cambodian refugees, supported church plants in Whatcom County, and taken part in community efforts like the Lynden Million Smiles Playground Project and Habitat for Humanity houses.
The Building and Getting Around
The worship center on the corner of Front and Eighth Streets has been the sanctuary since 1920, with the last remodel in 2010. An elevator runs from the ground level to the sanctuary and the basement fellowship hall, ramps lead into each of the three buildings, and the sanctuary has space in the pews for wheelchairs. Accessible parking is reserved on the west side of the church near the entrances, and because most Lynden businesses close on Sundays, there is plenty of street parking, plus a lot shared with the bank and the Grandiflora lot nearby. The education building across Eighth Street houses Sunday school classrooms, the fellowship room, and the rooms where GEMS and Cadets meet. The church office in the house just north of the education building has its own parking by the front door on 8th Street.
Hands and Prayers
Mission Quilters gather every other Tuesday afternoon from 1:30 to 3:00 pm in the education building, tying, cutting, sewing, and assembling quilts. In a recent year they gave away forty-one quilts in sizes from twin to doll. The prayer ministry takes several forms. A monthly prayer meeting is held on the 22nd of each month from 7:00 to 8:00 pm in the office building, and a second one meets on the second Wednesday of every month at the same time. A prayer chain, run by email and phone calls, circulates specific needs among the congregation. Sunday morning prayer partners are available after every service, and the half hour of prayer after the fourth Sunday evening service draws those who want to keep praying with the body.
Reformed and Rooted
Second Christian Reformed Church belongs to the Christian Reformed Church in North America, a denomination of roughly 300,000 members in about a thousand congregations across the United States and Canada. The church's faith and preaching are anchored in the Three Forms of Unity: the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, and the Heidelberg Catechism, with the contemporary testimony Our World Belongs to God used alongside them. The congregation also affirms the three ecumenical creeds: the Apostles' Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Nicene Creed.
The Concept of Ministry commits the congregation to biblical preaching and Reformed worship, services that allow lay participation with flexibility in style, ministries that develop the spiritual growth of members, gospel outreach locally and through the denomination's mission work, and a fellowship that welcomes and assimilates new people.
Missions and Partners
The church supports a wide circle of mission work. Locally and in Whatcom County, that includes Love INC, which coordinates Christian churches to serve their neighbors in practical ways, Summit House, a discipleship program for men and women working through addiction or homelessness, Envision Mission in Bellingham, the Whatcom County Pregnancy Clinic, Northwest Hispanic Ministries helping immigrant families resettle, and Bethany Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, a church plant that grew out of a Bible study in Maple Falls. Across the country and around the world, the church supports Mission India's church planting, Starfish Ministries in Haiti, International Christian Response, Wycliffe Bible Translators through Ken and Chris Van Weerdhuize, and the ministry of Glen De Young to children in India. The congregation also gives through the denomination's Ministry Shares, which fund church planting, chaplaincy, leadership training, and media outreach.
Pastor and People
Pastor Ben deRegt has served the congregation since 2010, and lives in Lynden with his wife Kate and sons Isaiah and Andrew. The church office is open from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and can be reached at (360) 354-3961. Services are livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, and a sermon archive is also kept there. Giving is available online through Tithe.ly.