50th Anniversary
Celebrating God's Faithfulness

The history of the Mt Brydges Christian Reformed Church actually begins at East CRC in Strathroy, which was established in 1951. In 1965, a second church  was formed called Westmount CRC, now called Compass Church. During 1975, East CRC was experiencing growth once again. Various methods were tried, such as providing more chairs in the foyer, a portable TV in the back room, but this was only a temporary solution. The idea of a new church arose. At this time Joop DeVoest Sr., Ralph Kok and Klaas Moes got together and realized that many members of the East CRC lived outside of the Strathroy area and wondered if these members would be willing to start a new church in Mt Brydges.

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On January 17th, 1976, a committee was set up to work on establishing a daughter church. The committee consisted of Henk Slaa, Bill Bruinink, Joop DeVoest Sr. and Klaas Moes. The committee enlisted about 45 families, the majority from East CRC, but also some from the Westmount CRC ( now called Compass) and London 1st CRC. A proposal at the Classis meeting, held on May 11, 1976 was accepted and the Lord blessed us with the use of the United Church in Mt. Brydges.

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 On June 15th 1976, under the supervision of our mother church, East CRC, an organizational meeting was held. At this meeting, members were recognized and the results of the voting for elders and deacons were elected. Elders were Jake Bulk, Marinus Noordermeer, John Renkema and William Smink. The Deacons were Gerry Bakker, Ralph Kok and Allen Zietsma. Installation was held that same evening officiated by Rev. Kranenburg.

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Because the United Church building could be rented for Sunday services and only one evening during the week, provisions were made for other meetings that needed to be held. The town hall was rented for Busy Bees and Calvinettes ( now called GEMS). Mrs. Bruinink’s garage, on Emerson street, provided a room for Young Peoples and Cadets. The Southwest Middlesex Medical building was for Council meetings and Granddad’s Cookie Factory, the former Dashwood plant, for Sunday School classes.

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Rev. G Bomhof and JoAnn accepted a call in August of 1976 and stayed till 1980. He officiated his first funeral for 15 year old Ben VanBrenk. He led the church and dealt with many sorts of events, services for weddings, baptisms and professions of faith.

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Pastor Max Lise and Jeannie  accepted a call in 1981 and served until 1985. During those years tragedy struck the close knit church. Larry Boersma died in a car accident in Strathroy. A month later another car accident took the lives of three more members. They were William Smink, Geoffrey Goris and Kelly Knapp who were killed in a head on collision on the way to a hockey game.

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In 1979, Council appointed a long range planning committee consisting of Klaas Moes, Henk Noordermeer, Arnold Oldewening and William Smink. This committee was to find prospects and make plans to buy property for the future building of our own church. In 1983 after much searching, the committee learned that the property of Mr. Snelgrove was available. The decision was made to buy this property, our current property and in 1984 the decision was made to start building the church. Members of the building committee were Guert Buis, Joop DeVoest Sr., John Faber, John Vanderlinde and Arnold Zietsma. On June 21, 1985, the sod turning, groundbreaking was held with the theme, “Building in Love - Built in Love”.

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Rev. John Top and Hennie, accepted a call  in 1987. They served till 1996. Pastor Top continued the Walk of Witness. They also bought the corner lot of the church property and built their house there. 

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Pastor Vic Vandermolen and Nancy accepted the call in 1999 and served till 2007. He was installed by his son, Geoff Vandermolen. The annual Christmas Dinner began with Pastor Vic. This dinner was hosted for the community and was always well attended. There was entertainment as well. During his time here, the name of the church was changed to Hope Community Christian Reformed Church, in 2005. 

 

Pastor Phil Apoll and Lori accepted our call in 2008 and has been with us so far for 18 years. Pastor Phil initiated four mission trips. First one was to Managua, Nicaragua in 2011. The second trip was to Leon, Nicaragua in 2013. The third trip was to Diriamba, Nicaragua in 2015 and the fourth trip was to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican’s in 2024. For a couple of years, we shared the church with the Catholic Church of Delaware, due to damages which closed their church. In March 2020 the COVID Pandemic struck, changing how we did “church”. Church services were held online, which to this day augment our services, making them available to individuals in their homes when they cannot attend. We used this time to revitalize our website presence. It was the only year we missed our annual church picnic.  This was likely the biggest societal impact on our Church in our history.

 

Over the life of our church, our members have been very active. The Young People’s did a play at the London District Drama Festival, where in May of 1979, they won first place. They also won first in 1980, 1981 and 1984. There was a ladies bowling team, a men’s hockey team called the Barons and a craft group, which is still going on today. There were many fundraisers. One of which involved making over 400 dozen oliebollen for New Year’s. Vacation Bible school had as many as 200 children. There were more groups, like the Ladies Society, Vital Signs, Busy Bees, Sunflowers, Cadets and Calvinettes/GEMS ( which had as many as 75 girls, most from the community. There was Farmers Night, SOS (Sisters of Support), now called Women’s Fellowship, and the Volunteers, a church catering group. Also there was also hockey banquets, Coffee Break, Men’s Life, Rest Home Volunteers, Sunday School, Church School and Catechism. And even more. There was Young Couple, which is still going on.  Christmas dinners were held for the community and had as many 300 people. There was Mexican Ministries for workers in the area. Active now is Book Club, Forge ( men’s fitness and Bible study), Youth Group, and Seniors bible study. Our membership over the years has fluctuated. In 1976, our membership was 48 families. By 1980 we had 70 families. Then in 1989, we added close to 20 more families. In 2000, our membership was blessed with over 100 families. As time passed many members have passed away to their eternal home, but we have also celebrated milestones like weddings, anniversaries, births, baptisms and birthdays. 

 

We are a small, but very close knit, church. We thank God for all that He has done. We pray for continued support and growth for our church as we gratefully celebrate God’s Faithfulness.