Second Christian Reformed Church was born on Oct. 27, 1920, when 31 members of the Dutch-speaking First Christian Reformed Church in Lynden started an English-speaking congregation. While we still have many members with Dutch roots, our church's family tree has branches that include those of Chinese, Colombian, German, Italian, Irish, Romanian and other heritages.

We met for a year in the Christian School before buying the property on Front Street between Seventh and Eighth streets where we are now located (for $1,500 if you can believe that). At first, we only had money for a basement, which is where we met until the church was completed on Nov. 1, 1929. The parsonage was built in 1924 and later moved to its present site on Grover Street and transformed into our church offices. Since then we also added an education building in 1978.

Over the years, our ministries included Sunday School and boys and girls clubs for children; fellowship activities for seniors and other age groups; transportation, hearing aids and an elevator for the handicapped and elderly; radio and television broadcasts for our community; ministries to prisoners and to Cambodian refugees; support for church plants in Whatcom County and Washington state; missions to other states and countries; and community involvement in activities such as Lynden's Million Smiles Playground Project, Habitat for Humanity houses and Lynden festivals.

We also thank the Lord for the men of God who have served our congregation: Rev. Edward Joling (1921-26), Rev. D.H. Muyskens (1926-34), Rev. Watson Groen (1934-43), Rev. John Schuurmann (1944-51), Rev. Marinus Goote (1951-54), Rev. Enno Haan (1956-60), Rev. John DeJong (1961-68), Rev. Jerome Batts (1970-72), pastor emeritus Rev. William Verwolf (1972-86), Rev. Ronald Slater (1973-76), Rev. Andrew Cammenga (1976-85), director of youth and education Dennis Afman (1982-89), Rev. Louis Kerkstra (1986-94), Rev. Robert Offringa (1989-92), Rev. Thomas Haan (1994-2000), Pastor Jim Carberry (1996-2010), Rev. Mark Davies (2003-2010), Pastor Ben deRegt (2010-present).