History[]
Gold Avenue Christian Reformed Church was begun in 1929 as the West Fulton Street Gospel Mission. It is currently supported by Westend CRC. It has not yet an organized congregation.
The church is two blocks west of the downtown GVSU campus and currently runs a food pantry and coffee shop on Friday afternoons.
- Gold Ave. Website
- Gold Ave. page on Westend CRC website
- Gold Ave. on Facebook
- Denominational profile with map
- Gatherings of Hope profile with map
Historical Details[]
Locations[]
- 632 West Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 (1930-35)
- 620 West Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 (1935-40)
- 11 Gold Avenue SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 (1940-89)
- 49 Gold Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 (1989-present, built 1883 as Second Baptist and remodeled 1953)
Pastors[]
- John Vander Water, 1929-43
- Andrew Vander Veer, evangelist, 1944-51
- Elias Dykstra, evangelist, 1951-64
- Peter Doot, evangelist, 1965-74
- Michael D. Knierim, evangelist, 1975-86
- William M. Ridley, evangelist, 1983-91
- Robert L. Offringa, 1992-99
- David Westra, 2010-
Membership Overview[]
Membership Data[]
Green (lower) line shows membership in families; blue (middle), professing members; red (top), total members; and magenta (thin), non-professing members.
Youth Ratio[]
Red line shows nonprofessing members as a percentage of total membership.
Five Year Growth Rate[]
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.
Data 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.