who are we?
We are a community that is confessional, evangelical, and reforming.
We are a community baptized into the body of Jesus Christ. As part of Christ's mission to make disciples of all nations, we are excited to live into the Kingdom of God in and through our life together.
We are confessional, in that ecumenical creeds and theological confessions help us interpret and apply scripture. Creeds and confessions like the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Belhar Confession, give us wider connectedness with other believers throughout time and space.
We are evangelical, proclaiming "good news of great joy." In the original New Testament language of Greek, "evangelical" and "angels" share the same root word, uniting a message of joy with those called to share it. And just like the jubilance shared of Christ's birth by heavenly angels to ordinary shepherds in the book of Luke, we too have great news to share with the world. In fact, we believe that what God has done (is doing!) in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit is amazing news. It is our ministry to share this through word and deed-- exemplified by our worship and our lives.
We are reformed. We are rooted in a wider tradition going back to the events of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. Second Reformed Church didn't just happen from some sort of blank slate. We are part of a work of the Holy Spirit connecting us to a rich heritage of hundreds of years of faithfulness. We love having a rich history and we love having a hopeful future.
Learn more by reading about our tradition or denomination or even our very city established by a bunch of Reformed Church folk in 1847.