From 1912 until the present, Dunningville Reformed Church has been served by faithful members. Today, our members volunteer as our organists and pianists, cleaning the church, facilities, doing office work, security, yearly cleaning, and everything needed to keep things going. The minister is the only paid, full-time staff person.
The place where Dunningville Reformed Church now stands, was looking in the early 1900's looking like it was going to be a growing town. By 1912, Dunningville was a prosperous community with a store, Post Office, and a depot. And so, there seemed to be great potential for a church. A group of persons living in the area were members of the Hamilton and Overisel Reformed Churches and traveled with horse and carriage twelve miles, round trip each Sunday to attend these churches. Because of the commute, they desired to have a church of their own in their own community. So, the Dunningville Reformed Church was organized as a Reformed Church in America (RCA) congregation on May 8, 1912, with 15 families (40 communicant members and 23 baptized members) who transferred from the Hamilton and Overisel Churches.
The church was served by seminary students, the first being Arthur Bennink, who came during the first summer, as well as seminary professors and ordained ministers from neighboring Reformed Churches, until 1921. The Rev. Arba Dunnewold accepted the call to become the congregation's first full time minister. He lived in the home of Mr. and Mrs. D. J. Poelakker and served until 1926 when he passed away at the Poelakker home.
About this time the government was buying up much of the land and the population of Dunningville was diminishing. Shortly after this the Depression hit and the congregation found it next to impossible to support another full time minister.
To make matters worse, on the night of January 15, 1933, the church building which stood in the village of Dunningville on 41st Street, was destroyed by fire. Despite the financial difficulties involved, land was purchased on M-40 and a new building was erected with volunteer labor. It was dedicated on March 19, 1934.
Because of the debt involved in building our new church and the size of the congregation, the church continued with lay leadership, student pastors, and guest ministers for 27 years until 1953 when a call was extended to Rev. Bernard Hakken, Jr. to serve the church as Stated Pulpit Supply. During that time Mrs. Hakken finished her education at Hope College in preparation for service in the mission field. The Hakkens served as missionaries to the Philippines, and Dunningville Church assumed partial support.
By 1955-56, the church showed fresh signs of growth. Because of this, additions were made to the M-40 church in 1962 and in 1973. The church's first parsonage was also built during this time. As in the past, this work was done mostly by volunteers. Later on, in 1991, an addition and garage were added to the parsonage.
By the 1990's the church's building size and accessibility limitations were realized. It was decided to rebuild, rather than do costly renovations to that building. In 1997, Phase 1 (a new sanctuary, nursery, library and offices) were built. The work was done largely by volunteers. The original church was connected to the new one by a covered walkway (the remains of which are still visible in our parking lot). The original bell was moved from the bell tower to the new one. Phase 1 was dedicated on April 5, 1998.
In 2001, Phase 2 (six large classrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, and a large all purpose room) was added to the sanctuary. It was dedicated on November 11, 2001 following a ceremony decommissioning the original building which had been built in 1933-34.
As our long history shows, change is part of a congregation's life. And a new phase of our history came about in 2021. Because of concerns regarding the direction the RCA is headed, our congregation decided to begin the process of departing from the RCA and affiliate with the Alliance of Reformed Churches. In December of 2021 we filed our petition to withdraw from the RCA. On June 4, 2022, the congregation of Dunningville Reformed Church took the final step in that process and voted unanimously to leave the RCA and to join the Alliance of Reformed Churches. On June 28, 2023 our congregation was released from the RCA and warmly welcomed into the Alliance as one of their partner churches. And so our congregation began a new chapter of continued presence and faithful ministry in Allegan, MI.
We are grateful for God's steadfast care for our congregation over these past 111 years. And we also look forward to continuing to faithfully follow after him, and working towards the upbuilding of his kingdom in our life of worship, community, service, and evangelism. How great is our God!
