“Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.”  (Romans 12:13)

Neighborhood Ministries

Third Reformed Church is located in the central city district of Holland, MI, the original plots of land sold by Albertus Van Raalte. The area includes the Holland Historic District with its stately homes; Tulip Lane, which bursts into color during Tulip Time; libraries, parks, and Hope College. More urgently, though, Third Church’s location also compels us to confront challenging urban issues.

Hope College students:  Many Hope College students worship with us each Sunday, and the church provides hospitality with a meal following worship in the fall and the winter.

Buen Pastor:  Third Church partners with this Hispanic ministry in the summer to provide care for children of migrant workers. Buen Pastor plans a 32-week program for native Spanish-speaking children to prepare them to be Ready to Learn. The church provides space to host the program, volunteers to work with children, and board members for Buen Pastor.

Northwest Neighbors:  The church has joined the neighborhood collaborative team called Northwest Neighbors.  It currently comprises Third Church, First United Methodist Church, Hope Reformed Church, and St. Francis in partnership with Good Samaritan Ministries.  Northwest Neighbors aims to strengthen the neighborhood of our churches by mobilizing the residents to work together to improve the quality of life.

Parent as Teachers:  As part of the Ready to Learn Initiative in the Holland/Zeeland area, the church participates in training parents of our congregation and the community to be more effective parents.

Community Ministries

The church owns properties adjacent to the church and we partner with Good Samaritan Ministries to provide transitional housing for families.

Monthly, we furnish the Community Action House with food to help feed the hungry in the Holland community.  

We work with other Holland Churches and the police department in the Community Park Gatherings to limit gang activity.

The church is one of the largest financial contributors nationally to the CROP Walk each spring. 

CROP Walk Annually in the Spring

We participate in the Holland’s Urban Plunge and Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters.  

The GREEN Team encourages us to find effective ways to practice environmental stewardship and creation theology.

Three times a year, the church organizes programs for children and youth that deliberately include people from the community. This past spring more than one hundred children searched for eggs in our Easter Egg/Holy Treasure Hunt. The first week in August, the church develops a creative Vacation Bible School in the evening. To kick off VBS, we host the Backyard Bash on the last Wednesday of July.  

Backyard Bash in the Summer

TASC or Third After Supper Club welcomes children, youth, and families of the community to our Wednesday midweek program during the school year that begins with a meal, a time for singing, and then activities for all ages.

Outreach Committee is currently developing a summer serve projects for families in the summer of 2012 in which we would do a specific hands on week of ministry that would be made up of an inter-generational team of people from Third Church.