Our History

River Terrace Church began almost 75 years ago, in 1939, when ten families and one single person wanted to form a Christian Reformed Church in the Lansing area.  After meeting together regularly for over a year under the leadership of Home Missionary H. J. Mulder, the church was formally organized on November 9, 1934.  Though we are now called River Terrace Church, the original congregation was named First Christian Reformed Church of Lansing.  They worshipped at the YWCA in downtown Lansing for the first fourteen years.

The congregation grew during their time at the YWCA, and the people eventually decided it was time to move to a church building.  They opened a building fund in 1941, purchased four lots on Marshall Street in Lansing in 1946, and moved into their new building in 1948.

Following Missionary Mulder, First Christian Reformed Church was served by Rev. G. Roderick Young, Rev. John Luchies, and Rev. Herman Dykhouse who stayed until his retirement in 1956.  Rev. John M. Hofman came next.  At this time, the congregation experienced a time of strong growth with some of this growth due to an increasing number of MSU students attending the church.   In the mid 1960's, the congregation made the difficult decision to move from central Lansing to be nearer the MSU campus.  The church also called its first full time campus minister, Rev. Alvin Hoksbergen.  After much searching, First Christian Reformed Church purchased property on River Terrace Drive where our building stands today.  The Marshall Street church building was sold in 1968, and the congregation met in the Forest View School until the new building was constructed.