After 107 years, the original sanctuary of New Holland (S.D.) Christian Reformed Church, has seen its last service. On April 26 congregants celebrated the final service in the building before it will be torn down to make room for a new, larger construction to begin in June. A fellowship hall, connected to the current structure, will remain and be the congregation’s meeting space until the estimated eight-month project is complete.
The April 26 service reenacted the format of an average service from the original building’s construction in 1919, with the deacons and elders sitting up front, away from their families, and worshipers encouraged to be reverential and quiet.
Jody Niewenhuis, part of the church’s historic preservation committee, has spent her entire life attending New Holland CRC, as have her mother and grandmother. Niewenhuis was married in the original church building, attended funerals of family members, gave her profession of faith, and baptized her children.
Others have memories of the church building itself. William Vreugdenhil wrote of his work on the building for the church’s centennial anniversary document in 2019. “I helped shingle the roof of the church and shingled both steeples. I also built the steps around the pulpit. I worked on the windows when the stained-glass windows were repaired, and I changed the steps in the balcony area,” Vreugdenhil recalled.
Those windows will be repurposed for use in the new church building, but other elements of the sanctuary, including pews, woodwork, doors, and components of the original pipe organ were to be auctioned off in a Sacred Spaces sale April 29. The proceeds, including from additional items that church members could contribute to the auction, will go to the fundraising for the new building.
The demolition of the structure is not easy for members of New Holland CRC, who Niewenhuis says have known of the building’s need to come down for many years. However, “our pastor continues to remind us that in the end, the church building is only a building, and that we as the congregation are the embodiment of the true church.”