NR #1996-043: Oregon Mission Work Leaves CRC; Total of Conservative Christian Reformed Secession Congregations Reaches 61 During the week, Ron Joling runs a trucking company based on the southwestern coast of Oregon transporting dairy, grain, and commodities up and down the California, Oregon, and Washington coastline. Sunday, however, will find him preaching from the pulpit of the only Reformed congregation on the rugged Oregon coast. Until this winter, that congregation was Hope Christian Reformed Church of Coquille, Oregon. Hope CRC, a member of the Alliance of Reformed Churches, voted to leave the CRC on January 21 and become an independent congregation. The vote brings to an end the eight-year relationship between the Christian Reformed denomination and the church of four dozen members. NR #1996-043: For Immediate Release Oregon Mission Work Leaves CRC; Total of Conservative Christian Reformed Secession Congregations Reaches 61 by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (May 3, 1996) URNS - During the week, Ron Joling runs a trucking company based on the southwestern coast of Oregon transporting dairy, grain, and commodities up and down the California, Oregon, and Washington coastline. Sunday, however, will find him preaching from the pulpit of the only Reformed congregation on the rugged Oregon coast. Until this winter, that congregation was Hope Christian Reformed Church of Coquille, Oregon. Hope CRC, a member of the Alliance of Reformed Churches, voted to leave the CRC on January 21 and become an independent congregation. The vote brings to an end the eight-year relationship between the Christian Reformed denomination and the church of four dozen members. Joling's family, which moved to the area 22 years ago, was the only Dutch family in the congregation when it petitioned to join the CRC in 1988. Hope CRC has been quite energetic in its mission - almost everyone besides Joling has been brought into the church through evangelism or through the proclamation of the Reformed faith. Begun with three families as a Bible study, the church now has its own Christian school and is already working to plant two more churches in the rural Oregon communities of Brookings and Pistol River. One of its members, Leonard Gulstrom, went on to Mid-America Reformed Seminary for further study and now pastors a Reformed Congregational church in Upton, Massachusetts. "We're not a large congregation but we're very active in a number of areas," said Joling. "We have sponsored the Back to God Hour on a regular basis up and down the coast. We also sponsor Faith 20. Our church is also conducting an extensive Institute for Creation Research seminar, we had over a three day period 1500 people in attendance." While appreciative of much of the historic ministry of the CRC, Joling said his members from a non-CRC background could not understand why they were part of a denomination whose nearest church was 200 miles away and which had increasingly liberal tendencies. "We had tried from our limited position to make any kind of changes or work that would effect a change in the Christian Reformed Church, which was of no avail from our point of view," said Joling. "We spent some time praying about that, hoping and praying that there would be change. We felt there would be no change and the church is going to proceed in the way it has gone for the last number of years." Joling said he was grateful that the decision to leave the CRC had not resulted in bitterness. "We left basically on peaceable terms," said Joling. "I suppose it was expected at some time." Cross-References to Related Articles: [No related articles on file] Contact List: Evang. Ron Joling, Pastor, Hope Christian Reformed Church RR #1, Box 4000, Coquille, OR 97423 * O: (503) 396-3513 * H: (503) 396-4183 Pastor Howard B. Spaan, Stated Clerk, Classis Columbia 100 SW 195 Ave. #143, Beaverton, OR 97006 * H/O: (503) 645-2415 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-043.txt .