About Us

Mission Statement:

Our mission: God has called us to be his faithful and grateful family in the Renville area by practicing hospitality, enjoying the gifts God has given us, and embracing and supporting his mission in our own neighborhood and the world.

Christian Reformed Church:

We call ourselves Christian because we are followers of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he is the center of human history. 

We’re called Reformed because we grow on a branch of the church tree that emerged from the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe.

We’re a Church because we believe God has called us together to be a people who belong to him and live for him.

We affirm three creeds—the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed—as ecumenical expressions of the Christian faith. We also affirm three confessions—the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort—as historic Reformed expressions of the Christian faith, whose doctrines fully agree with the Word of God.

For more information about the CRC: https://www.crcna.org/welcome 

Our History:

A Legacy of Refuge: Why We Are "Emden"

The reason we are called Emden lies in a story that began nearly 500 years ago, not on the prairies of North America, but in the turbulent waters of the North Sea.

The 16th Century Roots: A City of Refuge

The spiritual lineage of our name traces back to the Protestant Reformation. In 1553, a Polish nobleman and reformer named John a Lasco was pastoring the "Dutch Strangers' Church" in London. When the Catholic Queen Mary I ascended the throne, the climate for Protestants in England turned dangerous. On September 17, 1553, Lasco and a small company of about 175 believers boarded two ships fleeing for their lives and headed for continental Europe.  

Their journey was agonizing. Separated by storms and rejected by ports in Denmark and Northern Germany due to theological differences, the refugees spent a bitter winter wandering. They were expelled from Copenhagen, pushed out of Rostock, Wismar, and Lubeck, and ordered to leave Hamburg. They were a people without a home, seeking a place where they could worship God in peace.

Finally, in March 1554, they arrived in the city of Emden, located in East Frisia (modern-day Germany). Unlike the other cities that had turned them away, Emden opened its gates. The city welcomed Lasco and his weary flock, becoming a sanctuary for Protestants fleeing persecution from across Europe. Emden became known as the "Geneva of the North" and a vital center for the Reformed faith.

The spirit of that city was immortalized a century later, in 1660, when a sign was placed above the doorway of the Great Church in Emden. It read: "God's church, persecuted and driven away, has been given comfort here by God."

A New Beginning in Minnesota (1890)

Centuries later, that same spirit of faith crossed the Atlantic Ocean. In the late 19th century, German immigrants from East Frisia settled in the farmland south of Prinsburg, Minnesota. Like the refugees of 1553, they sought a place to establish a community of faith.

On October 19, 1890, a group met to formally organize a new congregation. These founders were German speakers who carried with them the history and heritage of their homeland. When it came time to name their new spiritual home, they looked back to the city that had been a beacon of hope for their ancestors. They named their church Emden.

Growing Through Change

Much like the city of Emden was a meeting place for different cultures, Emden CRC in Minnesota became a place where cultures merged. In the early years, the church navigated the complexities of language and identity. Founded as a German-speaking church, it eventually welcomed Dutch immigrants, leading to a period where services were conducted in German, Dutch, and eventually English.

This ability to adapt and persevere has been a hallmark of the congregation. From the difficult decision to move the church building to Renville in the early 1960s (dedicated in 1963), to collections taken for congregation in South Dakota in the midst of the Great Depression, the people of Emden have consistently shown resilience.

Living the Legacy Today

Today, the name Emden serves as a constant reminder of our identity and mission. The values that defined the city of Emden in 1554—hospitality, refuge, and faithfulness—are the same values we strive to embody in Renville today.

When we state our mission to be a "faithful and grateful family... practicing hospitality," we are echoing the welcome that the citizens of Emden, Germany, extended to John a Lasco’s refugees five centuries ago. We are named Emden not just because of where our founders came from, but because of what we aspire to be: a place where the weary find rest, where the faithful find family, and where God’s comfort becomes tangible to those in need.