Our Story
Over 90 years ago, on October 31, 1928, our church organized with a firm commitment to the Christian truths as upheld by the Dutch Reformed tradition. Over time we began to receive many more people into our church from outside of the Dutch community. As the local demographics shifted, so have ours as a church. Today we are a diverse church family united in Christ by faith. To better reach our neighbors, we began a Spanish-language outreach (elmesiasontario.com) in 2006, which still continues to this day as an integral branch of our church’s ministry. As we look to the future, we are excited and hopeful to follow the Lord’s leading to be witnesses of Christ as we seek the well-being of the great city of Ontario .
God has always been faithful to this church and to its members. And he is not finished writing His story about the church that He started in Ontario 90 years ago. We trust that the Lord will continue to guide and bless us for many generations to come.
Interested in joining our Church Family?
Ultimately, our story only makes sense within the larger story of God. From the beginning of time, God set His love upon a people chosen for Himself. The Bible is all about His relentless commitment to redeem, restore, and renew that people through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Are you interested in joining that people, that new humanity, remade in Christ?
What does “Reformed” mean?
Sometimes churches use labels to give people an idea what they are like. Our church uses the label “Reformed” to show our unity in faith & practice with other like minded church that belong to the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA) federation of churches. And the URCNA belongs to even larger groups of churches, both the North American Presbyterian & Reformed Church Council, and the International Conference of Reformed Churches.
We are also “Reformed” in a historic sense. We come from and agree with the churches that participated in the “Protestant Reformation.” This was a movement of Christians in the 1500s who protested against some deep corruptions in beliefs and practices of the Roman catholic church. There was still a lot of good in this large church, but this movement sought to reform it in the areas where it had become deformed. As is often the case, churches become corrupt over time, so we always need to return to the apostolic & historic form of the Church, ever striving to be aligned with our only perfect guide, the Bible. For a more thorough explanation of what the Protestant Reformers were passionate about, please see our Beliefs page.
In brief, original reformers wanted to uphold the supreme authority of the Bible over human opinion, they wanted to be clear about how God forgives sinners through Jesus apart from their moral and religious works, and they wanted to worship God the way He demands and desires. In summary, they affirmed the “Five Solas”:
Scripture alone is our ultimate authority (church history is important but God’s Word always has the final say)
We are saved by grace alone (from beginning to end, all of life and salvation is a unmerited gift of love and mercy).
Through faith alone (we do not merit salvation by our works, rather we receive Christ’s perfect merit through the instrument of faith)
In Christ alone (we do not put our faith in ourselves, in idols, in saints, or anything else; only Jesus Christ)
To God alone be the glory (since it is all of grace, we have nothing to boast of; all glory belongs to God)