WHAT WE BELIEVE 

Although we commonly refer to ourselves as Hanley Church, our full name is Hanley Christian Reformed Church.  

HANLEY - Hanley Church is located in what was at one time the small village of Hanley. This once predominantly rural area of southwest Grandville is quickly transitioning into a suburban residential community. Hanley Church, born out of a local community chapel, strongly identifies with its neighboring community and desires to bear witness in word and action to the love of Jesus. 

CHRISTIAN – We believe in a holy Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

God is our gracious heavenly Father, creator of the universe, and the sovereign ruler over it.  We believe that due to humanity’s rebellion against God’s rule, the world God made good has become a broken place in which there is much both in nature and in humans that is not the way it ought to be. 

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. In order to restore the world to its created goodness, Jesus became human, born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a life of perfect obedience to God, died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins, rose from the grave and ascended into heaven. There he sits enthroned as Lord and King at the right hand of God, the Father. Through our faith-commitment to Jesus, we are united to Christ and freely (by God’s grace alone) receive all the benefits of his saving acts. We gratefully respond by doing our best to obey his will and serve him in all of life.

The Holy Spirit enables us to believe and empowers us to live a new life in which it is the Spirit and not our sinful desires who increasingly becomes the dominant influence on our actions.

REFORMED – We are part of the historic branch of Christianity that emerged out of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. We affirm the Bible to be the inspired, fully reliable Word of God, and seek continually to shape our lives and beliefs on the Bible. We believe that the teachings of the historic Christian creeds (the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed) and the Reformed Confessions (the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, Canons of Dort) faithfully reflect the truths of God’s Word. 

CHURCH – We are a community of people whom God has graciously called out of this broken, hurting world to himself. We have been redeemed by the blood of his Son and are being renewed by the power of the Spirit so that we may worship and glorify God, strengthen one another in our faith, and partner with God in his work of redeeming and renewing life.  Our comfort is that we do not navigate our way through life on our own; we belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

For more information on the Christian Reformed Church of North America, click HERE.