Cottage Grove Christian Reformed Church

I first came to this church through their Journey of Joy program– a program near Christmas where you walk through the Christmas story, complete with live actors and real animals! Awesome right? Apparently they’ve been doing the program and serving the people of South Holland through this since the 1980’s. Just that is impressive!
Since then, I’ve gone more often to Sunday services and have gotten to know more people. I’ve found the people here very welcoming to people of all backgrounds. They do programs for the homeless, and even have a parishioner that drives people to church on Sundays that don’t have other means to get there. There are always going to be people who talk amongst themselves (it’s human nature, after all); however, I was welcomed when I started coming here, and continue to feel welcomed and ‘part of the family’. I recommend this church for people who want a service that is pretty moderate, small, and not ‘mega-​church-​y’. Plus organ!

My experience at this «church» was not a good one. It was the first time I had ever gone there and NO ONE even bothered to speak to me. This might be excused if it was a large church with too many members to keep track of, however this is not the case. Since then, the leaders of said church have publicly humiliated people, called people names such as pathetic and souless and have generally been hypocritical and none of the congregation has stood up to say anything about it. I was disgusted and thouroughly disenchanted with the way things were. I would not step foot in this building if they paid me to. What I see in this «church» is a building where hypocrites gather to make themselves feel better while putting people down and making them feel less than human. Take care when choosing this particular group to choose to spend God’s day with. I won’t go back and I urge any and all true believers to do the same.