In 1944, a group of passionate individuals formed our congregation to share
the love of God with their neighbors. Since then, the faces have changed but
our focus hasn’t.
In 1944, representatives of the Beaver Heights Federated Church met with
the Pella Classis to apply for admission into the Reformed Church of
America (RCA). The classis helped this church purchase 12 acres of land.
In 1945, an old unused church building in Guernsey, Iowa was purchased
to become Meredith Drive Reformed Church. In February of 1946, a group
of over one hundred men from the churches in the Pella Classis met to
dismantle the building and move it to 5128 Meredith Drive in Des Moines.
The church was dedicated December 22, 1948.
As the church grew, it developed women’s and men’s ministries and a music
ministry. The congregation undertook the project of raising money to
purchase a new piano and organ. At the same time, First Church, Pella
presented MDRC with a generous gift to be used to purchase new pews.
In 1984, the church began worshiping in a new sanctuary and also hired
people to lead children and youth programs at the church. This was also a
period where the church began to grow in the area of missions. We began
to partner with the Des Moines Area Religious Council, Moulton Schools,
Trinity Meals, and Habitat for Humanity in Des Moines. The church also
started to support national and global mission in significant ways, including
mission trips to California, Haiti, Africa, and Central America.
The decade of the 1990s was a time of growth in programming and
membership. Small group bible study participation was strong and
emphasized three things: Word and Scripture learning, relationship
growing, and serving. Music ministry grew, and the church embraced new
technologies to support worship. In 1993, MDRC and the RCA planted
Westview Church in Waukee. The church continued to grow in areas of
discipleship, pastoral care, equipping and empowering elders and
deacons, generosity, and mission. The church developed internships to
those planning a career in Christian service, and a parish nurse program
was started.
MDRC continued to focus on mission and planting. Many MDRC members
served on twenty mission trips to Haiti over seventeen years. In 1998, MDRC
and the RCA committed their support to starting a new church plant; Prairie
Ridge, in Ankeny, IA, with 25 MDRC members transferring to Prairie Ridge.
In 2001, MDRC ordained their first female pastor, and the church has
continued to call both men and women into the offices of elder, deacon and
pastor.
In the early 2000’s it was determined that a multi-campus model would be helpful to facilitate the growth of Meredith Drive Reformed Church. For a season, a new campus met in Johnston High School until the Bridge campus building was completed in 2005. For a number of years, the campuses shared pastoral leadership, with the preaching pastor traveling between campuses to preach every Sunday.
During this time, the church continued to grow and innovate in its music
ministry, including blended worship services and outreach events such as
church musicals that the community was invited to attend. Discipleship
continued to take new forms. The church experienced new forms of growth
as members of African communities began to make Meredith Drive their
church.
A downtown ministry center and weekly worship was launched in
partnership with the Willkie House in 2014 and continued for three years.
Eventually, campus pastors were hired at both the Meredith Drive Campus
and the Bridge Campus and each location worked to best serve the
community that surrounded their campus. Each campus took on different
worship styles and discipleship formats.
In 2018, the Meredith Drive Campus experienced significant flooding that
required that the entire basement be reconstructed. During the process of a
financial campaign to rebuild and remodel the campus, we entered the
Covid pandemic, which paused our construction plans. After much
discernment, the church leadership determined that it would be better
stewardship of our current resources to combine campuses to worship only
at the Bridge. The Meredith Drive Campus was sold to Mizo Church, a
Burmese Congregation in Des Moines.
The Bridge is continuing to work to live out our vision to connect people to
God and others for the purpose of growing as faithful Christ-followers who
are serving Christ in the world. We continue to deeply value mission, kids
and student ministry, celebrating diversity and learning how to love others
well, musical worship, generosity, building relationship and innovating in
order to make Christ known in our neighborhoods.
