Who we are and how we got here is briefly summarized in the following paragraphs. More detailed accounts of our history are available in our membership packet.

Banner of Christ is a member of the United Brethren in Christ denomination, headquartered in Huntington, IN. We are a congregation that got its start as a Sunday school outreach in the Burton Heights area of South Grand Rapids in 1919. Having first established as an official congregation as Banner Street United Brethren Church in 1926, we eventually moved off of Banner St. and relocated to the Cutlerville/Byron Center area of Southwest Kent County in 1990. Newly named Banner of Christ Community to keep our focus and connect with our history, we moved into the present facilities in 1991 and built on an educational wing in 1999.

Banner has always had a heart for the family, even when key families had moved out of the city into the suburbs, the focus of outreach was to the families and children in the city neighborhood. Having weathered lots of transitions and in the midst of a rapidly growing new neighborhood, Banner continued to focus on community family needs while adapting the style of its worship and schedule of activities around the needs of the community. Our recent growth has been stimulated by the start of Upward sports ministries focused on children through 6th grade. You can find out much more about our denominational beliefs at www.ub.org.