Following persecution and the failure of the potato crop in 1846, the dissidents supporting the Succession immigrated to western Michigan. They affiliated with the Reformed Church in America but eventually split off because of doctrinal differences. At first the name chosen was the Dutch Reformed Church but eventually, in 1904, the name Christian Reformed Church was chosen. Doctrine and Church practice are strict. Only the children of confessing members are baptized.
Worship follows the pattern used in the Netherlands.
The early hymnology was largely confined to the Psalms but an expanded hymnology has developed in the twentieth century. Organized religious instruction of children is stressed. Church government is presbyteral. In 1995, total membership was 295,307. The International Council of Community Churches was formally organized in 1946, but possesses a history dating from the early nineteenth century when nonsectarian community churches began to appear as an alternative to the formation of separate denominationally affiliated congregations.