Background:
Rogers City, MI
My first 18 years were spent in the small
town of Rogers City in northern Michigan. I was always involved in one sport or another (baseball, basketball, cross
country) and was heavily invested in my church, Calvary Bible Church (non-denominational), and in our youth group. Those were
formative years as pastors, youth leaders and other parents in my church mentored, discipled and just plain put up with
me as a tumultuous teen.
Hillsdale, MI
I attended Hillsdale College in southern Michigan,
double majoring in Religion and Psychology and was active in Inter-Varsity. After graduation, I continued
at my Alma mater as an admission counselor for four years and began to attend Somerset Congregational Church. During that
time, I met my future wife, Kim, and we married in 2004. Together, we led the youth group at a SCC. The pastor at the
time, John Reist, took me under his wings, mentored me, and gave me all the experience I wanted to test my calling into ministry.
He and the church confirmed my calling and sent us forth to seminary.
Boston, MA
My desire to attend an evangelistic, academically challenging, denominationally
diverse seminary lead Kim and I to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, located just north of Boston. God grew me in wonderful
ways through the courses I took and the community of believers in which I was immersed. During our stay, we attended
Westgate Church, an EFCA church in the western suburbs of Boston. While attending there, the church called me to stay and
join the staff as an associate pastor in 2007. In 2009, Kim and were blessed with two beautiful, amazing kids, Allie
and Ryan. We continued out in Boston until the Spring of 2010 when we followed God's call to our old church, back
in southern Michigan!
"God aims to exalt Himself by
working for those who wait for Him. Prayer is the essential activity of waiting for God-- acknowledging our helplessness
and His power, calling upon Him for help, seeking His counsel."
-John Piper, Desiring God
"This is the art of
spiritual leadership: to make Jesus Christ the object and subject of everything we do. Never allow a decision, a success,
a failure nor conflict to be about a leader. Always make the issue about submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Point to Jesus and get out of the way."
-Jim Van Yperen, The Shepherd Leader
"The
church builds up in unity and grows up in maturity in direct proportion to the teamwork of leaders and involvement of members-- each part
doing its work. In other words, it is not the pastor, but the 'whole' body joined together, that grows and builds."
-Jim Van Yperen, The Shepherd Leader
- Invitation
Congregational Communication
This
isn't waiting for people to come to us, but pro-actively inviting people into dialog
both individually and as a community of believers.
It takes more than a fellowship hour after a church service to create a community.
Life needs to touch life.
It
involves a willingness to be open and vulnerable with one another in order to go deeper together.
A church that wants to impact its
community cannot expect it to simply walk through the church's front door.
The church must first be active and visible in its
community.
"Evangelism is something I just continually do-- with
everyone in my life, all the time. I evangelize my
next-door New Age neighbor at the same time I am evangelizing my wife, who is the most godly, 'saved' person I know."
-Steve Sjogren, Irresistible Evangelism
A church can have an unstated atmosphere that one needs to believe before belonging.
But, belonging is a very important
factor in assisting belief. If a church creates an atmosphere
of belonging before believing, then, when belief comes, community and discipleship are
already in place.
"In all great Christian
preaching, however, at least this is true: It is an Emmaus-like experience in which the scriptures are opened and you recognize Christ, and in him, with
a fresh sense of discovery, you see the truth about
yourself and your world. 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?' (Luke 24:32)."
-Richard Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry
Are we increasingly being transformed
into the image of Christ individually, corporately?
Are our lives marked more and more with the richness and joy of God's grace ?
Are we being Christ's hands, feet,
heart and voice to those around us?
We cease
being "Human Doings" and reclaim our call to be "Human Beings" created in His image.
"Refreshing rest is that which renews us in the image of God, and in which we experience
delight in something of how God intends life in His
creation to be"
-Susan
Currie
"The church includes
all persons anywhere in the world who are savingly related to Christ. It also includes all who have lived and been part of his body, and all who will live and be part of his body."
-Millard Erickson, Christian
Theology
Too often Christianity has been marked by its uncooperative spirit toward those outside our
particular theological background. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we have so much more in common than we realize.
Including the potential to be a powerful witness of the oneness of Christ's body by work together to impact our communities
Favorite Books:
On Spirituality: Emotionally Healthy
Spirituality by Peter Scazzero
On Christian Ethics: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft
On
the Christian Year: Ancient-Future Time by Robert Webber
On the Problem of Evil:
The Only Wise God by William Lane Craig
On Preaching: The Homiletical Plot by Eugene Lowry
On
Apologetics: The Reason for God by Tim Keller
On Leadership: The Shepherd Leader
by Jim VanYperen
On Pastoring: Working the Angles by Eugene Peterson
On Evangelism: Irresistible
Evangelism by Steve Sjogren, Dave Ping & Doug Pollock
On Discipleship: The Cost of Discipleship
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
