I was suddenly made aware from multiple directions that there is a new solution to children’s discipleship that is going to fix the next generation and be sure to keep them in the faith.  While other kids are growing up to question their faith and leave the church in their 20s, your kids or grandkids…

More Than Entertainment I am currently preaching through the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament.  And this week is chapter 3.  It is comprised of 32 verses listing out all the ‘contractors’ who completed sections of the walls around Jerusalem.  It doesn’t contain the intrigue of broken relationships, like the book of Genesis.  None…

December 23rd marked 30 years of marriage for Linda and me.  And I’ve blogged before about the naivety in which we married.  We were young.  We didn’t know how important this decision was.  And further, we didn’t know as much about each other as we thought we did. Fast forward 30 years, and I am…

When we started ReCAST Church back in 2009, we had no employees.  Technically, I was paid full-time as the church planter/pastor, but I was paid fully by another church that entire first year.  Berean Baptist Church in Portage, MI, was generous and gracious to give us a great financial start! But now, fast forward to…

I am preaching on a passage in the gospel of Luke this week, where it is recorded that Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue in Capernaum.  It doesn’t happen in the Upside-Down.  It doesn’t happen in the ‘spiritual realm’.  It happens on planet Earth.  In Galilee, in the town of…

I fear that far too many American Christians have formed an opinion of their responsibility to the poor from experience or from political leanings.  I have had many conversations over the years about poverty that concluded with discussions of poor choices and drug abuse.  I have also spoken with people who have a shocking level…

Putting those words together in a blog title is part of my bold sense of humor.  As an unofficial reformed Baptist who would not baptize infants, I am including these two together at the connecting point of church growth. ReCAST Church has continued to grow.  It has grown in size as well as in depth.…

Last week my wife spent a few days near the Florida-Alabama border with several others ladies from the church.  The event was for women and was called Bible at the Beach with Nanny G (Nancy Guthrie for normal people). And while I missed my wife, I was glad for the time she was able to…

Every time another church is attacked I go deep into what ‘ifs’. As a pastor of a flock, I am called to care for my flock.  But the metaphor gets cloudy.  Am I supposed to wrestle with bears and lions?  Am I called in any sense to physically preserve my sheep and protect them from…

I have been a pastor for 20 years and am closing in on 100 weddings that I’ve officiated. And there a couple of trends I have seen in the past several years that I think are worthy of note.

Most weddings are now outdoors. I don’t have a STRONG opinion about this, but just an opinion. A church building is meant to evoke thoughts about the presence of God. I will be the first to admit that He is NOT any more present in a church than He is in a vineyard, or on a farm, or at an outdoor wedding venue . . .

Long before ReCAST Church ever had a Sunday gathering in Mattawan, we had spent hours and hours praying for the community. I began to work from a coffee shop there and I began to get to know people and even invited people to join us. Our goal was to be a church in a community that needed one.

One of the largest task of any leader is to clarify the answer to the question “why!?” I have been listening to the book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Leif participated in many of the missions to regain the Iraqi city of Ramadi.