Below is Pastor Don’s blog, where Pastor Don shares his thoughts on Scripture, current events, and more. Make sure to check back here frequently to read more about topics we may even discuss when we meet!
Mattawan, Michigan has now been my home for going on 10 years. Prior to moving here I had very little knowledge about the community other than some demographic study and a few people that I knew who lived here. God developed a church planting team back in 2008 and we began to pray for this…
If you were at the ReCAST volunteer luncheon a couple weeks ago, you heard us announce that Jackie Kline is going to work for Heartland Hospice full-time as their bereavement coordinator. If you were at our family meeting last Sunday, you heard Nathan announce that he’s going to air traffic control school in Oklahoma next fall. …
This next week I will be preaching on 1 Samuel 9. It has been a confusing passage for me in the past. It has not been confusion because it is difficult to grasp. It has been confusing because of the detail that seems to be superfluous to the story-line. (*spoiler alert*) Saul is going…
I attended a conference with more than 12,000 other pastors and lay-leaders in Louisville, KY earlier in the month and it was an amazing conference with hours of great preaching, amazing worship with thousands of voices lifted up in praise in the KFC Yum! Center. But out of all that experience one particular nugget…
9 years ago today I preached my first sermon as a lead pastor. Preached is a funny word, because it was 16 adults in the basement of a home in Mattawan, MI. We brought folding chairs from our card table sets, Dave Bunt brought his acoustic guitar and he sat on the hearth of…
Once upon a time, there was a young man lost in the woods. He had gone out hunting with his father and got turned around and the next thing he knew, every tree looked the same. As he leaned against the trunk of a huge beech tree, he saw something flickering through the verdant underbrush.…
Yesterday saw students around the country walking out of classes to draw national attention to the events of one month ago in Florida. Many believe that the long term hope is that the government will fix it all for us. The implication sometimes sounds like, we can keep on living however we want and…
If God told you to share your story with others, would you? If he asked you to air your past with the heartaches, the lies, the sins, and the brokenness in order to help others, would you do it? I am so thankful for one of our church members, Jacque Chislea, who has responded…
The quote is powerful. It is poignant. It was prophetic, even if it is somewhat unfair to predict one’s own death. Billy Graham said, “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have…
The worms cannot go back in the can! And they really shouldn’t. I don’t want to go back to a world even two years ago, where powerful men are abusing women under their authority without repurcussions. The courage and strength it has taken for the many women who make up the majority of the #metoo…
I am almost recovered from the jetlag. The trip to Indonesia was a grueling haze of airplanes, airports, waiting, and restless attempts to sleep in a smaller space than my body is made to occupy. The trip was worth it. I cannot speak to any eternal results. I do not know how heaven will be…
In just a few days, Linda, Leah, and I will be flying out for Indonesia commissioned with the task of bringing encouragement to our missionaries. As the date of our travel is quickly arriving, I am thinking more and more about what it means to be an encouragement. And in my reflections, I have grown…
