I have found myself reflecting the last couple of weeks on the five solas of the reformation.  The reason is because I attended a funeral and the church had some large banners hanging up front that declared in a flowing cursive script, “saved by grace ALONE through faith ALONE in Christ ALONE according to Scripture…

As a church planter, change has been a pretty constant part of my life.  From meeting in a basement to meeting in store front and then going to two services and then moving to the Mattawan School center building cafeteria setting up and tearing down each week to then moving to our new building to…

The month of August marks 2 years of work on the part of a pastoral intern at ReCAST Church.  Ben Wainwright came to us first as an attendee, then as a member, and now for two years as a youth pastor intern. Ben recently had a meeting with the elders to discuss next steps and…

I am still learning.  But I am getting more set in my ways . . . Which is code for both knowing what I do and don’t like and knowing better the edge of my limitations.  I am grateful for the ability to keep reading, keep observing, keep praying, and keep hearing from God through…

I am preaching a series on 1 Corinthians, and just a couple of chapters in, I am being reminded of the great glory and depths available to those who have His Spirit.  And I am struck by a disparity that I have encountered over these past couple of decades of pastoral ministry.  What accounts for…

How would you save the world if you had limitless power?  Would you eradicate all illness?  Would you show up in intimidating power?  Would you create educational programs? Eradicate poverty? Eradicate hunger? In First Corinthians chapter 1, the apostle Paul addresses the power of God expressed in providing salvation.  And it is so radically different…

If you had told me all the treasure, all the blessings, all the growth that would come to me in the summer of 1993, I would not have walked but I would’ve SPRINTED into that summer. It began with a single conversation with a friend, Jeff Howe.  We are both from Michigan but the conversation…

When my kids were younger I was looking for any rope to hold onto.  Linda and I would read books about strong willed children, training children, shepherding their hearts, and any other thing that seemed to offer wisdom and action. Now that all of my children but one have moved on to adulthood, I know…

I was planning to write a blog this morning regarding the foundational  nature of the Image of God in humanity.  This is a bedrock doctrine which can be demonstrated by how frequently it has been attacked by evil and the evil one throughout the centuries.  I have not spent much time considering the way that…

  Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations”   I once was a church planter, and now I am a pastor.  Technically, I was both from the beginning, but…

I grew up in between the GARBC and the IFCA.  Christians, like the military, love their acronyms and insider speak.  Those both stand for General Association of Regular Baptist Churches and the Independent Fundamental Churches of America.  Both are loose associations.  Both pride themselves in their independence from a larger ecclesiastical accountability.  And both would…

I have commented over the years that I grew up in a town that was very similar to Mattawan.  Middleville even starts with an “M”. Just a couple of traffic lights, no McDonald’s, huge school district, quality education, farming community that was growing into a bedroom community for a larger city a few miles away.…