Just For Today

Most 12-step groups have a version of “Just For Today.”  It is a saying that reminds them that recovery is a series of choices that we make one day at a time.  When I think about all the things I want to see done in my life, it is overwhelming.  If your kids are young or still in the house, the prospect of leading them safely and successfully into adulthood is daunting.  Saving for retirement, remaining relevant in your career, and leaving a mark on the world are all goals that are intimidating.  I imagine this is how staying sober or clean for the next decade feels beyond someone early into recovery. 

No matter what ongoing struggle you are dealing with, you don’t have to resolve it today.  The big challenges of your life won’t be overcome on this day.  You won’t be finished with your big projects like raising children and sustaining a healthy marriage on Monday, June 3.  But just for today, you can choose to trust that God is faithful.  Just for today you can embrace hope.  Just for today you can believe that God is at work in ways that you can’t see and is growing you in ways that aren’t immediately visible.  Just for today you can trust that God loves your children more than you and that he is more committed to the success of your marriage than you.  Just for today you can make the courageous choice.  You can choose encouragement over gossip.  You can choose prayer over resentment.  You can choose to see the best rather than expect the worst.  Worry about tomorrow tomorrow.  Just for today you can rest in God’s promises.

Welcome, Drew DeVries!

This week we welcome our new Director of Student Ministries and Outreach, Drew DeVries.  Drew was born in Washington state before moving to Byron Center, MI when he was in elementary school.  He grew up in a Christian family, attending church and his own youth group.  After a year of pursuing an engineering degree, he decided God was calling him toward student ministry.  He graduated this spring from Kuyper College with a degree in Ministry Leadership and a youth ministry focus.  He has been active as a volunteer, intern, and apprentice in student ministry at two local churches over the past four years.

As we interviewed Drew, we were impressed by his humility and deep relationship with God. He has a strong passion for seeing students understand their identity in Christ and helping them grow in that identity.  He is excited to get to know our students and our church family.  In his spare time, Drew enjoys hiking, reading a good book, watching movies, and just hanging out.  He hopes to move to the lakeshore in the near future.  Please make Drew welcome and be in prayer for him as he joins our staff and church family.

The Holy Spirit

I once read where an author posed this question: Would you rather have Jesus walking beside you or the Holy Spirit living within you?  My natural reaction is to take Jesus beside me.  Wouldn’t that be cool to experience life the way the twelve disciples did?  However, Jesus indicates that we are much better off choosing to have the Spirit within us.  The night before he died he told his disciples that he was leaving for their benefit, in order for the Spirit to come and dwell within them.  It would be better that way.

And Jesus’ belief is proved true by what actually happens.  Note the stark contrast between the pre-Pentecost disciples and the Spirit-filled disciples.  There’s no comparison!  They go from being frightened and confused to fearless and convicted.  I think we regularly underestimate the importance of Pentecost.  If the Spirit had not been poured out on us, little would’ve changed after the resurrection.  Because the Spirit was given on Pentecost everything is changed - the world and us.  Stop and take a moment today to thank God for giving us his Spirit.

Graduation and the Journey of Faith

Since it’s graduation season, I wanted to reflect a bit on graduation as a metaphor in our spiritual lives.  Is there a spiritual parallel to graduation in our faith journey?  For many years the church has offered rites of passage that are equated with graduation.  In our tradition it is a profession of faith.  Historically, this was something a person did when they graduated from high school and finished up catechism class.  In other Christian expressions baptism or confirmation serve in this role.  It is a rite of passage that indicates moving into a more mature phase of life and faith.

However, the spiritual journey is not as linear as the educational path.  In school, we accumulate knowledge.  In faith, there are times when we feel like we’ve lost spiritual maturity.  In school there is a set curriculum with clear objectives and benchmarks.  In faith, individuals learn at different rates.  There is no set order for growth.  Instead, we just keep walking the path as the Spirit leads us.  The true graduation happens at the very end when we enter into God’s glory.  Most of us aren’t in a hurry for that final graduation.  Until then, God will continue to teach us.  Through every failure and success, every joy and sorrow, in quandary and clarity God is revealing himself.  We live.  We learn.

The Power of a Meal

It’s so ordinary and mundane that we often overlook it.  It happens multiple times each day and we take it for granted.  But eating is one of the most powerful acts that we do as humans.  Of course, we need food to survive.  Our bodies need nutrients to function and have the energy to accomplish our tasks.  But there is a powerful relational component to the meal as well.  When we eat with someone, we form a connection.  When we share a meal with a person, we feed that relationship, not just our bodies.  Think of all the ways that Jesus used food to do his ministry: eating with all kinds of people, including religious leaders and traitorous tax collectors.  Feeding crowds of thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread.  The greatest meal of all is the Lord’s Supper.  And how interesting that eating together is one of our sacraments?

You will eat a meal 15-20 times in the next week.  Each time you eat is an opportunity to build or deepen a relationship in your life.  Some of these meals will be taken with family members.  Some will be taken with colleagues or classmates.  Some will be taken with friends.  I’d like to challenge you in two ways.  First, let one of those meals be our luncheon on Sunday after the worship service.  This will be a powerful way to grow deeper in God’s family.  Second, share a meal this week with someone God has put on your heart.  Invite them over or invite them out.  God has intended far more for food than just nourishing our body.  It was meant to nourish our relationships as well.

The Other Book

We hold the Bible in high esteem, as we should.  It is God's specific revelation to us of his will and salvation.  But we can learn so much about God and know him in a different way by observing what he does in creation.  Creation is the "other" book of God's revelation.  Consider the beauty of a sunset or sunrise, the grandeur of mountain views and waterfalls.  The vast variety of bird species that we see migrating this time of year.  Plants and trees coming back to life after a season of dormancy.  In all these things we see the hand and heart of God. To the Apostle Paul, creation provides such clear evidence of God’s existence and character that all humans have no excuse for not knowing him as Lord.

All that said, imagine if you saw someone burning a Bible.  Imagine if you saw someone using a Bible as a doorstop.  How would you feel if someone used the pages of Scripture to roll a joint?  It would appall us to see God’s word being so misused.  And so on this Earth Day, let’s remember that creation is God’s other book.  In powerful ways, it tells us who God is and reveals his presence.  When we see his creation abused or neglected, this too should appall us.  Caring for general revelation is not something that should be left to the pagans or the radical environmentalists.  We have much skin in this game too.  Read your Bible.  But don't neglect the other book that God has given us.

Tax Day and Refunds

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. - 1 Corinthians 15:58

I have a theory.  I don’t have any research to back it up, but I’m quite confident it is true.  People who are getting an income tax refund tend to file their taxes much sooner than those who will owe money.  I’ve been on both sides of this and I am much more motivated to file my taxes when I’m getting a refund.  The sooner you file, the sooner you get your refund deposited into your bank account.

Doing God’s work is sort of like filing your taxes.  Every child of God is promised an incredible refund on the work we do to announce and demonstrate God’s kingdom.  While most of that refund will be ours in the age to come, we can enjoy the rich blessings of joining God in his work even now.  So don’t wait until the deadline to partner with God in his work.  There is a beautiful refund in serving him early and often.  What can you do today to serve God?  Whatever it is, it is never in vain.

Acts… Still!

In the month of April, our Bible reading plan has been looking at the early Christian Church as recorded in the book of Acts.  (Click here to view our April reading plan.)  These are the glory days of Christianity and the Church.  Every passage is a new miracle, a powerful conversion, or a courageous story.  Sometimes I wonder why it doesn’t seem to be like that anymore.  As exciting and miraculous as those early days were, the Christian life today doesn’t seem to measure up.  By comparison, things feel rather mundane.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if the experience of those early Christians were still ours today?  

But consider this: Acts is the history of the Church over a 30-year period.  It is 30 years of miracles compressed into 28 chapters.  What if you took the last 30 years of Ferrysburg Community Church and compressed them down to about an hour-and-a-half of reading?  Think of all the amazing healings and answered prayers.  Think of all the new believers and the lives that have been touched since the mid 90s.  Our 30-year history may not read exactly like Acts.  But I suspect it wouldn’t be far off.  And this goes for most other churches too.  God is still at work - “Acts-style” - among his people.  He is still powerful, still healing, still changing lives.

The Resurrection and Real Life

Yesterday we celebrated Easter - the resurrection of Jesus.  We sang and heard the significance of this great event.  Hopefully, you left feeling joy and hope and inspiration.  But what happens on Easter Monday?  What happens to us on the day after Easter?  Does anything change?  Is this Monday any different from last Monday?  Or is Easter just one day for hope before we go back to the daily grind?

If the only place the resurrection matters is in a church service on Easter Sunday, then we’re in trouble.  If Easter doesn’t matter on Monday morning and Saturday night, then Jesus’ victory wasn’t as big as we’ve believed.  If the resurrection isn’t a game-changer in your classroom, at the yacht club, at Meijer, or in your front yard, then we’re probably blowing this way out of proportion.  But Easter does matter.  It matters at all times and in all places.  It is a game-changer in any context.  Jesus is still risen today.  He is risen every single one of the 365 days in 2024.  And that makes everything different for those of us who follow him and belong to him.  

Welcome, Saskia!

On Sunday it was a joy to introduce and commission Saskia Kendziera as our new Children’s Ministry Coordinator.  She will be working with Lori Houskamp in our children and family ministries. Saskia, her husband Dean, and their four children have been attending FCC for about seven years. Saskia has many years of experience preparing lessons as a homeschooling mom and directing the Bible Study Fellowship children's program in Muskegon. She currently serves as a Dig leader and has led the Kid Vid station at VBS. With children in college, high school, middle school, and elementary, Saskia has a good understanding of kids. She loves how FCC values kids and looks forward to sharing her time and talents in our ministries. We praise God for leading Saskia to accept this position.  Welcome, Saskia!

Learning from St. Patrick

Patrick grew up in Britain in a fairly affluent family.  That all changed on the day that a band of Irish pirates raided his family’s estate and carried him off.  He spent his teenage years enslaved, herding flocks for an Irish landowner.  Rather than giving into despair, Patrick used this time of hardship to deepen his relationship with God.  Like the young King David, Patrick developed a deep communion with Christ as he cared for flocks and herds.  After six years of enslavement, Patrick fled to the coast of Ireland and found a ship that took him back to Britain.

After several years of studying Christianity, Patrick saw a vision of a man from Ireland who gave him a letter.  The letter was an invitation for him to return.  He did.  He went back to the land of his captors and began teaching them about Jesus.  Over the course of his life, he turned a pagan country into a Christian people.  Enjoy some corned beef and cabbage today - maybe even a green beer.  But give some thought to the man God used to bring his kingdom to Ireland.  Give some thought to the way God used deep adversity to sow an even deeper faith.  As Patrick concludes his famous prayer: “Salvation is the Lord's.  Salvation is the Lord's.  Salvation is Christ's.  May thy salvation, Lord, be always with us!  Amen.”

How Prayer Works

How does prayer work?  Is it a matter of praying hard enough or often enough?  Perhaps if we can get enough people to all pray for the same thing, then we will get the outcome we seek.  Maybe praying the right words is the trick?  Jesus said that whatever we ask for in his name he would do for us.  So maybe that’s the key.  How does prayer work?  Another possibility is adding relics and rituals.  Hang onto a cross while you pray.  Get down on your knees.  Anoint a person with a special oil.  Lay on hands.  If we intercede in the right manner, our prayers will be answered.

How does prayer work?  Others will say that it is all just psychology and metaphysics.  We are harnessing the energy of the universe and redirecting it toward a person or situation.  There’s no divine intervention.  It is just people putting their minds toward something.  So when a prayer gets “answered,” it’s more like a self-fulfilling prophecy.  How does prayer work?  I don’t know how prayer works.  I only know that when I share my needs, desires, and requests with God, something always happens.  When I place a person or situation in God’s hands, I receive his peace and he handles it.  I don’t know how prayer works.  But I know it does.

Lose An Hour

This Saturday night, an hour of time will simply disappear.  The time on your phone will go from 1:59AM to 3:00AM.  The spring time change creates a lot of consternation.  Losing an hour of sleep is a big deal!  I’ve read that traffic accidents and other fatigue-related injuries increase in the week following the start of Daylight Savings.  As a person who has a lot invested on Sunday mornings, I worry about people forgetting to set their clocks ahead and showing up for church as the service is ending.  Or being drowsier than usual during the service due to the aforementioned loss of sleep.  So I’ve come up with a proposal to do something more productive with this event - something more useful than an extra hour of light in the evenings.

I would like to propose that we can choose any hour of the entire year to “lose.”  It doesn’t have to be 2:00AM-2:59AM on March 10.  It could be that hour last summer when you lost your temper at your kids.  It could the hour over the winter when you had the accident.  It might be the hour where you said some things you regret.  The hour that you had too much to drink or made a choice you wish you could make go away.  Well, why not use Daylight Savings to remove these hours instead of an hour when we’re getting rest and staying out of trouble?  In all seriousness, God has already done this.  God has already removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.  He has forgotten them as if they had never happened.  Thanks be to God!

Every Longing

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

God has placed eternity in your heart; a deep longing for things that are beautiful and forever.  At the very core of our being we long for goodness, redemption, relationship, and beauty.  It’s why we are so taken by a painting, so struck by a beautiful view, so entranced by a song.  It’s why we get married and pursue friendships.  God has set a longing in your heart for the things only he can grant us.

Most of this world’s problems can be traced to our settling for cheap alternatives.  We settle for revenge instead of justice.  We settle for sex instead of love and intimacy.  We settle for something quick and easy instead of something that comes slowly but lasts forever.  So don’t confuse your longings for anything less than God intends.  And understand that when your longings are truly satisfied, God alone has brought that satisfaction.

New Chapters - Kyle Mullin

One of the most important things to me is my family, whether chosen or blood. Family supports each other regardless of circumstance and when we enter new chapters of life. Yesterday during service, I announced to the congregation that Joanna and I have a new chapter ahead of us and that I will be stepping down from my FCC staff position this May.

Over the last two years, Joanna has been working toward becoming a Physician Assistant. I have wholeheartedly supported her in this, and I am proud of the work she has done in this long journey. Over the Winter, Joanna was accepted into the PA program at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After much prayer, discussion, and patience throughout this process, we have decided to move to Minneapolis for Joanna to continue pursuing her goal.

We have not made this choice lightly. FCC has been incredibly supportive of us and has become a chosen family. I am excited for this new chapter for which God has prepared us, but I am also sad to leave this wonderful church and our remarkable students. I am looking forward to making these last few months exceptional for both our students and the Guatemala mission team. Pastor Nate and Lori remain deeply committed to the students of FCC and will ensure their continued discipleship. I know that God will continue to bless FCC and use each of you for His glory.

Do Something Different

On Wednesday, we will begin a season of preparation.  Lent is the forty days (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter.  For years the Church has designated this as a time to reflect on the love of God revealed through the suffering of Jesus.  We are encouraged to recognize our need for a savior and prepare to celebrate the resurrection.  The traditional way of observing Lent is through some sort of fasting.  People give up a certain practice, pleasure, or vice for these forty days as a way for connecting to the suffering of Christ.  Over the years, this practice has devolved somewhat into a way to lose weight, cut out an unhealthy habit, or try to command the blessings of God by making a significant sacrifice.  None of these gets at the purpose behind lenten fasting.

The purpose of giving something up during this season is to remind ourselves that God gave up his Son for us.  It is a reminder we are invited into a relationship with Almighty God.  What will it take for you to remember that in a special way this spring?  It will probably mean doing something different.  It will mean breaking a pattern or starting a new one.  It doesn’t have to feel especially spiritual as long as it reminds you to move toward God and think about Jesus.  There are still a few days left before Lent begins.  It’s worth praying about how you can intentionally prepare to celebrate Easter.

Groundhog Day

There are two famous events that take place in early February: the Super Bowl and Groundhog Day.  I put absolutely no stock in a silly rodent when it comes to predicting the remaining amount of winter.  Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, indicating an early spring.  But I’m not so sure…  Anyway, the whole phenomenon of Groundhog Day did give rise to a very clever movie.  Bill Murray is a weatherman who must relive a 24-hour period (which happens to be Groundhog Day) over and over.  The idea is that before he can move on to the next day, he needs to make some significant personal changes.  When he puts aside his selfish and indulgent ways, the loop is broken and a new day begins.

In my own life I’ve had a similar experience.  I’ve never been stuck in the same day.  But I’ve been stuck in patterns of behavior over months and even years.  For Bill Murray it took a relationship with a female co-worker to make the necessary changes.  For me, it’s been through a relationship with Jesus.  Jesus leads us out of unhelpful patterns and endless cycles if we’re willing to follow him.  Everyday is a day of growth and new beginnings.  There are no Groundhog Days with Jesus.  

On Managing Expectations

I can’t remember ever starting a football season with high hopes for the Lions. History has taught me not to be bullish on the team from Detroit. Yet as the season progressed, I found myself starting to believe. A division title and a home playoff game. Winning games in the same glorious fashion they used to lose them. By the time they finished off the Buccaneers, I was all in. I had drank the kool-aid. This was a team of destiny. Then last night happened.

Expectations are problematic. When they are met, we feel satisfied. When reality falls short, there is pain. We bring our expectations to football teams, family gatherings, and vacations. We bring our expectations to first dates, movies, and new jobs. The older we get, the more modest our expectations tend to be. We’ve seen life fail to meet our expectations too many times to set them high.  But there is one place where our greatest expectations are promised to be exceeded. When Jesus returns to make all things new or when we join him in heaven we will discover a reality that far exceeds our greatest hopes. The new creation will never disappoint. So set your expectations sky high. In a world that regularly falls short of our expectations, we will one day inherit a world that will exceed our highest hopes.

MLK Day

Today we remember and celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.  I grew up in Kalamazoo less than a mile from the “color line.”  My family lived on the top of Alamo hill and about half way down the hill the population changed from nearly all white to nearly all black.  For several square miles, the north side of Kalamazoo was occupied almost exclusively by African Americans.  What’s interesting to me is that for about 50 years the north side was almost exclusively Dutch Americans.  The vestiges of this remained well into my childhood.  The Christian school I attended - one that was started by Dutch immigrants - lay right in the middle of this all-black neighborhood.  The buildings that now housed African American churches were once Christian Reformed churches until “white flight” moved them out to the suburbs. 

Then I look at the tri-cities.  For whatever reasons, there is precious little diversity in our community.  And we are worse off for it.  We are worse off for not having neighbors and classmates who look different.  We miss out an important reality of God’s family: it is made up of people from every nation, tribe, and tongue.  In the age to come you will worship side by side with those who look different from you.  So when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are asking God to make our lives more diverse.  We are asking for more reconciliation.  The new creation won’t look like the Kalamazoo of my childhood or the tri-cities of the present.  And one of the ways we will come to know God better is through the beautiful diversity of those who bear his image.  That was the vision of Dr. King.  A vision straight from the heart of God.

Finding Unity in the Mundane

If you've been on Facebook at all, you know there are groups you can join that share common interests. A Facebook group I joined acts as a virtual bulletin board for all things happening in the Tri-Cities and surrounding areas in West MI. There's a healthy share of business promotions, locals asking for recommendations, and, of course, memes. However, this Facebook group recently had a hyper-fixation on a particularly mundane happening: a pothole.

It started with a picture of the pothole being posted in the group, which had now become large enough for an entire recliner chair to sit comfortably in it. The pothole quickly became a sensation, sparking hundreds of people to visit, multiple news stories, and mild infamy in West MI. It gained enough traction that a Grand Haven City Councilmember responded in the very same group, citing work in motion to fill the pothole.

It's wonderfully silly what can unite people. Something as mundane as a pothole sparked hundreds of people from vastly different walks of life to experience the joy of unity in a shared joke. And where there is unity, there is holiness.

FCC's vision statement reads, "All kinds of people...becoming like Jesus."  I often have to remind myself of this truth. True community isn't dependent on sameness, as it's not hard to be around those similar to you. While there are benefits in finding a group of people to whom you can relate, only being around those who think the same, act the same, and vote the same is stifling opportunity for us to become more like Jesus.

What would it look like for Christians to be at the forefront of unity, not just with other Christians, but with all kinds of people? What if we actively worked toward unity across denominations, religions, politics, and cultures? What might it take to do this within our cities, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and families? I'd like to believe the answer is like that pothole: more mundane and less fantastic than we might think.