When we set out to start a new church about four years ago, we went through a pretty clinical process. We visited some communities, we did some demographic studies, we prayed, and we decided to love a little community called Mattawan.
I have always said that falling in love should be more of a decision that allows the feelings to come later, and that has been exactly what has occurred at ReCAST. I moved to this community four years ago, and logged many hours in the coffee shop getting to know people. And I have fallen in love with this community.
Any community is honestly a beautiful mess of heartache and celebration, relativism and dogma, life and death, fear and hope, love and apathy, sin and repentance.
I love that ReCAST has been placed in this community as a place of hope. We stand on the following core values: Reproducing that we might see the kingdom grown through the foundation of other gatherings in other communities. Community, that we might be a real and tangible blessing to our community through acts of service and kindness. Authenticity, that we might be a place where real people who have real issues have a place to freely share real struggles, real hopes and real dreams. Simplicity, that we might be a gathering that reduces the clutter of a very busy American lifestyle, by minimizing programming to three core essentials: faith, community and service. Truth, that we might follow hard on the heels of God, knowing Him as He has revealed Himself through the Bible.
In the course of these four years working through these core values and engaging this community, I have fallen head over heels for Mattawan, MI. I will not see eye to eye with everyone I meet. Some people might not even like our church, but this process that began with some formal data collection, has resulted in a passion to bring hope to this super amazing community; a small community where The Lord has called us and established us!