Last night something amazing happened. But to capture how amazing it was, I need to take you back about 5 years to a basement in a housing development in Mattawan, Michigan. It was the Sunday morning after Easter in 2009. 14 adults and 17 kids gathered together. It took about 3 minutes to set up…
My heart is broken today. Last night one of the members of our church called and left a voicemail on my phone as he made the rounds, trying to reach one of us pastors. By his voice, I knew it might be one of those calls that no one wants to receive. I called him…
The Word growth is a funny word. If I tell you, “I have a growth on my chin,” it is something completely different than if I tell you I have noticed growth in ReCAST church. But to tell you I have noticed growth in ReCAST church is still not very clear. What kind of growth…
Nikki (my amazing wife) is away for the week. She had the opportunity to attend The Journey in Muskegon. I had the privilege of attending the week long retreat last year and had a powerful experience so I’m happy that she could go. But of course, if she’s gone for a week, that leaves me…
Have you ever been anonymous in a crowd? Have you had the chance to be the mascot or wear a full costume at a party? There is something that makes us more socially bold when nobody knows our identity. Anonymity is a powerful thing that can be used for good or evil in the human…
I came across the following quote from Timothy Keller in the book “Center Church.” He says, “Moralism eats away at real joy and humor because the system of legalism forces us to take our self (our image, our appearance, our reputation) very seriously.” [parentheses and italics in original]. That has indeed been my personal experience.…
I love big cities! There is something about the hustle and bustle of city life that energizes me. I attended a conference for Pastors in Chicago this past week, and if I am honest, I was more excited about being in Chicago than I was about attending the conference. But God met me on His…
It is amazing to me that I have now been preaching almost every week for over four years. That means I have delivered close to 200 sermons, and in a very real sense sermon preparation has become the structure of my life. The skeleton of my weekly schedule revolves around textual analysis on Mondays, Historical…
Happy National Day of Prayer. I hope this day finds you praying. I hope this day is not very different from everyday. I hope that you communicate with God regularly about a whole host of subjects. But I am guessing that you are like me, and prayer can easily slide into a routine that happens…
A lot has transpired since Sunday, April 19, 2009! On that morning, we gathered together in the basement of Greg and Jen Nitzel and held our very first service as ReCAST Church. We set up folding chairs in the basement. Had a children’s program with our kids upstairs. Dave Bunt led us in singing with…
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…
God’s grace has been evident in ReCAST church over the past four years. We started on April 19, 2009 with about 30 people in the basement of a home in Mattawan. This past week I counted up the number of volunteers to make our Sunday morning programs run, and there were over 30 workers! We…
