I knew from the very beginning of ReCAST Church that I wanted there to be a plurality of leadership. More than just a generalized desire for plurality of leadership in the church, I was convinced from the Scriptures that having more than one person leading a church was what God desires. For this reason, we…
I once heard of a prominent pastor who aspires to preach the entire Bible within His lifetime. And he said in jest that if he has the opportunity, you can be sure that the Song of Songs will be the very last one. True to his word he has not yet preached through the Song…
There is a type of person that many Christians don’t want to believe exists. It may be that we have a strong sense of grace, a naive view of the world, or even a “think the best of people” attitude. But we need to wake up, because this type of person is only going to…
Last Sunday was our annual church picnic at the park. And the confluence of over a year of Covid and the reality that the church has grown in the past several months created a really exciting, joyful time. A couple of times during the afternoon, I stepped back and looked over the park and just…
ReCAST Church has grown and shifted and changed shape many times since we began in the Spring 12 years ago. When we had our first service with 14 adults and 21 children, there was no youth group in sight. We had two kids entering middle school that attended in those early days and I even…
God has blessed ReCAST Church with excellent staff over the years. David Schrock has been our youth director for a couple of years now. He has built up the programs for middle school (ReCAST 180) and high school (Gravity) to a place where we have a great volunteer base in both programs and a fun…
Sing is a frequent command in Scripture. And it is a command that hasn’t been particularly easy to assimilate into a year of pandemic with an airborne illness. To accommodate for the pandemic, our church has shortened the service, moved the singing to the end of the service, and removed a couple of songs to…
Living in the midst of a pandemic has been difficult. Leading in the midst of a pandemic has been harder. Trying to stay on the focus of the mission God has for the church in the midst of a pandemic has been the hardest. The local church by definition is a gathering . . .…
At the end of the day, the church needs no defense. We are not a self-justifying institution like a bowling alley, a shopping center, or a restaurant. Commercial institutions must justify themselves with sales. If they do not sell stuff (goods or services) then they have no reason to exist. But the church exists because…
The church has been a stable influence on culture down through the ages. To be clear, the church has changed in traditions and in externals, but her mission has remained the same! We still proclaim a risen Lord. We still proclaim love for God and love for our neighbors as ourselves. We still gather together…
I have been wondering for months now why people do not just keep others more informed about their journey with COVID? Why do people who get COVID seem to go silent? Why do I not know more about the personal side of walking through the illness. And then I got it. I didn’t feel like…
There is a phrase from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech that has resonated deeply in my soul. As a person that grew up in a very homogenous white farming community in Michigan, I only had the thing I read to go on. I read the speech in high school. And this…
