For the North End Community Ministry / food pantry visit http://necmgr.org or call (616) 454-1097.



We meet for worship at 214 Spencer Street NE. Directions.
Service begins Sundays at 10:00AM.

Shepherd’s Pen

who gets what, when, and how

During our church’s Family Meal last Sunday I was asked about politics. Specifically, the question stemmed from my point in the sermon that we cannot proclaim the gospel of Jesus through the ballot box. The truth is the moment you advocate for a party or candidate for president, no one will hear the gospel. They…

have you met New City?

One of the difficult things any organization faces is the loss of institutional memory. As people come and go the reasons for decisions may be lost. An organization’s culture may change as new folk come in after a period in which that organization’s values were clearly explained and then enacted. Sometimes a change in leadership…

Delmar was right

We recently looked at the two sacraments God has given to his church. These are visible signs of what God is doing invisibly in the life of his church. My friend Josh recently said a sacrament puts “sensory handles on unseen realities”. Through baptism and communion we can see and feel what God is doing…

but we’ve always done it this way!

There is an old joke that probably applies to many Christian traditions but I heard it of Baptists: Q. How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb? A. Change?! The truth is change has always been part of the Christian faith, for our faith is enculturated. It has long adopted the cultural…

it ain’t about flippin’ tables

By now you’ve heard about the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The outcry has been over the decision to have a group of LGBT+ folk seated at a table, with the person seated at the center having a halo. Further, the Greek god Dionysus (called Bacchus by the Romans), the god of…