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 (Page 11)

what does the Bible say about Juneteenth?

(Note: This article was originally published on June 17, 2021. It has been updated with a video.) The apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome is one of the most widely-studied books of the entire Bible. Whether it’s the so-called “New Perspective of Paul” or questions about Paul’s primary purpose in writing the letter,…

but I don’t want to suffer

Years ago my wife and I were talking with a man who went on a bit of a mini-rant. Somehow the conversation turned to the desire of many to be beautiful or fit or buff or thin or whatever standard of beauty they may have. He said he can’t stand when people would say, “I’d…

don’t accept me as I am

In my freshman year of college, just a few months after turning 18, I had a class about spiritual growth and maturation in Christians and I had to write a paper about the theology of sanctification. How is it that a follower of Jesus becomes more like Jesus? I had been a believer for only…

the good news

We’ve heard of persecution. When the general public disagrees with or even derides our views on various issues we may even think we experience persecution. Imagine, however, that God sends a prophet to you to tell you everything will be stripped away from you. The prophet tells you—on God’s authority!—that your people will be taken…

hello? is it me you’re looking for?

Recently I was asked whether a person can miss his or her “calling” from the Lord. The idea is that God has one specific will for your life—a calling—and if you miss it, you’ve messed up everything. If you follow Jesus, the simple answer is, “No.” Let’s dig a little deeper, however. The idea of…