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)

who bears fruit of the Spirit?

I was recently asked about fruit of the Spirit as Paul describes it in his letter to the churches in Galatia. The specific question was whether unbelievers bear fruit of the Spirit. Can they have real, genuine peace and joy, etc.? First, Let’s take a look at this fruit. In Galatians Paul instructs the believers…

keep silent?!

This Sunday we’re taking a look at Paul’s instructions for worship in the gathered assembly in 1 Corinthians 14. As we will see, spiritual worship—worship led and empowered by the Spirit of God—builds up the church, is intelligible or readily understood, and is orderly rather than chaotic. The latter does not require a strict liturgy…

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…