So, as I mentioned recently, I have yet to write a post on our church. Which just seems so ridiculous to me for so many reasons, but I think it's because I just have too much to say. When we were planning on moving, we knew that the most important thing we needed to do was find a church, a body of believers that would be our family. We found Fulkerson Baptist Church in Niles, Michigan on the Nine Marks website, and began reading everything from the church website, following the pastor's blog, and listening to sermons. From what we could tell, it seemed like everything we prayed to find. Of course, you never know until you actually visit a place, and meet the people. After 2 or 3 visits, we knew we were home. Here is a picture of us on the Sunday we joined, along with several other families; we are on the very far left, with Maryn:
We absolutely love our church. It's on the smaller side, which means there are plenty of opportunities to serve. There are lots of young families like us, but younger and older generations are also well represented, and worship alongside one another. The preaching/teaching is seriously amazing - we can't get enough. We love the pastor, the other elders, the music, the rest of the leadership; we love the people. We love the theology, the mission, the vision, the passion of this church.
In the last couple of months, we have begun to transition from getting to know people and enjoying being blessed by the service of others, to beginning to get more involved and serve in various areas, which has been such a joy. We have had opportunities to help on the worship team and in the nursery. Billy recently became a deacon, and is very excited to be a servant within the church's ministry to the widows, orphans, and the poor. I recently formed a new communications team to figure out ways to better inform the body about church events and announcements - I love the people I get to work with on this! We also have recently joined a newly formed small group (our first small group was getting too big) and are really enjoying getting to know the people in our group. Maybe our small group deserves its own blog post! :)
I recently read the book Radical by David Platt. In it he says: "We need community in order to follow Christ radically. I am convinced that one reason many of us have not taken radical steps in our giving, for example, may not be so much because we love our possessions as it is because we fear isolation. If the radical, simple living we see Jesus talking about were more common in the church, it would be much easier for us to live simply as well. But we look around, and everyone else has nice cars, nice homes, and lifestyles characterized by luxuries, so we accept that this must be the norm for Christians. We may get convicted about our way of living when we look at the Bible, but then when we look at one another, we assume it must be okay because everyone else lives this way. If we are going to live in radical obedience to Christ, we will need the church to do it. We will need to show one another how to give liberally, go urgently, and live dangerously....In the process we will learn to depend on one another according to God's design."
We are very blessed, because Fulkerson Park does not fall into the category described above. It is full of individuals and families who are living radically for the gospel of Christ. People who give their time and money abundantly, who adopt orphans, who fight for the weak and the unborn, who selflessly love their neighbors, who work hard and sell possessions so they can go overseas to a dangerous place to reach the lost, who use their intellect to write books and go to school and teach for the glory of God, who use their trade skills to serve others and show God's love, who live very simply on small budgets so they can dedicate their lives to ministry, who drive beat up mini vans because they love kids more than luxury and status, who give up Sunday afternoons to care for those in nursing homes, who sacrifice and give when someone in the body or someone they know is in need, who pay for books for seminary students in Africa, who regularly and hospitably open up their homes to others, who spend hours planning and organizing ways for children to have gospel-hearing opportunites as well as their care so parents can have those opportunities also, who give up the American dream for the sake of a better Kingdom. I could go on. We are not worthy to be named among them. In this environment, Billy and I are doing lots of growing, we are challenged, and we feel loved. Isn't it amazing the way God works through local faith families? We didn't even know these people existed just over a year ago, and now we feel one with them.
Curious to hear our pastor, Brian Hedges? Here he is answering a question on Christianity.com.
