Bob Crow: “If you’re not passing it on, you’re missing the point.”The statistics reveal what's at stake. Up to 85 percent of churches in North America have plateaued or are in decline while about 23 percent of the nation's population say they are not affiliated with any religion, otherwise known as the "nones." This is sobering news, but instead of waving the white flag, the Multiply222 Network has a plan.

Correction: the Word of God has a plan that the ministry seeks to birth in others, says Bob Crow, Multiply222's chief development officer.

The Comstock Park church before its closing last November.There are many factors involved in a church closing. Similar threads wind their way around the tales of those which find themselves coming to an end.

But each church has its own story.

So it is with Comstock Park Congregational-United Church of Christ on Lamoreaux Dr. NE, just up the hill a bit from West River Dr. The church closed its doors last November, the final chapter in a 110-year lifetime.

Paul Sommer, the church's historian, can fill you in on details. But the meandering story takes a while to tell.

The executive committee of the Council of Delegates voted unanimously to appoint Dr. Amanda Benckhuysen to the position of director of Safe Church Ministry for the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

Benckhuysen previously served as professor of Old Testament at Calvin Theological Seminary. She also taught at the University of Dubuque (Iowa) Theological Seminary and was a campus minister at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

A coalition of community, nonprofit and business leaders has joined forces to provide safe emergency shelter for residents of the Heartside neighborhood who are experiencing homelessness.

An alliance led by Mel Trotter Ministries and Guiding Light, the city of Grand Rapids and Kris Elliott of Evergreen Companies, has leased space at 250 Ionia Ave. SW in downtown Grand Rapids to accommodate what experts are saying could be as many as 100 adults nightly seeking housing in the coming months.

Work has begun to transform the space, which is the former Purple East tobacco shop, into a warming center and overnight shelter for those experiencing homelessness, many of whom are currently staying in tents in Heartside Park and other locations around the city.

Guiding Light recently received for the third consecutive year a $20,000 grant from the SpartanNash Foundation that will help support the nonprofit's Back to Work program.

The SpartanNash Foundation has provided a total of $70,000 to the nonprofit since 2016. Back to Work provides a short-term stay for men who are experiencing homeless and seeking full-time employment, along with support for their job searches.

Bishop Michael Curry is an Episcopal Pastor from N. Carolina. His name may be familiar to you because he performed the wedding ceremony of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Since that time, he has spent his time preaching and writing. In his new book, Love is the Way: Holding on to the Hope in Troubling Times, he stresses the importance of relationships and community. He is culturally literate, and many of the people he refers in to his book are other writers. I would love to see his library.

Conservative think tank the Acton Institute recently marked its 30th anniversary by reflecting on the significance of the Berlin Wall falling in 1989. These days, new walls are being erected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, wrote Acton president Rev. Robert A. Sirico in a letter to supporters.

"Thirty years hence, the most momentous thing seared into our memoires may well be the pandemic, not only in terms of the scores who have succumbed to the virus and the attendant misery and suffering of loved ones, but also the unintended consequences of political leaders in their actions and policies to combat it," wrote Sirico.

This is the column in which West Michigan Christian web writer Terry DeBoer surveys the landscape for the area's faith-inspired arts/entertainment/enrichment events over the coming month. It looks like we're still going virtual......

Dr. Rex M. RogersDiversity and inclusiveness are mantras of the new religion of political correctness. Not that these values are necessarily bad or wrong in themselves. Diversity can be a good thing. So can inclusiveness, if you aren't tossing aside morality when you use the term.

Certainly, diversity is a watchword of our culture today. One's demography is now destiny. News stories of appointments to government offices lead with the gender, race or ethnicity, maybe sexual orientation of the appointee before they report the professional credentials and accomplishments that hopefully justify the appointment. Identity politics, as it's called, has become a part of the "acceptable narrative" of currently ascendant ideology.

Long before the present-day, actually some two thousand years ago, God ordained something called the church, understood in lower case as a local body of believers (and usually non-believers as well), and capitalized as, the Church, the trans-cultural, trans-country, trans-time Body of Christ, the universal Church, the Family of God.

I don't know how many times over the last year I have heard someone say, "This has been a year like none other". We agree, and we are excited because there are opportunities to lead eyes upwards like never before.

The faces of many people show the discouragement, frustration, anger and the deep sense of questioning that is in their lives. This makes for good soil to sow seed into during these uncertain times.

This is the time of year we see news-feature lists of celebrities and other notables who passed away during the last 12 months. We thought it might be appropriate to remember some Christian music artists and others who entered eternity during this year who might not have made those other lists.

*Dr. Rance Allen – The gospel music singer-songwriter was a founding pastor at a Toledo, OH church, yet had a decades-long recording and performing ministry. His first album with his Rance Allen group came in 1972.

One of his long time friends was Grand Rapids-native pastor/music artist Marvin Sapp. Upon learning of Allen's death, Sapp noted that Allen was present at many of Sapp's milestone moments. "From the Stellar Awards giving me an award for (Sapp's song) "Best in Me" to my Inaugural Bishop's Banquet (in Grand Rapids). Every year I came to your church just to celebrate you as bishop, pastor and (your) musically anointed gift." Allen died Oct. 31 at age 71.

In a recent talk sponsored by the Christian Reformed Church Office of Race Relations, Mike Peters, director of the local 4 Fires Ministries, said too many people remain unaware of the Native Americans who live in their communities.

"There is next to no knowledge of native life," said Peters, an ordained non-denominational Christian pastor. "The vast majority of Americans never think about Native American issues. Even today, there are several states that have history books that have no mention of Native American history."

Calvin Theological Seminary President Jul Medenblik recently marked his 25th anniversary of ordination into ministry. He was ordained at Orland Park Christian Reformed Church in Illinois which was the mother church for a new church plant just beginning in New Lenox, Ill.

For the second year in a row, Wedgwood Christian Services is the recipient of a $10,000 grant from the Perrigo Foundation. The grant will help fund Wedgwood's Transforming Services, which includes its Wellness and Activity Therapy, Employment Training, Prevention, Manasseh Project Outreach, and Chaplaincy and Young Life – which is voluntary. These services enable Wedgwood to offer holistic treatment, and help youth and families heal from the trauma of abuse & neglect, exploitation, and substance use.

We saw this notice much too often during 2020The COVID-19 pandemic was the big deal during 2020. Its tentacles stretched over so much of our lives in ways we couldn't have realized early this year.

No one could list all the events, trips, concerts, gatherings, and other activities both indoors and outdoors which were affected.

Among the casualties were numerous faith-based artistic endeavors. Michigan's two major Christian music multi-day events - Unity Christian Music Festival in Muskegon and Big Ticket Festival in Gaylord - both were forced off the books until 2021.

In a time when the world is convulsing with one crisis after another, the team at Guiding Light is focusing on gratitude for those who support the nonprofit.

What starts as a simple thank-you call from the donor relations team often leads to a deeper conversation, especially during this time when so many are isolated. Donors, it turns out, appreciate the support and the ability to connect meaningfully.

As donor relations officers, Bob Evans, Brad Myers and Steve Pratt are continually engaging with those who give their time, money, resources or advocacy to help Guiding Light achieve its mission of partnering with individuals to fulfill their God-given potential.

The Job Post, a full-service hiring firm and social enterprise of Guiding Light, has moved to a new office in Grand Rapids at 401 Hall St. SW, located in suite 425.

The new office offers easier and more convenient access to both job seekers and companies looking to hire them. Located just south of downtown Grand Rapids with access to US 131 and near I-196, the new office has ample free parking.

Good Samaritan Ministries executive director Drew Peirce: “We sort of swim upstream and help as many people as we can from becoming homeless.” The parable of the Good Samaritan implores people to grant mercy to the neighbors among us. More and more, those attempting to eke out a living in Ottawa County need this unprecedented compassion Jesus instructed His followers to accomplish.

Homelessness in Ottawa County has experienced an uptick due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making Holland-based Good Samaritan Ministries (GSM) all the more vital.

"We'll intake about 6,000 calls this year and help from 1,110 to 1,200 people through a combination of our programs," says Drew Peirce, executive director of GSM. "All of last year, we helped about 20 families that were at risk of becoming homeless. The last 12-13 weeks, we've helped about 230 families from becoming homeless, and that work continues to grow. We sort of swim upstream and help as many people as we can from becoming homeless."

This is the column in which West Michigan Christian News writer Terry DeBoer surveys the landscape for the area's faith-inspired arts/entertainment/enrichment events over the coming month.

In the spirit of 2020, let's go virtual for December! Here are a few online possibilities:

Joel Paul Reisig, director of “Faith Under Fire”The new film "Faith Under Fire" has already faced one unexpected roadblock.

The faith-based movie directed by Hope College alum Joel Paul Reisig was supposed to debut in theatres for a run on Thanksgiving weekend.

Then came the Nov. 17 pandemic-induced edict that closed film houses and similar venues for three consecutive weeks statewide.

"It's extremely disappointing," noted Reisig of the lost opportunity. "But it's an important movie. Please consider bringing it into your homes this season."

The film – shot entirely in southeast Michigan – stars veteran actors Kevin Sorbo and Dean Cain. But the main character is a firefighter portrayed by Detroit-born actor Nick Vlassospoulos. After losing his wife to cancer and then learning of his young daughter's carcinoma diagnosis, his life descends into hopelessness until a persistent pastor reaches out to help.

Pastor Vern BaremanWhen Pastor Vern Bareman attends to his patients, he's not toting a blood pressure cuff or sporting a stethoscope about his neck.

Instead, he ministers mostly in a spiritual way, embracing the special role that a spiritual caregiver provides as part of the Emmanuel Hospice team.

Rather than leaning on a medical degree, Bareman and others like him rely on key qualities that spiritual caregivers bring to the table – what he says includes "compassion, empathy, a servant's heart, the ability to wrestle with life's biggest questions and the ability to listen."

In this crazy, pandemic year of 2020, it actually makes sense.

In order to proceed with its annual Christmas music production, "Hark Up" is going virtual.

"We've been recording and filming over the last month and everything should be ready to go soon," said Hark Up executive director Chris Hansen.

"A Virtual Hark Up Christmas" will be a combination of studio and on-location video, with narration and even snippets from performances of past years.
It's set to debut at 7:30pm Sat. Dec. 5 .

The opening segment is new. It's a parody version of "You Can't Stop the Beat," borrowed from the musical "Hairspray." "It ends up as 'You can't stop Hark Up,'" Hansen noted of its "continuous shot" video style with dancers and singers.