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Band Members Testify To New Life

Written by Terry DeBoer on 14 July 2017. Posted in Local

Joseph Warren (left) and Adam’s Road Joseph Warren and Adam's Road are on a new mission.

Warren and his fellow band members are all former Mormons. And now they're presenting their musical testimonies of a newly-found gospel salvation message.

"We're just trying to put the gospel to music and to share our stories," said Warren, 32, by phone from a concert stop in rural Vermont.

The ex-members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (better known as Mormons) have carved out their own path as they've embraced Christian orthodoxy and proclaimed it publically. And it has come at some personal cost.

A Mile In Your (old) Shoes

Written by Dan Seaborn on 10 July 2017. Posted in Local

Let me tell you, we're talking about a really big "if."

If I think about it long enough and hard enough, I can remember what it was like—what it was like long, long ago—to be a kid.
If.

For starters, the piano practice was torture. I'd be sitting there, plunking out tunes on black and white keys even though I thought my fingers looked much better on the orange of a basketball.

And my mom, the human metronome, would sit beside me on the bench, tapping the end of a pencil against the piano to help me keep rhythm. It drove me crazy.

If it wasn't piano lessons that had me in misery, it was homework—hours of multiplication, history, and grammar keeping me away from the South Carolina skies that were calling my name.

Radio Team Now In New Ministry Pursuits

Written by Terry DeBoer on 09 July 2017. Posted in Local

Ace McKay (left), and Jeff Veley"Yes... Jeff and I are saying good-bye to you," JQ-99 (WJQK-FM) radio personality Ace McKay told listeners on their June 29 afternoon show.

After two and a half years as on-air teammates, McKay and co-host Jeff Veley both left their duties on the local contemporary Christian outlet at the end of June. Breaking the surprising news proved difficult.

"Don't you make me weepy," Veley warned McKay during their bittersweet announcement which both said was made with "heavy hearts."
"You guys (listeners) are family," Veley added.

CeCe Winans Showcases Long-Awaited Album

Written by Terry DeBoer on 09 July 2017. Posted in Local

Ever wonder how a music artist with a 30-year performing career chooses songs for a concert tour?

“Some people may be shocked,” advised gospel singer-songwriter CeCe Winans. “But I’m singing every one of the songs from my new album on this tour. I want people to hear all these new songs.”

“Let Them Fall in Love” is the veteran artist’s first all-new collection in nine years. She calls them “songs that everyone can learn something from.” It’s another milestone in a decades-long inspirational-gospel career, which included many years in a successful R&B-gospel duo with her brother BeBe Winans.

Cece, 52, brings her music to DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids on July 13.

Bethlehem Lutheran Opens Intergenerational Center

Written by Paul R. Kopenkoskey on 24 June 2017. Posted in Local

Pastor Jay Schrimpf is Bethlehem Intergenerational Center’s executive director and Susan Davidson is its director.Senior adults and children can significantly benefit from one another, but too often don't get the opportunity to interact. Bethlehem Lutheran Church is helping to bridge the generational gap thanks to its recent opening of the Bethlehem Intergenerational Center (BIC).

The BIC offers combined and enhanced day care for young children and seniors, building on the church's 46 years of experience in child care and education.

Terry's Picks: July 2017

Written by Terry DeBoer on 24 June 2017. Posted in Local

How about taking a little drive this month? Visit one of our outlying area venues and see a free-will offering concert in an informal setting. West Michigan Christian News writer Terry DeBoer has some suggestions in that direction for the month of July:

Truth, True Truth, Truthiness, and Post-truth in America

Written by Dr. Rex M. Rogers on 18 June 2017. Posted in Local

Dr. Rex M. Rogers American culture is actively forgetting what it used to believe.

That truth is objective and knowable reality – that truth is not defined by gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, partisanship, Left or Right political philosophy, culture, might, I.Q., riches or poverty, beauty or brawn, feelings or preferences, or even religion per se.

In the 1970s, the late Christian philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer coined the intentionally redundant phrase "true truth" to remind the emerging morally relativistic culture that truth is not subjective. It is not something we can pick and choose. Truth is absolute. Truth stands outside all of us.

A generation or two hence, American culture is racing pell-mell toward full-on relativism. Now, no one, no entity, nothing can be trusted because everything is reduced to power and rights, not truth.

New Music Review: Close

Written by Terry DeBoer on 18 June 2017. Posted in Local

Grand Rapids pastor and national music artist Bishop Marvin Sapp has released a brand new song from his forthcoming album.

"Close" is the type of gospel ballad which has faithfully delivered his musical testimony in years past.

Sapp, 50, is co-founder and pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church on Madison Ave. SE in Grand Rapids. But he's also a nationally renowned, award-winning gospel music artist.

A keyboard-based anthem, "Close" takes advantage of a live setting and a background singing choir as the verses and chorus positively point beyond current troubles to a fulfillment of a divine plan.

After Graduation, Remember This

Written by Dan Seaborn on 10 June 2017. Posted in Local

It's another season of diplomas, of caps and gowns, of students marching across a stage and into a new life. So whether they're on to college, a career, the military, or just a bit of wandering, it's time to hail the graduates!

Today, this message is for you, Graduate—yes, you, with your education in hand, your tassel freshly flipped, and pink Silly String on your shoe. As you take your next steps into this ever-changing world, your brain has been packed with information, facts, trivia, and far too many essay questions.

Get on Your Bikes and Pedal: RIDE GR Opportunity to have Fun, Pray Alongside Fellow Bikers

Written by Paul R. Kopenkoskey on 10 June 2017. Posted in Local

RIDE GR is an interdenominational prayer bike ride around Grand Rapids. Bicyclists often pedal around the city to burn calories, take in the sites and work off some stress. Stockbridge Boiler Room's (SBR) June 24 RIDE GR is no exception, but there's more to its 20-mile trek than enjoying the great outdoors.

RIDE GR is an opportunity for bikers to stand in agreement and prayerfully intercede on behalf of churches' and the neighborhoods they are based in, said Tim Collier, overseer of the local SBR.

Actress Shares Her Real Life Story

Written by Terry DeBoer on 10 June 2017. Posted in Local

The original cast of “Father Knows Best” (Lauren Chapin in lower right) Actress Lauren Chapin has a surprising description of her six years on the 1950s TV sitcom "Father Knows Best."

"It was my saving grace," said Chapin, who portrayed Kathy "Kitten" Anderson, the youngest child of the family depicted in the heart-warming series.

"I believe God had me in that (show) for a purpose, because my real family life at home was so contrary to that of the Andersons," recalled Chapin, 72.

Summer Praise Series Underway

Written by Terry DeBoer on 05 June 2017. Posted in Local

Members of the Grace Fellowship Church Praise Team lead music at Praise in the Park in RockfordRichard Moll has a pleasant predicament with the weekly Praise in the Park series in downtown Rockford. "We're running out of summertime Sundays," said Moll, founder and coordinator of the music series now in its sixth season.

There are so many area church worship teams – and other inspirational artists – interested in participating that Moll can't accommodate them all in a single summer.

For 2017 there are nine churches, two bands and one solo artist leading the worshipful music Sunday evenings in Garden Club Park.

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