Here are three. And three more. Now two. One.

How many words do you use in a day? Or how many do you type? Or how many do you think? How many do you hear and see?

Studies would tell you that the counts are in the thousands for each of us: words, words, words, all the time and everywhere. And even though through texting we don't spell out words as much, we are still thinking about the whole word. There are words on billboards, words all around the coffee cup, words set to music, words scrolling the screen, words carved into the bathroom stall.

West Michigan Christian News writer Terry DeBoer surveys the landscape for the area's faith-based arts and entertainment events over the coming month. Here are three highlights for May:

Filmmaker Stephen Kendrick and his brother, Alex, learned a sobering truth in 2002 when they read a national poll from George Barna's Ventura, Calif.-based evangelical polling firm, The Barna Group.

"The poll talked about how the church was no longer considered, in the culture, as one of the top 10 influences," Stephen Kendrick recently told West Michigan Christian News. "Movies, music and the Internet were like the top three."

It was hard-hitting news for two men who made their living as pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga.

The award-winning inspirational-pop band MercyMe is coming to West Michigan Nov. 29 for a special Christmas concert with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets for the general public are expected to go on sale May 16.

The concert – to be held in the spacious sanctuary of Resurrection Life Church in Grandville – follows a similar holiday event held there last December. The local symphony teamed with singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith and several church musicians, performing to a sold out audience of around 4,000.

Originally teamed up in the former Tommee Profitt Band, Profitt and singer Brooke Griffith have a new worship collection titled "Even So Come."

Profitt (who lives in Grand Rapids) produced the new release. All the songs but one are "covers" of contemporary worship anthems.

The title track offers a version of the noted Passion song, adding close vocal harmonies undergirded by sweeping orchestral arrangements.

The pair also covers "Good, Good Father" (a Chris Tomlin tune), and a rendition of Francesca Battistelli's Grammy-winning "Holy Spirit," which shimmers with its keyboard touches while building on a crescendo of percussive sound.

James K.A. Smith wrote the book "Desiring the Kingdom" in 2009 under the banner of what he calls "advanced scholarship." Meaning he wrote it for other academics and scholars.

But that book got so much attention and prompted so many speaking engagements and questions that he decided to expand his premise, add to his original research, and write a new book that reaches general readers. "You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit" was recently released by Brazos Press, a division of Grand Rapids-based Baker Publishing Group.

"I thought 'Desiring the Kingdom' was kind of accessible for laypeople, but that turned out not to be so," said Smith, professor of philosophy at Calvin College. "And yet it got lots of attention and I got invitations to speak at churches and Christian schools. The audiences' eyes would light up at the ideas, but the book caused their eyes to glaze over."

A blending of the family God put together: (l to r) Tony, Jesse, Kim and Levi.Many people associate the phrase "mission field" with Christians dispatched to a far-flung foreign country. Tony and Kim Przybysz of Plainfield Township discovered early in their 25-year marriage God wanted to color outside that expression's lines.

Their mission field includes adopting medically fragile children whose birth parents were no longer capable of raising them.

Their journey of following the Lord's will has had its share of joy, heartaches and testing of their faith, but they remain true to the focus the Lord has shown them.

"My Story," a new song by the inspirational pop band Big Daddy Weave, flows from an earlier song that represented a spiritual breakthrough for lead singer Mike Weaver.

"Really, this is just a continuation of what God's been doing - back from a time and place when I was not feeling good about myself," admitted Weaver, 40, on the phone from near his Mt. Juliet, Tenn. home.

The highest-profile worship event of the year in West Michigan is The Outcry Tour, a collection of top worship leader/artists coming to Van Andel Arena at 6 p.m. Tues. April 19.

Kari Jobe, Hillsong Worship, Elevation Worship, Jesus Culture with Martin Smith and Brian Houston (Hillsong Church's senior pastor) are all part of the line-up.

The collection of artist-leaders is touring major venues across the country.

Jobe, a worship leader at one of the campuses at the huge Gateway Church, has visited Van Andel previously, performing several years ago on the Winter Jam Tour. And she comes to Grand Rapids as a new mother: her son Canyon was born in February.

Denise Fase is GR Initiative for Leaders executive director.Around Greater Grand Rapids are teens and young adults who have learned biblically-based leadership skills that they in turn make the most of to transform their schools, churches, related-ministries, businesses and communities.

What they learned didn't happen overnight. They committed and applied themselves with one of five programs that GR Initiative for Leaders (GRIL) offers at its Southeast Grand Rapids location.

Bestsellers – March, 2016

Fiction
1. Brush of Wings – Karen Kingsbury
2. Atonement – Beverly Lewis
3. If I Run – Terri Blackstock
4. Room for Hope – Kim Vogel Sawyer
5. Sensible Shoes – Sharon Brown
6. Return to Paradise - Barbara Cameron
7. Burning Proof – Julie Cantore
8. Always Watching – Lynette Eason
9. Behold the Man – Brodie & Brock Thoene
10. God's Not Dead 2 – Travis Thrasher