Who we are
"The church" was never meant to be known as just a building, but instead a vibrant group of people journeying together in the way of Jesus. For the past 100 years our faith community has been blessed by God, so that we may be a blessing to others. We are a people who are learning to seek God, listening for his direction and praying that we may follow his Spirit.
Our MIssion
Our mission is to grow into a people who are:
Grace Driven- We celebrate God's love and free forgiveness which all of us need every day to live with meaning.
Outward Focused- Our priority is to be about loving other people, one another and God in our local area as well as our world.
A Safe Place to Meet Jesus- All of us can lose our way and we want to be a safe place and people for all who are trying to understand the love of Jesus and begin, or renew, a relationship with Him.
Our Beliefs
We believe that God loves us more than we can imagine. He finds us where we are and invites us into a loving relationship with him. He loves us too much to let us remain where we are, but leads us closer to him and into a life of love, truth and blessing. We call that “Amazing Grace!”
We believe that the Bible is God’s message to us about his love, specifically a love that brought Jesus to our world to live as God and as human among us. Jesus was a light in a dark world. Jesus’ death and resurrection and his coming back to life announced to all powers of evil that people loved by God do not need to be afraid of death or evil. Jesus takes all those parts of ourselves that are unloving, all that we have done that has hurt others, all that we regret and cannot fix and he forgives us. He takes the responsibility of what we have thought and done upon himself. That is the “Good News,” “The Gospel,” and the center of meaning for our lives. We are now free to love because we have been loved!
We believe that “The Church” is really the larger global group of all men, women, young people and children who have accepted Jesus’ love as the center of their lives. Our church, First Reformed here in Byron Center, Michigan, is a part of that larger church. We worship God with others and gather for events in our building but our mission is to be like Jesus - a light beyond this building - in every place of darkness and pain. We are part of a denomination, the Reformed Church of America, a collection of churches that share our understanding of God’s grace (his undeserved love), our honor of the Bible, and our passion to be people that resemble the loving light of Jesus for people who expect judgment or who expect to be ignored!
