Dear Rose Park,

Last Thursday, Sam and I brought our two kids to meet my mom downtown for the street performers. We met in front of Kilwins and then began walking down 8th street enjoying all the sights and sounds. We stopped to see some of the breakdancers, listen to one of our neighbors play guitar in a local band, and even grab a couple goodie bags from a Gentex sponsored event. At the very end though was the culmination of our fun because Simon and Winnie convinced us to wait in line for the balloon artist.

Dear Rose Park

If the discipleship of children must be paramount for the church of 2050, then I hope and pray we are not going through the motions when it comes to loving, encouraging, supporting, teaching, or modeling God’s love to future generations. A 2022 Barna study concluded, “children who have a meaningful relationship with an adult in the church are more likely to be rooted in Scripture, to be grounded in children’s ministry and the life of the church, and to externalize faith and move towards generous, countercultural behavior. Strong intergenerational connections don’t happen by accident. For the future church we must invest in community-building today.”

Dear Rose Park

This past Sunday afternoon, with the help of Aaron and Anna Welsch and our neighbor Paul, Sam and I put up a new basketball hoop in our driveway. It took all hands-on deck to lift the backboard, but after a few busted knuckles and a couple of words mumbled under our breaths, the job was done. As I stood in the driveway marveling at our work, I was reminded of the Church.

Dear Rose Park,

I’m serving as the chaplain this week at Camp Geneva. So far, it’s been a wonderful experience seeing how God is working in the lives of young people. As a brief sidenote, I’m also amazed at the sheer energy of both the campers and particularly the counselors as they sing songs, play games, and share the love of Christ.

Dear Rose Park,

Our minds tend to wander. Whether it’s at work, in class, or sipping coffee at the breakfast table our minds naturally drift. Rarely are we fully present in one place. Too often our physical bodies are present, but our minds are somewhere else. Maybe you’ve had this while driving, during a phone call, or even in the middle of a Sunday sermon :) However, this is not the case with God. God is not only everywhere present but He’s also fully present everywhere.

Dear Rose Park,

Acts is an important book of the bible and Acts 15 is an important chapter of the bible. If you’ve never read it before, I highly recommend you read it as soon as possible. In short, chapter 15 is about a meeting that took place in Jerusalem. This meeting essentially centered around the question: what do we do about all these new people?

Dear Rose Park,

If you’ve stopped by the church recently and swung by my office, then you’ve seen all the pictures and paintings that have recently gone up. There’s a poster, soon to be hung, of the twelfth hole of the Masters Tournament. A few collages of our stained-glass windows. A painting from one of our members. A gift from my sister-in-law. Even a few Father’s Day presents from my kids. But there’s one picture frame that sits right behind my laptop that always catches my eye.

Dear Rose Park,

I went for a run a few weeks ago with the Holland Running Club. There are some runners who keep to themselves and there are some runners who are chatty. I’ll let you decide which camp I fall into. During this past run, I was going stride-for-stride with a particularly chatty runner. Somewhere along the conversation he muttered the phrase, “it’s like our biography shows up in our biology.” I haven’t stopped thinking about the phrase since.

Dear Rose Park

“Christians, of all people, understand the crucial importance of remembering. Christians are “memorial people” because the whole of our faith depends upon remembering. Those who persevere into the glorious future are those who remember the gracious past.”

Dear Rose Park,

I am the proud coach of the Holland Little League Giants baseball team. Our season officially started this past Saturday with our first game, but Simon and I have been playing catch since the ground first thawed. Almost every day after school, Simon asks to play catch in our lawn. Playing catch is one of my favorite things to do. It makes me think of my childhood and I always smile. As we toss the ball back and forth and fall into a rhythm, I naturally start to think about the church.