Our congregation was a new church development of the Lake Michigan Presbytery in the early 1990s. The congregation started with a core of longtime presbyterians from various congregations in the Grand Rapids area, and quickly grew to include those from a wide variety of other church backgrounds, and many who had no previous church background at all. Led by our first pastor, Rev. David Milbourn, we worshiped in various elementary school buildings for our first few years. By 1998, we had grown and were able to build a building of our own. That building, in a beautiful location just south of Hager Park on 28th Avenue in Jenison, is where we worship today.
With our building established, we saw our ministry grow through mission activity centered in the Jenison, Grandville, and Hudsonville areas. Those early years saw vibrant Sunday School ministries and Vacation Bible School. These have continued, and we have been blessed to support our community through vibrant local mission and outreach. It has been a joy to see our congregation grow together in relationship with God as the body of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
When Pastor Dave retired in 2007, God led us to call Rev. Linda Male (who had served Parkwood several years before as an intern) to be our interim pastor. During her ministry we thought about who we are as a congregation and spent time discerning how we wanted to grow in our relationship with God and what type of pastor we needed to help us do this.
In 2009, God led us to call Rev. Matthew Wright as our second installed pastor. We continued our mission activities, Sunday School ministries, and Vacation Bible School. In 2015 Pastor Matt left to pursue his desire for a doctorate of Divinity.
When Pastor Matt left, God led us to call Rev. Karen Haygood to serve as our interim pastor. During her ministry we worked through where we were as a congregation and where we wanted to grow as a congregation in relationship with God.
In 2018, God led us to call Rev. Christine Barnes as our third installed pastor. We continued our mission activities, revitalized our building interior, and started pursuing a further outreach in the Jenison, Grandville, and Hudsonville areas. At the end of 2019, Pastor Christine left to be closer to her family.
In 2020, God led us to a new season with Rev. Sarah Juist as our fourth installed pastor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a lot of firsts: our first virtual worship services, YouTube videos, Zoom meetings, and online educational opportunities. Throughout this season, we also took time to evaluate our gifts, our current abilities, and our hopes for the future, and adopted a new mission and call statement.
Over the years, many of us have become friends. But we know that we are joined together not simply because we live close to one another or have common interests, but because God the Father has called us into relationship with himself through the Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is our prayer that God will draw many more to himself through our congregation, and we strive to welcome all those we meet as we would Jesus himself.
