The Simpleton Blog

A long time ago there was this guy named John Wesley - he was a preacher in England. And something happened to him one day that totally...

One of my least favorite seasons in life is election season. Before I became a pastor, I never realized how challenging it would be -...

Couple of weeks ago, I was mowing my lawn. And as some of you know - I live up in Grand Rapids, and we’re sort of downtown-ish, north of...

Sermon Text - 06.30.2024 Today I want to start out with a little bit of a confession. One of my greatest weaknesses, one of my secret...

Sermon Text - 06.16.2024 Years ago I was chatting with a pastor buddy of mine and we were talking about funerals. And he said one of his...

Sermon Text - 06.02.2024 I heard a phrase this last week - it was one of those totally random things where you just have to stop and...

Jesus Plus Nothing - 05.19.2024 Couple years back there was this amazing story that came out about a man named Phil Vischer. For those...

A couple of weeks ago, before my family moved to Grand Rapids - I had started working at this church, but I was still commuting about 2...

In the book of Genesis, in the very beginning of the bible, there’s a story about two people - Adam and Eve, and they were in a garden....

Some of you already know this - but when I became the pastor here at Center Church, we were still in the process of selling our house and...

[Psalm 23:2] A long time back, Princeton University did an experiment with seminary students to prove that when we are rushed, we...

03.31.2024 - I Am Not Enough [John 10 and Psalm 23:1] To get us started this morning, I want to show you two different headlines. First,...

Have you ever left an “accidental” legacy? I remember one time, I was a college student doing youth ministry at my home church in the...

Click HERE for the Sermon Notes.. A long time ago there was a really famous evangelist and speaker named Dwight L Moody, who worked...

Click HERE for the notes.. I know some people think of me as the “young” pastor - but I am old enough to remember the invention of the...

Click HERE for the sermon notes.. In the book “Finding Men for Christ” George Dempster tells a story about his ministry from the 1920’s...

Click HERE for the Sermon Notes.. When I was a kid, I understood prayer as a bit of a performance. I’ll never forget, my dad's a...

Click HERE for the sermon notes.. For the past year, we have been reading through the entire bible together as a church. It’s been...

Click here for the sermon notes.. I think probably everyone thinks this of their own experience, but I really believe that when I was...

Click HERE for the PDF sermon notes.. Have you ever had a family get together during the holidays that was embarrassing? (Alright, I’m...