MEET OUR CONTRACTED PASTOR
Pastor David Sprang will serve as our contracted pastor. He is retired and will lead worship two to three times a month and does pastoral care, administration, and other things as needed. He previously served congregations in Michigan and Ohio and has retired from the bishop's staff at the North/West Lower Michigan Synod.
Contact information:
email- revdsprang@gmail.com,
cell phone- 989-980-0139
...... and our supply pastor
Pastor John Soyster will be offering us
worship leadership one or two
Sundays a month as a supply pastor.
You can learn more about Pastor John here
I love October. The weather is cooler, football is in full swing, Halloween is coming and, in the church, we celebrate the 508th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
The Reformation happened at the right time, or what we would call the “Kairos moment.” In 1450 Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press so communication through print media boomed. There was a movement across Europe for the independence of individual countries and regions. There was considerable conflict within the Roman Catholic Church over issues of doctrine that were coming to a head. John Hus, a Czech, was burned at the stake in 1415 for criticizing the theology of the church.
A German Roman Catholic Monk and theology professor, named Martin Luther began to write articles about reforming the church. On October 31,1517, he placed on the castle church door (community bulletin board) 95 items to debate on the doctrine of the church. In 1521 he was excommunicated (thrown out) of the church for his calls for reform. Then the world began to explode. In 1525 Ulrich Zwingli began preaching reform in Switzerland. In 1530 the Lutheran Church was born with the writing of the Augsburg Confession. In 1534 King Henry 8th withdrew the English Church from the Catholic Church. John Calvan published his reforming works in 1536, and a reformation spread across Europe. Finally in 1555 The Peace of Augsburg was signed establishing the existence of Protestant Churches and calling for them to co-exist with Roman Catholic Churches.
Martin Luther wanted to reform the church, but when the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church would not agree, protestant churches emerged across Europe and eventually many fled to America to seek religious freedom. We do not celebrate leaving the Roman Church, but rather celebrate that we believe that the church and our faith is based in scripture and that God is our leader, authority, and strength, not any human.
Pastor David Sprang
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