Two Sunday Gatherings on West Lakewood Boulevard
Fellowship Reformed Church meets at 2165 West Lakewood Boulevard on the north side of Holland, Michigan, in Ottawa County. The congregation is part of the Reformed Church in America, a denomination with American roots that go back to 1628, and Fellowship describes itself as Reformed, Evangelical, and Ecumenical. The Standards of Unity that shape its teaching are the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, and the Belhar Confession, with Scripture as the only final rule for faith and practice.
Two Sunday services are offered each week at 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM. Both are blended services led by a worship band, weaving together hymns and more contemporary music. The morning pair reflects what the church calls the natural expressions of the communities that gather at each time, drawing on Christian worship from many times and places. There is no dress code; people come in suits and ties as readily as shorts and jeans. First-time visitors are welcomed at a Welcome Center just outside the Sanctuary and invited to participate in worship or simply observe.
The Sanctuary is the primary worship space, but an Atrium space with tables, coffee, and a children's worship toolkit gives families another option for gathering. The service can also be joined online through a livestream on Sundays at the same two service times, and a phone option is available for those who cannot stream video. Past services are archived for catch-up viewing, and a weekly bulletin accompanies each gathering.
Three Pastors, Equal Authority
Fellowship is led through a Shared Pastoral Leadership Model. Three pastors share collective leadership with equal authority, each taking on some differing responsibilities while sharing preaching, supervision, and counseling. The arrangement is rooted in the church's understanding of the Trinity: unity, diversity, and equality at work in ministry together.
Ross Dieleman serves as Pastor of Congregational Life, Tierra Marshall as Pastor of Formation and Strategic Leadership, and Nate Schipper as Pastor of Engagement and Mission. Together they shepherd preaching, pastoral care, vision, and the church's outward-facing mission work.
Kids and Students from Nursery Through Twelfth Grade
Children's ministry at Fellowship is anchored on Sunday mornings. The nursery is open and staffed for both worship services year round, welcoming infants through age three. Sign-in happens at the Check-In Kiosk, parents receive a pager, and families are asked to help supervise the nursery on a co-op rotation of roughly once every six to eight weeks.
Children ages three through kindergarten attend Children & Worship at the 10:30 service year round, gathering in a dedicated Worship Center to hear stories of God, sing, respond, listen to scripture, and share a feast that points to communion. Sunday School is offered for first through fifth grade at the 10:30 service from September through May. Kids start the service with their families in the Sanctuary or Atrium, are dismissed just before the sermon, and are picked up in their classrooms afterward. There is no Sunday School or Children & Worship on holiday weekends. The children's curriculum, called Living the Word, follows the same scripture passage being preached in the Sanctuary that morning.
Family Worship in the Atrium is an informal worship space for families with young children who want to stay together. Worship Toolkits, with coloring sheets, crayons, worship journals, praise ribbons, egg shakers, and family resources, are available for use during the service.
For middle schoolers, Elevate meets on Wednesdays for youth group, building community and engaging Scripture together. Sunday School for Elevate students gathers on the second and fourth Sundays of the month during the 10:30 service. Hannah Cochrane, Minister of Middle School and Communications, oversees this ministry.
High school students meet as HSM (High School Ministry) on Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 PM for discussion, games, and authentic community, under the care of Taylor Midkiff, Minister of High School and Young Adults. Confirmation class is offered each year for students interested in being confirmed.
BLAST (Bible Learning And Sharing Together) is the Wednesday evening children's program for kids age four through fifth grade. BLAST includes gym time, a large-group lesson and skit, and small-group activities broken out by grade level, including card making for seniors, crafts, and Legos.
Community Nights Around the Table
Wednesday nights at Fellowship center on a shared meal and intergenerational formation. Community Nights run from 5:30 to 7:30 PM and begin with a dinner together in the Atrium. After the meal, children participate in BLAST, middle schoolers head to Elevate, and adults and high school students choose from a variety of classes that explore faith and discipleship.
Adult formation options have included the Apprentice of Jesus experience, a Spiritual Fitness class, and Community Conversations on Wednesday nights. The nursery is staffed for children under age four during the program portion of the evening from 6:10 to 7:30 PM.
The Faith Journey and Spiritual Practices
A significant portion of the church's teaching ministry is shaped around what Fellowship calls the Faith Journey, an emphasis on learning how to love well. Four love commands frame the journey: love God, love neighbor, love enemy, and love one another. The church teaches that love of God is the relational foundation from which the other loves flow, and that all of humanity belongs to God and is therefore worthy of love.
Fellowship has curated a set of spiritual practices as pathways for turning and returning to God. The Faith Journey includes Lectio Divina, Visio Divina, the Prayer of Examen, Confession and Self-Examination, Forgiveness as a discipline, Fasting, Journaling, Praying Scripture and Psalms, Breath Prayer, and a practice of Sabbath. Each practice is accompanied by a description of what it is, why it matters, and a step-by-step pattern for engaging it, along with recommended books for further reading. The Examen section, for example, walks through Presence, Notice, Examen, and Hope, drawing on the Ignatian tradition St. Ignatius developed for missionaries in the sixteenth century.
Local and Global Mission Partners
Fellowship's mission work spans Holland, West Michigan, and several countries. The longest-running local partnership is with Kids Hope USA; the church has been the Kids Hope partner with Lakewood Elementary since 1997, matching mentors with students for one hour a week of reading, talking, playing, and listening. Hand2Hand Ministries, another long-standing initiative, provides weekend food bags for children facing hunger. Food items are collected in a Hand2Hand cart in the Atrium.
The church also serves alongside a wide circle of Holland-area partners, including Bethany Christian Services, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holland, Camp Geneva, Grand Valley Campus Ministries, CASA (Children's After School Achievement) through Hope College, the Children's Advocacy Center, Community Action House, Cran Hill Ranch, Culture Works, Escape Ministries, the Family Hope Foundation, Gateway Mission, Good Samaritan Ministries, Holland Area Young Life, Holland Free Health Clinic, Hope College, Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity, Lakeshore Pregnancy Center, Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates, Maple Avenue Ministries, Midtown Counseling Services, Mobility Worldwide, MOKA, Reach for Recovery, Reach The Forgotten Ministries, Resilience, the Special Education Ministry of Holland, and Western Theological Seminary.
Global mission partners include Nicole Opgenorth in Central America, Christiaan and Cecilia VanDijk with Filadelfia Church in the Netherlands, Angel Lopez with Frontera de Gracia in Mexico, Albino and Sandra Rodriguez with La Casa del Maestro in Peru, Mission Partners India (Empowering Families), John Lokeno with the Pokot Health Center in Kenya, Adriann and Bernadeth Bobb-Kelly with Tabitha's House in Nicaragua, James Sundararajan with WCOI Ministries in India, and John Opgenorth with Words of Hope. Diana Fonseca-Peña serves as Local Missions Coordinator, with Emily Rosendahl and Pastor Nate Schipper also supporting global mission awareness.
The Teaching Church with Western Theological Seminary
Fellowship has a long-standing Teaching Church partnership with Western Theological Seminary in Holland. The partnership gives seminary students a congregational context for discerning their call, developing gifts, and growing as church leaders. Students typically remain at Fellowship for all three years of seminary, with a different focus each year: formation in year one, vision and leadership skills in year two, and acquiring ministry skills including preaching in year three.
Generosity and the Church Center App
Financial giving supports Fellowship's missional partnerships, discipleship efforts, mutual care, corporate worship, and operating expenses, including paying off the church's building debt. Gifts can be given online through the Church Center platform, and recurring gifts can be set up from a bank account or credit and debit card. Stewardship at Fellowship involves an annual budgeting process with input from mission partners, ministry teams, staff, and the consistory, with quarterly finance team review, monthly Ministry Leadership Council review of financial reports, and a publicly shared monthly financial report.
The Church Center app is the church's central digital hub. Members and visitors can browse Fellowship Groups, sign up for events and classes, fill out a Connection Card to get connected with a staff member, submit prayer requests, and access giving, registrations, and serving opportunities. The app is free, available for iOS and Android, and tied to the Holland zip code 49424.
Becoming a Mission Partner and Serving on Consistory
Local nonprofits can apply to become a Fellowship Mission Partner through a Mission Partner Application reviewed by the church's Mission Crew and approved at the annual congregational meeting. Funding for approved partners runs on a fiscal year from July 1 through June 30.
Consistory, the church's shared governance body, brings together the Ministry Leadership Council, the Care Leadership Council, the President of the Congregation, and the pastors. The MLC oversees mission, vision, and administration; the CLC cares for the congregation and community; and the President of the Congregation serves as a liaison and presides at consistory meetings. Members can nominate themselves or others for consistory service, and the church shares job descriptions for each role.
Pastoral Care and the Welcome to All
Fellowship welcomes individuals and families affected by disabilities and invites those who need assistance to ask at the Welcome Center for help. Pastoral care is coordinated through Care Coordinators Michelle Boonstra and Todd Schaap, with Jim Baar serving as Minister of Seniors and Visitation. Prayer requests can be submitted through the Church Center platform for the prayer team to lift up.
Stephen Braunius serves as Minister of Operations and Ministry Implementation and also hosts The Fellowship Journey podcast, a series of conversations with church leaders, missionaries, and partners about belonging, growing, and serving. Recent episodes have included conversations with the Local Missions Coordinator, a series on worship, and a Centered in Christ series featuring faculty from Hope College, Western Theological Seminary, and Maple Avenue Ministries.
From the Sanctuary and Atrium on Sunday mornings to the dinner tables on Wednesday evenings to mentoring at Lakewood Elementary and partnerships that reach from Holland to India, Fellowship Reformed Church builds its life around the simple rhythm of belong, grow, and serve, lived out in community in West Michigan.