On the south side of New Holland Street in Hudsonville, Michigan, just off the intersection with 32nd Avenue, Grace Community Church has made its home. The motto that runs across everything the church does is three phrases long: Encounter God, Train the Found, Seek the Lost. Those three phrases function less as a slogan than as a working description of how a Sunday morning begins, how a children's ministry is staffed, and how a global missions budget is shaped. Within a region of West Michigan dotted with Reformed and evangelical congregations, Grace is known for an unusually large and visible missionary footprint, an expositional pulpit, and a tightly organized family of ministries for every stage from infants through young adults.

Sundays at 8:45 and 10:45

Two identical Sunday services meet at 8:45 and 10:45 a.m. at 3500 New Holland Street. Both services follow the same shape: coffee and fellowship in the lobby, time set aside for graceKIDS check in, congregational worship, prayer, and an expositional sermon preached from a single passage of Scripture. The preaching tradition at Grace takes the text as the controlling point of the message. The doctrinal statement describes it as preaching in which the "main point of the passage of Scripture is the main point of the sermon" and that application flows toward life transformation. Messages are eventually posted under the speaker's name and the text, and visitors can catch up by watching live on Sunday mornings or by going back through the sermon archive.

Services are "come as you are" gatherings. The church describes itself as a room full of broken people who come together to praise the King who has saved them. First-time guests are welcomed at a welcome desk in the main lobby, and greeters and ushers (part of the graceCONNECTIONS team) help newcomers find a seat and orient them to the building.

Plan Your Visit: Parking, Valet, and the Kids Entrance

From Hudsonville, head south on 32nd Avenue and turn right on New Holland Street. Travelers coming from Holland or Grand Rapids take I-196 to exit 62 and head north on 32nd Avenue, then turn left on New Holland Street at the second stoplight; the church sits on the left. If you arrive with kids who need to be checked into graceKIDS, the recommendation is to use the East side of the building: the Early Childhood check in is on your right as soon as you enter through the kids entrance. Adults without children are invited to use the main lot in front of the building and follow the path to the main entrance, where you will be greeted in the lobby. The east lot is open to anyone when the main lot is full.

For those with limited mobility or with young families, valet parking is offered at the front awning. Pull up, hand over the keys, and the team will park for you. The children's classrooms are staffed with background-checked volunteers and team members with First Aid training, and classrooms are deliberately kept at a safe adult-to-kid ratio. Children from Infants through 5th Grade can be checked in starting fifteen minutes before each service.

graceKIDS: Infants Through Fifth Grade

graceKIDS supports parents by leading children to encounter God through prayer and Scripture and by equipping them even at the earliest age for a life of loving Jesus. The ministry is led by Kate Gates (Early Childhood Director) and Cassie Sanchez (Elementary Director) and is structured around two weekly touchpoints.

Sundays. Classes run in both services at 8:45 and 10:45 a.m. and are organized so that children hear the Gospel of Christ at an age-appropriate level. A volunteer team of background-checked adults keeps classrooms well-staffed, with First Aid-trained team members on hand.

Wednesdays. During the school year, graceKIDS classes meet Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., the same evening as several of the church's other ministries, including the women's Bible studies and the middle school youth group. The elementary program includes a 3rd through 5th Grade Boys Club and Girls Club.

Families new to Grace are met at the graceKIDS welcome desk, which sits to the left as you enter through the main lobby or to the right as you come through the kids entrance. The team will help you find the right classroom and answer questions about how the ministry partners with parents at home.

gracePALS: One-on-One Care for Children with Special Needs

gracePALS is a classroom developed for children who benefit from a more one-on-one experience to help them learn God's truth. The room is staffed during both 8:45 and 10:45 Sunday services and is described as a sensory-friendly space.

The teaching model is intentionally simple: a well-trained team focuses on one truth from God's Word each week, reinforces it through repetitive learning, and walks students through a chronological curriculum using many different tools. The goal is for every child to leave knowing that one truth.

Families interested in having their child use gracePALS are encouraged to connect with Cassie Sanchez so the team can set up an interview and build a personalized plan for the child's time in the room. The team is also actively recruiting volunteers, especially those with prior training or experience in special needs ministry.

graceMSM and graceHSM: Middle School and High School

Student ministry is led by Josh Huizenga (Student Ministries Director) and is split by age into two distinct rhythms.

Middle School: CLAY on Wednesday Nights

graceMSM gathers under the name CLAY, a reference to the image in Isaiah 64:8 of believers as the clay and God as the potter. CLAY meets Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. and includes epic games, powerful worship, teaching from the Word, and time in small groups. Training Workshops are also offered Sunday mornings, and retreats and special events run throughout the year.

High School: Solid Ground on Sunday Nights

graceHSM meets under the name Solid Ground, taken from Psalm 40:1-2, where the psalmist recalls being lifted out of the pit and set on solid ground. Solid Ground meets Sundays from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. and is designed as a weekly gathering for worship and fellowship. Beyond the weekly meeting, the calendar includes worship nights, service projects, spiritual retreats, mission trips, and casual events.

graceYA: Young Adults on Tuesday Nights

Young adults in college, grad school, or the early years of work and marriage make up the graceYA community, which meets on Tuesday nights at 6:30 p.m. The rhythm changes depending on the week. On the first and third Tuesdays of the month, the group gathers as a large gathering for teaching and community. On the second and fourth Tuesdays, the group breaks up into smaller groups. On fifth Tuesdays, a special worship or community-focused event takes its place. Connect details and small-group sign-ups are available through the church office.

Rooted and Life Groups: Families of Missionary Servants

At Grace, small groups are called "families of missionary servants," a phrase meant to capture both the communal and missional nature of doing life together. The church's pathway into this kind of community runs through two stages.

Rooted Groups. Rooted is a ten-week experience designed around the practices seen in the early church: Daily Devotion, Prayer, Repentance, Sacrificial Generosity, Serving the Community, Sharing Your Story, and Worship. Groups are intentionally kept to roughly eight to twelve people and meet during the 10:45 service on Sunday mornings, so that singles and couples can participate while their kids are checked into graceKIDS. Rooted is taught as the starting point: from there, each group discerns together whether to continue as a Life Group.

Life Groups. Life Groups are made up of individuals, couples, and families seeking to do life together. They meet about twice a month for a shared meal and fellowship, and the rhythm is built around applying theology to practice: connecting, growing, knowing, and being known. The stated goal is to grow and shepherd disciples of Jesus through authentic, Gospel-saturated community that is also "on mission" together. (Anyone curious about the pathway can reach Nick Knobloch, the Small Groups and Men's Ministry Director.)

graceMEN: Breakfasts, BetterMan, and the Titus Ten

graceMEN exists to give men a few brothers in Christ to walk alongside them. Three recurring rhythms shape the ministry.

Monthly Men's Breakfast. Men's Breakfast meets on the third Saturday of every month and is one of the easier entry points for a first-time guest.

Outdoorsman Banquet. Each February the church hosts an annual Outdoorsman Banquet, a dinner gathering themed around outdoor life and faith.

BetterMan. BetterMan is an eleven-week study on the key principles of biblical manhood and what it looks like to live them out day to day. It meets Friday mornings at 6:00 a.m. and pairs teaching with small-group discussion. BetterMan is one of the main on-ramps into an ongoing men's group.

The Titus Ten. A foundational men's study that meets Mondays at 7:00 p.m. and works through God's Word together to lay out a picture of Godly Manhood.

graceCARECREW. This is a standing group of men in the church willing to provide physical help - a move, a home project, a need within the body - for members of the Grace family.

graceWOMEN: Studies, Mentors, and an Annual Conference

graceWOMEN, led by Kaela Wolters, exists to encourage women to encounter God, train them to know His Word, equip them to seek the lost, and provide authentic community. The annual rhythms include:

FormedWomen. A nine-week experience meeting Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., built around Gretchen Saffle's Well Watered Woman. The study walks through how spiritual growth and lasting fruitfulness come from abiding in Christ and being deeply rooted in Scripture rather than from striving. graceKIDS programming runs at the same time so that mothers can attend.

Abide. A women's study using Jen Wilkin's Abide on 1, 2, and 3 John, with two meeting times: Tuesdays at 9:15 a.m. and Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. graceKIDS programming is available at both.

Women's Conference. Each spring the church hosts an annual conference designed to equip the women of West Michigan to make disciples and grow in their faith, with smaller gatherings and special events throughout the year.

Studies: The Sunday-to-Weekday Bible Study Rhythm

Grace operates a deliberately connected teaching rhythm between Sunday morning and weekday small groups. Each semester (fall, winter, spring) the church offers Bible studies for both men and women that mirror the book or topic being preached on Sundays. This lets the body go deeper between Sundays, study cross references, work through specific verses, and build relationships with brothers and sisters who are studying alongside them.

Beyond sermon-focused studies, the church runs two well-established foundational studies: the BetterMan study for men (described above) and FormedWomen for women (described above). Together these studies work as the entry points into the small-group network and on-ramps into deeper long-term discipleship communities.

Reaching West Michigan and Beyond

Missions is not a separate program at Grace; it is one of the three primary rhythms of the church. The missions vision runs in two directions at once.

West Michigan

The church is committed to reaching the people of Hudsonville and the surrounding communities through outreach, local partnerships, and church planting. The local partner network includes regional ministries and is supported both financially and through volunteer service from the Grace body.

Around the World

Grace supports a substantial portfolio of missionaries serving in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The current global roster, listed under the missions pages, includes:

• Jim and Karen Blumenstock, teaching at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary in Thailand, serving with Mission Quest
• Gary and Kathy Brewer, translating Truth78 resources into dozens of languages
• Tyler and Ayren Dykstra, serving with Oyate Concern among the Lakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota as Field Director and Community Director, with a forthcoming horse-ranch ministry
• Ted and Ticiana Gordillo, providing biblical and theological training across Latin America and the Caribbean with Cru in Quito, Ecuador
• Caleb and Krystie Hague, planting a church called Torre Fuerte (Strong Tower) in Madrid, Spain, with ABWE International
• Carl and Amy Kaiser, based in Grand Rapids with TEAM, supporting 500 missionaries through onboarding, transitions, and pastoral care
• Kenya Hope, a non-profit running seven Hope Centers across Kenya for orphans, children, and widows
• Mark and Tina Mast, serving with One Hope Canada in northwestern Ontario with a focus on First Nations communities; they also serve in Guatemala and India
• Suresh and Kim Singh, relocating to Louisville for seminary and continuing translation work with Truth78
• T and C, a young couple learning language in West Asia to serve long term among an unreached minority-language group; they are a Grace-grown couple, with C having grown up in the church
• Greg and Rachel Vruggink, teaching and equipping pastors at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with ABWE
• Rob and Joy Weaver, pastoring Morson Community Bible Fellowship in Ontario with Faith Global Missions and doing outreach to First Nations Communities
• Chad and Leanna Wiebe, in Kyiv with SEND International, developing SEND's Missions Mobilization Ministry and leading Help Ukraine humanitarian efforts for local churches

In addition to supporting missionaries through prayer and monthly giving, Grace regularly hosts "grace on MISSION" events where partners share updates, and the church provides short-term trips for members who want to go and serve. Mission updates are also posted on individual missionary newsletters linked from each partner page.

Serve: Using Gifts to Build Up the Church

Grace teaches that every believer has been given gifts through the Spirit for the encouragement of the church, and that serving is part of what it means to belong. Opportunities rotate through the year but include the graceWORSHIP music and production team, the graceKIDS team, the graceCONNECTIONS greeters and ushers, and Sunday morning setup. A Serve Interest Form is available for anyone who wants to begin a conversation about where they might fit.

What Grace Believes

Grace describes itself as an independent, non-denominational, evangelical church that aligns with Reformation theology and holds to Baptist distinctives. The doctrinal statement covers the Bible as the written, infallible Word of God; the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); the Person and work of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man; the Holy Spirit as Lord and Giver of life; the Gospel as the good news of Christ's birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension; election and the sovereignty of God in salvation; sanctification by the Holy Spirit; the Church as the universal body of all believers and a local assembly of committed believers; baptism by immersion for those who profess faith and the Lord's Supper as ongoing ordinances; and the visible, bodily return of Jesus Christ.

Several theological distinctives shape the day-to-day ministry. The church practices expositional preaching, where the main point of the text becomes the main point of the sermon. Local leadership is structured around a plurality of elders who shepherd, teach, and submit to one another under Christ as the chief Shepherd. Baptism is reserved for those who have professed faith in Christ. Male headship is taught as a complementarian pattern for both home and church, with the office of pastor and elder reserved for men. The gifts of the Spirit are affirmed as available for use today. And the sovereignty of God in salvation is held as foundational: the belief that humans are dead in their sins and unable to save themselves apart from God's prior work of grace.

The mission of the church is shaped by these distinctives. Three guiding values frame the ministry: Truth Driven, Spirit Led; Family First, Mission Always; and Live Like Jesus, Lead Like Jesus. Practical virtues that flow from those values include the conviction that "found people find people" and a steady commitment to pray now rather than delay.

Leadership: Pastors, Elders, and Deacons

Grace is led by a pastoral team supported by a plurality of elders and a deacon body, in a structure that reflects the New Testament pattern taught in the doctrinal statement.

Pastoral team. Scott Green serves as the Interim Lead Pastor. Kyle Hall is the Next Generation Pastor. Don Chapin is the Care and Connections Pastor. Daniel Munden is the Worship Pastor. Nick Knobloch directs Small Groups and Men's Ministry. Mitch Misak is the Missions Director. Kaela Wolters directs Women's Ministry. Lisa Kaiser serves as Care Director. Kate Gates directs Early Childhood, and Cassie Sanchez directs Elementary. Josh Huizenga directs Student Ministries.

The Lead Teaching Pastor role is the one the church was built around. A biography of that role describes a pastor born in Pittsburgh, raised partly in Seattle, and of Native Hawaiian descent, who arrived in West Michigan in 2013 for seminary, was hired at Grace as Youth Director in 2014, became Pastor of Student Ministries and an elder in 2016, and stepped into the Lead Teaching Pastor role in 2019. He and his wife Andrea have six children, and the family enjoys board games, hikes, swimming, pizza and movie nights, gardening, road trips, and bonfires.

Elders. Nick Bolhuis chairs the elder team, with Bill Pirkola as vice chair. The bench includes Tim Wells, Steve Cerda, Alan Greene, Jason Koh, Josh Seaborn, and Mike Eggebrecht.

Deacons. Stephen Baab chairs the deacon team, with Ken Welch as vice chair. The deacon bench includes Nate Anderson, Wade Arnold, Brandon Bosch, Jamie Botsko, Todd Castor, Jack DeWitte, Jon Eger, Matthew Haynam, Nathan Hansen, Stephen Johnston, Bob McAnally, Andrew Tanis, Adam White, and Brian Wilson.

Giving, the Church App, and Ongoing Communication

Online giving is available through Grace's giving portal, and offerings are collected each Sunday morning during the service for those who prefer to give in person. Checks can also be mailed to the church address.

Sign-ups for Rooted Groups, Rooted study seasons, and other forms are coordinated through the church's Church Center portal. A dedicated church app carries the same information and is set up through the Church Center app store page. The sermon archive, calendar, group sign-ups, and a giving portal are all available from there.

Come As You Are

The clearest way to describe what a Sunday at Grace feels like is to repeat the welcome offered to first-time guests: warm welcome, coffee and fellowship, age-appropriate classes for the kids, congregational worship, a sermon from God's Word, and people who hope you will come back next week. Behind that welcome is a teaching tradition that takes the Bible as the controlling point of the message, a leadership structure built on the New Testament pattern of elders and deacons, a family of ministries stretching from Infants to Young Adults, and a missionary roster that reaches from Hudsonville to West Asia. In the church's own words: Encounter God, Train the Found, Seek the Lost.