Two campuses, sixteen words, one mission
NorthRidge Church sits on North Territorial Road in Plymouth, Michigan, in the western reaches of Wayne County, and runs a second location in Brighton to the north. The two campuses share a single staff, a single teaching team, and a single guiding statement that everyone here can finish in their sleep: "Wake the World Up to Jesus. Show them His love. Tell them His Truth. Involve them."
That sentence is exactly sixteen words, and the number is no accident. The 16-Word Mission shows up in service times (5:16p, 9:16a, 11:16a), in a year-long "Year of the Bible" reading plan, and in how the staff frames every ministry from the nursery to the senior adults. The number echoes throughout the church.
Weekend services at 5:16, 9:16, and 11:16
Weekend services are the anchor of the church. The Plymouth Campus meets at 5:16p on Saturday evening, and at 9:16a and 11:16a on Sunday morning. The Brighton Campus meets at 9:16a and 11:16a on Sunday morning. A livestream of the 11:16a service is available each week for those watching from home.
Each service blends contemporary worship with a teaching talk from Lead Pastor Brad Powell or another teaching pastor. New talks go up every weekend, and the current teaching series is shared with companion notes and an email follow-up so regular attenders can keep studying through the week. The Plymouth Saturday evening option is a favorite for families who want a less-crowded room.
Brad Powell: a pastor who doubted whether the church would follow him
NorthRidge did not start under that name. Lead Pastor Brad Powell arrived in 1990 to a small, struggling congregation then known as Temple Baptist of Detroit. He had spent his first six years in ministry in four very different settings, from Rhode Island to Florida and from eighteen people to five hundred, and the call to NorthRidge was a leap of faith and obedience. He did not doubt God could rebuild the church; he doubted whether the church would follow him as pastor.
They did. Today NorthRidge has two physical campuses, a livestream that reaches well past southeast Michigan, a School of Performing Arts, a thriving special-needs ministry, and a network of compassion projects that sends shoeboxes around the world and meals into local food pantries. Brad is still the lead pastor and, by his own admission, still a little surprised by his own calling. He is the author of Change Your Church for Good.
RidgeKids from six weeks through fifth grade
Children have a full program from six weeks old through fifth grade, and the church treats that program as its own ministry rather than a babysitting service. RidgeKids is the name, and it runs during every weekend service at both campuses.
The Nursery welcomes children from six weeks to three years. Rooms are split by age, with toys and activities tuned to each stage, and the stated goal is simply that every child learn they are loved by God and by the adults caring for them. Preschool and Kindergarten classrooms add structure: a rotation through active drama that brings the Bible to life, music, and small-group time with a craft to take home.
First through fifth graders gather for "The Adventure of a Lifetime," a large-group worship and teaching experience paired with small-group time to apply what they heard. A separate RidgeKids YouTube channel keeps the weekend lesson going at home, and a downloadable health policy covers what to expect on a sick Sunday.
Child Dedication is offered for parents who want to publicly commit to raising their child to follow Christ. Starting Point for Kids is the baptism track for grades three through five: a four-week class held during the Sunday 9:16a service, with a baptism application and a conversation with a RidgeKids staff member required before baptism. A sensory-friendly Starting Point for Kids is available for grades three through six as part of the Special Needs Ministry.
Students: The Underground on Sundays, Wednesdays in Brighton
Middle and high school students have their own gathering at the Plymouth Campus, called "The Underground," from 6:16p to 7:45p on Sunday nights, with doors opening at 5:45p. The Brighton Campus offers a Wednesday night program from 6:30 to 8:30p. Both follow the same rhythm: games, contemporary worship, a relevant talk, and small-group time built around the issues students actually face.
Outside of the weekly schedule, the Student Ministry runs camps and trips. There is an annual Winter Retreat at Timber Wolf Lake Camp, fall outings like a Three Cedars Farm corn maze night, and "Student Takeover" weekends when students in first through twelfth grade run the parts of weekend services usually led by adults, from parking team to worship leader to producer. A fall calendar is available for download, and student choir and dance audition pathways are open for younger students as well.
Discover NorthRidge, Rooted, and the Foundations path
For newcomers, "Discover NorthRidge" is the on-ramp. It is a one-night event held several times a year, usually on a Friday evening at the Plymouth Campus, where Pastor Brad and members of the staff walk through the 16-Word Mission, share stories of what God is doing through the church, and answer questions. Dinner and childcare are included with registration.
For people ready to go deeper, the Foundations pathway is a set of ten-week courses: Story (the Bible's overarching narrative), Belief (what the church teaches and why), Practice (the core habits of Christian life), Formation (how spiritual growth happens over a lifetime), and Old Testament Survey. Each carries a ten-dollar coursework fee and requires buying a book.
Rooted is a parallel ten-week experience for those newer to the faith or new to NorthRidge. Fall sessions typically meet on Monday or Tuesday evenings at the Plymouth Campus.
Year of the Bible and Community Groups
Community Groups are the connective tissue of the church. Groups meet in homes, on campus, online, and in the community, on different days and at different times of the week. There are men's groups, women's groups, married couples groups, and co-ed groups.
The current emphasis is the "Year of the Bible" reading plan, a church-wide initiative where each weekend's talk connects to a daily personal guide and a group study guide, with the goal of working through the entire Bible over the course of a year. Group Leader Interest Forms are open for anyone who feels a pull toward hosting or leading.
Marriage, PreMarriage, men's, and women's ministry
PreMarriage is for seriously dating and engaged couples. The PreMarriage Workshop runs three times a year, usually on a Friday evening and Saturday morning, and covers communication, financial stewardship, and family of origin. The cost is twenty dollars per person. After the workshop, engaged couples are encouraged to connect with a married mentor couple for four to six sessions using the "Preparing for Marriage" curriculum, which includes the Prepare-Enrich online assessment. Several pastors are also available to officiate weddings for a five-hundred-dollar honorarium.
For couples already married, there are Community Groups specifically for married couples at different life stages, plus re|engage for marriages that need more focused help. The church encourages couples at every anniversary, from newly married to celebrating fifty years, to find a peer group rather than going it alone.
Men's and Women's ministries are organized around three buckets: study groups, serving groups, and social groups. Men's ministry runs study groups, serving teams at both campuses, and social events like the September Cornhole Tournament at the Brighton Campus. Women's ministry runs Bible studies, events, and serving opportunities, with gatherings designed to span every age and life stage. Both also have young-adult tracks, recognizing that a thirty-year-old's small group looks different from a sixty-year-old's.
Care for every hard season
NorthRidge takes seriously the idea that church is for the hard seasons as well as the good ones. The Care Ministry is a directory of specialized groups and resources rather than a single program.
DivorceCare and GriefShare are the long-running peer support groups, modeled on the national curricula of the same names. re:generation is a recovery ministry for those struggling with addictions, habits, or hurts. re|engage is a marriage enrichment program for couples in any state of marriage, including those considering separation. Pain to Purpose is a course that meets on Thursday evenings and uses biblical wisdom and trauma-informed insights to walk people through grief, betrayal, and loss. Rise and Restore provides mentoring, and Care Support and Counseling Resources pages connect people with professional referrals. The Care Directory catalogs every group, meeting time, and sign-up step.
Special Needs Ministry
NorthRidge's Special Needs Ministry is one of the more developed programs on site. The One-on-One Program pairs trained volunteers with children, teens, and adults with disabilities so they can fully participate in their appropriate RidgeKids, Student, or adult ministry. God Squad is a separate Bible study for adults with special needs, meeting at the Saturday 5:16p service in Plymouth.
For families, there is a Family Support Group that meets twice a month on Wednesday evenings at the Plymouth Campus with respite care provided, plus seasonal Family Bowling afternoons at a wheelchair-accessible bowling venue. The ministry also offers a sensory-friendly version of Starting Point for Kids for grades three through six. Every partner is interviewed and security-screened before being paired with a family.
School of Performing Arts
NorthRidge is also home to a School of Performing Arts, or SOPA, which offers dance classes for children and adults, plus private music lessons. The dance program runs on Mondays and Tuesdays during the school year and includes a recital at the end of each semester. Class descriptions, dress guidelines, a calendar, and the SOPA Portal for registration are all available online. The school describes itself as "dedicated to providing a quality arts education in a Christian environment," and its instructors are part of the broader NorthRidge staff.
Love Runs, prison ministry, and the food drive
Love Runs is NorthRidge's anti-trafficking initiative, organized around the Detroit Free Press Festival of Races each fall. Teams train through the summer for 5K, half-marathon, and full-marathon events, with a goal of raising funds that support the rescue and restoration of trafficking victims in Metro Detroit. The team is open to all ages and all fitness levels, with training plans available for download.
Beyond Love Runs, NorthRidge runs or supports a wide range of local and global compassion work. Twice-yearly food drives with a published shopping list and Breakfast and Dinner Boxes available for online purchase support local food pantries. Regular service at a local soup kitchen feeds thousands of meals each year. A Prison Ministry visits incarcerated men and women with cards, pen pal letters, worship services, and Bible studies, and runs a one-day Prison Ministry Training several times a year. Foster care support comes through Legacy League, with summer camp sponsorships and a year-long mentorship program.
The church also collects Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes each November, with thousands packed each year, supports disaster relief through Samaritan's Purse (including responses to Hurricane Helene and Texas flooding), and sends both domestic and international mission trips. A baking team delivers meals to the Ronald McDonald House twice a month, and an Adoption and Foster Support Group meets periodically for families walking through that journey. Staff members are also given paid time to take part in global outreach opportunities.
What NorthRidge believes: Unity, Liberty, Love
NorthRidge is non-denominational and describes itself with the phrase "Unity, Liberty, Love." The church's statement of beliefs holds to one God eternally existing in three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), to Jesus Christ as conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, and to salvation by grace through repentance and faith in Christ's death and resurrection. The Bible is described as "the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God, inerrant in its original manuscripts," and the supreme authority for faith and life. The Holy Spirit is affirmed as the one who regenerates believers, indwells them permanently, and gifts each one for ministry. The full statement of beliefs is available as a downloadable PDF.
Giving, the app, and how to connect
NorthRidge supports its ministries through tithes and offerings, with several ways to give: online through the church's giving platform, by texting any dollar amount to 833.396.1565, by placing a gift in one of the lobby giving boxes at either campus, by mailing a check to the Business Office at 49555 N Territorial, Plymouth, MI 48170, and through stock transfers coordinated with Merrill Lynch. Planned giving options cover estate planning, life insurance beneficiary designations, charitable gift annuities, and charitable lead trusts. Year-end statements are available through the online giving account.
The NorthRidge app is the simplest way to keep up with weekend talks, the Year of the Bible reading plan, group directories, event registration, and online giving. It is available for iOS and Android. The Plymouth Campus phone number, 734-414-7777, is staffed Monday through Friday from 9:00a to 5:00p. Services are livestreamed on YouTube, and the full events calendar can be subscribed to in Google Calendar or iCal.