A Pentecostal Church on Home Street
Central Assembly of God meets on a quiet block of Home Street on Muskegon's west side, the building tucked behind a parking lot that the congregation is currently working hard to repave. From that single campus at 896 Home Street, Lead Pastor Jeff Haddon and his team lead one of the larger Pentecostal congregations in the Lakeshore region, affiliated with the national Assemblies of God fellowship. Their stated mission is simple and direct: to lead people into an authentic, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Under Pastor Jeff's leadership, the church describes its guiding principle as Loving God, Loving People, and Serving the World. The values that hang alongside that motto - committed to worship, eternally minded, neglecting no one, truth speaking, relationship driven, active in the Spirit, and led by love - shape everything from Sunday gatherings to the smallest women's brunch.
The Pastoral Team
Central's preaching and teaching is led by a close-knit team of five pastors and one creative director.
Pastor Jeff Haddon serves as Lead Pastor. After arriving at Central, he focused on cultivating a welcoming environment, building family and community ties, and empowering believers to live out their faith daily. He is described as a dynamic preacher with a genuine care for individuals, and his vision for the church is for it to be a beacon of hope in Muskegon where every person can experience the love, grace, and redemption found in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Alex Kirksey is the Associate Pastor of Discipleship and Outreach. Alex and his wife Lindsay began serving in ministry in 2014 as youth pastors in Whitehall and Sterling Heights; both were dedicated to the Lord as infants right here at Central, and they view the opportunity to sow back into the church as the greatest honor of their lives. Alex holds a bachelor's degree in Pastoral Leadership from Northpoint College.
Pastor Donovan Locke serves as Operations Pastor. A Fremont, Michigan native who met Jesus in his senior year of high school, Donovan attended Northpoint Bible College and has been in ministry since 2017. He spent seven years as a Next Gen pastor before moving into his current role, and he is passionate about raising resilient disciples, young and old.
Pastor Hayley Stephens is the Youth Pastor. A Northern Michigan native, she holds a certificate in Ministry Leadership from Summit International School of Ministry and an associate's degree in Ministry Leadership from Northpoint College. Before joining Central she served two years as a NextGen Administrative Assistant.
Pastor Emily Frizzell is the Kids Pastor. Raised in metro Detroit, she is pursuing her bachelor's in ministry leadership at Northpoint College and brings a deep love for Jesus into the classroom through the practices of spiritual disciplines.
Adriah Locke, Donovan's wife, is the Worship and Creative Arts Director. She grew up on church worship teams in Fremont, attended Northpoint Bible College, and spent seven years helping build student worship teams before stepping into her role at Central. She now oversees the worship and creative arts ministry that leads the congregation in song each week.
Sunday Mornings at Central
The main weekly gathering is a Sunday morning worship service at 10:00 AM. Services are held in English and are livestreamed on Central's YouTube channel, so members who are traveling or shut in can follow along. Music is led by the worship and creative arts team that Adriah Locke directs, and the gathering follows a contemporary charismatic style that reflects the church's Pentecostal heritage.
Children's ministry runs concurrently with the main service. Kids are dismissed to the Kids Wing, which is staffed and led by Pastor Emily Frizzell and her volunteers. Parents of infants through fifth graders can drop their children off before the sermon and pick them up afterward.
Several Sunday-morning traditions punctuate the year. Baptism Sundays are scheduled regularly through the year, with a brief preparation class held beforehand so those being baptized know what to expect. Child Dedication Sundays offer families the chance to publicly commit to raising their child to know and follow Jesus, with the church family pledging prayer and encouragement in return. Adult Membership and Partnership Classes walk newcomers through what Central believes, how the church is governed, and what it means to join the family.
Wednesday Midweeks
Wednesday nights at 6:30 PM are reserved for Midweeks, Central's midweek discipleship hour. The fall season Adult Bible Study, titled Jesus Throughout the Bible, meets from 6:30 to 8:00 PM and is open to anyone in the church family who wants to see how the whole story of Scripture points to Christ.
During the winter and spring, Midweeks expand into three concurrent electives that rotate through the year. Recent offerings have included I've Got Questions, a course designed to create space to ask hard questions about faith; The Fundies, a class walking through the Assemblies of God's 16 Fundamental Truths with Pastor Jeff and Pastor Alex; a Parenting Class led by the Next Gen team; a Married Couples small group that works through Your Time-Starved Marriage by Les and Leslie Parrott; and a Bible study with longtime teacher Ray Blais. In the spring, an additional elective explored the history of Islam and its challenges to Christian witness in the West.
Monday Nights: Alpha, Women, and Men
Each fall, Monday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM host three parallel tracks:
- Alpha Course - an introduction to the Christian faith designed for skeptics, seekers, and new believers, run in a relaxed meal-and-discussion format.
- Women's Ministry - a weekly gathering for women of all ages that combines teaching, fellowship, and prayer.
- Men's Ministry - a parallel gathering for men, focused on discipleship and authentic community.
All three run simultaneously during the September-to-November season and sign up together at the start of the series.
Next Generation: Kids and Students
Central invests heavily in the next generation. Children from nursery through fifth grade are cared for and taught each Sunday in the Kids Wing under Pastor Emily Frizzell, with a Parents' Night Out offered several times a year (children nursery through fifth grade enjoy games, competitions, and bounce houses while parents get a date night or a quiet evening).
Middle and high school students are shepherded by Pastor Hayley Stephens, who runs a year-round ministry that includes:
- Winter Retreat, a January weekend at Camp Henry with the theme REST - a chance to step away from the noise of the world for a weekend of worship, teaching, and play.
- Youth & Kids Camps at FAHOLO each summer, with a youth week and a separate kids week.
- YOCO (Youth Convention), the Michigan Assemblies of God youth convention held at Mount Hope Church each November.
- Fine Arts Festival, the Assemblies of God student talent competition in areas like music, drama, and visual art, hosted regionally.
- Kids Summer Internship, a four-week hands-on internship where older students learn how to lead in Kids Church, finishing with an outing at Craig's Cruiser.
During the summer months, students are also folded into the broader Connect Groups ministry alongside the adults.
Women's Ministry and the Sisterhood
Beyond the fall Monday-night gatherings, women at Central meet year-round under the banner of the Sisterhood. Events include:
- The annual Sisterhood Brunch, held in a newly renovated fellowship hall that was designed to feel like a cozy living room, with a prepared brunch, good coffee, and time to sit, talk, and connect.
- The Birthday Bash, an evening celebration of life, faith, and the journey God has each woman on, complete with a birthday gift for attendees.
- The Break the Fast, an evening of worship, food, and fellowship at the end of January.
- Smaller seasonal gatherings that vary from year to year.
Men's Ministry
The men's ministry mirrors the women's in format - a fall weekly gathering from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, plus special events through the year. The men's track is built around authentic brotherhood, Scripture, and accountability.
Connect Groups and Small Groups
Central's Connect Groups are small communities that meet in homes and around town, designed to be authentic, intimate, life-giving, and purposeful. Groups meet at different rhythms - some weekly during the school year, others seasonally.
Summer Connect Groups run from mid-June through August and lean into the Michigan lakeshore lifestyle, with options like walking groups, beach groups, golf groups, and casual neighborhood gatherings. Anyone can start a group by emailing the church office.
Veterans' Connect
One of the more distinctive outreach ministries at Central is Veterans' Connect, a fellowship of veterans and veteran spouses that meets in the church's fellowship hall. The group hosts periodic fellowship mornings, a hot dog fundraiser after Sunday services, and other events designed to give those who have served a space to build community and be cared for.
Marriage and Parenting
Married couples at Central are cared for through a dedicated small group that has worked through resources like Your Time-Starved Marriage by Les and Leslie Parrott, focusing on how to prioritize marriage, communicate more effectively, and build lasting intimacy in the middle of busy schedules. Parenting is supported through a class that creates a network of parents working through challenges together with the Next Gen team and occasional special guests.
Worship and Creative Arts
The Worship and Creative Arts Department, led by Adriah Locke, is responsible for the music heard in Sunday services as well as the broader creative environment of the church. The team rehearses weekly and welcomes musicians and vocalists who want to serve. Special services like Christmas Sunday feature a choir leading worship alongside the band.
Outreach and Missions
Central takes the serving-the-world part of its motto seriously. The annual Missions Celebration, held each fall, brings the congregation together for an evening of stories from missionaries supported by the church, a message from the Michigan NextGen Director, and a family-style dinner. Tickets are sold by individual and family.
The church has also taken a strong stand against human trafficking in Michigan. Each year it hosts The Digital Dilemma, a two-day awareness and training event that includes a screening of Ring of Silence followed by a live Q&A, and a hands-on training session on recognizing and stopping online trafficking. The church also hosts an annual Cornhole Fundraiser tournament at Excalibur Golf Club, with proceeds going to organizations working to end human trafficking.
Each spring, Central holds a free Community Easter Egg Hunt at Beukema Playfield, drawing families from across Muskegon for 20,000 candy-filled eggs, age-grouped hunts, prize giveaways, inflatables, and snacks.
Yearly Rhythms: Retreats, Camps, and Conventions
Beyond the weekly schedule, the church follows a yearly rhythm that includes:
- Winter Retreat (Camp Henry) for students in January.
- Easter Week, with a Good Friday service, a community Easter Egg Hunt, and Easter Sunday worship.
- Fine Arts Festival in March for student artists.
- Membership and Partnership Classes several times a year for those wanting to make Central their church home.
- Annual Business Meeting each spring for members.
- Summer Connect Groups, Kids Summer Internship, and Youth & Kids Camps through the summer months.
- Golf League on Monday evenings at Excalibur Golf Course from May through August.
- Fall kickoff with Alpha, Women's Ministry, and Men's Ministry all launching in September.
- Missions Celebration each fall.
- YOCO (Youth Convention) in November.
- Christmas Sunday, with worship led by choir and band, a Kids Christmas party, and a family-oriented Christmas Eve Service featuring a hot cocoa bar and cookie decorating kits.
PAVE THE WAY: A Capital Campaign for the Parking Lot
Central is currently in the middle of a $500,000 capital campaign called PAVE THE WAY, a project to repave and rework both the North Lot (about 100 spaces) and the South Lot (about 172 spaces). The campaign funds a new gravel base, weed and debris removal, drain repairs, freshly painted parking lines, and sidewalk edges.
Pastor Jeff has framed the project theologically. The first message many visitors receive from a church happens before they ever walk inside the sanctuary - it happens in the parking lot. The goal is for every space on the property to say, We prepared for you, whether the visitor is a senior, a young family, a teenager who feels lost, or someone who has never experienced the love of Jesus. Reaching the $500,000 goal in a single year requires sacrifice and generosity above and beyond regular tithing, and gifts of every size are invited. Giving to the campaign is done through the same online giving platform as regular tithes and offerings.
What Central Believes
Central Assembly of God is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, and the congregation affirms the denomination's 16 Fundamental Truths. Those truths include the inspiration of Scripture, the unity of God in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), the deity of Jesus Christ, the reality of original sin, and salvation by faith in Christ.
Central specifically practices two ordinances: water baptism by immersion after a profession of faith, and Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper) as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's death. The church also embraces the four cardinal doctrines of the Assemblies of God: salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit (with the initial physical evidence of speaking in tongues), divine healing as provided for in Christ's atonement, and the rapture of the church prior to Christ's second coming.
The church further affirms sanctification as a progressive, lifelong process; the church as the Body of Christ across denominations; the doctrine of the millennial reign of Christ; a final judgment for those who have rejected Christ; and the believer's hope of a new heaven and a new earth.
Giving
Central offers three ways to give:
- Online through the church's secure giving platform, with one-time gifts or scheduled recurring giving.
- By text - text the word GIVE to 1-877-782-4283 and follow the prompts.
- In person at the church during services or office hours using a giving envelope.
Facility Rentals
Central's building is available for both ministry events and private rentals. Central ministries can reserve space through an internal form, and external groups can request private rentals such as open houses, baby showers, and family gatherings. The church's passenger van is also available to Central ministries upon request, subject to approval.
Visiting Central
First-time visitors can expect a warm, casual environment. Sunday morning worship begins at 10:00 AM; services are held in English. Children from nursery through fifth grade are welcomed into the Kids Wing during the service. Wednesday Midweeks for adults run from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and the staff can be reached at (231) 777-3938 or mail@cagmuskegon.org. The church can also be found on Facebook and Instagram.
Central Assembly of God is a Pentecostal congregation rooted in the Assemblies of God tradition, with a pastoral team that preaches a Christ-centered gospel, a worship team that leads in contemporary charismatic style, a deep investment in children and students, and a clear-eyed vision to serve the city of Muskegon with the love of Jesus for generations to come.