Tucked into the Spring Lake side of Michigan's Tri-Cities, Ferrysburg Community Church gathers about two hundred people every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. for worship that mixes modern songs with classic hymns. The congregation belongs to the Christian Reformed Church in North America and traces its life around a simple three-part vision: growing closer to God, growing deeper in His family, and growing louder in His world. Everything from nursery care on Sunday morning to home builds with Tri-Cities Habitat fits under that banner.
The Shape of the Vision
The church's vision statement reads like a sentence: "A community where all kinds of people are becoming like Jesus by growing closer to God, growing deeper in His family, and growing louder in His world." Each phrase carries weight. Growing closer to God happens through worship together and through private disciplines. Growing deeper in His family happens when people spend time together beyond Sunday, in formal small groups and informal gatherings alike. Growing louder in His world means announcing God's kingdom through both word and deed, feeding the hungry, showing up for the lonely, and sharing the grace of Jesus with people who need to hear it.
The pastor, Nate Visker, sums up the heart of the church this way: "We are a community where all kinds of people can become like Jesus. When he walked the earth Jesus invited people from all walks of life to follow him. People who had it mostly together and people who were falling apart found Jesus to be everything they needed. That continues to be true."
Sunday Morning at 10:30
The Sunday service begins at 10:30 a.m. Visitors do not have to dress up, though they certainly may. The music leans blended: contemporary worship songs paired with old hymns drawn from a deep well of congregational singing. A YouTube channel carries recordings of recent services and stretches back through an extensive archive of messages from Pastor Nate.
Behind the scenes, a security-tag system, an electronic check-in at the Welcome Center, and a locked children's wing ten minutes after the service begins all help keep the morning running smoothly. The result is a service that feels both warm and orderly, with about two hundred adults in the room and a separate, age-tailored experience for kids from birth through fifth grade.
Seeds, Explore, Wonder, and Dig: Children's Ministry by Floor
Children are not an add-on here. They are woven into the life of the church with a four-stage program that gives every age group its own room, its own name, and its own teachers.
Seeds Nursery cares for infants through two-year-olds in safe, loving care. Parents check children in at the Welcome Center, receive a name tag for their child and a matching security tag for themselves, and hand their child through the window to a nursery worker.
Explore introduces two- to four-year-olds to the God who loves them. After check-in, children head across the hallway to a room called The Pines, where they experience a Bible story, activities, crafts, music, and play time.
Wonder invites young fives through first graders into God's stories so they can respond in worship. Children begin the service with their families in the sanctuary and are dismissed partway through to a classroom called The Meadow.
Dig engages second through fifth graders in God's Word to grow a deeper relationship with Jesus. Students start in the sanctuary and are dismissed about ten minutes into the service to The Grove, where they are picked up after worship.
Every childcare worker commits to providing secure care and has approved background checks run through law enforcement agencies. The children's ministry doors are locked ten minutes after the service begins. The Safe Church Policy spells out further details: posted diaper-changing procedures for nursery, Dutch-door bathroom practices for Explore, buddy systems for elementary-aged children, and the use of accident or incident reports whenever anything happens.
Families with children who would benefit from accommodation in the children's ministry are encouraged to email Lori Houskamp ahead of a first visit. First-time guests can also pre-register online to make that first morning smoother.
Base Camp and Summit: Middle and High School
Student ministry is led by Drew DeVries, who joined the staff in 2024 after years of volunteering, interning, and apprenticing in youth work. The student ministry meets on Sundays from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m., right after the worship service, so families can attend together and then send their students off to Base Camp (grades six through eight) or Summit (grades nine through twelve).
The goal is straightforward: students are known, learning, and developing a faith of their own. Drew's particular passion is helping students understand their identity in Christ and grow in it. The atmosphere is described as "an awesome blend of fun, connection, and learning," and food is always on hand.
GEMS: Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior
GEMS is a girls' ministry for first through seventh graders that meets the first and third Mondays of each month from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., September through March. Evenings are packed with songs, games, crafts, lessons, prayer, projects, and the occasional special surprise. The 2026-2027 theme is Wayfinder: Following the Way, the Truth, and the Life, helping girls navigate a world of competing voices by pointing them to Jesus.
Annual dues are $20, which covers the year's T-shirt. The program is part of an international GEMS organization, and the local club coordinator, Lori Houskamp, also serves on the GEMS Global Board.
MomCo (Mom Community)
MomCo, formerly MOPS, meets on the first and third Thursdays from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. during the school year. It is a place where mothers can be encouraged and supported by other moms in the same season of life, with meetings built around fellowship, food, teaching, mentoring, and conversation. Childcare is provided for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. While the group is faith-based, all mothers are welcome, whether or not they attend church or share a particular denomination.
GymJam and the Gym
GymJam is a recurring play-and-fellowship morning for kids and caregivers held in the FCC gym from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. Kids run off energy while adults talk over coffee. Dates run from January through May and are announced on the church's Facebook page.
Rainforest Falls VBS
Vacation Bible School takes over the building each summer with a themed environment that transforms the Commons, hallways, and activity sites into something immersive. The most recent edition, Rainforest Falls, turned the church into a rainforest where kids met animal guides who pointed them to truths about God: that God created them in His image, that God knows everything about them, and that God is their safe place when life feels scary. The week is built around Bible adventures, outdoor games, Sticky Scripture, an Imagination Station, and the Sing and Play Lagoon. Decorating teams led by Robin Spicer spend weeks transforming the building. The program is one of the clearest expressions of the church's vision: kids and their families hear God's stories during the week, intergenerational relationships are formed, and many of the children who attend do not have a church family of their own.
LifeGroups and GrowGroups
For adults who want to go deeper, LifeGroups are mid-sized groups of fifteen to twenty people that meet twice a month to study, serve, and share life together. LifeGroups are described as "a smaller version of FCC," with groups for all kinds of people at different places in life.
GrowGroups go smaller still: groups of two to four people who gather weekly for accountability, support, and encouragement. Pastor Nate oversees GrowGroups and helps interested people connect.
The Heidelberg Catechism and Other Adult Studies
Each fall and spring the adult ministry offers topical Bible studies on Sunday evenings. Recent studies have worked through the Heidelberg Catechism, a foundational confession of the Christian Reformed tradition, in six Sunday-evening gatherings with fellowship, refreshments, a large-group presentation, and table discussion. The Heidelberg Catechism has shaped the Christian Reformed Church since the sixteenth century, and the study is part of how Ferrysburg roots its people in that confession.
Music: Hymns Old and New
Music is woven deeply into the life of the church. The chancel choir, directed by Doug Tjapkes, sings regularly in worship, supported by organist Cathy Schaaf, pianist Sherry Merz, and a rhythm section that has included drums, mandolin, guitar, harmonica, and accordion. A recorded music library, produced by Lee Ingersoll and engineered by Rob Feenstra, captures familiar hymns: "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," "Blessed Assurance," "Amazing Grace," "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," "Be Still My Soul," "The Love of God," and others. The recordings are downloadable from the church's music library and are used as a gift to people going through hard times, since, in the words of FCC Deacon Mary Ogden, "when such things occur it can hurt right down to our souls... only music can reach that hurt."
A Safe Church Policy
Ferrysburg Community Church takes the safety of children, youth, and vulnerable adults seriously enough to publish an extensive Safe Church Policy, developed with the Christian Reformed Church's Safe Church Ministry guidelines and approved by the church council. Every volunteer who works with minors must complete a volunteer application, pass a background check and Central Registry/Child Abuse Registry check, sign a code of ethics, attend an annual training session, and abide by either the Two-Adult Rule or the Rule of Three in every classroom, vehicle, and enclosed space. A Safe Church Team, including Saskia Kendziera and Lori Houskamp, fields concerns and responds to disclosures. The policy details how the church responds to allegations of physical, sexual, emotional, or spiritual misconduct, with reporting to civil authorities within twenty-four hours, support for those who have been harmed, and oversight from the council and the CRC's denominational Safe Church Ministry.
Beliefs: One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
The church's doctrinal summary is brief and traditional. It confesses one God who has revealed Himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the creator of all things. It affirms that Jesus is both fully man and fully God, that the Old Testament prophecies about a Messiah were fulfilled in Him, and that His life, death, and resurrection are grounded in historical fact. After His earthly work was finished, Jesus took His place in heaven as Lord of all things, and He will come again to make all things new. The Holy Spirit is fully God, one with the Father and Son, and lives within all who are saved through Jesus, comforting, guiding, and empowering them.
The Bible is received as the book through which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God speaks to His people. It contains all that people in any age need to know for their salvation.
As a congregation, Ferrysburg Community Church belongs to the Christian Reformed Church in North America, a denomination rooted in the Reformed tradition that grew out of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation.
Leadership
The congregation is governed by a council of elders and deacons and served by a small staff.
Nate Visker, Pastor. Nate has been the pastor at FCC since 2004, when he moved from Durham, North Carolina. A Kalamazoo native, he attended Calvin College and Calvin Seminary. He and his wife, Sara, have three college-aged children. He enjoys backpacking, running, and laughing. His favorite part about being a pastor at FCC, he says, is "the front row seat I get to see God at work in people's lives."
Drew DeVries, Student Ministry and Outreach. Drew grew up in Byron Center, Michigan, graduated from Kuyper College, and joined the FCC staff in 2024 after several years as a volunteer, intern, and apprentice in student ministry. He is passionate about helping students understand their identity in Christ and grow in it.
Lori Houskamp, Family Ministry. Lori has served in Children and Family Ministries at FCC since 2005. A Tri-Cities native who taught in Grand Rapids after graduating from Calvin University, she now enjoys the empty-nester life with her husband, gathering family when they can, hiking, running, traveling, and being near the lake.
Saskia Kendziera, Children's Ministry. Saskia coordinates Sunday morning Children's Ministry. A Wheaton College graduate with a master's from The George Washington University, she practiced as a physician assistant before homeschooling her four children with her husband, Dean.
Reaching Out in the Tri-Cities
Growing louder in His world is not a metaphor at FCC. It shows up in specific, ongoing partnerships with organizations across the Tri-Cities.
The church runs a food pantry out of its own building, and donation bins sit by the front door for grocery bags and other staples. FCC is partnering with Tri-Cities Habitat for Humanity to build a home in Ferrysburg, with members swinging hammers and signing up to volunteer. The church also supports Love in Action of the Tri-Cities, including a new initiative called Community Haven that focuses on the homeless in the community, with member LifeGroups signing up to bring a monthly meal for five to seven people.
Other partnerships and offerings rotate through the year: the annual CROP Hunger Walk hosted by First CRC in Grand Haven, financial support for Bethany Christian Services' refugee foster care program, and a Family Care Fund (formerly the benevolence fund) that walks alongside church members who are going through financial hardship.
The Welcome Center and the Building
The church building is organized around a few simple landmarks that first-time guests quickly come to know. The Commons is the social hub, the place where coffee is poured and conversation happens before and after the service. The Welcome Center sits at the front door, where children are checked in and security tags are issued. The children's ministry wing is its own zone, including The Meadow, The Pines, and The Grove, with the children's doors locked ten minutes into the service. The Sanctuary holds the worship service. The gym hosts GymJam and a host of other events. Together these spaces make the building feel less like a single sanctuary and more like a small village with rooms for every stage of life.
How to Connect
Visitors are welcome any Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Children are invited to come along, and the children's ministry team is ready to walk families through check-in and into the right room for their child's age. Parking is available on site, and the dress is whatever feels right. The service is livestreamed for those who cannot be there in person, and a sermon archive is available on YouTube. For more information about the church, its ministries, or how to get involved, the office can be reached Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at (616) 842-3880 or office@ferrysburgchurch.com. Online giving is available as well, with contributions supporting the church's ministries to its members and to the broader community. The Connections email, sent on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sunday mornings, keeps the congregation informed of weekly news, upcoming events, and prayer requests.
Pastor Nate closes his welcome message with this: "We hope to meet you soon."