Mariners’ Church, I’m grateful for the way you love each other. You protect and care for those who we worship with each Sunday. We have a unique place in the city of Detroit both in our location and our history, but we are a unique type of church. We are truly marked by love.
You may not even know that. Many of you have been at Mariners’ your whole life or has been your experience for decades. Mariners’ is a unique place of love, acceptance, liturgy, and sacred reflection compared to other places of worship.
I have both attended and served in MANY different kinds of churches. In my family of origin we were notorious church hoppers, which gave me a lot of exposure to different types of churches and church families. As a pastor, I have served in two different denominations and in four different churches – all having different contexts and styles. But I can tell you that Mariners’ stands out as unique in its love and commitment to each other.
I regularly get the feedback from visitors how welcoming and loving our church is. I’m so grateful and humbled by how God keeps revealing Himself in our midst through love.
I regularly am told how beautiful the services are and how sacred the communion we take together felt. I’m so thankful we have this experience together.
[Inviting in and reaching out]
As we look toward 2026, I want to challenge us to think of ways to expand this family. There will be new opportunities to reach out and invite in.
Particularly reaching out to the children and youth in our neighborhoods and families and invite them into relationship with Jesus – both inside and outside our church walls. We will be expanding both programs and informal times of fun with families. Not only is our church growing, but the families in our church are growing! So, tonight, I want us to recommit to see more and more families, children, and youth brought closer to Jesus at Mariners’.
As we look toward 2026, We will continue to serve side by side, serving the poor and the downtrodden as Scripture commands us – PFC, Children’s center, Gleaners and other places. Continue to partner with the Tent to reach out to WSU and those who may never come to a church building – But there will also be new and unique opportunities to love the business leaders, police officers, and the Maritime community in Detroit and those passing through the ports of Detroit. I recently met in Canada with Jason Zuidema Ex Dir of North American Maritime Ministry Association to see what opportunities we could be part of as Mariners’ Church. He will be participating in the 50th Anniversary memorial of the Edmond Fitzgerald.
I have been meeting with leaders in all these different areas, Wayne County Commissioner, Police department, and I have become a Police Chaplain myself. The opportunities for us as a church are plentiful – the fields are white for the harvest.
However, we must always look first to our source, Jesus Christ. Christiane is such an encouragement to me in this area. That as much as we want to see our church grow, and it has – As much as we need to be a community to each other, and we are – There is one source that all of this springs from, and that is understanding how high, wide, long, and deep is the love of God in us.
That is what I want to leave you with tonight.
John 15:4-5, Jesus says:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.
