LaGrave Live

By Reverend Peter JonkerSociety & Culture Religion & Spirituality Christianity History Personal Journals

LaGrave Live episodes

August 10 LaGrave Live, August 9, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Evening Worship Service 08-09-2026
The Way of Wisdom: Wisdom for Families
About The Service:
We continue our Way of Wisdom sermon series, a series which focuses on some of the Bible's wisdom literature.
Pastor Jonker will preach on Proverbs wisdom for families as found in proverbs like 22:6.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...
The August special offering is for Covenant House. Covenant House Michigan (CHMI) provides shelter and hope to young people aged 18-24 who are experiencing homelessness or victims of trafficking in Grand Rapids and Detroit. Their mission is to serve all youth who come to their doors with unconditional love, absolute respect, and relentless support.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
Delight, Discipline, and Dysfunction: Finding Wisdom for Family Life
Summary
Proverbs as a Family Book
The service frames the sermon around wisdom for family life and presents Proverbs as a book deeply rooted in family relationships. The sermon speaker argues that Proverbs repeatedly places wisdom inside conversations between parents and children, with fathers and mothers teaching younger generations how to live. He says that the subject matter may include conflict, money, discipline, and other parts of life, but the wisdom is meant to be discussed in ordinary family settings. The message emphasizes that every person has a family story, whether that experience has been loving and secure or painful and traumatic. Because family relationships can shape people so profoundly, the speaker presents family wisdom as a concern for everyone, not only married parents with children.
Families Under Strain
The sermon describes modern families as facing significant pressure. The speaker points to what he sees as growing reluctance among younger people to marry and have children, along with fear about entering family life after observing fractured relationships around them. He also discusses family estrangement, including parents and children or siblings who no longer speak to one another. He acknowledges that separation can be necessary in circumstances involving abuse or severely toxic relationships, while also expressing concern that estrangement may sometimes happen too readily. Against this backdrop, he argues that all families need wisdom to navigate difficult relationships and changing social conditions.
Delight as the Foundation
The first major sermon theme is delight. Although the selected Proverbs contain strong language about instruction and discipline, the speaker says the deeper foundation of family life should be love, joy, and delight in one another. He describes delight as present at the beginning, middle, and end of healthy family formation, including the joy parents experience when children grow in wisdom. He then introduces a five-to-one principle: for every word of correction or criticism, there should be multiple positive expressions of affirmation, attention, and love. Practical examples include offering hugs, expressing pride, asking about someone’s day, putting down a phone to listen, and responding warmly to bids for attention.
Discipline and Parental Authority
The second theme is discipline, especially the biblical imagery of the “rod.” The speaker explicitly rejects the idea that the passages simply command parents to beat their children and argues that the term can also carry meanings connected with authority and leadership. In his interpretation, parents are called to exercise real authority, not merely function as a child’s friend, and to guide and form the child toward wisdom. He uses the provocative word “indoctrinate” to make the point that every child receives a worldview from the people and culture around them. For Christian parents, he says the highest responsibility is the formation of the child’s soul and helping the child become rooted in Jesus and the life of the Christian community.
Balance and Family Dysfunction
The sermon also warns against both extremes in parenting. It says family authority can become controlling and abusive, while a completely hands-off approach can also fail to provide needed formation and discipline. The final major theme, dysfunction, rejects the idea that loving and disciplined families automatically become perfect. Even parents who do their best can experience addiction, divorce, estrangement, conflict, or children who reject what they were taught. The speaker emphasizes that every family is broken in some way and that outwardly idealized pictures of family life do not match the complexity of real relationships.
God, Broken Families, and Hope
The message closes by comparing human family pain with the biblical picture of God’s relationship with a rebellious people. The speaker points to Hosea and Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem to describe God as a wounded parent who continues to move toward his family in love. He presents Jesus as the one sent to heal the brokenness, take punishment upon himself, and restore people to a renewed family gathered at God’s table. The closing prayer acknowledges both the joy and the pain families can bring and asks for healing where people no longer know how to repair relationships themselves. The service ends with a blessing invoking the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
1 hr 23 min
August 09 LaGrave Live, August 9, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Morning Worship Service 08-09-2026
The Way of Wisdom: Wisdom for Families
About The Service:
We continue our Way of Wisdom sermon series, a series which focuses on some of the Bible's wisdom literature.
Pastor Jonker will preach on Proverbs wisdom for families as found in proverbs like 22:6.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...
The August special offering is for Covenant House. Covenant House Michigan (CHMI) provides shelter and hope to young people aged 18-24 who are experiencing homelessness or victims of trafficking in Grand Rapids and Detroit. Their mission is to serve all youth who come to their doors with unconditional love, absolute respect, and relentless support.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
Delight, Discipline, and Dysfunction: Building Families in God’s Wisdom
Summary
Family as the Center of Proverbs
The service frames family life as one of the central settings in which biblical wisdom is learned and practiced. Peter explains that Proverbs repeatedly presents fathers and mothers instructing their children, making wisdom part of an ongoing family conversation. He argues that families shape people profoundly, whether those experiences are nurturing or deeply painful. A healthy family can become a firm foundation, while a harmful family can feel like a minefield whose effects continue through life. The sermon therefore treats family not as a narrow topic for parents with children but as a reality that affects everyone, including single people and married people without children. This broad framing leads into the need for wisdom amid the pressures facing modern families.
Modern Strain, Estrangement, and Fear of Family Formation
Peter identifies two pressures he believes are placing special strain on families today. First, he says many young people appear increasingly reluctant to marry or have children because they see the difficulty and fracture that can accompany family life. Second, he discusses family estrangement, including parents and children or siblings who stop speaking to one another. He acknowledges that separation can be appropriate in cases of abuse or severely toxic relationships and does not treat all estrangement as wrong. At the same time, he worries that relationships may sometimes be labeled toxic too quickly, producing unnecessary rupture. His conclusion is that every kind of family needs wisdom because family relationships are powerful, difficult, and deeply consequential.
Delight as the Foundation of Family Life
The first major sermon theme is delight. Peter argues that the family portrayed in Proverbs is not primarily a place of rules and rigor but a place of love, joy, and delight. He points to passages in which discipline flows from love and in which parents rejoice over wise and righteous children. This delight is presented as something that should exist at the beginning, middle, and end of family relationships. Peter emphasizes that love is not merely something beneath discipline; love and delight themselves are formative. He offers the practical idea of a five-to-one ratio, suggesting that correction should be surrounded by many more expressions of affirmation, attention, affection, and genuine interest.
Attention, Affirmation, and Everyday Connection
Peter develops the theme of delight by describing ordinary ways family members communicate love. Affirmation can be verbal, such as telling a child, sibling, or spouse that they are valued, but it can also be shown through a hug, a question, or undivided attention. He describes what psychologists call bids for attention: small attempts to connect through a smile, question, story, or gesture. In a healthy family, those bids are noticed and answered rather than ignored. His example of putting down a phone to listen carefully to a spouse illustrates how delight becomes a daily practice rather than an abstract feeling. The sermon presents these repeated moments of attention as a powerful way family members shape and strengthen one another.
Discipline, Authority, and Forming the Soul
The second major theme is discipline. Peter addresses Proverbs passages about the rod and argues that they should not be reduced to a command to beat children. He explains that the transcribed Hebrew term “shebat” can carry a broader sense of authority and leadership, and he interprets the parental task as owning and responsibly exercising that authority. Parents, in his view, are not primarily buddies but leaders charged with guiding, training, and forming their children. He uses the provocative word “indoctrinate” to make the point that every child inevitably receives a worldview from family and culture. For Christian parents, he says the highest responsibility is not achievement in academics, sports, or music, but helping children send their roots into Jesus, while avoiding both abusive control and hands-off parenting.
Dysfunction, Grace, and Hope for Broken Families
The final theme is dysfunction, where Peter rejects any idealized picture of a perfect family. Even families that try sincerely to love and discipline well may face addiction, divorce, estrangement, rebellion, and unresolved pain. He turns to God as the model of a father who knows the grief of children who turn away despite perfect love and care. Citing Hosea and Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, he portrays God as a brokenhearted parent who continues to move toward a rebellious family. The Christian answer, in the sermon, is that God sends his Son, who bears punishment and makes restoration possible. The closing prayer therefore entrusts both healthy and broken families to Jesus and asks for healing where human effort alone cannot repair what has been damaged.
1 hr 24 min
August 03 LaGrave Live, August 2, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Evening Worship Service - Getting Our Houses in Order
Pastor Jonker leads a LaGrave evening worship service on being rooted in Christ, weaving together John 15, missionary testimony from Scott Miedema and Young Life, prayer for the church and world, and a sermon from Haggai 1 about rebuilding God’s house, rejecting spiritual self-sufficiency, and finding the deepest blessing in God’s promise: “I am with you.”
About The Service:
Pastor Jonker will preach on Haggai 1:1-15. His sermon is titled Getting Our Houses in Order.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-8-2-PM-Order-of-Worship.pdf
About Us:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178
The August special offering is for Covenant House. Covenant House Michigan (CHMI) provides shelter and hope to young people aged 18-24 who are experiencing homelessness or victims of trafficking in Grand Rapids and Detroit. Their mission is to serve all youth who come to their doors with unconditional love, absolute respect, and relentless support.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
Detailed Summary:
LaGrave Evening Worship and the Theme of Rootedness
This LaGrave evening worship service is centered on the theme “Rooted in Christ.” Pastor Jonker welcomes worshipers and explains that the evening will focus on roots and foundation, beginning with Jesus’ words in John 15 about the true vine and the branches. The corrected transcript identifies Pastor Jonker as the worship leader, Scott Miedema as the Young Life missionary speaker, and the congregation as participating through responses, prayer, and worship cues.
John 15: The True Vine and the Branches
Pastor Jonker introduces John 15 by connecting Jesus’ vine-and-branches language to Old Testament vineyard imagery, especially the image of Israel as God’s vineyard. He explains that in the Old Testament, God grieves over an unfruitful vineyard, and in the Gospel, Jesus presents himself as the true vine. The reading emphasizes that branches cannot bear fruit by themselves; they must remain in the vine. Pastor Jonker frames the service around this truth: apart from Christ, God’s people can do nothing, but when they remain in Christ, they bear much fruit.
Scott Miedema and Young Life in the Caribbean
Scott Miedema then shares about his family and their work with Young Life in the Dominican Republic and beyond. He introduces his wife, Jen, and their children, Caroline, Mara, and Reid, then explains that Young Life is active across the Caribbean, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and English-speaking islands. Scott says the ministry hopes to take 8,000 kids to camp during the summer so they can hear and respond to the gospel. He also describes his role helping equip leaders internationally, supporting thousands of staff and volunteer leaders who walk with teenagers and disciple them in faith.
Jonathan’s Story and the Need for More Calebs
Scott illustrates Young Life’s work through the story of Jonathan, a teenager in the Dominican Republic who fell in with friends involved in smoking, vaping, and selling vapes at school. Jonathan went to a Young Life camp, where a leader named Caleb came alongside him and helped him begin to understand the message of Jesus. Later, when Jonathan felt frightened and physically burdened in the night, he remembered Caleb’s words that he could pray, and he experienced a sense of relief. Scott says Jonathan has since been discipled by Caleb and returned to camp to serve by washing dishes, cleaning toilets, and helping his friends hear the gospel.
Prayer for Mission, LaGrave, and a Troubled World
After Scott’s remarks, Pastor Jonker leads the congregation in prayer, naming Jesus as cornerstone, solid ground, true vine, and the source of life for the branches. He prays for Scott and Jen Miedema’s ministry, asking that their work with young people be fruitful, joyful, and energized by the Holy Spirit. He also prays for LaGrave Church after 139 years of service in the city, asking that the church remain rooted in Christ as it considers future building and ministry plans. The prayer widens to the world, naming uncertainty, fear, instability, wars in Ukraine, Sudan, and Iran, and divisions between political parties, races, and classes.
Haggai 1 and the Ruined House of the Lord
The sermon turns to Haggai 1, set in 520 B.C., after the Jewish people had returned from Babylonian exile and were trying to rebuild Jerusalem. Pastor Jonker explains that the people were struggling to survive after the devastation caused by Nebuchadnezzar: poor harvests, weak shelter, economic hardship, and the exhausting work of rebuilding life from rubble. Their mindset was understandable: first food, shelter, and security, then the temple. But Haggai challenges them, saying they are busy building their own houses while the Lord’s house remains in ruins, and he calls them to “give careful thought” to their ways.
Beyond Maslow: The Deeper Foundation of God
Pastor Jonker reflects on why Haggai’s message can sound harsh, especially because the people’s survival concerns seem reasonable. He compares Haggai’s challenge with Deuteronomy’s blessings and curses, then warns against misunderstanding this as a health-and-wealth or tit-for-tat view of God. Using a childhood soccer-coaching analogy, he explains that biblical blessing-and-curse language is not mere threat but a description of how life works when people are, or are not, rooted in God’s ways. He then says Haggai does not agree with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, because beneath physiology and security lies something deeper: being rooted in God, his Spirit, and his people.
Building the Living Temple and Hearing “I Am With You”
Pastor Jonker applies Haggai to the church by saying the call is not primarily to build a physical church building, but to build the deeper temple of God’s people. Drawing from Ephesians and 1 Peter, he reminds the congregation that the people rooted in God are the temple, living stones being built together into a dwelling place for God’s Spirit. He challenges the church to consider whether it spends more energy building wealth, reputation, careers, children’s success, bodies, vacations, and plans than building relationship with God and the community of faith. The sermon closes with the central blessing of Haggai: not guaranteed prosperity, but God’s promise, “I am with you.” Pastor Jonker illustrates this through Helmut Thielicke’s story of two dogs on ocean voyages, one terrified without its master and one calm because its master was present, concluding that when believers are anchored in Christ, they know they will be brought home.
1 hr 7 min
August 02 LaGrave Live, August 2, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Morning Worship Service 08-02-2026
The Way of Wisdom: Wisdom for Our Conflicts
About The Service:
We continue our sermon series on Biblical wisdom called The Way of Wisdom. Pastor Jonker will preach on the theme of keeping peace between each other avoiding a quarrelsome spirit. That's a theme found in proverbs such as Proverbs 22:24-25.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-8-2-AM-Order-of-Worship.pdf
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178
The August special offering is for Covenant House. Covenant House Michigan (CHMI) provides shelter and hope to young people aged 18-24 who are experiencing homelessness or victims of trafficking in Grand Rapids and Detroit. Their mission is to serve all youth who come to their doors with unconditional love, absolute respect, and relentless support.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
Winning Less, Reconciling More: The Wisdom of Proverbs in Conflict
Summary
Conflict Is Often About Process
The service frames conflict as a universal human experience and emphasizes that disagreements are shaped not only by the issue at stake but also by the way people engage one another. The preacher asks listeners to consider their personal conflict styles, including whether they avoid confrontation, rush toward resolution, become emotional, or rely heavily on logic. Drawing from premarital counseling and everyday relationships, he argues that the process of conflict often causes more harm than the original disagreement. Proverbs is presented as practical wisdom for keeping conflict from becoming destructive quarrels and for moving toward understanding or resolution.
A Different Story Beneath the Conflict
The sermon introduces the idea of an "understory," meaning the deeper view of life that shapes how people interpret conflict. The preacher contrasts Proverbs with ancient and modern works that focus on defeating opponents, gaining power, and winning at all costs. He argues that those approaches assume enemies and struggle are fundamental to existence. Proverbs, by contrast, is rooted in a biblical story in which conflict entered through sin but is not the ultimate structure of creation. God's work moves toward harmony, restoration, reconciliation, and the renewal made possible through Jesus Christ.
Enemies as People Made in God's Image
Because Proverbs rests on a different understory, its wisdom does not instruct people to crush their enemies. Instead, it calls them to feed a hungry enemy, give water to a thirsty enemy, and remain open to reconciliation. The preacher challenges listeners to consider whether they still see an opponent as a person made in God's image and as someone with whom restoration might someday be possible. When people treat others as permanent threats who must only be stopped or overcome, he says, they risk abandoning Scripture's larger story. Christian conflict is therefore meant to remain shaped by hope, grace, and the possibility of restored relationship.
The Danger of Pride
The first major danger in conflict is pride, illustrated through the preacher's memory of being argumentative as a young teenager and being warned by his mother not to act like a know-it-all. Proverbs teaches that fools delight in broadcasting their opinions, while wise people listen to advice and recognize the limits of their knowledge. The sermon holds conviction and humility together: Christians may believe deeply, make judgments, and speak against injustice, but they must also remember their own sinfulness and limited perspective. The preacher warns against copying Jesus' sharp confrontations without acknowledging that Jesus could see people's hearts with a clarity ordinary human beings do not possess.
The Danger of Haste
The second danger is haste, because conflict tends to accelerate quickly from an issue into a contest of wills. A playground example shows how one insult leads to another, then to a shove, a stronger shove, and finally a physical fight. The preacher compares the wisdom of Proverbs with de-escalation practices that call people to lower their emotional intensity, avoid answering insults, speak respectfully, pause before responding, and create space. Proverbs repeatedly describes the fool as quick-tempered and eager to quarrel, while the wise overlook insults, drop matters before they erupt, listen, remain patient, and bring calm.
Conflict Beneath the Cross
The sermon concludes by connecting wise conflict directly to God's character and the cross of Christ. God is described as slow to anger, rich in steadfast love, patient with human rebellion, and unwilling to repay people according to what their sins deserve. Jesus receives insult and rebellion, responds with sacrifice, and asks forgiveness for those who harm him. The preacher therefore calls listeners to let every disagreement begin under the shadow of the cross, remembering the grace they have received and extending restraint, humility, patience, and reconciliation toward their neighbors.
1 hr 27 min
July 27 LaGrave Live, July 26, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Evening Worship Service - The Most Excellent Way
Pastor Jonker leads a LaGrave evening worship service centered on 1 Corinthians 13, offering four meditations on Christian love as kindness, freedom from irritability, burden-bearing compassion, and the eternal love of Christ that never fails.
About The Service:
Pastor Jonker will preach on some of the attributes of love as Paul describes them in 1 Corinthians 13.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...
About Us:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...
The July special offering is for Westminster Food Pantry. The downtown food pantry provides an emergency supply of food and personal care items to people in need while also promoting self-sufficiency through referrals and education.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
Detailed Summary:
LaGrave Evening Worship and the Shape of the Service
This LaGrave evening worship service is built around Scripture, congregational singing, prayer, and a series of shorter meditations rather than one long sermon. Pastor Jonker opens with Psalm 103, calling the congregation to praise the Lord who forgives, heals, redeems, satisfies, and is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” The corrected transcript notes that the worship-service structure, Scripture readings, meditations, prayers, and religious framing were preserved, with unrecoverable music artifacts condensed into clean worship cues.
1 Corinthians 13 and Love Within Limits
Pastor Jonker explains that the service will meditate on 1 Corinthians 13, the familiar biblical chapter on love. He says the inspiration comes partly from Lewis B. Smedes’s book Love Within Limits, which took each phrase from Paul’s description of love and reflected on it. Rather than covering every attribute, Pastor Jonker focuses on four: love is kind, love is not easily angered, love bears all things, and love never fails. The service reads the chapter aloud, moving from spiritual gifts without love, to love’s character, to the enduring truth that the greatest of faith, hope, and love is love.
Love Is Kind
The first meditation centers on Paul’s phrase, “Love is kind.” Pastor Jonker describes kindness as an ordinary, modest, unassuming word, not flashy or self-promoting. Yet he argues that real kindness is far deeper than mere niceness or “West Michigan nice.” He defines true kindness as a positive disposition toward others expressed in small, repeated acts of sacrificial generosity. Using Fred Craddock’s image of God giving each person ten million dollars to spend one dollar at a time, he teaches that kindness is distributed through small acts: raking a lawn, cooking a casserole, making a phone call, teaching children, playing with a grandchild, or driving someone to a doctor’s appointment.
God’s Daily Kindness and Human Kindness
Pastor Jonker then connects human kindness to the kindness of God. He acknowledges God’s great acts of kindness, including creation, the sending of Jesus, and Christ’s death on the cross, but emphasizes that much of God’s kindness is also daily, ordinary, and intimate. Friendship, laughter, a warm bed, a good meal, a roof overhead, coffee in the morning, and an evening church service all become signs that God’s mercies are new every morning. The meditation closes by reminding the congregation that God’s kindness is not only spectacular but also steady, ordinary, and repeated day by day.
Love Is Not Easily Angered
The second meditation turns to the phrase “Love is not easily angered,” or, in some translations, love is not irritable. Pastor Jonker explores irritability as a condition rather than a single act of anger, describing it as the emotional launching pad for anger. He gives humorous examples from his own life, including missing morning coffee, home projects taking too long, slow drivers, Detroit Lions losses, and poor golf scores. He says irritability lowers anger’s flash point, causing people to conduct anger from one situation into another and harm those around them.
Love Bears All Things
The third meditation reflects on “Love bears all things.” Pastor Jonker says this phrase lifts the congregation from the granular level of love into the grand sweep of what love can do. He describes love as having the power to absorb and bear the world’s pain, using the example of a widow support group where grief is shared and somehow becomes lighter. The mystery, he says, is that the burden is lifted onto the shoulders of Christ, who bore pain on the cross. In this way, Christian love becomes load-bearing love, rooted in the steadfast love of God that endures forever.
Love Never Fails
The fourth meditation focuses on “Love never fails.” Pastor Jonker teaches that among all the spiritual gifts, love alone has eternal effect. Even when loving actions do not produce the outcome people hoped for, every act of sacrificial love in Christ continues to matter. He gives the example of parents who loved an adopted child well, even though alienation later came into the relationship, and says their love did not fail in the scope of eternity. Because God is love, every part of 1 Corinthians 13 is not only a command for believers but also a description of how Jesus loves his people: patiently, kindly, faithfully, protectively, hopefully, and without failure.
Evening Prayer and Congregational Care
The service closes with an evening prayer that gathers the themes of the meditations into worship. Pastor Jonker thanks God for the creativity, abundance, perseverance, steadfastness, compassion, and personal nature of divine love. He prays for those grieving loved ones, including Gary VandeVelde and Laura Jane, and for members facing illness and cancer, including Carol Hoffman, Dave VanderArk, Renee Kuiper, Steve Palazzo, Dan Beemer, Jolene DeHere, Marshaan, Jim Crowell, Lloyd Tinholt, Sharon Van Houten, and others held in the congregation’s hearts. The prayer ends by affirming that God’s love is not only concerned with the large issues of the world, but also with the small details and struggles of each person’s life.
1 hr 5 min
July 26 LaGrave Live, July 26, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Morning Worship Service 07-26-2026
The Way of Wisdom: Wisdom and Deceit
About The Service:
We continue our sermon series on Biblical wisdom called The Way of Wisdom. Pastor Jonker will preach on proverbs like 11:3, proverbs that address the issue of honesty and truthful speech.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-7-26-AM-Order-of-Worship.pdf
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178
The July special offering is for Westminster Food Pantry. The downtown food pantry provides an emergency supply of food and personal care items to people in need while also promoting self-sufficiency through referrals and education.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
1 hr 37 min
July 20 LaGrave Live, July 19, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Evening Worship Service - Lament Unleashed
About The Service:
We will delve into the last chapter of the book of Lamentations with the message, "Lament Unleashed." Chad Boorsma will preach.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...
About Us:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...
The July special offering is for Westminster Food Pantry. The downtown food pantry provides an emergency supply of food and personal care items to people in need while also promoting self-sufficiency through referrals and education.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
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Soundcloud: / lagravecrc
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When the Journey Hurts: Lament, Suffering, and the God Who Hears
Evening Worship Framed Around Lament
This LaGrave Live evening worship service at LaGrave Avenue Church is led by Chad Boorsma and centers on a service of lament. After opening music that includes recognizable words from Psalm 46, the service leader welcomes both in-person and livestream worshipers, offers a greeting of grace, mercy, and peace, and prepares the congregation through words from Psalm 9. The opening frames God as the one who reigns forever, judges with righteousness, remembers the afflicted, and remains a refuge for the oppressed.
Psalm 9, Prayer for Illumination, and Lamentations 5
The service continues with additional readings from Psalm 9, emphasizing God’s justice, the hope of the afflicted, and the prayer that the nations recognize their mortality before the Lord. After a musical response, the congregation joins in a responsive prayer of illumination based on Psalm 119, asking God to open eyes, minds, and hearts to His Word. The central Scripture reading is Lamentations 5, a chapter that cries out to God over disgrace, loss of inheritance, hunger, exhaustion, violence, mourning, desolation, and the unresolved plea for restoration.
Lament as a Biblical Way to Come Before God
In the sermon, Chad contrasts the joyful call of Psalm 100 with the grief-filled voice of Lamentations. He explains that while worship can include gladness, Scripture also gives God’s people permission to come before Him with sorrow, complaint, confession, and pain. The sermon places Lamentations in the aftermath of Babylon’s siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., explaining how the book’s poetic structure reflects the attempt to bring order to chaos, while chapter 5 breaks the acrostic rhythm as grief erupts into prayer.
Naming the Pain Without Pretending
The sermon walks through the suffering named in Lamentations 5: fatherless children, widows, violated women, disrespected elders, burdened boys, hunger, exhaustion, danger, slavery, lost music, vanished joy, and a desolate Mount Zion. Chad then connects that ancient grief to modern suffering through the story of a woman forced to retire from preschool teaching because of a medical condition, later losing income, mobility, independence, and support from some friends. The point is not to equate every suffering with Jerusalem’s devastation, but to show that all people eventually face grief, illness, loss, broken relationships, or burdens they do not know how to carry.
Recovering Lament in a Culture of Denial
The sermon challenges a culture, and at times a church culture, that often practices denial or amnesia around suffering. Chad references the book When the Journey Hurts: Finding Meaning in Suffering for Heart, Mind, and Soul, noting its concern that lament has quietly disappeared from contemporary American Christianity. He describes lament as a process of crying out to God, complaining honestly, making requests, and remembering God’s works. Scripture, especially the Psalms and Lamentations, shows that suffering in silence is not the only faithful response; truthful prayer before God is also faithful.
Remembering God While Asking Hard Questions
Chad emphasizes that Lamentations 5 both pleads for God to remember and models the worshiper remembering who God is. Even in the middle of sorrow, verse 19 declares that the Lord reigns forever and His throne endures from generation to generation. The sermon also affirms that prayers of lament can include frustration over what feels like God’s silence, as verse 20 asks why God seems to forget and forsake His people for so long. Lament does not always explain suffering or promise an immediate change in circumstances, but it gives people a faithful structure for telling the truth about pain in the presence of the God who hears the cries of the afflicted.
Prayers of Lament and Benediction of Peace
The service closes by putting the sermon into practice through four guided prayers of lament, each followed by silent prayer and congregational response. The prayers lift grief over death, illness and failing bodies, strained relationships and loved ones wandering from faith, and the world’s warfare, injustice, displacement, and persecution. The congregation repeatedly responds, “Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.” After a closing musical response, the service leader sends worshipers into the week with a benediction, assuring them that the kind-hearted Lord goes with them and blessing them with God’s keeping, gracious face, presence, and peace.
1 hr 9 min
July 19 LaGrave Live, July 19, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Morning Worship Service 07-19-2026
The Way of Wisdom: Wisdom and the Poor
About The Service:
Rev. Peter Jonker will preach on Proverbs 13: 23.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-7-19-AM-Order-of-Worship.pdf
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178
The July special offering is for Westminster Food Pantry. The downtown food pantry provides an emergency supply of food and personal care items to people in need while also promoting self-sufficiency through referrals and education.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
When Poverty Has No Walls: Wisdom, Justice, and the Grace That Saves
Summary
Worship, Welcome, and Confession
The service opens with congregational singing, a greeting of grace and peace, and announcements about fellowship gatherings, a missionary presentation, and upcoming church events. The worship leader introduces the continuing Way of Wisdom sermon series and identifies care for the poor as the morning's focus. A reading of Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus confronts the congregation with the consequences of ignoring suffering at one's gate. The congregation then confesses its failures to feed the hungry, welcome strangers, clothe those in need, and visit the incarcerated. The assurance from Psalm 130 emphasizes forgiveness, unfailing love, and full redemption.
Baptism into a Covenant Family
The baptismal portion welcomes Noah Thomas Leichert and Henry Roger Baumann into what the pastor describes as God's ancient covenant family. Beginning with Abraham and continuing through Pentecost, the pastor explains baptism as a sign of grace, belonging, and God's promises to believers and their children. Membership in this family gives the children a shared character, inherited stories of God's faithfulness, and the assurance of God's attentive care. It also brings obligations because the family participates in building God's kingdom and proclaiming Jesus Christ. The parents and congregation are asked to promise prayer, instruction, nurture, and faithful example as the children grow.
Prayer for the Vulnerable
Following the baptisms, the service turns toward confidential prayer requests and a pastoral prayer for people facing illness, grief, treatment, hospice care, and recovery. The prayer also remembers neighbors threatened by heat, poor air quality, and material need, asking that they receive shelter, health, companionship, and practical assistance. Families grieving recent deaths and supported missionaries in Haiti are commended to God's care. The newly baptized children, their parents, and their prayer partners are included in a petition for wisdom and strength. The congregation is challenged to recognize its blessings and use them to bless people around them.
The Many Causes of Poverty
The sermon begins by rejecting a one-dimensional explanation of poverty. Proverbs sometimes connects poverty with poor choices, laziness, procrastination, and the failure to work diligently, preserving an important place for personal responsibility. The preacher then emphasizes that Proverbs also identifies injustice, prejudice, social exclusion, and the absence of protective resources as causes that can trap people in poverty. The seventh-year agricultural law is presented as a God-given foothold for the poor that unjust landowners could remove. Low-income housing resistance and the contrast between wealth as a fortified city and poverty as ruin illustrate how people with resources possess protections that the poor often lack.
Becoming a Fortified Wall
The second major sermon point concerns the obligations of people who have resources. Proverbs calls believers not only to avoid exploiting the poor but also to notice them, listen to their cries, defend their rights, and give generously. The preacher uses his own habit of avoiding eye contact with panhandlers to explore how a seemingly practical act of avoidance can train the heart to ignore vulnerable neighbors elsewhere. The sermon connects Proverbs with the agricultural laws of Exodus and Leviticus, including the seventh-year rest and the practice of leaving part of a harvest available for those in need. The congregation is urged to become the protective wall that poverty has denied to others and to allow care for the poor to take root deeply in the heart.
Grace Revealed in Human Poverty
The final sermon movement argues that care for the poor reflects God's own character because God hears, defends, identifies with, and stands beside those in need. Jesus is presented as one who entered material poverty, centered good news for the poor in his ministry, and taught that service to the least is service to him. The preacher then turns from material poverty to the spiritual poverty experienced when families break down, illness becomes incurable, sin is exposed, or human ability reaches its limit. In those moments, people discover that achievements, money, and impressive resumes cannot supply the grace they need. The message concludes that the same divine compassion directed toward the materially poor is also the compassion through which Jesus saves, calling successful people to recognize their own dependence on grace and extend that grace to their neighbors.
1 hr 39 min
July 13 LaGrave Live, July 12, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Evening Worship Service - Legacy
About The Service:
LaGrave member and Rest Haven Chaplain, Rev. Tricia Bosma, will preach. She will use Romans 4:16-25 as her text for the sermon, "Legacy."
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...
About Us:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...
The June special offering is for Pine Rest Patient Assistance Fund: Part of Pine Rest Foundation Fund offering financial assistance for individuals, families and children who need care.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
A Legacy of Faith When Hope Seems Lost
Called, Welcomed, and Sent by God
Trisha Basma opens the evening worship service with Jesus’s call of Matthew and His declaration that He came not for the righteous, but for sinners. She connects that passage with God’s call to Adam and Eve in Genesis, emphasizing that God continues to come to His people, call them, and send them into the world. After welcoming both in-person and online worshippers, Basma introduces herself as a LaGrave member and chaplain serving residents in long-term care, rehabilitation, and memory care at Resthaven in Holland, Michigan. She then turns to Genesis 12, presenting Abram’s call as a reminder that God not only summons people into relationship but also sends them out as agents of blessing.
Creation, Human Dignity, and Prayer in the Darkness
The service continues with Psalm 8 and its vision of God’s majesty displayed throughout creation. Basma reflects on humanity’s smallness beneath the heavens while also emphasizing the dignity, honor, and responsibility God gives human beings within creation. In prayer, she contrasts the brilliance of creation with the darkness of sin within human hearts and the wider shadow of evil, disease, and suffering in the world. She asks for forgiveness, renewed light through the Holy Spirit, and strength for the congregation. She offers specific intercessions for members receiving hospice care and those battling cancer, asking for endurance and the light of God’s love. The prayer also extends to LaGrave’s plans for serving people in the Heartside District.
The Spiritual Question of Legacy
Turning to Romans 4:16–25, Basma introduces the G.E.R.O. 6, a spiritual assessment designed for older adults. She explains that it explores death and dying, spiritual concerns, religious concerns, autonomy, connection, identity, and legacy. While several themes overlap with other assessment tools, she notes that legacy is the distinctive concern in the geriatric model. In her chaplaincy work, residents often ask whether their lives mattered, whether they made a difference, and how they will be remembered. These questions can become especially urgent after a dementia diagnosis, when people fear increasing dependence, diminished identity, and the possibility that their remaining life will become smaller or less meaningful.
Abraham’s Delayed Promise and Dashed Expectations
Basma uses Abraham as the sermon’s central example. In the ancient Near East, legacy was closely connected with land and descendants, yet Abraham initially possessed neither. God promised him both a family and a land, but many years passed without visible fulfillment. Even after God confirmed the covenant, Abraham learned that he would not personally witness the full realization of the promises and that his descendants would first endure generations of enslavement. Basma compares Abraham’s disappointment with modern experiences such as losing a hoped-for job or promotion, missing an achievement, or enduring the pain of childlessness. She acknowledges that hope can become painful when reality appears to contradict everything a person expected from God.
From Hoping for a Blessing to Hoping in God
Romans describes Abraham as believing “against all hope,” and Basma presents this as the sermon’s central spiritual transformation. She describes a seismic shift in Abraham’s faith: his hope moved from the blessing itself to the God who had the power and faithfulness to accomplish what He promised. Basma illustrates this with a child standing at the edge of a pool, trusting not merely that arms will appear, but that the father waiting below is dependable. Abraham believed that God could bring life out of bodies marked by age, barrenness, and apparent death. That trust, rather than the immediate possession of land or descendants, became Abraham’s true legacy and was credited to him as righteousness.
Hope for a Church That Appears to Be Dying
Basma then applies Abraham’s experience to concerns about declining church attendance, church closures, and younger generations leaving both the church and the faith. She cites a report estimating that 10,000 churches may close during the year, using that figure to illustrate why many believers fear that the church’s legacy is weakening. She recounts older residents grieving congregations they served for decades and mourning that their children and grandchildren have walked away. Empty sanctuaries can appear, in her image, like barren wombs unable to bear witness to the life and light of Christ. Yet she argues that the apparent decline of the church is not the final word because Jesus promised to build His church and declared that the gates of Hades would not overcome it.
The Covenant of Christ and a Living Legacy of Faith
Basma concludes with three sources of hope: God’s promises remain dependable, Christian hope must rest in God rather than visible results, and death is never the final answer in the work of God. She compares God’s covenant with Abraham to the new covenant established through the body and blood of Jesus Christ. She argues that if Abraham’s covenant displayed God’s determination to keep His promises, then the blood of Jesus gives believers confidence that the promises of redemption and the life of the church will also be fulfilled. Through faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead, believers receive righteousness and become bearers of light in a dark world. She closes by urging believers to live so that their obituary could truthfully say they left a legacy of faith in Jesus Christ.
1 hr 6 min
July 12 LaGrave Live, July 12, 2026
LaGrave Live
LIVE Morning Worship Service 07-12-2026
Hearing Abel, Raising Cain
About The Service:
We welcome Rev. Scott Hoezee, Director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Seminary, to our pulpit, and we will celebrate the Lord's Supper together. Rev. Hoezee's sermon will be "Hearing Abel, Raising Cain" from Genesis 4:1-16.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-7-12-AM-Order-of-Worship.pdf
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178
The June special offering is for Pine Rest Patient Assistance Fund: Part of Pine Rest Foundation Fund offering financial assistance for individuals, families and children who need care.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
The Better Word: From Cain's Restlessness to Christ's Peace
Summary
A Worship Service Grounded in Forgiveness
The service opens with confession and assurance drawn from Psalm 32, emphasizing that acknowledged sin is met by God's forgiveness. Congregational prayer then holds together personal illness, grief, birthdays, church ministries, missionary work, denominational renewal, international suffering, and the hope that God's love and faithfulness extend beyond every human need.
No Red Card with God
The children's message uses soccer's yellow and red cards to explain conviction, confession, and grace. A yellow card becomes an image for the Holy Spirit's warning when someone lies or harms another person. Unlike a referee who permanently removes a player, God does not cast repentant people out of his family; confession is met with forgiveness.
Reading Cain and Abel Beyond the Simplest Version
The sermon turns to Genesis 4 and challenges children's-Bible summaries that portray Cain as obviously evil from birth and Abel as obviously righteous. The preacher observes that the text gives little explanation for God's different responses to the offerings, making room for a more careful reading of Cain's anger, God's warning, and the tragedy that follows.
The Cry of Innocent Blood
After Cain kills Abel, Abel's blood becomes the Bible's first voice of an innocent victim crying from the ground. The sermon connects that cry with continuing violence throughout human history. Cain's punishment uproots him from the soil and makes him a restless wanderer, yet God still marks and protects him, interrupting the cycle of retaliatory death.
A Better Word Spoken by Christ
Hebrews 12 provides the sermon's central theological claim: Jesus' blood speaks a better word than Abel's blood. Abel's blood names injustice and death, while Christ's blood speaks grace, life, resurrection, and reconciliation. Jesus represents both victims and perpetrators, revealing God's insistence on life even where human beings repeatedly choose violence.
Communion as Reconciliation and Homecoming
The closing illustration from Places in the Heart imagines victims, perpetrators, the dead, the marginalized, and the guilty sharing communion and exchanging the peace of God. The service then moves directly to the Lord's Table, where bread and cup proclaim that Christ brings restless wanderers home, creates shalom, and offers forgiveness and rest to wounded hearts.
1 hr 36 min

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