Saturday, August 25, 2007By Matt Vande Bunte
The Grand Rapids Press
ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP — In a minivan with a cross dangling from the rear-view mirror, three men in black cruise slowly through one of the latest additions to the student housing boom near Grand Valley State University.
Coming upon a stocked car and the loaded back of a pickup, the trio hopped out to lend a hand. Bob and Durene Worth were eager to accept the assistance, making their daughter’s move into her off-campus townhome easy.
“You guys are unreal. You guys are a blessing,” Bob Worth said as he was handed a bottle of water while the leaders of a new college-age ministry lugged a television, grill and other necessities of student life, including the game Twister, into one of the units at Meadows Crossing Townhomes.
“This outreach is great,” Worth said later. “It just shows the community of the church. It shows they’re willing to step out and go above and beyond.”
It shows, in the words of Jason Hoppa, the desire of Lighthouse Community Church to be the real hands and feet of Jesus to a growing population in need of spiritual guidance, yet often neglected by the church.
“(Jesus) didn’t come to be served, but to serve,” said Hoppa, a 28-year-old GVSU alum and pastor of discipleship for Lighthouse’s new college ministry. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to plant a seed.
“This age right now is very influential for the rest of their lives. They’ve got to make huge decisions.”
Hoppa, along with Chad Demers and Brandon Sloterbeek, have been handing out water and helping students move in this month as they promote “authentic,” a new Saturday night worship service geared toward people age 18 to 24. Devised in a deer blind last fall and launched last spring with a pair of trial runs, the service starts a weekly schedule 6 p.m. today at Lighthouse, 5947 Lake Michigan Dr. NW.
“If there’s an ulterior motive, it’s to make connections with the kids,” said Sloterbeek, 32. “There’s been a desire in our church to reach the whole community of Allendale, and obviously the campus is a big part of that.”
Churches now are taking more notice of the growing GVSU population, which has swelled since 2001 as the number of on-campus student beds has increased by about 50 percent, to nearly 5,000. That number does not include the surge of off-campus complexes such as Meadows Crossing, which has 189 two- and four-bedroom units.
Looking to serve GVSU students and faculty, the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids this spring announced plans to add its first new parish in nearly 30 years. An installation of priests for St. Luke’s University Parish is planned next month, and a church could be built kitty-corner to Lighthouse on 16 acres at Lake Michigan Drive and 60th Avenue.
In the meantime, on-campus Mass is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. Sundays in the Cook-DeWitt Chapel.
In addition to “authentic,” Lighthouse aspires to play an on-campus role by conducting outdoor worship at some of those apartment complexes and organizing morning Bible studies. A live worship CD recorded last weekend will be distributed next month at a GVSU campus fair.
The effort “is about tearing down walls that were built” in order to “raise up a new generation of leaders” in the church, said Demers, worship leader at Lighthouse.
“This is the age when they’re really looking for truth,” he said, explaining the design of their black-and-white shirts. “The church isn’t a building. The church is the foundation, the rock, Jesus Christ. Worship isn’t just a Sunday morning thing.”
Jamie Worth, 20, said “quite a few” fellow Grand Valley students are involved in a church, and that “youth groups are big.” She has taken part in worship at Mars Hill Bible Church on occasion, and a couple times went to an on-campus service.
After watching the Lighthouse group move her belongings, she said the help makes her interested to check out “authentic.”
