December, 1996

Dear Pastor,

Greetings to all my partners in Christ in this Christmas season. In my reflections on the birth of Jesus during this time of year, I think of someone who defined his life by service to others. Our Lord did not enter the world to be served by others, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for sin, so that we might have eternal life (cf. Mark 10:45).

This mentality of our Savior defines how we see ourselves. We are here to serve the churches and people of Grand Rapids with a unique form of ministry, one that is not generally provided in the traditional church. As we have discovered and as we have been reporting over the past couple years, some people find it either temporarily or permanently beneficial to their spiritual needs to be able to worship in their cars.

If you were to tabulate the number of cars that have been in our parking lot during a service over the past three years, the answer would likely be at least 300. Yet on any one Sunday, we average about 50 cars, only half of which are what might be called regulars. That gives you an idea of the number of people we have served—perhaps someone from your congregation has attended a time or two because of a particular need.

Those figures excite us, because they remind us that we are serving people who, on a specific Sunday, would probably not have attended a worship service if it were not for our ministry. We have never organized as a formal church, and we do not intend to. We are also excited because we know some people have come to know the Lord through our ministry and have gone on to become active members in other churches.

We intend to continue this ministry in the spirit of Christmas. We covet your prayers on our behalf.

Sincerely,
Verlyn D. Verbrugge