We follow Jesus.

A real church — we're just early. TheWay is a church plant in Big Rapids, Michigan. Right now we're gathering the people before we gather on a Sunday, which is backwards from how it's usually done and, we think, the right way round.

We haven't announced a location or a gathering time yet. That's the honest answer. Join the interest list and you'll know the day we do — before it's public anywhere else.

No. You don't have to agree with us to be welcome, and you won't be cornered about it. We're confident about Jesus and a good deal less certain about plenty of secondary things — and we'll say so out loud.

We don't belong to a party, and we won't turn the pulpit into one. But faith that's real is active — it shapes every part of a life, and that includes how we think about right and wrong in public. We favor truth and righteousness: the sanctity of marriage, life from conception, freedom and liberty, and the other things Scripture is clear about. No party lines up with the Bible, and we won't pretend one does; when one lands on the side of Scripture, we're thankful. Our loyalty is to Jesus, and it goes everywhere we go.

It's a church that a lot of students will be part of — not a student ministry with a church attached. You'll be in the room with retirees and toddlers and people thirty years further down the road than you, which is the point.

We don't belong to one. TheWay is self-governing — led by its own biblically qualified leadership, not a denomination or convention. Our practice is Baptist, which for us means one specific thing: we baptize people after they've trusted Jesus, not before. Our doctrine is foundational: the faith the apostles laid down, held as it was given. Each of those words gets defined in plain language on the What We Believe page.

Yes. You'll find people who follow Jesus, Scripture preached plainly, and a room that's glad you came. Nobody will put you on the spot. Come, listen, and take the next step when you're ready.

You get occasional email about what we're building, when we're gathering, and how to be part of it early. Unsubscribe whenever. We don't sell or share your information.

Yes. Big Rapids has a lot of churches for a town its size, and several of them are good ones. If you're in one where the Bible is preached and people love each other, stay there. We're planting because a church ought to be able to say plainly what it believes and why, because thousands of people in this county aren't in any church at all, and because a lot of folks who quit going never quit on Jesus.

Yes — TheWay. There's no building and no service time yet, because we're gathering the people first and meeting in homes and coffee shops around town while we do. The interest list is how you'll hear the day, time and place before it's public anywhere else.

Big Rapids first, and the towns around it: Mecosta, Stanwood, Paris, Rodney, Remus, Reed City, Canadian Lakes and Morley — Mecosta County and the edges of it.

Three things, over and over. We exhort one another — through singing, through the gifts the Spirit gives each believer, through fellowship. We equip believers to give and live out the gospel. And we exalt Jesus through praise and worship. Everything else is in service of those three.