Who we are
Imperfect people, following Jesus, in Big Rapids.
A church that exhorts one another, equips believers to live out the gospel, and exalts Christ in worship — forming in Big Rapids, one person at a time.
The short version
A church that got started backwards.
Most churches launch with a building, a stage, a service time, and a marketing push, and hope people show up. We’re doing it the other way around. We’re gathering the people first — over coffee, in living rooms, one conversation at a time — and letting the church take shape around who actually comes.
That’s slower. It’s also more honest. A church isn’t a building or a Sunday production. It’s people, following Jesus together. Everything else is furniture.
TheWay doesn’t belong to a denomination or a convention. It’s self-governing, led by its own biblically qualified leadership. Our doctrine is the foundational Christian faith, and we preach through the Bible rather than around it. Our practice is Baptist, which for us means one specific thing: we baptize people after they’ve trusted Jesus, not before. The seven commitments we’ve written down — the ones we’re willing to be measured against — are on the What We Believe page.
The name
TheWay is a person. His name is Jesus.
Before anyone called them Christians, the first followers of Jesus were called the Way— you can find it all through the book of Acts. It came from something Jesus said the night before He died:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”John 14:6
We picked the name because it keeps us honest. We aren’t the way. We’re not a brand or a method or a set of opinions. We’re people who found the road and are walking it — and who’d like company.
Who’s behind this
Dillon McCurdy
Planter · Big Rapids
Dillon grew up in Northwest Indiana, just outside Chicago, in a large church and its Christian school. He was called to preach at ten years old and never seriously wanted to do anything else.
He went to Bible college, where he studied media with a Bible minor and met his wife, Kailee. After graduation he spent just under four years as an assistant pastor at a church in Michigan, then just under four more at a church in Iowa — preaching, teaching, leading music, discipling, and doing the media and marketing work that eventually became his day job. Today he runs a marketing agency with his brother.
Dillon and Kailee married in 2018 at Hemlock Park in Big Rapids and have two daughters. Kailee is from Howard City, and the family is moving back to the Big Rapids area for one reason: to start TheWay. At home they keep horses, goats, chickens, rabbits, dogs, and most of the other animals a hobby farm can hold.
If you want to talk — about Jesus, about the church, about what you believe, or about nothing much at all — the coffee’s on him. dillon@bigrapids.church. And the story of how TheWay started is here.
What we’re building toward
What a Sunday will look like, eventually
One body
Kids, teens, college students, young families, middle age, and seniors worshiping together. The church is the whole body, not sections of it — with teaching prepared for children as we grow.
The Bible, in order
We preach through books of the Bible, start to finish, so the text sets the agenda — not the news cycle.
The gospel, out loud
Every gathering, clearly enough that someone hearing it for the first time can follow it.
Everyone sings
Congregational singing — the whole room, not a performance you mumble along with. Hymns that have carried generations of believers before us, and new songs that speak to ours.
A table
Coffee before, food often, conversation always. Hospitality isn't a program here; it's how it works.
Every believer at work
Nobody's an audience. The Spirit gave every Christian a gift, and part of our job is helping you find yours and use it.
Be here early
Get on the list before there's a room.
Occasional updates on what we're building, and the first word when there's a place and a time.