Impact Church

Nestled in Rockford, Michigan is the recent Church Campus from Impact Church located in Lowell, Michigan. Max Spoelstra helped with this process and explained several ways that this process has brought him and his family closer to the Lord.  

Max had his faith journey begin with his parents being involved in church and having their wn faith journey that Max says modeled the faith he has now. This faith is something that Max says encompasses his baptism in the 3^rd grade and now his family, including his wife of 8 years, 1-year-old child, 2 dogs, and, of course, 2 cats.  

Max graduated from Cornerstone and emphasized the importance of his obedience to the Lord in all seasons of his life.  

“The importance to me was obedience, not necessarily the outcome.” 

Max explained this as many lean into obedience, expecting an outcome immediately but that he was not expecting an outcome, but rather modeling a need for Jesus over everything else.  

This valuable lesson came from several things in his life, from growing up in church culture, student ministry, and a call to the next generation. That call to the next generation didn’t come from a place of Church Planting or so Max thought at that time. 

Max went into leadership, which led him to do ministry in some capacity. He interviewed for a high school pastor position and suddenly found himself in a conversation about church planting from Impact Church. This conversation was born out of the concept of raising up leaders. To raise up leaders is to make disciples through evangelism. Max then went on to the next step: pastoring. 

Max expressed that his home church had such an interesting and dedicated process of church planting/ campus growth. Through his pastoring role, he then became a pioneer in a new campus. 

“This process pointed out where we could (as a whole campus) work through things better, but also this process showed me just how important it was that Impact was the church to be handling this. They handled so many things and tackled things with a solution mindset.” 

 6-9 months out from this multi-site ministry process, Max mentioned that the help of John and Danielle Freed helped give structure to an unknown for him. 

“They (John & Danielle) helped us with the actual planting and the logistics around that.” 

In these moments and conversations, Max became an obedient force with this new campus in Rockford, Michigan. He found himself in an area of church strengthening, teaching, and sustaining.  

Max mentioned that one of the biggest blessings was the number of volunteers who came to the aid of the new campus. 

“I just started building relationships with so many people to build trust and see skills and gifts for our new campus. It was an experience that helped me feel less stuck or lost in this process.” 

Max leaned into what maybe some would call uncomfortable, but he did this in obedience with to the Lord and the way God called him to this process.  

Alongside this campus journey, Max mentioned the way he sees God working in other areas of ministry, including a prison campus that has had an immense impact in the community and especially within the prison walls.  

All of these ministries have been making waves. Max thanked God many times as he mentioned that his strength and provision had kept his anxieties at bay. 

“When there is anxiety or worry, I try to lean into God and know that He is the provider. Being obedient can be scary, but it is His way for the Kingdom.” 

Impact Church in Rockford, Michigan has regular Sunday services and is a force in the community. God is working in many ways every day and the people around these places of worship, sharing the Gospel, and intertwined social groups pave the way for people to come to a relationship with Christ.