Baker Book House jumps into its Children's Summer Reading Program with a bang this year. The Adventures in Michigan program runs June 1-August 26 and features a wide array of activities and prizes.

"The program is all about promoting literacy at an early age, to encourage kids to read and love books," said Darron Schroeder, assistant manager at Baker Book House.

This year's program puts special emphasis on the state of Michigan, with at least seven Michigan authors visiting the story for special programs. Authors include Glenys Nellist, Crystal Bowman, Gary Bower, Laurie Keller, Tracy Madder, Kenneth Kraegel and Katie Newell.

A graduation ceremony for the 2017 GRIL graduates was held at Calvin College.Seeded throughout Greater Grand Rapids are a new crop of leaders dedicated to bringing out the best in themselves and others.

GR Initiative for Leaders' (GRIL) 2017 graduates include its first class from its Emerge program, a nine-month curriculum for adults who want to take their leadership skills to the next level and become leaders in their community, according to Denise Fase, GRIL's executive director.

West Michigan Christian News writer Terry DeBoer surveys the landscape for the area's faith-based arts and entertainment events over the coming month. Here are three highlights for June:

Gerald Perry (center) and United Voices of Worship The annual Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids is celebrating its 48th anniversary June 2-4. And the huge volunteer event comes with a variety of chances to hear a full stylistic range of inspirational music free of charge.

And of course, there are also those church-hosted booths which sell luscious food items while raising funds for their various ministries.

Local gospel singer-songwriter Gerald Perry knows the festival well. "I've sung there for a long time – from my days with the Bethel Pentecostal Choir," said Perry, who in his formative years sang with the noted church group.

Jason Crabb sings Aug. 13 in Grand HavenCampgrounds, conference facilities, and other venues in West Michigan are finalizing preparations for their summertime inspirational concert series.

Maranatha Bible Conference in Muskegon, Worship On The Waterfront in downtown Grand Haven, Sandy Pines Lakeside Chapel in Dorr, Gospel Music Barn in Hudsonville, and the Christian Reformed Conference Grounds on Lakeshore Dr. between Holland and Grand Haven all feature weekend concerts that are open to the public on a free-will-offering basis. (Details below).

And for Memorial Day weekend, the music is already underway.

Previously, Walk for Life started at Cathedral Square; this year’s begins at La Grave Christian Reformed Church. The Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC) invites the pro-life public to take a walk with them over Father's Day weekend.

The PRC's annual Walk For Life on June 17 is an opportunity for people to band together in prayer, raise needed funds for the pro-life nonprofit founded in 1985 and experience the contrast between light and darkness.

"The Walk is about building awareness and saying to the community, 'We're here,'" said Jim Sprague, the PRC's chief executive officer.

Tiffany Arbuckle Lee (better known as Plumb) watched her best-known song take on a completely new meaning.

Plumb's 2012 power ballad "Need You Now (How Many Times)" - with its Psalm-like longing for God's help - was originally written about her struggles with anxiety, panic attacks and depression.

"But it was soon afterward that my husband and I separated," she recalled of the tumultuous period which her marriage eventually survived. "The meaning actually turned around for me and I became a listener to my own song. I now needed God more than ever before."

Plumb and her band perform Saturday May 20 at Rock the Coast, a two day Christian music mini-festival at the Ottawa County Fairgrounds also featuring David Crowder, Josh Wilson and others.

Molly Klimas: “I can’t imagine life without her. I have no regrets.” Molly Klimas was 20 years old and on the cusp of starting her senior year at St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Indiana when she felt the need to keep a white-knuckle grip on the hope she wasn't pregnant.

That was 31 years ago.

Raised in a Roman Catholic family where she is the oldest of eight siblings, Klimas was engaged to her fiancé, Paul Klimas.

I remember a night when one of our sons was sixteen-years-old and had told us that he would be home by 10:00. At 10:10, he was nowhere to be seen, and I was starting to get nervous. With every second that ticked on the clock, I worried more and more.

The typical parent, I assumed the absolute worst. I wonder how bad the accident was. Which hospital would he be in? I hope the other kids weren't hurt too.

Concerned, I dialed his cell phone. He answered right away, to my relief. Keeping my voice calm, I addressed the situation. "Son, it's a little later than you said you'd be home. Where are you?"

He hesitated. "Do I have to tell you?" he asked.

West Michigan's multi-talented Forrest Wakeman has a new worship recording featuring a host of area musicians.

"Messes to Miracles" is a polished effort filled with contemporary ballads and anthems suitable for corporate or personal worship.

Wakeman, who has several advanced music degrees and is music director at Blythefield Hills Baptist Church in Rockford, wrote all the songs and co-produced the CD with long time area worship leader Andy Ferris.

Tie up those shoe laces and grab your friends, the Access of West Michigan 40th Annual Hunger Walk is coming to downtown Grand Rapids on Sunday, May 7. Registration and food festival - including live music, a food truck, activities for kids and more - begins at 1:30p.m. at Park Church, 10 E Park Pl NE, Grand Rapids. The walk begins in stride at 2:15p.m.

Since 1977, the Hunger Walk has raised over $6 million for local and international organizations promoting a thriving food system through the support of thousands of individuals, businesses and congregations.

Emmy®-nominated comedian Chonda Pierce is set to bring her "Happily Laugher After" tour to Wyoming's Grand Rapids First Assembly of God (2100 44th St SW) on Friday May 5 at 7:00 PM. The best-selling female comedian of all time, Pierce will deliver an uplifting and encouraging night of joy and laughter, armed with her unpretentious Southern charm and laser sharp wit. The evening will also feature special guest acclaimed singer/songwriter Karyn Williams.

Rich Correll: “I look for people who have dirty hands and dirty feet.”There are a handful of reasons why Rich Correll is an unlikely person to make his 137th trip to the Ukraine to establish new churches.

By his own admission, when he launched Church Planters' Training International (CPTI) in 1992 as founder and president, Correll had no prior theological or church planting experience. In his earlier years he worked for Bethlehem Steel as a sales manager (1967-1988), selling the alloy to some of the area's largest manufacturers in West Michigan.

Plus, he doesn't speak the East Slavic native language, Ukrainian, nor does he dialogue in Russian that nearly 30 percent of Ukrainians speak, nor does he know any of the 40 minority languages and dialects spoken in the Eastern European nation.

West Michigan Christian News writer Terry DeBoer surveys the landscape for the area's faith-based arts and entertainment events over the coming month. Here are three highlights for May:

Jordan Feliz Since his childhood days, singer songwriter Jordan Feliz was aware of million-selling Christian music artist Michael W. Smith.

"My parents own every record he ever made," said Feliz, 28, of the veteran Smith. "I never thought I'd ever be able to share the stage with him."

The relative newcomer Feliz is an opening artist on Smith's current tour, coming to downtown Grand Rapids at 20 Monroe Live on Sat. April 29.

"I feel like my childhood experience of listening to CDs in my parents' car is being lived out right now," he smiled.

Smith, 59, needs no introduction to Christian music fans. More than two dozen albums, nearly three dozen No. 1 songs, and various collaboration projects have left an indelible mark for the Gospel Music Hall of Fame member.

The Arthur and Wasinger families spent a year changing their lives a bit at a time; and together they recorded that year in the new book "The Year of Small Things: Radical Faith for the Rest of Us" by Sarah Arthur and Erin F. Wasinger. The authors will speak and sign books at Baker Book House at 7 pm Thursday, April 27.

Arthur, author of several other books, originally pitched the book as one family's year-long practice of new monasticism in suburbia. Then Tom and Sarah Arthur met Erin and Dave Wasinger and asked them to be part of the journey.

"We formed a covenantal relationship with the Wasingers," said Sarah Arthur. "It's a whole different thing when close friends know what you're doing and challenge you, asking you the hard questions."

The goal was to engage in the 12 marks of new monasticism, a lifestyle espoused by the likes of Shane Claiborne and others.

Rosa and John Vander Kolk are making their third trip to Lebanon. Dr. John and Rosa Vander Kolk will soon make the 24-hour flight to Beqaa Valley, Lebanon where they intend to alleviate the physical pain of refugees who've fled their war-torn homeland of Syria.

This will mark the Grand Rapids couple's third medical mission trip to the Middle East country when they leave April 28 and return May 6. John will head up the dental aspect of the medical Christian humanitarian trip, with Rosa serving as his dental assistant. Joining them will be two dentists, a nurse, two assistants, an emergency room doctor, an obstetrician, a physician's assistant, an epidemiologist and two interpreters.

Matt HavilandMatt Haviland knows all about being a single parent. He's one himself, non-custodial parent to his 10-year-old daughter. He also knows parents like him have struggles that other parents don't.

Now single parents can find help and encouragement at the inaugural Midwest Single Parenting Summit, created by Haviland, founder of A Father's Walk, and Dawn Blocker VanderWerf, founder of Single Parent Missions. The summit takes place at EverGreen Ministries on May 12-13.

"We want single parents to know how loved and cherished they are by God, and that God hasn't forsaken them," said Haviland. "We want them to find encouragement in the sessions and through the people there and the teaching."

Tendai Masiriri: “We subscribe to radical hospitality. In other words, we meet people where they are and try to improve their lives.” Tendai Masiriri personally knows what it's like to live on the streets, fending for himself day in and out in his homeland of Zimbabwe. His unsettling days of survival serves as a motivating reason for becoming Heartside Ministry's new executive director.

Masiriri was 15 years old when his father died in 1985, leaving him no other choice but to try to care for himself, he said.

"I didn't have anything," said Masiriri. "I know what it means when people are struggling and want to get out of it. They have the same desires as anybody else. They hope like anybody else.

Kim Walker-Smith (3rd from l.) and Jesus Culture It may be hard to believe, but Jesus Culture singer-songwriter/worship leader and recording artist Kim Walker-Smith was kicked out of her high school choir.

"My teacher thought I was really rebellious and would not let me re-join again at any point in high school," said the singer of the incident during 9th grade. "So all the musical things I did was with stuff outside of school," she recalled.

In college when the hopeful singer first auditioned for the school worship team...she was turned down.

When I was growing up as a boy in the South, there was a cemetery on a little hill beside the country church my family attended. It was an old cemetery, with sunken squares of grass and crooked headstones popping out of the ground, creating a scene you'd expect to find in a Frontier novel or something.

To me and most of the kids I knew, that cemetery had an eerie mystery about it—the kind only a graveyard can offer. It was exciting in a spooky sort of way.
Still, my friends and I taunted our fears in that place. We played games there because it always made the hairs on the back of our necks stand up a little. And every time we were in that cemetery, we were constantly aware that death was just beneath our feet.

Every time, that is, except for one day each year, when we all lost sight of the graveyard's creepiness for a few minutes.

John Stonestreet: “Without the image of God you have no grounding for anything approaching universal dignity.” Pop quiz: What does it mean to be created in God's image and likeness?

The average churchgoer might reply people resemble God because of their abilities, including the knack to be rational and to communicate. This is known as the functional viewpoint.

Others might says that we don't resemble animals' behavior and thus must be a reflection of the Almighty, also called the relational perspective.