A new church is being planned for the White Lake area. Pastor Jeremy Wegner, currently in his eighth year with the Christ Church in North Muskegon, is leading this effort. Prior to his current assignment, he attended and served on staff at Life Change Church on Whitehall Road for a total of 13 years. He is no stranger to the area, growing up here and graduating from North Muskegon High School in 1998.
People from Oceana County and northern Muskegon County regularly drive to North Muskegon to attend services at Christ Church. With this in mind, the church opted to establish a new location farther north. Final decisions on a location and whether to build or select an existing building have yet to be determined.
“Ideally, the new Hope Bible Chapel would be in a central location for residents of both Whitehall and Montague,” he said.
These people will be able to attend church closer to home later this year. Five Sunday night services will be held at the Montague Band Shell starting June 9 at 7 p.m. Later, beginning Sept. 15, they will be held at 10 a.m. Sundays in The Playhouse at White Lake. Everyone will be welcome to attend these services.
The Wegner family has lived in Whitehall for 20 years. “We love the area,” he said. Jeremy and Melissa have two children, Avery and Madison, who are Whitehall High School graduates and are now attending Michigan Technological University and the University of Michigan, respectively.
Early on, the new church will be assisted by staff from North Muskegon. The Hope Bible Chapel will be in partnership with Christ Church and the Great Commission Collective. Churches in The Collective are committed to building a culture that is thoroughly biblical and vibrantly growing.
“We (Hope Bible Chapel) should be fully autonomous, with our own elder board, after a year,” Wegner said.
There are about 100 people in their core group who are working to establish the different teams needed to make the new church successful.
Additional information is available at HopeBibleChapel.com.
