Made It to Maranatha

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A lodge at Maranatha

I am writing this note from my room at Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Muskegon, Michigan. If you check the map, you’ll see that Muskegon is on the eastern short of Lake Michigan. The conference center owns a nice stretch of beach where families go to swim during the day. The main buildings are located just over a wooded hill that gives you a good workout if you want to ride your bike or do a little hiking.

The conference center itself has a long and storied history. Famed evangelist Paul Rader preached here in the first half of the 20th-century. Billy Graham preached to 8000 people here in 1956. In the heyday of the Bible conference movement, Maranatha was a regular stop for Bible teachers, pastors, evangelists and other Christian leaders. I mention that in part because the history is very interesting to me, and because like most Bible conferences, Maranatha has reinvented itself in the last 10-15 years. In the years following World War II, Bible conferences like Maranatha flourished across the country because in those days, you could take your family to a conference center for a relatively inexpensive vacation that included spiritual nurture for the whole family. As the number of entertainment options multiplied, many Bible conferences struggled to maintain their growth in the latter half of the 20th century.

This is my fourth time to speak at Maranatha. I came first as part of Moody week in 1999 and 2001 and was the main speaker for a week in 2004. It is encouraging to see so many families with young children here. Tonight I saw children on bikes riding along the road that goes to the beach. Terry Agal, who along with his wife Kay picked me up at the Grand Rapids airport, told me that even with the economic downtown that has hit the Midwest very hard, total attendance this summer is tracking about where it was a year ago.

As I travel around the country, I get to see how various ministries are adapting to the changing times. Gone are the days when the Bible teaching was the only thing happening, with programs for children more or less an afterthought. Today’s conferences program as much for children and teenagers as they do for adults, with a high premium placed on excellent facilities, good food, and lots of activities on and off campus. I noted a ton of brochures in the main lobby advertising various places of interest in western Michigan.

All of that to say that after a day that began in Mississippi and ends in Michigan, I made it to Maranatha. After the concert tonight I chatted with Tim and Eileen Ostrander whom I met on my first visit in 1999. They graciously welcomed me and said they were excited about the week. They probably say that to every speaker, and even so I smiled when I heard it and felt very glad to be here.