Helping Broken People in Holland

Joe Ortega makes no bones about who he is trying to reach as pastor of Celebration Community Church, a new church plant in Holland, Mich.

“We are focused 110 percent on broken people. None of us have it all together. All of us are on the verge of not making it in our lives,” he says.

Funded in part by Christian Reformed Home Missions, Celebration began about six months ago. It meets on Sundays at 12:30 p.m. in Faith CRC in Holland.

From the start, Ortega has had the same  goal of reaching those who, like him, have fallen short and are struggling, who need God,  he says.

“We are trying to create an atmosphere of acceptance and to think about the needs of people who come through the doors,” says Ortega, who left his job as a Delta Airlines flight attendant to start the church.

He has been involved in ministry in many capacities for several years. Although doors have been closed on him, Ortega says he has persisted, and it all led to Celebration.

“We don’t get struck on the ‘me syndrome’ at Celebration,” he says. “We are here for one another. Our church is all about connection, about helping and healing the broken people.”

Ortega recently did a funeral for one of those broken people — 20-year-old year-old Candelario Soto, who came to Celebration several weeks ago and who took to the church right away.

Soto was troubled and hurting and yet had a big smile and grew quickly committed to Celebration. He soon brought his girl-friend to church and then invited his mother.

Ortega and his wife, Jackie, saw something in Soto and decided that he ought to serve as part of the leadership team of this church.

But then Soto died, drowning in nearby Lake Macatawa. Police are still investigating the death.

“When we did the funeral, I talked about his story, about how he is an example of who were are trying to reach,” says Ortega. “I talked about how he was on fire for the Lord.”

The church was standing-room only.

Ortega says Celebration had its birth as he was fixing his sister’s sink.

This was his older sister — the same one who had told him years ago about Christ, an experience that filled him with joy and set him on the path he has followed.

“I was under the sink at my sister’s house when I distinctly heard God say to me, ‘I need you to handle broken people with gentle hands like I’ve handled you,” says Ortega, an ordained commissioned pastor in the Reformed Church in America.

Out of this call ultimately came the chance to start Celebration Church. Ortega and his wife began by gathering a small team of people to pray on Wednesday nights, asking God for direction.

“I began meeting with people I knew were lost and told them about our church,” he says. “There have been discouraging times, but there have always been people gathering with us to pray on Wednesday nights.”

Prayer has been the strategy he has used in developing his church. Let God show the way. 

And one of those ways has been  the simple storytelling  he uses in his preaching.

“The people in our church would leave if I started hitting them with heavy theology,” he says. “I tell everyday stories that have a connection to the Bible.”

For instance, in one sermon, he talked about cell phones and taking selfies.

He was preaching on Romans 1:16 which says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”

“Take your phones out, take a selfie with your hand raised, and post it on Facebook to five people. Say ‘I am not ashamed,’ and I’m believing what God says’.”

People in the pews did this and soon images of these “broken” but worshipping people were appearing on the Internet.