Our Story

In the fall of 1978 revival broke out in a local Kalamazoo church. This was a sovereign move of God. This move of God was not planned or scheduled, but Gods’ response to a group of young people who hungered in their heart for more of God and a real display of His power. God did not disappoint them. In late fall and early winter of 78/79, the power of God began to move powerfully upon this small body of seekers in a marvelous way, including signs and miracles. What was happening to them was a new experience and did not fit the beliefs or experience of the local church they were attending, so they set out to find churches that were open to the kinds of things that were happening among them. They named their group, “Power of Faith Crusades” with the thought in mind of helping churches “stoke the fire of revival” amongst their congregations. However, in late 1979 they realized that God had sovereignly established them as a local church. So, on January 6th, 1980 they began meeting on Sunday mornings as Christian Life Center (CLC), with John S. Myers (who had left bible school to join the revival group) as Pastor.

After moving around a bit, CLC settled in a small church on Carleton Street in Kalamazoo. In the fall of 1984, Pastor Myers announced that he would be handing the reins of leadership to Joel A. Brooks Jr. Pastor Brooks was installed as Pastor on January 6, 1985 and continues to serve as Pastor. As our congregation grew, we purchased larger sites to hold our expanding congregation and eventually moved into our Paterson Street site in the year 2000.  Our heart was to help people to serve the community around us, so we bought a school building in our community and started a non-profit company called New Genesis to help children and families thrive in the community.
We believe that God has called us to establish churches for His people to find Him, so the church expanded again in 2007, establishing a second congregation in the Grand Rapids Area; One Church, Two Great Locations.

In 2015, after gaining a great deal of notoriety in the Kalamazoo area as CLC. The congregation made a bold move in changing their name to “Stones Church”. This change was made to facilitate the vision and change our identity as a tribe of people as opposed to the name of a building.
During Joel Brooks’ tenure as Pastor it has been the goal of CLC/Stones to offer those who attend our services, a powerful encounter with the presence and power of God in a relaxed atmosphere, the opportunity to be established in God’s Word, assistance in helping them become aware of and prepare them for their purpose, as well as offering opportunities to serve God in their “sweet spot”.
Today Stones Church reaches thousands through their Sunday services, television ministry, website, podcast, community outreach and other efforts. We invite you to the Stones experience to see for yourself how fun and exciting it can be to be a part of a vibrant community of people loving God, loving people, and having fun doing it.