ALTAMONT — Rev. Matthew J. van Maastricht will give his first sermon at his new church, Altamont Reformed, on Sunday.

“I see ministry as building a house,” he said. “The first sermon will lay the foundation for our future together.”

He replaces Robert Luidens who retired after 31 years as the pastor of the church at 129 Lincoln Ave. The white, steepled church was built in 1888.

Van Maastricht describes his denomination, the Reformed Church in America, as being distinguished from other denominations by its “emphasis on God’s grace and God’s action.”

He went on, “God approaches us first. There is a warmth to that...There’s an understanding that all parts of life are a part of faith. Faith is not just a corner. It’s how we interact with others — in the supermarket, or at the post office.”

“I’m of Dutch ancestry, and my family name shows it,” van Maastricht pointed out. The denomination came to America with the Dutch colonists settling New Netherland. The first Dutch Reformed congregation was established in 1628 in New Amsterdam, which is where New York City is today.

Van Maastricht and his wife, Marie, a music teacher, are settling into village life with their 10-month-old son, Hendrik. The baby is named after a 20th-Century Reformed theologian from the Netherlands who influenced van Maastricht’s theology.

“It is a lovely community,” van Maastricht said of Altamont. “People have been super friendly.”

Van Maastricht was raised in the rural farming community of Hamilton, Michigan, the oldest of three boys. His father is a machine operator and his mother worked in a local grocery store. “I grew up in a denomination close to the Reformed Church, but the idea of going into the ministry was not part of my plan,” he said of his youth, noting several people nudged him toward the ministry.

He earned an undergraduate degree in sociology from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. “Seminary felt like the next step but I wasn’t sure of the ministry,” said van Maastricht. “In the middle of seminary, I had no idea what I wanted to do. At the end, I was sure I’d work in an inner-city ministry.”

After earning a master of divinity degree at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, he then earned a master’s degree in social work from his alma mater. He was ordained in 2011 as a Minister of Word and Sacrament by the Reformed Church in America.

His first three years in the ministry were spent in inner-city Milwaukee. “It was the most wonderful and most challenging time of my life up to that point,” he said. “There were a lot of needs in that community. Finances were a problem.”

At the same time he was ministering in the inner city, van Maastricht was also serving as pastor for a small church in the suburbs of Milwaukee, at New Berlin. “The minister there was retiring and they couldn’t afford a full-time replacement,” van Maastricht said.

When the ministry in Milwaukee closed, he stayed on as pastor and teacher at the Calvary Reformed Church in New Berlin and was there for nearly four years altogether.

Friends of his in the ministry pointed out the opening in Altamont. “The church looked appealing to my wife and myself,” he said, listing three reasons why. First, he said, “The church in New Berlin was not part of a neighborhood. I like being the heart of a community.”

Second, he said, the Altamont Reformed Church has “active outreach.” And third, he said, “Music was listed as an important part of the ministry. Music matters to us,” he said of himself and his wife.

They moved to Altamont on Aug. 3 and he officially started working at the church on Aug. 15. An installation service for van Maastricht will be held on Sunday, Oct. 22. The church has a congregation of 70 or 80 people, he said, adding, “The church has been open and welcoming.”

His immediate goal, he said, is to “become familiar with the congregation and the community.” Van Maastricht also said, “I want to grow outreach, to become a more integral part of the Altamont community.”

He went on, “A church serves not only its members but the greater community around it.”

Don Poest, the interim general secretary for the Reformed Church in America, issued a strong statement after the racist protests in Charlottesville. He wrote, “A house divided cannot stand...Racism is a sin. It has no power and no place in Christ’s church and the current acts of white supremacists like the Ku Klux Klan, working to perpetuate fear and hate and division must be resisted...It starts with me, with you, with us.”

Van Maastricht said statements from Reformed Church leaders don’t “have to filter down” to local churches but they often do.

“It’s a very well written statement,” he said, “and I’m grateful for it.”