Zion E-News (5-28-2020)

I have been thinking and praying for the last 48 hours about what if anything to say about the George Floyd killing in Minnesota this week. I am not sure what i dare say for a variety of reasons, including:
1. I am angry. At its best, this anger is like that of a parent who wants to protect their young from a threat. At its worst, it is the anger that simply lashes out in frustration.
2. I am tired. Just in the past few weeks, we saw video of a black man being hunted and killed by vigilante citizens in Georgia who were only charged when the video was leaked. The authorities were going to cover it up. And then this week, a man in Central Park asked a woman to put her dog on a leash. She responded by calling the police and saying the black man was threatening her. And then, the video of George Floyd being murdered was released. I am tired of the injustice and the deeply entrenched racism it reveals.
3. I am afraid. I am afraid for my Ethiopian nephew, for my Guatemalan niece, my Filipino sisters, and the many other people of color I love and care about who live in a culture where they are at risk simply because of the color of their skin.
4. I am sad. I am sad some people will view this is a political or even a partisan issue rather than a gospel issue. It will be fought over like a competition on social media and the 24-hour news channels.

But this is not an issue, these are people. And, if we choose to treat it as an issue, then it is a core gospel issue. If God loves the world as John 3:16 says and Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, as Christians, we have to stand with oppressed people in our country. We have to stand with our neighbors who experience the racism we as white people may not even notice.

Unfortunately, the opposite seems to happen in churches. The more often someone attends church, the more likely they are to harbor racist attitudes (see here). We must do better.

If we as Christians are not known for our love, especially our love for the poor and marginalized, the outsiders and the minorities, the refugees and the prisoners, we have failed to honor our Lord and have harmed the glory of his name. After all, he would have been in all of these situations during his life.

And so today, I am going to repent of my own silence, my own prejudicial attitudes, and seek both God’s mercy and to change my ways.

And, I am going to pray. I am going to pray for the grieving families and for the African Americans who live in fear of being stopped or confronted by the police for driving while black, running while black, buying gas while black, shopping while black, or simply breathing in their own home while black. And, because I do not want to allow anger to take root in me, I am also praying for the police officers in Minnesota and all those who have allowed racism to take root in their lives.

May God have mercy on us all.

(I feel a need to be clear. I am not saying any individual police officer is racist or event that most are, but that our black brothers and sisters tell us they regularly experience racism from all sorts of people in authority, including police officers.)

Connect to God
This Sunday we will once again gather for worship online. You can join the service at:
zionreformed.online.church
Zion’s Facebook Page
WCET (at noon on Friday and 4pm on Sunday)
Physical Copy of the Sermon mailed to you (please request from Connie Stegeman at cstegeman@zionreforned.org)

We conclude our sermon series entitled Made for More this week. Many of us have been raised in a church culture that told us, however unintentionally, that our role was to come to worship, volunteer in something, give a little money and then let the professionals do the ministry. But what if we were made for more than holding down a seat or filling a volunteer slot. What if we truly are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do? What if we were made for mission, to both be a disciple and make disciples, as well as filling a unique role in God’s kingdom to show God’s love and care for this world. What if we were made for a life overflowing in the life of Jesus and guided in mission by his Spirit? During our final week of this series we consider how to determine the position: the place, the people, or the cause, to which God has called us.

You are invited to join us for a coffee hour after church via a zoom call. The link will be shared during the service in the chat box. Last week, we had about 8 families join us for a brief talk in response to the sermon and just to catch up. You can learn more about how to use Zoom at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isp3qPeQ0E

Grow in Community
Join us at 9 am for Zion Kids Worship/Sunday School. We will be live streaming directly from the same website where you already watch our worship service. You can find the Kids Worship time at https://zionreformed.online.church.

Connected to our sermon series, we are also engaging in a 30-Day devotional as a congregation. The devotionals will walk us through the book of Ephesians as we together consider  how we are Made for More. The devotionals can be downloaded here.

We also still have numerous Discipleship Triads meeting. If you would like to learn more about how you can connect with other people at Zion to encourage one another to follow Jesus well, send me an e-mail and I can help get you connected.

Serve the World
We continue accepting donations of personal care items and food on Wednesdays from 1-3 pm at church. We are partnering with Sunrise Ministries in Jenison for a weekly distribution. We also continue our monthly partnership with UCOM through our Personal Care Pantry. For the next few weeks, all Personal Care Items will be shared with Lifeline Community Church for their next distribution in Wyoming. Thank you for your support of these important ministries at this time.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Shanda VandePol our chair of deacons and she can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. Her e-mail is shandavandepol@yahoo.com and her phone number is 616-308-0700.

Covid-19 Town Hall on June 4 at 7 pm
Many people have shared with me the difficulty in knowing what to believe or whom to trust in the middle of this pandemic. As the pandemic and the governments response to it has become increasingly partisan, it has become harder and harder for many of us to know whom to trust and discern the facts we should believe the advice we should follow. Which leaves us with a lot of questions, such as:
1. How widespread is the virus in West Michigan?
2. Are masks really necessary?
3. Are elective surgeries are allowed now, but is it safe?
4. Why is gathering as a church so risky?

If you are like me, you may want to simply talk to someone you already know and trust who has first hand knowledge on the ground, so to speak. Thankfully, we have several of those experts at Zion. I want to invite you to a Town Hall next Thursday, June 4, at 7 pm via Zoom (we will record the meeting and also make it available via YouTube following the event) to discuss the Corona virus and its impact in our community with medical experts from Zion. Our panel will include Ken Johnson, Tracy Lobbes, Amy Mott, and Jonell VanderWall.

If you have any questions you would like answered, to give our panel time to prepare, please send your questions to me at gbrower@zionreformed.org. We hope to have time for questions from “the floor” during the event, but the best way to make sure your question gets answered is to send them in ahead of time.

Administration
We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures. We are especially grateful this week for all those who have adjusted their means of giving to give online, through the mail, and via text. Zion’s members continue to strongly support the ministries of Zion during this time of uncertainty.
Year to Date Budget: $576,774.64
Year to Date Contribution: $548,911.82
Giving Last Week: $11,123.00
Cash on Hand: $145,690.78