During the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia, many atrocities were committed by the Communists to gain and keep power. As many as 500,000 Russians were killed in an effort to stop any dissensions or rebellion against the revolutionaries. One story passed down from this time has stuck with me. A very abbreviated version follows.

One day a young man on horseback came into a small village and asked to meet with the village leaders. he told them he wanted to throw a party celebrated all the story tellers of the region. In a oral culture, story telling formed their common identity, gave them purpose, and helped them make sense of the world. They had many story tellers.

On the day of the party, the young man returned with some friends and gathered all the story tellers into the town hall. The young man stood at the front and his friends at the back. Then he announced they had to get one more thing to start the celebration. He and his friends left the building, locking the doors from the outside, and burned the town hall to the ground. Every story teller in the region was killed and the oral history of their people was gone.

Events similar to this happened in villages across the country. The Soviets knew the power of story. Without story we no longer know who we are or where we are going.

This is really important when we think about evangelism. We need to tell the story of God in a way that makes sense to people in our culture who did not grow up in church and do not already know the story of scripture.

Often, I fear, we tell a true story that does not address the questions of our day. The story we tell of the wrath of God and the substitutionary death of Jesus is absolutely true and offers a great answer to the questions people asked in the 1500s and 1600s when most people grew up in a church that taught them to fear the wrath of God and to live in constant fear of not being good enough for God. To hear that you are saved by faith alone was great news. And, is great news.

But, in a culture where most people do not worry about God’s anger, do not think they have sinned in any big way, and are not living in fear of letting God down, this story does not connect with the same power. But this is the story the church most often tells to the world. 

This situation reminds me of a joke. Once a pilot got disoriented in the fog around Seattle. Being lost, he saw a tall building through the fog and yelled out the window asking where he was. A person yelled back, “You’re in a plane.” The pilot calmed down and flew right to the airport. When his only passenger asked how that answer could have helped him, the pilot answered, “I know where the airport is relative to Microsoft headquarters. And, I knew the building must be Microsoft headquarters because his answer was true, but completely unhelpful. Just like their help desk.” When we tell people the story of God in a way that fails to answer their questions, we become like the Microsoft help desk, completely true, but unhelpful.

We long to be helpful in our community because we want people to meet the God we love. Thankfully, we know the story of God answers the key questions of every culture and every life, but we have to learn to tell the right story. In a culture of isolation, the gospel tells us there is a God who longs for relationship with us and invites into relationship with his family, the church. In a culture of family estrangements, abuse, and divorce, the gospel tells us of a God who is always faithful and never gives up on his family. In a world of suffering and injustice, the gospel tells a story of a God who stands with the poor and oppressed and promises to bring his perfect justice to our world. In a world whose only answer to death is to fight it to the end and that some people may remember us, the gospel tells the story of a God who defeats death and offers a new life even after death. In a culture that values us for our productivity, the gospel reminds us we have inherent value as image bearers of God. In a culture that divides along ethnic, national, and political lines, we have a God who crosses every cultural barrier to for a new community open to every person.

As you think of the people you know who do not yet know God, what are the questions of their life? What are the longings you see in them? How might you tell the story of God so that they can see how God is the answer to all their questions?

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship both in person and online. We will gather by the playground for an outdoor service at 9 am. If there is a likelihood of rain, we will cancel our 9 am service. We will try to announce any change in venue by Saturday night on our Facebook page.

If you are not able to join us in person or would simply prefer to not gather in a large crowd yet, you can still join us for online worship. Our 11 am service will be livestreamed and you are welcome to attend worship at 11, though the focus will be on the livestream participants. We will be live streaming our 11 am service at zionreformed.online.church and Zion’s Facebook Page. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.

This week, we concede our series entitled 20 Minute Theology as we think through what happens when we die. The day is coming for all of us when life will end, what happens next? Do we go to float on a cloud? Spend eternity singing praise songs? This week we consider the hope we have in Christ of eternal life and we imagine what this new life might be like.

Next week Sunday, on September 6, we will be joining the Reformed Church in America for a denomination-wide worship event. Because we cannot all physically gather from across the US and Canada in one place, the event will be live streamed. We will participate in this event at 11 am at zionreformed.online.church. This is the exact same place you can watch our service every Sunday. We will also include the service on Facebook and intend to rebroadcast it on WCET later in the week. The message will be offered by the Rev. Dr. Eddy Aleman, the General Secretary of the RCA. He will be preaching on Psalm 46 and how we find our rest in the Lord. This will be a great opportunity to hear from Eddy and worship with brothers and sisters across the continent. Please join me next Sunday at 11. (There will be no outdoor service on the 6th due to this joint event.)

Grow in Community
If you are in a small group and are looking for a study for the fall, I have a few recommendations from RightNow Media. These video teachings can either be watched physically together or stream synchronously to your whole group so you watch in real time together.
1. Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen. During anxious times, many of us can struggle with controlling our thought patterns and these patterns often lead to depression and negative thought patterns. Through a study of Philippians, Jennie offers wise counsel on redirecting our thought lives in ways that lead to health and honor God.
2. The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby. If you are curious to think more about racial issues in the US and the role of the church. Jemar offers a great look at the church’s response to slavery, Jim Crow laws, and racism through our history. I personally found sessions 6, 7 and 9 on Reconstruction, the Complicity of the North after the Civil War, and the rise of the religious Right in the latter half of the 20th century to be challenging and informative.
3. This one is not on RightNow Media, but it is free through the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. This have a great small group curriculum on personal evangelism entitled Our Gospel Story. If you are unsure how to share your faith, need some encouragement or vision for sharing your faith, or want a refresher on the importance of evangelism, this is a great study.

We have recently started a closed Zion group on Facebook to create a place to discuss sermons, share prayer requests, and stay connected asynchronously when direct face-to-face connections are more challenging. If you want to join the group, you can request to join at this link: www.facebook.com/groups/ziongrandville/

Beginning on September 27, we will hold worship at 9 am indoors. This service will also be live-streamed. We also hope to begin holding Children’s Ministry for kids ages 3 through 5th grade during worship. We will not hold a large group gather for children and will instead have them go immediately to their classrooms. They will be in 3 classrooms and we will practice social distancing by requiring masks for children in K-5th and attempting to keep unrelated children 6 feet apart. We intend to follow the recommendations in MI Safe Start for Schools documentation.

Serve the World
Hope Eriks, through the Girl Scouts, was distributing personal care items to people through Dégagé Ministries. Through this week, she learned many homeless people in Grand Rapids are in need of warmer clothes as the summer ends. To help meet this need, we need your help. Do you have gently used sweatshirts or t-shirts you don’t need? If so, beginning Sunday, we will have two boxes in the lobby of church to accept your clothing donations.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Chip Harkes, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is chip@harkeslandscape.com and his phone number is 616-299-4804.

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.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget:$126,075.36
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $109,455.17
Giving Last Week: $10,353.03
Cash on Hand: $162,894.76

The last couple of weeks, I have shared some ideas about evangelism. This week, we will take a little break from discussing evangelism and talk about something else instead. Grief and healing.

It has been a little over 5 months now since the world got turned upside down for many of us. For a while, we could get by on adrenaline and denial and wishful thinking. But it is becoming clear to many of us that we will not be getting back to our life in February 2020 anytime soon. And it is hard. It is OK to grieve and be sad. Acknowledge the losses. Recognize the hard changes you have had to make. Do not pass over the stress of balancing caring for parents you cannot visit and helping kids with online school while also working at home. Life has been hard for many of us. Grieve those losses. Allow yourself permission to be sad.

More and more, I am talking to people about depression, addictions, or  a general frustration with life. These are all signs of losses that still need to be grieved. It’s OK to not like the way life is going right now.

And, we also need to figure out how to live healthy lives in the world we are actually in not the world as we wish it was. All the signs are that we will be living with masks and social distancing and quarantines and uncertainty for a while yet. So, what can you do to move forward even in this time of grief and loss? I have three suggestions, inspired by an article I read this morning about changes churches need to make this fall

1. Focus on what you can do rather than on what you can no longer do. For all of us, we have had to set aside plans or traditions that are simply not feasible right now. We can choose to focus on those losses or look for what we can still do. I love how the Eriks family at our church handled a loss this summer. They had a long planned vacation that involved Canada, which was not an option his summer. So, they planned a different trip and made different memories. They could have gotten stuck on what they couldn’t do, but they focused on the options they still had. At church, this is true for worship. Like in many churches, many of us are not comfortable yet gathering in a large group. We could focus on the loss of a large Sunday gathering, or see the opportunity for one-on-one discipleship this time has provided.
2. Focus on relationships, not big events. We may not be holding concerts or sporting events or even church with large crowds for several months or longer yet. We can’t make it safe to gather in large groups by sheer force of will, but we can focus on the things we can do, like spending time with important people in our lives. So, spend time with your kids, with your friends, get to know your neighbors. As a church, our outreach in the community can no longer happen through big events either, it will happen through the relationships you build and the ways you love people in Jesus’ name.
3. Get outside more. It is good for us to get outside. You can see people and build relationships. You naturally get more exercise. Get outside and look for ways to connect with people outside instead of indoors.  As the weather gets colder in the next couple of months: go apple picking, have bonfire, go on a hike, take a bike ride, go to a park or sit at a park and admire the changing leaves. And, while you are outside, get to know your neighbors or fellow walkers. This is an opportunity to connect with people and love people you might not otherwise get to know. I love how my neighbors are inviting several families to come watch a movie in their front yard this weekend. Rachel and I have intentionally built a new friendship with some neighbors who seem to have no church connection. How is God opening new doors for relationships and evangelism by us simply getting outside more often?

There is something healthy in acknowledging the losses of this time, but there is also health in looking to see what God is still doing and how we can join him because we know God uses all things for the good of those who love him. Even Covid. Even these days.

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship both in person and online. We will gather by the playground for an outdoor service at 9 am. If there is a likelihood of rain, we will cancel our 9 am service. We will try to announce any change in venue by Saturday night on our Facebook page.

If you are not able to join us in person or would simply prefer to not gather in a large crowd yet, you can still join us for online worship. Our 11 am service will be livestream and you are welcome to attend worship at 11, thought the focus will be on the livestream participants. We will be live streaming our 11 am service at zionreformed.online.church and Zion’s Facebook Page. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.

This week, we continue our series entitled 20 Minute Theology as we think through the purpose of the church. People are made for relationship, to live in community. The church which has been given to the followers of Jesus often provides the community and support we need in life. Perhaps after 5 months apart, we are experiencing anew the importance of gathering together. But,is this the primary function of the church? To be a social club, a spiritual respite, and fortress to protect the avid form the world? Or, did God have something else in mind when he created his church? Join us this Sunday as we consider the Biblical purpose of the church.

Grow in Community
If you are in a small group and are looking for a study for the fall, I have a few recommendations from RightNow Media. These video teachings can either be watched physically together or stream synchronously to your whole group so you watch in real time together.
1. Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen. During anxious times, many of us can struggle with controlling our thought patterns and these patterns often lead to depression and negative thought patterns. Through a study of Philippians, Jennie offers wise counsel on redirecting our thought lives in ways that lead to health and honor God.
2. The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby. If you are curious to think more about racial issues in the US and the role of the church. Jemar offers a great look at the church’s response to slavery, Jim Crow laws, and racism through our history. I personally found sessions 6, 7 and 9 on Reconstruction, the Complicity of the North after the Civil War, and the rise of the religious Right in the latter half of the 20th century to be challenging and informative.
3. This one is not on RightNow Media, but it is free through the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. This have a great small group curriculum on personal evangelism entitled Our Gospel Story. If you are unsure how to share your faith, need some encouragement or vision for shaken your faith, or want a refresher on the importance of evangelism, this is a great study.

We have recently started a closed Zion group on Facebook to create a place to discuss sermons, share prayer requests, and stay connected asynchronously when direct face-to-face connections are more challenging. If you want to join the group, you can request to join at this link: www.facebook.com/groups/ziongrandville/

Beginning on September 27, we will hold worship at 9 am indoors. This service will also be live-streamed. We also hope to begin holding Children’s Ministry for kids ages 3 through 5th grade during worship. We will not hold a large group gather for children and will instead have them go immediately to their classrooms. They will be in 3 classrooms and we will practice social distancing by requiring masks for children in K-5th and attempting to keep unrelated children 6 feet apart. We intend to follow the recommendations in MI Safe Start for Schools documentation.

Serve the World
Hope Eriks, through the Girl Scouts, was distributing personal care items to people through Dégagé Ministries. Through this week, she learned many homeless people in Grand Rapids are in need of warmer clothes as the summer ends. To help meet this need, we need your help. Do you have gently used sweatshirts or t-shirts you don’t need? If so, beginning Sunday, we will have two boxes in the lobby of church to accept your clothing donations.

I met yesterday morning with Andrew Moore. Andrew is a pastor at Community Reformed Church in Zeeland who has felt called by God and all called by Community, to plant a new church in Grandville for the city of Grandville. As you can imagine, Covid-19 has made these plans more challenging. But, he is still hoping to launch this new church sometime in the fall of 2021 and will begin forming his launch team this winter. With that end in mind, I have two things for you to pray about:
1. If you live in Grandville, could God be calling you to join this plant effort?
2. They are beginning to look for a space to both eventually hold worship, but also use as a ministry center during the week. Please join in praying for and maybe looking for the right possible location for them in the next year.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Chip Harkes our chair of deacons and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is chip@harkeslandscape.com and his phone number is 616-299-4804.

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.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget:$115,569.08
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $99,102.14
Giving Last Week: $7,605.00
Cash on Hand: $154,137.19

Last week, I shared a little about how to intentionally BLESS people with whom you want to share the gospel. The acronym BLESS stands for: Begin to Pray, Listen, Eat together, Serve them, and telling the Story.

As I was pondering the idea of being a blessing as a way to intentionally share our faith, I was reminded that growing up in Zeeland at a CRC church, evangelism was rarely a topic of our discipleship. I could tell you all about predestination and infant baptism and the sovereignty of God, but no one ever told me how to or even that I should tell people who did not know Jesus about the gospel. Which sent me down the rabbit hole of books in my office and led me eventually to a book by a former pastor of Zion, Kevin Harney. Kevin wrote a book entitled, Organic Outreach for Churches. It is a companion to his book Organic Outreach for Christians. Both books are about 20 years old now, but still offer a great reminder to each of us that the mission of the church is not only to disciple people, but to make new disciples.

In chapter 4 of the book focused on churches, he highlights 7 mental shifts churches need to make to become more focused on outreach. They are:

1. From random to strategic: we think outreach just happens. We need to put in the effort to be intentional.
2. From fame to funding: we fund what matters to us and most church budgets direct most of the money to ourselves or to pay someone else to evangelism somewhere else in the world. We need to fund local outreach and evangelism.
3. From believing to belonging: we have assumed people need to believe to be active in the church, but for many people, belief follows after their experience belonging in the church
4. From us to them: for many Christians, the church exists to meet their needs. We need to shift to remember the church exists to meet the needs of the world and the greatest need is to know their God
5. From programs to praying: We love programs in the church, systems and structures, but hearts get changed when we pray. We need to pray for those who don’t yet know God.
6. From mush to clarity: I need to be clear and our leaders need to be clear on the need in our community. While we do not see it very well, church attendance in our community is actually below the national average. People are living and dying every day in our neighborhoods not knowing God. There are eternal consequences when we fail to reach people with the gospel.
7. From fatalism to faith: It is easy when evangelizing to grow discouraged because people do not change quickly or on our time schedule. We need to be a people who live in the faith, the confidence, that God is at work all around us reconciling his world back to him.

Where do you need to shift your thinking to begin actively engaging and supporting evangelistic outreach in our community?

Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship both in person and online. We will gather by the playground for an outdoor service at 9 am. If there is a likelihood of rain, we will cancel our 9 am service. We will try to announce any change in venue by Saturday night on our Facebook page.

If you are not able to join us in person or would simply prefer to not gather in a large crowd yet, you can still join us for online worship. Our 11 am service will be livestream and you are welcome to attend worship at 11, thought the focus will be on the livestream participants. We will be live streaming our 11 am service at zionreformed.online.church and Zion’s Facebook Page. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.

This week, we continue our series entitled 20 Minute Theology as we think through some basics questions of faith led by the Heidelberg Catechism. Over the first three weeks, we saw our identity as beloved children of God, the mess we have created by our sin, and how God joins us in and rescues us from that mess in Jesus. This week, we will be considering what this God who saves us is like as we see him revealed in Jesus who is the image of the invisible God.

Grow in Community
We have recently started a closed Zion group on Facebook to create a place to discuss sermons, share prayer requests, and stay connected asynchronously when direct face-to-face connections are more challenging. If you want to join the group, you can request to join at this link: www.facebook.com/groups/ziongrandville/

Beginning on September 27, we will hold worship at 9 am indoors. This service will also be live-streamed. We also hope to begin holding Children’s Ministry for kids ages 3 through 5th grade during worship. We will not hold a large group gather for children and will instead have them go immediately to their classrooms. They will be in 3 classrooms and we will practice social distancing by requiring masks for children in K-5th and attempting to keep unrelated children 6 feet apart. We intend to follow the recommendations in MI Safe Start for Schools documentation.

Serve the World
City Chapel continues to gather each week virtually for worship. They also have several book studies occurring during the week. As you can imagine, this is a difficult time to be launching a church when so many social events have been discontinued. And yet, they continue to maintain connections with attenders and are looking forward to welcoming 8 babies (God willing) between June and the end of this year. Please continue to keep Ron and Anna Radcliffe in your prayers as they lead City Chapel.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Chip Harkes our chair of deacons and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is chip@harkeslandscape.com and his phone number is 616-299-4804.

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.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget: $105,062.80
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $91,497.14
Giving Last Week: $6,424.00
Cash on Hand: $158,523.27

Last week, I shared a little about identifying a FRANC (friends, relation, acquaintances, neighbors, and co-workers) list of people you know who do not know Jesus. The challenge for many Christians is that we can treat evangelism a little like going on a hunt. Some people when they go hunting are hyper focused on getting their target and they miss the beauty of creation or the relationships that are built in the process of hunting. Others don’t really want to hunt and are afraid of the gun or of actually shooting something. Sometimes, Christians can be so focused on evangelism that we can treat people like targets or even prey and we forget our primary call is to love people. We forget to actually be friends with people who do not yet follow Jesus. Other Christians are so afraid of saying the wrong thing or offending that they never even attempt to share the gospel. At times, I have been both of these people.

I remember one conversation with a friend when I was in grad school that was just disastrous. I was unclear. Stumbled over words. Failed to answer questions. Deeply nervous. I never wanted to talk about Jesus again because it was just so awkward. But, we were genuinely friends and enjoyed each others company and so other opportunities arose. Sometimes, when we try to share our hope in God it doesn’t go very well. But, as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3, God makes the church and people’s faith grow. We can plant seed. We can water seeds. God has responsibility for making them grow.

So, if you have a list of people you know and are friends with, what’s the next step to sharing your faith, to planting seeds? Let me suggest that you seek to BLESS them.

First, Begin to Pray for them and for opportunities to share your faith or talk about spiritual issues.

Second, Listen to them. Actually listen to them and try to get to know and understand them. I am reminded of the Will Smith movie Hitch where he gives dating advice to men. His key advice is to actually listen to women and respond to what they say, not with a canned line, but actually listen to them. Listen to people to understand their hurts, longings, hopes, and concerns so when you share your hope in Jesus it will come from genuine understanding of how God is working in their life.

Third, Eat together. This gets tricky with Covid going on, but share food. This is what friends do. Enjoy a meal together. If possible, invite them to your home (safely socially distanced outside). Live out the Biblical call to hospitality.

Fourth, Serve them. Look for ways that you can actively love them. Maybe it is mowing their lawn when they are on vacation or watching their kids for an afternoon. Maybe they need help fixing a car or doing some yard work. Whatever it is, look for ways that you can serve them.

Fifth, tell them the Story. Not just Bible stories, but tell them your story of meeting God an dhow God has changed your life. Tell them the story of Jesus and how much God loves us. Tell them the story of salvation in Jesus. And when you tell the story, ask them to respond: do they want to know Jesus? Do they have questions? How does this story fit their view of the world?

God is at work right now. There are people scared and alone who need the community and hope of the gospel. There are people confused and unsure who need the confidence that comes from knowing God is with you. There are people God loves who you know. What can you do this week to begin to be BLESS people for the sake of Jesus?

Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship both in person and online. We will gather by the playground for an outdoor service at 9 am and indoors in the sanctuary at 11 am. If there is a likelihood of rain or if the grass will be wet from rain over night, we will move our 9 am service to the sanctuary. We will try to announce any change in venue by Saturday night on our facebook page.

If you are not able to join us in person or would simply prefer to not gather in a large crowd yet, you can still join us for online worship. We will be live streaming our 11 am service at zionreformed.online.church and Zion’s Facebook Page. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.

This week, we continue our series entitled 20 Minute Theology as we think through some basics questions of faith let by the Heidelberg Catechism. The first week, we considered our identity as the beloved children of God. Two weeks ago, we recognized very few off us experience the kind of vibrant intimate relationship with God we should have as his beloved children, and we thought about how we got in this place. This week, we consider how we get out of the mess we have made of our lives and the world. Of course, no matter how hard we try, we cannot solve the problems our sin has created. Join us this Sunday as we remember again our true life is found in Jesus.

Grow in Community
Bev Nagelkerke went to be with her Lord and Savior early this morning. We express our sympathy to Marv  and his family and ask that you pray for peace and comfort for them during this difficult time.
Arrangements are pending.

Following is a note from the Eling family: Dear Zion Family – Katie, Eden, and I, and on behalf of Mike, Garrett, and Willem, want to give you all a big, (virtual) hug for all the prayers, cards, check-ins, and support you have extended our family during our sister Kim’s battle against cancer and her recent death. While words cannot express our deep gratitude, “Thank you!” for the love of Jesus that you’ve shown and continue to share with us all. As Kim continuously testified, “Even in this, God is good.” ~ The Eling and Wallinga families

We have recently started a closed Zion group on Facebook to create a place to discuss sermons, share prayer requests, and stay connected asynchronously when direct face-to-face connections are more challenging. If you want to join the group, you can request to join at this link: www.facebook.com/groups/ziongrandville/.

Next week Monday and Tuesday, we hope to give a back-to-school gifts (think a few small school supplies) to each of the school age children connected to Zion through our Sunday morning worship and Camp Zion and other ministries. If you would be willing to help drop off these encouraging bags, please send me (Pastor Greg) an e-mail and I will let you know how you can help.

Serve the World
Please join me in praying for the people of Beirut after the terrible accident earlier this week. The devastation is hard to fathom: 300,000 homeless in a moment, hundreds confirmed dead and thousands missing. May God give esteem comfort and may his church step into this tragedy with help and support.

Doug and Dianne McClintic were finally able to return to Hungary this week after being barred from entry due to the prevalence of Covid-19 in the US for the past few months. They are currently under a 14-day quarantine and look forward to reconnecting with their ministry church planting partners in the weeks ahead.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Chip Harkes our chair of deacons and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is chip@harkeslandscape.com and his phone number is 616-299-4804.

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.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget: $94,556.52
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $85,073.14
Giving Last Week: $10,553.00
Cash on Hand: $156,278.04