Zion E-News (10-22-2020)
Sometimes I share a devotional thought in the E-news, but today I want to share two events in the life of Zion that gave me a little joy this week.
First, and most importantly, I received an e-mail from Kim Radcliff on Sunday night that their son Matthew has been collecting popcorns to raise money to donate to Hand2Hand at Zion. Currently from talking with family, friends, and neighbors, he has already collected about 500 cans. I think it would really cool for our church to come alongside this 2nd grader to help him raise even more money for Hand2Hand. So, we re doing a 2 weekend pop can drive to help Matthew. If you have pop cans at home, bring them to church (in a sealed bag) and Matthew will make sure they get recycled and all the proceeds will to go to support Hand2Hand. Wouldn’t it be great for Matthew to see all the people from church support and cheer him on by brining in their own cans for him?
(On a side note, in high school I worked at a grocery store and ran the return counter. I vividly remember sorting some pop cans and finding cockroaches in the bags. We quickly brought all the bottles to the dumpster because no one wants to shop at a grocery store with roaches. No one wants to go to a church with roaches either, so please clean the cans prior to brining them to church. :))
Second, and maybe this is mostly encouraging to me as your pastor, but this past Sunday we had 137 unique people attend at least one of our services. (We are careful to not double count staff or volunteers who are at both services.) This is the most people we have had join us in person since we started meeting together again in July. Ninety-seven attended the 9 am service, which is actually a little over the guidelines for a sanctuary our size right now. And, 40 attended the 11 am service. In addition, we estimate we had at least 60 people join us for worship at zionreformed.online.church plus those who watched through Facebook. It is good to be together in person and online.
On a related note, if you are planning to join us for worship this week, please consider attending the 11 am service to even out our attendance a little bit. And, don’t forget to sign up below so we can plan accordingly. Either way, we look forward to seeing you in person or online on Sunday!
– Greg
Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather indoors at 9 and 11 am. In order to ensure we are able to practice social distancing indoors, we are asking people to sign-up for the service they are planning to attend. You can sign-up to attend worship either using the links in below or on the front-page of our website beginning on Monday mornings. Following are the links to sign-up for worship this Sunday:
9 am service: https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/590855
11 am service: https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/590858
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 both our 9 and 11 am services 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 conclude a series entitled “Christians at Our Best,” inspired by the book Christians in an Age of Outrage by Ed Stetzer. Living in a culture addicted to anger and outrage, it is easy to begin to take on the habits and practices of a world consumed with picking sides, dividing groups, and creating scapegoats. In this series, we will think together about how we can live as Christians in a way that brings the light and hope of Jesus to a world moving from one temper tantrum to another. In the midst of the outrage of our world, we can often struggle to differentiate between righteous anger that seeks to bring about God’s justice and the outrage of our world. This week we hear the reminder that our first obligation is to simply love our neighbor.
We will also be welcoming Andrew Moore for our moment for mission this Sunday. Andrew is a church planter from Community Reformed in Zeeland. He and his wife have felt a call to plant a new church in Grandville. Our staff and Consistory have been in conversations with Andrew about how we can be both a support and encouragement in this endeavor. We look forward to hearing about Andrew’s next steps in this planting effort.
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/
Zion Kids will be making a video of the kids telling us the Christmas story, using green screens and various backgrounds, in lieu of our typical Christmas program this year. If your child is interested in participating (in grades 3-5), please contact Rachel Brower by Sunday as the script is being finalized.
Serve the World
Our Hand2Hand began ministry is currently serving 52 students in the Grandville school district. If you want to support Hand2Hand or learn more about the ministry, please contact Sheila Johnson (sheilaj2494@yahoo.com) or Shawn Sanders (joshandshawn@hotmail.com).
If you would like to support our Personal Care Pantry, following items (full size – not travel size) are needed and can be dropped off on a Sunday morning or during the week Monday through Thursday:
Laundry Soap Bar Soap Dish Soap Disposable Razors
Shampoo Conditioner Toothpaste Paper Grocery Bags
Deodorant Tampons Maxi Pads Paper towels (1 or 2 pack) Toilet paper (1-4 pack)
Donations can be placed in the box in the narthex marked “pantry 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: $210,125.60
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $180,885.51
Giving Last Week: $13,475.00
Cash on Hand: $164,665.46
