5-2-21 Bulletin

Ralph Moore is one of the unsung heroes of the American Church. Even as I pastor, I had never heard of Ralph until a few years ago. Ralph Moore, pastor of Hope Chapel in Honolulu, is a 70-year-old, humble hippie who is planting the third Hope Chapel in Hawaii. Ralph is responsible, directly or indirectly, for more than 1,000 church plants. I met him at a small gathering of RCA pastors pre-pandemic via a Zoom call.

I am huge fan of deep study and the wisdom academics can bring to our Biblical study and theology, but there is very little more inspiring to me than hearing from someone who has been on the ground evangelizing, discipling, training pastors, and planting churches for over 4 decades. Following is a brief post Ralph shared on evangelism, I found helpful:

As a young person, Christian apologetics held a strong appeal for me.

I thought “having all the answers” would enable me to beat my non-believing friends into a relationship with Jesus.

As a youth pastor, I’d often take young people on evangelistic training missions. Armed with scripture booklets and arguments, we’d randomly accost strangers with the gospel. One of our favorite places was the Los Angeles airport (decades before 9/11). Then I had an epiphany of sorts…

“We ran into a philosophy major from UC Berkeley. When he discovered our intent, he attacked us over the resurrection, “If I can debunk the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I can destroy your Christianity.”

Game on. I’d been soaking in C.S. Lewis and Josh McDowell. In a half-hour, I managed to defeat his arguments. But my triumph was short. We left him somewhat discouraged, and my two young charges pridefully arrogant that their youth pastor had shattered a stranger’s arguments. However, what little we accomplished was primarily negative.

Though we’d never see that young man again, we’d made an enemy, not a friend. My much-impressed compatriots now believed that they would never know as much as I did, engendering fear more than faith. They now felt that they didn’t know enough to tangle with people who doubted God, his Son and the offer of unyielding love.

In the days after that unfortunate encounter, I began to understand that the doubter who most needed Christian apologetics was me. Call me cynical, but I constantly question my faith. I question everything I hear or read, so why not my Bible? I need to know that I can believe the first three chapters of Genesis so I can believe the rest of the book. Romans 1 describes a culture that has lost its way because its people reject what they can see of God through his creation. I don’t want to be numbered among them, but I doubt I’ll solve the problem by pounding others into submission or teaching people I lead to do so.

The people I lead need to know why it is safe to believe the scriptures. I need enough information and understanding to equip them to trust God’s word as it comes under assault from the surrounding culture. I have a deep personal need to know why what I believe is true. For me, that takes me beyond the books of believers into those of biologists, astronomers and cosmologists who can’t see the brain behind the big bang. Such reading also yields a valuable harvest strengthening the faith of those I lead. But it seldom brings people into that faith.

In the end, we bring people into God’s Kingdom by loving them when they know something is missing. Apologetics helps us, and those we lead, stand firm in that love.

There is so much in this post that resonated with my life. I have multiple books arguing for the reliability of the resurrection of Jesus, including a 700 pages book I have read twice (well over 1 1/2 times), and my own growing sense that in a post Christian culture arguments are not what will win people to see the beauty, hope, and life found in Christ. It is truly our love for them and our world. Our way of living that does not take on the anger and divisiveness of our culture. (And yes, we do have some way to go there. Myself included.)

And, his blog reminded me why I am so excited about Kids Hope at Zion (we are now mentoring 6 students and are sure to expand next fall) and our becoming the new host of Threads, a clothing ministry serving 60 families in the Jenison, Hudsonville, and Grandville communities. (And our ongoing ministries of Camp Zion, Hand2Hand, and the Personal Care Pantry.) The mission of our church is not to meet physical needs of our community, but we also know, it is in meeting these needs, in being good news to people where they are, that allows us to also share the hope we have in Christ and to show them God’s overwhelming love for them as well.

Who in your life are you intentionally loving and praying for the opportunity to share your hope in Christ? If you don’t have a name come to mind, take some time today and ask God to help you see the people God has already placed in your life who need to know of his beauty and love.

Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather in person at 9:30 am and online at both 9:30 and 11 am. You can find the services either on our Facebook page or at zionreformed.online.church. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.

The Christians to whom Peter wrote in 1 Peter feel alone, scared, and as if they no longer belong in their own country. Maybe you have felt similarly at times. Peter reminds them and us that our hope is not found in fitting into the culture around us, but in Jesus who is creating us to be a new kind of chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. In the beginning of chapter 2, writing to people living in a pagan culture where people looked to other gods for their provision, Peter urges the church to live as a temple of God with their lives as the stones of the temple. This week we consider how we can live as this temple of God in our community today.

Grow in Community
Mark Steenbergen had knee replacement surgery on Tuesday and is currently at home and doing well. Steve Landstra began chemo treatments this week. If you would like to keep up with Steve’s health journey as he battles lung cancer, the family has set up a CaringBridges page and you can find it here.

On Sunday night, the High School students did some work cleaning up a house in the community and the Middle School students did much of the spring clean up around church. You can check out some pictures of the Middle School students working around church below.

We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
Monday: Acts 17
Tuesday: Acts 18
Wednesday: Acts 19
Thursday: Acts 20
Friday: Acts 21

You can also find the reading schedule on our website under the Ministries tab.

Serve the World
Registrations for Camp Zion are open. If you have a child who could benefit from Camp Zion, the link is here. Please be in prayer for all our campers and staff as the summer season draws nearer.

On a related note, our summer staff for Camp Zion this year will be: Makaylee Kempema, Olivia Davis, Josh Verbrugge, and Samantha Eriks. Thank you to everyone who applied. We had many great applicants this year.

We continue preparing to begin hosting Threads, the clothing ministry, at Zion. Clothing drop boxes should be by Zion by the end of this week and we will be moving any remaining materials and clothes to our building by the end of May. We will likely be looking for help moving the remaining clothes and hanging racks the week of May 24, so, if you have a truck and a willingness to help move things, let us know. If you would like to learn more about this ministry, please contact Jill Austin.

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
Beginning last Sunday, we have slightly relaxed our mask policy by allowing people to take their mask off when seated, but to keep it on when moving around the building, in kids ministries, or while singing. We still encourage everyone to continue to wearing their mask at all times in the building to minimize the risk of spreading Covid to those at particular risk or unable to receive a vaccine, but trust your wisdom to decide if you need to wear the mask when seated.

The Consistory approved remodeling our bathrooms at our latest meeting. If you have been in our bathrooms recently you may have noticed they not only look dated, but also have a particularly uncomfortable scent and are in need of some significant repairs. The approved plan will intentionally fit with the larger building remodel plan we approved prior to Covid rather than simply updating the bathrooms. By doing so, we leave open the possibility of moving ahead with the building remodel after Covid and as the financial impacts of this past year become more clear. This small project, however, will cost about $125,000. We will not move forward with this remodeling step until at least half of those funds are raised. If you would like to give to the bathroom remodel, you can do so by donating to our building fund. We do ask that anything given to the building fund be in addition to your regular support of Zion ministries through the general fund so we can still effectively fund our ongoing ministries.

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.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget:  $483,288.88
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $463,957.07
Giving Last Week: $12,659.09

4-18-21 Bulletin

Dear Congregation of Zion,

Your Consistory met for our regular monthly meeting last night. During our meeting several decisions were made of which we want to make you aware.

First, as some of you may have already heard as we notified many of those regularly serving earlier today, we spent a significant amount of time reviewing feedback from our survey in March regarding the mask wearing policy at Zion, latest CDC guidance, and the rising case hospitalizations and case numbers in Michigan. We also recognize more and more of our regular attenders have already been vaccinated. With all of those factors in mind, we decided to change our mask policy to allow people to remove their mask when seated in the sanctuary. To be clear, masks are still required in Children’s ministries, any time someone is moving around in the building, and when singing. We still encourage everyone to continue to wearing their mask at all times in the building to minimize the risk of spreading Covid to those at particular risk or unable to receive a vaccine, but trust your wisdom to decide if you need to wear the mask when seated.

On a related note, I also want you to be aware that this past Sunday someone attended worship who was later diagnosed with Covid-19. We immediately identified and notified everyone who would be considered a close contact to this person. As I reflect on this event, I am reminded of the importance of all of us following social distancing practices, especially of keeping 3 seats between you and anyone outside of your household when finding a place to sit in the sanctuary. I am also particularly grateful the person who was diagnosed with Covid did the right thing by immediately contacting the church and helping us identify those who may need to be quarantined. They did exactly the right thing once they had been diagnosed.

Second, and completely unrelated to Covid, the Consistory approved remodeling our bathrooms last night as well. If you have been in our bathrooms recently you may have noticed they not only look dated, but also have a particularly uncomfortable scent and are in need of some significant repairs. The approved plan will intentionally fit with the larger building remodel plan we approved prior to Covid rather than simply updating the bathrooms. By doing so, we leave open the possibility of moving ahead with the building remodel after Covid and as the financial impacts of this past year become more clear. This small project, however,  will cost about $125,000. We will not move forward with this remodeling step until at least half of those funds are raised. If you would like to give to the bathroom remodel, you can do so by donating to our building fund. We do ask that anything given to the building fund be in addition to your regular support of Zion ministries through the general fund so we can still effectively fund our ongoing ministries.

As always, please know your generous support in prayer, service and finances do not go unnoticed and are greatly appreciated.

On behalf of your Consistory,

Pastor Greg