Zion E-News (9-23-2021)
On Tuesday this week, I was driving home along the Grand River after a wonderful visit with someone from Zion. Along the way, I drove past a field with some cattle grazing, but this was a little bit different sort of field. It was entirely wetland. After the rain earlier in the day, you could see even more standing water than normal among the cows. The ground was simply saturated, oozing, overflowing with water.
In scripture, the presence of God, especially the Spirit, is often portrayed as water. The righteous are like trees planted by streams of living water. Jeremiah says God is the living water and Jesus promises the woman at the well living water. A river flows from the throne of God in Ezekiel’s vision and brings life to the world. This same river appears as the river of life in Revelation 22.
In a world where people are immersed in social media feeds, 24 hour news channels, sports radio, binge watching, and celebrity gossip, what would it look like for us to be a people whose lives are saturated with the Holy Spirit, overflowing with the grace God, oozing with scripture and prayer.
I wonder if we would look more like Mother Theresa caring for the poor in Calcutta or Eugene Peterson delighting in the turns of phrase of scripture or Julian of Norwich enraptured by God’s presence in prayer or St Francis of Assisi giving everything away to the poor and following Jesus. In a world where people either seem to have chosen the route of escapism through entertainment or anger through their particular information bubble, what if we chose scripture, prayer, and worship? What if we chose to soak our lives in God?
– Greg
Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship at 9:30 am. The service will be live-streamed at 9:30 and replayed again at 11. You can find the services either on our Facebook page or at zionreformed.online.church. We will also rebroadcast a version of the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.
Churches are not places of model behavior. They have as many people struggling with sin, pain, and brokenness as those outside of church. Rather than being perfectly healthy communities, church is the place we can go to acknowledge, face, and deal with our brokenness. The book of James confronts the conflicts, tensions, and mess of church life head on. This week, we continue our study of James as we hear the call to not show favoritism, but instead to see people through the lens of God’s grace and mercy.
Jill Austin will also be sharing an update from our first shopping day at Threads on the 14th.
Grow in Community
Steve Landstra underwent his latest three month scan and the results, overall, were positive. They did see one spot on his left lung had grown a little. They will do a biopsy in the next two weeks to examine this spot.
Rog Beute continues his recovery and physical therapy at Mary Free Bed. Continued prayers for motivation, strength and perseverance.
We will be having a Parent/Student Meeting on September 26 at the beginning of youth group (High School – 4:00 PM) (Middle School – 5:45 PM). Come and find out general information about youth group as well as mission trip information and upcoming fundraisers.
This Sunday, we will be holding an informational meetings at 6 pm about the Reformed Church in America’s upcoming General Synod meeting, our annual national assembly. Last week we talked about how we decide things in our denomination and this week we will focus on the specific issues before Synod this year. You can learn more about General Synod here.
We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
9/27 Monday Hebrews 12
9/28 Tuesday Hebrews 13
9/29 Wednesday James 1
9/30 Thursday James 2
10/1 Friday James 3
You can also find the reading schedule on our website under the Ministries tab.
Serve the World
In light of the situation in Afghanistan, the RCA Global Mission is working to safely evacuate vulnerable Afghan people. RCA Global Mission has reached out to Zion for help. For $910, one person can be transported safely out to be resettled. The hope is that Zion will be able to contribute at least enough to cover one person. Please consider contributing. Your contribution can be put in the love offering box in the back of church or included in the regular collection (if in the regular collection, please note “Afghan Evacuation” on the envelope). We will be collecting on 9/19 and 9/26. Thank you.
If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Jerrod Holzgen, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is Jholzgen@yahoo.com and his phone number is 616-520-1771.
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.
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Budget: $179,364.32
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $126,275.81
Giving Last Week: $7,061.00
Afghan Evacuation: $489.00
