Earlier this week, some of the kids and I watched the movie Black Widow. It was a great Marvel movie! One of the themes of the movie is the main character’s search for a family. She had a fake family as a child, a new sort of family in the Avengers, but now all those relationships are broken. What does it mean to be family? What does it mean to live in community with other people?

Families are often messy because we do not get to choose who is in our family. We choose our family, but not our siblings. They just are and often they can be very different from us. Loving family takes work.

I read recently in a book, article, or on social media somewhere that church should be the place where you learn to love people you would never be friends with outside of church. And, if we are honest, this is part of what has made church hard for many people this year. It is easier to go to a church where everyone agrees with us, where no one sees the world or Jesus differently, where all of our biases are confirmed as truth, than it is to live, worship, and serve with people who, honestly, drive us a little nuts sometimes. However, if we take the easier path of only worshipping with people just like us, we may end up worshipping a god made in our own image rather than God revealed in scripture. That emotionally easier path is the way to a consumer driven, me-centered faith and often away from a Jesus-centered faith.

One of the aspects of Zion I have always loved is that we do have diverse viewpoints on lots of different issues in our church. We do not all see current events, scripture, or even the mission of the church exactly the same. Even among our staff, we do not all agree on lots of different issues. When Rick or Jeremy preach I often am left with two thoughts: I would have emphasized this or that different or I would have made a different connection to our daily lives and I am so glad other voices than mine get heard in our church. We each catch different aspects of a text. We do not all see the world exactly the same, but we all long to follow Jesus and love one another. This is what it means to be the family of the church.

This has always been the way of church families. You only have to peruse the letters of Paul to see all the different opinions and tensions in the early church. They struggled to get along. A lot. And loudly. And yet, they struggled because they refused to abandon believers with whom they disagreed. The relationship and the common love for Christ mattered more than all that could have torn them apart.

May we have the courage to follow their example and live as the family of Jesus.

– Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather in person at 9:30 am and online at 9:30 and 11 am. If you are joining us outside, you will want to bring chairs. The online service will be pre-recorded and abbreviated as we will not be live-streaming our outdoor services over the summer. 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.

Last week  we launched a new message series called “The Grudge”. We’re talking all about forgiveness for the next few weeks. This Sunday we will be talking about the hard work of forgiving people who have hurt or betrayed us. How do we learn to forgive not just once, but even 7 times in a day, as Jesus commands us in the gospel of Luke.

We will also celebrate with Justin and Amanda Vasquez the baptism of their son Quinton and their daughter Isabelle  Grace .  As they celebrate their lives, we give thanks to God for the gift of new life he has made available to all who believe. We thank God as well for the covenant he has established all the way back with Abraham to include children in his family. We honor this faithful God as we welcome  these children into the covenant community at Zion.

Grow in Community
Pastor Rick is recovering at home following an emergency appendectomy.  He plans to return on Monday, July 19 but will have some lifting restrictions. If you would be willing to help with some custodial work over the next couple of weeks, please contact Pastor Greg.

Weather permitting, our kids ministry will be outside all summer long. This is for kids ages 3 through going into 3rd grade. We’ll be meeting by the picnic tables to read Bible stories, pray together, do other outdoor crafts/games, and play on our church playground!

The nursery is open again this summer. Nursery is for children ages 0-3. The nursery check-in will be inside at the nursery. Young children are also welcome in the main worship service. Thank you to all those serving in the nursery!

We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
7/12    Monday    Galatians 4
7/13    Tuesday    Galatians 5
7/14    Wednesday    Galatians 6
7/15    Thursday    Ephesians 1
7/16    Friday    Ephesians 2

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

Serve the World
Threads is accepting donations of new and gently used clothing, shoes, and accessories for infants through adults. Also, donations of new socks and new underwear (for kids and adults) would be greatly appreciated.  Please place donations either in the Threads sheds located on Zion’s front steps or in the Threads wooden box in the narthex.  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:  $67,261.62
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $40,533.48
Giving Last Week: $8,443.72
Bathroom Building Fund (total given): $2,434.00

7-11-21 Announcements

Last week, our family spent our days hiking, biking, and tubing in the Smokey Mountains. We saw seem bears, deer, a couple coyotes and a screech owl. But mostly we just enjoyed being together. The last half of our trip we were camping in the Cades Cove Campground in the national park. This was our fancy campground because they had flush toilets and not portable-potties. (Our first campground had no running water because the water plant was waiting on a single part after some updating over the winter.) 

We also had some great neighbors for the three days were we in this campground.

• Danny was a single guy, who has been coming to the park since he was a kid and was full of stories of finding bear and of some original residents of the Cove whom he had met 30 years before. He was a well of information about secret sights to see, like the old Cadillac of the President of the logging company who didn’t get it out of the park before it became federal land and to avoid a fine hid it in the world over a hill.
• Lance was a chicken farmer from Alabama with his wife and two kids. He used to be a bull rider until he was stomped by a bull and now has titanium all over this body. He thought he was the black sheep of his family because his brother was a Deacon and he clearly made different choices in his life. We talked about how God seemed to have a soft spot for the black sheep in the Bible.
• The couple right next door were distracting themselves because their youngest had graduated high school and was free range camping across the US. (They had a satellite phone to stay in contact with him.)
• Across the street from us there was a family reunion. Three siblings and their spouses got together to celebrate a birthday. They were all preacher’s kids and some had grown up to be preachers or missionaries themselves. One of them worked for a company that conducted backgrounds checks and other security for private schools and knew quite a bit about the Christian schools in West Michigan.
• And then there was a Park Ranger I met who was going through chemo and was planning her upcoming vacation between chemo treatments. I think I may have convinced her to try Sleeping Bear Dunes here in Michigan.

I share these little tidbits about our neighbors because it is a reminder to me that people want to be known, they want someone to take an interest in their lives, they want to tell their story, and when we provide that space, doors start to open to deeper relationship and sharing some hope in Christ. Granted, it is easier to make these connections in a campground because there are some obvious places to make connections (trailers, hiking, animal sightings, and so on).

We are in the middle of a unique season in Michigan. People are outdoors. Neighbors are sitting outside at night, going for walks, cooling off in pools, and grilling out supper. There is no better time than right now for each of us to be intentional to connect with our neighbors. If this feels a little intimidating, you will want to join us in August as we will be spending 4 Sundays talking about the art of being a neighbor.

Hope you are all enjoying this great Michigan summer and enjoy the 4th of July weekend!

– Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather in person at 9:30 am and online at 9:30 and 11 am. If you are joining us outside, you will want to bring chairs. The online service will be pre-recorded and abbreviated as we will not be live-streaming our outdoor services over the summer. 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.

There are a number of books, thoughts, and ideas on end times theology. What will happen, when will it happen, who will it affect and the list goes on. As we look at the end of 2 Peter 3, Peter only mentions what will take place. He does not go into detail but rather talks about what we should be doing as we wait for this event. We need to be doing more than just waiting. Join us to find out what that is as we close out this letter from Peter.

Grow in Community
Steve Landstra received good news this week after undergoing tests last week. Currently, there are no signs of cancer and he will only need to undergo tests every 3 to 6 months to continue monitoring the situation. We join Steve, Shawn, Hayley and Carly in praising God for this good news.

Weather permitting, our kids ministry will be outside all summer long. This is for kids ages 3 through going into 3rd grade. We’ll be meeting by the picnic tables to read Bible stories, pray together, do other outdoor crafts/games, and play on our church playground! 

The nursery is open again this summer. Nursery is for children ages 0-3. The nursery check-in will be inside at the nursery. Young children are also welcome in the main worship service. Thank you to all those serving in the nursery!

Marge Westra will have surgery on July 6 where she will have a cyst in her back removed and a spinal fusion to correct slippage in a vertebrae. Please pray for the surgery and recovery that follows to go well.

We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
Monday: 2 Corinthians 7
Tuesday:2 Corinthians 8
Wednesday: 2 Corinthians 9
Thursday: 2 Corinthians 10
Friday: 2 Corinthians 11

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

Serve the World
We continue to make preparations to open Threads, a clothing ministry, this fall. Jill Austin and Rick VanderWall were going over details and plans to prepare the basement to host this ministry earlier in the week. Jim Peterson painted the space last week and Austen DeHaan and Troy Austin will be laying the flooring this weekend!

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
The Consistory approved remodeling our bathrooms at our April 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 2021/22 Budget:  $44,841.08
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $28,414.76
Giving Last Week: $7,102.00
Bathroom Building Fund (total given): $2,405.00