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

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

Our family has been camping at the Christian Reformed Conference Grounds the past couple of weeks. It has been a great time of campfires, swimming, and ice cream cones every night. Two unrelated thoughts have been running through my mind these last two weeks.

First, a 35 minute commute is really long when you are used to a 5 minute commute. May God bless and keep safe all of you with long commutes every day. You amaze me as I am a little tired from the extra driving and early mornings this week.

Second, the people at Christian camps are not our mission field. I know that seems rather obvious. And, I occasionally hear people be excited about a church friend joining a new church or about a church growing by drawing people from other churches. And, that kind of growth is not really growth. The Church of God does not grow when people move between local congregations. Honestly, from my experience the church they left often hurts much more from the loss than the new church is blessed by the gain.

It is so good to be able to worship and share life with other believers. It is not for no reason that the writer of Hebrews urges us to not give up the habit of meeting with one another to encourage each other. We need encouragement. We need community. We need the experience of corporate worship.

And, we must never forget the role of church is to worship God and equip us all for the works of ministry: caring for the poor, encouraging the discouraged, seeking justice for the oppressed, and proclaiming the reign of King Jesus. This work is hard. Tiring. Confusing at times. And so very important because this is the mission we have been given. Not to sing worship songs and listen to sermons, but to join God in the work of redeeming and restoring this world that has been marred by sin so that his will may be done on earth as it already is in heaven.

One way we do this is by inviting other people to join us in this mission. Who in your life could you invite to join in the mission of God? Who are the friends, relation, acquaintances, neighbors, and co-workers (your FRANC list) you could be intentional in looking for ways to invite them to join the mission of God? Make a list this week. Write down at least one name in each category and start thinking about how and when you could talk to them about the mission of Jesus?

Next week, I’ll share some ways you can be strategic in reaching these people with the good news of God’s kingdom come ruled by Jesus.

See you Sunday, wash your hands, and stay safe!

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 welcome the Rev. Dr. Jill Versteeg, Chief Operating Officer of the RCA. Jill also provides leadership in the RCA to come alongside churches and assist them in living into the RCA Transformed and Transforming Vision including efforts to develop Next Generation ministry, disability advocacy, and cultural agility in churches to respond to a changing culture and world. Jill is a graduate of Northwestern College and a friend of mine from seminary. I am looking forward to the word God has given her for our congregation from Matthew 15:21-28.

Grow in Community
Will Kuiper will be celebrating his 88th birthday on August 5, He is also struggling with some social isolation as visitors are not allowed in nursing homes. You could be a huge blessing to Will by simply sending him a birthday card, celebrating his life and letting him know he is still known and cared for by Zion. His address is:
Will Kuiper
2589 44th St. SE RM 113
Grand Rapids, MI 49512

While we have not been able to meet together face-to-face, our Elders, Deacons and Pastor Rick have been doing a great job touching base with members over the age of 60 every couple of weeks. As our time apart has grown, our Consistory has recognized the need to expand our care to those under 60 as well. To that end, we are forming Covid-19 Connect Groups until we are able to meet together regularly as a congregation Each person under 60 who is not already in a small group or discipleship triad is being randomly assigned to one of these groups. The leaders will be calling to check-in on members every couple of weeks and, now that they are allowed, planning an opportunity each month to meet physically together. If you would like more information, please contact me at gbrowerzionreformed.org.

We also still have numerous Discipleship Triads meeting. If you would like to learn more about how you can connect with other people at Zion to encourage one another to follow Jesus well, send me an e-mail and I can help get you connected.

Serve the World
Sunrise Ministries has transitioned to a personal care pantry and will no longer be distributing food. If you would like to support their personal care pantry, donations can be made at Sunrise Ministries. We continue our Personal Care Pantry in partnership with United Church Outreach Ministries in Wyoming under the direction go Tom Boeve. If you would like to get involved in our care pantry, please contact Tom at 616-885-8362;

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: $84,050.24
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $74,540.14
Giving Last Week: $11,025.00
Cash on Hand: $150,640.75

Our family came back last weekend from a wonderful two week vacation in Colorado. We spent our mornings watching deer from our campsite, our days hiking to various lakes, waterfalls, and mountain tops, our evenings talking around the camp fire, and our nights with all 6 of us stuffed a little like sardines in our trailer. It was a great two weeks.
This was our 2nd trip with our kids to Rocky Mountain National Park and perhaps more times than we can count for Rachel and I as we spent many days and weekends in the park when we lived in Colorado. It was different this time, though, because of Covid-19. The visitor centers were all closed. There were no ranger talks. There were very long lines to get into the park at times due to the timed entry system used to reduce the number of visitors to the park. Signs reminded us to wear masks in the bathrooms and pit-toilets. (BTW – I always wanted to wear a mask in a pit-toilet, but it really doesn’t solve the smell issue.) The campground was not full as some reservations were cancelled by the National Park to reduce crowding in the campground. It was great, but different.

As we look ahead to gathering in worship this Sunday, I imagine it will bring with it a similar feeling. It will be great to see many of you and it will be different. We normally run some sort of kids ministry every week of the year, but we will not do so for at least the remainder of the summer so kids will be with us in church. We will have activities bags for kids to keep them occupied during church and will have some tables set up in the sanctuary for families to use if they would like. We will wear masks in doors and as I read the latest guidance from our Governor we should also encourage people to wear masks outside, especially if you might be within 6 feet of someone else. Some of us will not be gathering yet because of health concerns or pre-existing conditions and for those people we will still offer an online worship option at 11 am.

I ran across a prayer recently for times like these. It reads: If comparison is the thief of joy, then Lord, help me to not compare my life today to my life 6 months ago. Help me find the joy in THIS life, and in THIS day and to know that it is from you, and it is enough. Amen.

Amidst all the change and uncertainty, may we each find joy in this day and in this life God has given us. Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Connect to God
This Sunday we will once gather for worship 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.

As we gather physically together on Sunday, we will also begin a new sermon series entitled 20 Minute Theology. In this series, we will look at some important questions such as who are you, what went wrong, how do we get out of this mess, who is God, what is the church, what happens when we die, and what does God want from us. Join us for this series as we go back to the basics of the faith and find both direction, understanding, and comfort even in tense times such as these.

Grow in Community
Matt and Katie Eling request prayer for their sister in law Kim. After a good report last week that scans showed no new tumor growth and some improvement, Kim is in the hospital under palliative care after a lung collapsed during surgery yesterday to insert a new drain. Please keep Kim and her family in your prayers.

While we have not been able to meet together face-to-face, our Elders, Deacons and Pastor Rick have been doing a great job touching base with members over the age of 60 every couple of weeks. As our time apart has grown, our Consistory has recognized the need to expand our care to those under 60 as well. To that end, we are forming Covid-19 Connect Groups until we are able to meet together regularly as a congregation Each person under 60 who is not already in a small group or discipleship triad is being randomly assigned to one of these groups. The leaders will be calling to check-in on members every couple of weeks and, now that they are allowed, planning an opportunity each month to meet physically together. If you would like more information, please contact me at gbrowerzionreformed.org.

We also still have numerous Discipleship Triads meeting. If you would like to learn more about how you can connect with other people at Zion to encourage one another to follow Jesus well, send me an e-mail and I can help get you connected.

Serve the World
We continue accepting donations of personal care items and food on Wednesdays from 1-3 pm at church. We are partnering with Sunrise Ministries in Jenison for a weekly distribution. We also continue our monthly partnership with UCOM through our Personal Care Pantry. For the next few weeks, all Personal Care Items will be shared with Lifeline Community Church for their next distribution in Wyoming this Saturday. Thank you for your support of these important ministries at this time.

If you and others that you know would be willing to serve, Sunrise Ministries (in coordination with Love Inc and local churches) is in need of volunteers this Wednesday and for the next couple of weeks! They are also in need of people to go shop for food. They have gift cards and a list that they would give you before you go out. If you are interested please contact Penny at penny@sunrisemin.org

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: $63,037.68
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $55,543.32
Giving Last Week: $8897.00
Cash on Hand: $160,719.56