Zion E-News (9-10-2020)

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Seven years ago, Randy Weener approached our Consistory asking for help. At the time, Randy was serving as the Executive of our Classis. A new church plant had just lost support from their parent congregation. They were supposed to begin worship the next Sunday and now weren’t sure they have the financial or institutional support to move forward. We met with Randy and the church planter, Rob Holland, and the Consistory decided to begin supporting Lifeline Community Church. For a while, Troy Austin served on their church board and later I took his place. It was a 20 minute conversation that started our church on a new journey.

Since that first experience, we have joined Fifth Reformed and LaGrave CRC in planting City Chapel. We have partnered with Jibit Asha in planting numerous churches in Nepal, and with the RCA European Church planting initiative based in Hungary with Doug McClintic.

When our Consistory met two years ago to dream of God’s future for Zion, we saw more work in planting churches and this led us to focus on developing leaders in our congregation (which led to in part to sending Sarah McAnally to serve as a leadership resident at Harbor Wayland) and to explore a partnership with Andrew Moore to plant a new church in Grandville. Before the pandemic in March, almost as many people gathered for worship at churches we helped plant in West Michigan as gathered at Zion each Sunday. And it all began because of a prayerful step of generosity by your Consistory.

Late last year, a large church planting organization asked me to complete a survey about our church’s church planting efforts. It was a basic assessment of the work we have been doing. It took a 1/2 an hour and I did not think about it again. Until March, when Outreach Magazine called asking to include us in their list of the 100 top reproducing churches in the country. (Honestly, I told them I wasn’t interested, my Dutch upbringing taught me to not seek attention or toot my own horn, until Randy Weener told me I should talk to them.) This past week, the latest issue of Outreach Magazine came out listing the top 100 largest churches, top 100 fastest growing churches and top 100 reproducing churches. Zion made the cut as the 100th reproducing church in the country.

I am so proud to be your pastor and excited by all the people who have reconnected with God, made first time commitments to Jesus, and have for the very first time heard about the love of God in Jesus because of you and your commitment to planting new churches both here and abroad. Thank you and congratulations on this recognition.

– 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 live streamed and you are welcome to attend worship at 11, though the focus will be on the live stream 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 begin a new 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. This week, Paul urges us in Romans 12 to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. How are you renewing your mind? What voices are discipling you in this age of outrage?

As we prepare to begin worshipping again inside our building, we recently sent out a survey to our congregation asking if they are planning to worship indoors or online as the fall continues. If you have not yet completed this survey, you can do so at this link.

Grow in Community
We extend our congratulations to Austin and Haley Stone in the birth of their son Brayden J. Stone born last Thursday. Mother and baby are both doing well.

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 gathering 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 the MI Safe Start for Schools documentation. We hope to begin holding nursery closer to Christmas, but no firm date has yet been set.

If you are volunteering in Kid’s Ministry this year, we’re having a separate training for each class. It will include room specific children’s ministry training for teachers & helpers, new Covid guidelines, and our annual Keeping Kids Safe training, which is required for anyone 18 years old and older to be eligible to serve with children. We’re excited to open up our kid’s ministry later this month. Thank you for serving in these uncertain times! The training dates are as follows:

  • Sunday, September 13 at 10:30am –  Training for the K-2nd team in Room 205
  • Sunday, September 20 at 10:30am – Training for the Preschool team in Room 206
  • Sunday, September 20 at 4:00pm – Training for the 3rd-5th team in Room 207

Serve the World
We recently received an update from Jibit Asha about their church planting work in Nepal. It begins as follows: “In spite of Covid-19, God has blessed  Kingdom work. In fact, we have been reaching out more aggressively to individuals and communities with the message of hope in Christ in order that they may know the hope to which God has called us.” They continue to provide training to planters via Zoom, develop new leaders as their planters have seen the need to train people as Covid sweeps across Nepal, translate The Heidelberg Catechism into Nepalese, and to see new people explore Christianity and others to come to faith. Please join me in thanking God for their work.

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€.

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. This collection will end next week Wednesday, September 16.

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: $147,087.92
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $122,079.51
Giving Last Week: $6,661.00
Cash on Hand: $158,436.30

Zion E-News (9-3-2020)

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Over the past few weeks, I have been sharing some ideas and/or encouragement to intentionally share our faith in God. This week, I want to share a simple tool to help assess and encourage each of us to begin to think about our neighborhoods missionally.

Authors Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon have developed a simple “block map” to help you learn more about your neighbors. Sketch the image below on a piece of paper.

pastedGraphic.png

Imagine that the middle box in the image is your house and all the other houses are the 8 houses nearest to you — the  households God has put closes to where you live.

Your neighborhood probably isn’t quite as neat and tidy as the picture, you may live in an apartment building, on a culture-de-sac, or out in the country, but make a chart of your nearest neighbors. The layout doesn’t matter near as much as thinking about your neighbors.

In the your home, write your address. In the other boxes, answer the three questions to the left.
A. Write the names of all the people who live in the house. If you can give first and last names, great, if you only know first names, that’s fine, too.
B. Write down some relevant personal information you might know from talking to them once or twice: what do they do, do they have any pets or hobbies and so on.
C. Write down some in-depth information you would know after connecting with them. This might include career plans or family dreams or anything to do with purpose in their life. Write down anything meaningful that you have learned after interacting with them.

How did you do gathering all that information? After leading this exercise with thousands of people, the authors have found:

  • About 10% of people can fill out the names of all 8 neighbors in line A.
  • About 3% can fill out line B for every home
  • Less than 1% can fill out line C for every home

How might your impact for God in your neighborhood change if you started intentionally loving the neighbors right next door? What might you do this week to get to know one or two neighbors a little better and fill in some more lines on your chart?

– Greg

Connect to God

This Sunday we will gather for worship only online. 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 Sunday, 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.)

For those who have been receiving sermon notes via the mail, we do not have any sermon notes this week because of the joint service with the RCA. We will resume providing written copies of the sermon next week.

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 gathering 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 the MI Safe Start for Schools documentation. We hope to begin holding nursery closer to Christmas, but no firm date has yet been set.

If you are volunteering in Kid’s Ministry this year, we’re having a separate training for each class. It will include room specific children’s ministry training for teachers & helpers, new Covid guidelines, and our annual Keeping Kids Safe training, which is required for anyone 18 years old and older to be eligible to serve with children. We’re excited to open up our kid’s ministry later this month. Thank you for serving in these uncertain times! The training dates are as follows:

  • Sunday, September 13th at 10:30am –  Training for the K-2nd team in Room 205
  • Sunday, September 20th at 10:30am – Training for the Preschool team in Room 206
  • Sunday, September 20th at 4:00pm – Training for the 3rd-5th team in Room 207

Serve the World
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 lobby marked pantry donations.

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: $136,581.64
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $114,718.51
Giving Last Week: $5,383.34
Cash on Hand: $154,017.34

Zion E-News (8-27-2020)

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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

Zion E-News (8-20-2020)


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The last couple of weeks, I have shared some ideas about evangelism. This week, we will take a little break from discussing evangelism and talk about something else instead. Grief and healing.

It has been a little over 5 months now since the world got turned upside down for many of us. For a while, we could get by on adrenaline and denial and wishful thinking. But it is becoming clear to many of us that we will not be getting back to our life in February 2020 anytime soon. And it is hard. It is OK to grieve and be sad. Acknowledge the losses. Recognize the hard changes you have had to make. Do not pass over the stress of balancing caring for parents you cannot visit and helping kids with online school while also working at home. Life has been hard for many of us. Grieve those losses. Allow yourself permission to be sad.

More and more, I am talking to people about depression, addictions, or  a general frustration with life. These are all signs of losses that still need to be grieved. It’s OK to not like the way life is going right now.

And, we also need to figure out how to live healthy lives in the world we are actually in not the world as we wish it was. All the signs are that we will be living with masks and social distancing and quarantines and uncertainty for a while yet. So, what can you do to move forward even in this time of grief and loss? I have three suggestions, inspired by an article I read this morning about changes churches need to make this fall

1. Focus on what you can do rather than on what you can no longer do. For all of us, we have had to set aside plans or traditions that are simply not feasible right now. We can choose to focus on those losses or look for what we can still do. I love how the Eriks family at our church handled a loss this summer. They had a long planned vacation that involved Canada, which was not an option his summer. So, they planned a different trip and made different memories. They could have gotten stuck on what they couldn’t do, but they focused on the options they still had. At church, this is true for worship. Like in many churches, many of us are not comfortable yet gathering in a large group. We could focus on the loss of a large Sunday gathering, or see the opportunity for one-on-one discipleship this time has provided.
2. Focus on relationships, not big events. We may not be holding concerts or sporting events or even church with large crowds for several months or longer yet. We can’t make it safe to gather in large groups by sheer force of will, but we can focus on the things we can do, like spending time with important people in our lives. So, spend time with your kids, with your friends, get to know your neighbors. As a church, our outreach in the community can no longer happen through big events either, it will happen through the relationships you build and the ways you love people in Jesus’ name.
3. Get outside more. It is good for us to get outside. You can see people and build relationships. You naturally get more exercise. Get outside and look for ways to connect with people outside instead of indoors.  As the weather gets colder in the next couple of months: go apple picking, have bonfire, go on a hike, take a bike ride, go to a park or sit at a park and admire the changing leaves. And, while you are outside, get to know your neighbors or fellow walkers. This is an opportunity to connect with people and love people you might not otherwise get to know. I love how my neighbors are inviting several families to come watch a movie in their front yard this weekend. Rachel and I have intentionally built a new friendship with some neighbors who seem to have no church connection. How is God opening new doors for relationships and evangelism by us simply getting outside more often?

There is something healthy in acknowledging the losses of this time, but there is also health in looking to see what God is still doing and how we can join him because we know God uses all things for the good of those who love him. Even Covid. Even these days.

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 the purpose of the church. People are made for relationship, to live in community. The church which has been given to the followers of Jesus often provides the community and support we need in life. Perhaps after 5 months apart, we are experiencing anew the importance of gathering together. But,is this the primary function of the church? To be a social club, a spiritual respite, and fortress to protect the avid form the world? Or, did God have something else in mind when he created his church? Join us this Sunday as we consider the Biblical purpose of the church.

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 shaken 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.

I met yesterday morning with Andrew Moore. Andrew is a pastor at Community Reformed Church in Zeeland who has felt called by God and all called by Community, to plant a new church in Grandville for the city of Grandville. As you can imagine, Covid-19 has made these plans more challenging. But, he is still hoping to launch this new church sometime in the fall of 2021 and will begin forming his launch team this winter. With that end in mind, I have two things for you to pray about:
1. If you live in Grandville, could God be calling you to join this plant effort?
2. They are beginning to look for a space to both eventually hold worship, but also use as a ministry center during the week. Please join in praying for and maybe looking for the right possible location for them in the next year.

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:$115,569.08
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $99,102.14
Giving Last Week: $7,605.00
Cash on Hand: $154,137.19

Zion E-News (8-13-2020)

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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

Zion E-News (8-6-2020)

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Last week, I shared a little about identifying a FRANC (friends, relation, acquaintances, neighbors, and co-workers) list of people you know who do not know Jesus. The challenge for many Christians is that we can treat evangelism a little like going on a hunt. Some people when they go hunting are hyper focused on getting their target and they miss the beauty of creation or the relationships that are built in the process of hunting. Others don’t really want to hunt and are afraid of the gun or of actually shooting something. Sometimes, Christians can be so focused on evangelism that we can treat people like targets or even prey and we forget our primary call is to love people. We forget to actually be friends with people who do not yet follow Jesus. Other Christians are so afraid of saying the wrong thing or offending that they never even attempt to share the gospel. At times, I have been both of these people.

I remember one conversation with a friend when I was in grad school that was just disastrous. I was unclear. Stumbled over words. Failed to answer questions. Deeply nervous. I never wanted to talk about Jesus again because it was just so awkward. But, we were genuinely friends and enjoyed each others company and so other opportunities arose. Sometimes, when we try to share our hope in God it doesn’t go very well. But, as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3, God makes the church and people’s faith grow. We can plant seed. We can water seeds. God has responsibility for making them grow.

So, if you have a list of people you know and are friends with, what’s the next step to sharing your faith, to planting seeds? Let me suggest that you seek to BLESS them.

First, Begin to Pray for them and for opportunities to share your faith or talk about spiritual issues.

Second, Listen to them. Actually listen to them and try to get to know and understand them. I am reminded of the Will Smith movie Hitch where he gives dating advice to men. His key advice is to actually listen to women and respond to what they say, not with a canned line, but actually listen to them. Listen to people to understand their hurts, longings, hopes, and concerns so when you share your hope in Jesus it will come from genuine understanding of how God is working in their life.

Third, Eat together. This gets tricky with Covid going on, but share food. This is what friends do. Enjoy a meal together. If possible, invite them to your home (safely socially distanced outside). Live out the Biblical call to hospitality.

Fourth, Serve them. Look for ways that you can actively love them. Maybe it is mowing their lawn when they are on vacation or watching their kids for an afternoon. Maybe they need help fixing a car or doing some yard work. Whatever it is, look for ways that you can serve them.

Fifth, tell them the Story. Not just Bible stories, but tell them your story of meeting God an dhow God has changed your life. Tell them the story of Jesus and how much God loves us. Tell them the story of salvation in Jesus. And when you tell the story, ask them to respond: do they want to know Jesus? Do they have questions? How does this story fit their view of the world?

God is at work right now. There are people scared and alone who need the community and hope of the gospel. There are people confused and unsure who need the confidence that comes from knowing God is with you. There are people God loves who you know. What can you do this week to begin to be BLESS people for the sake of Jesus?

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 continue our series entitled 20 Minute Theology as we think through some basics questions of faith let by the Heidelberg Catechism. The first week, we considered our identity as the beloved children of God. Two weeks ago, we recognized very few off us experience the kind of vibrant intimate relationship with God we should have as his beloved children, and we thought about how we got in this place. This week, we consider how we get out of the mess we have made of our lives and the world. Of course, no matter how hard we try, we cannot solve the problems our sin has created. Join us this Sunday as we remember again our true life is found in Jesus.

Grow in Community
Bev Nagelkerke went to be with her Lord and Savior early this morning. We express our sympathy to Marv  and his family and ask that you pray for peace and comfort for them during this difficult time.
Arrangements are pending.

Following is a note from the Eling family: Dear Zion Family – Katie, Eden, and I, and on behalf of Mike, Garrett, and Willem, want to give you all a big, (virtual) hug for all the prayers, cards, check-ins, and support you have extended our family during our sister Kim’s battle against cancer and her recent death. While words cannot express our deep gratitude, “Thank you!” for the love of Jesus that you’ve shown and continue to share with us all. As Kim continuously testified, “Even in this, God is good.” ~ The Eling and Wallinga families

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/.

Next week Monday and Tuesday, we hope to give a back-to-school gifts (think a few small school supplies) to each of the school age children connected to Zion through our Sunday morning worship and Camp Zion and other ministries. If you would be willing to help drop off these encouraging bags, please send me (Pastor Greg) an e-mail and I will let you know how you can help.

Serve the World
Please join me in praying for the people of Beirut after the terrible accident earlier this week. The devastation is hard to fathom: 300,000 homeless in a moment, hundreds confirmed dead and thousands missing. May God give esteem comfort and may his church step into this tragedy with help and support.

Doug and Dianne McClintic were finally able to return to Hungary this week after being barred from entry due to the prevalence of Covid-19 in the US for the past few months. They are currently under a 14-day quarantine and look forward to reconnecting with their ministry church planting partners in the weeks ahead.

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: $94,556.52
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $85,073.14
Giving Last Week: $10,553.00
Cash on Hand: $156,278.04

Zion E-News (7-30-2020)

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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

Zion E-News (7-23-2020)

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We had a great first Sunday gathering again for in-person worship. Due to rain, we move the 9 am service into the building and I am sure that affected some people’s plans.

After our first week of holding two services with social distancing measures, I am particularly grateful this week for Rick, Jeremy, and Rachel for all the work they put into making the day go well. I also am thankful or our praise team, sound and video teams and greeters, some of whom were at church for about 4 hours in order to serve at both services.

I am also thankful this week for all of you. I have been talking with business leaders, ministry leaders, and other pastors the past few weeks and many of them have numerous stories of people berating employees or attacking them for instituting social distancing policies and following the Governor’s Executive orders. Others have regularly had angry and even crass confrontations with people who simply refused to follow the orders. I have not experienced any of those situations in our church.

Two different passages have been running through my mind the past several weeks. First, I think of Romans 13 and the command to show respect and submit to those whom God has placed in authority over us. Living in a democratic republic, rather than the dictatorship of Rome, this passage requires some careful application to our very different context. After all, we vote to elect our leaders and have legal rights to protest and so on that Paul could never have imagined possessing himself. And yet, it seems, simply as an ambassador of God’s kingdom, the least we can do here is to speak fairly and respectfully both to and of our leaders and to submit to orders and laws that do not violate the commands of God.

As our children watch us, I wonder what they are learning when they see adults rant and rave about this politician or that, about this response to the virus or that, or this response to police misconduct and protests or that one. Do they see people transformed by the love of God or people consumed with anger, hate, and/or fear?

The second passage running through my mind is the simple command of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is a huge part of our witness as Christians. Do we love people who disagree with us? Do we love people our live next door to us or shop at the same store as us? Personally, I am not very worried about Covid-19 for myself. I am in relatively good health. Not too old. Only have a few pounds I should lose. And, I read just this week that people with type-O blood tend to have the least severe symptoms and that includes me, Rachel, and all our kids. And, I love many of you, so I wear a mask (which I wash regularly), stay 6 feet away from people, and wash my hands. I do these things not because the government told me to do so, but because I want to love my others by doing what I can to not spread this disease. (On a side note, I really want schools to be able to meet and that is less likely to happen if we have an outbreak here so I really, really, really want to keep us all healthy so my kids can go to school.)

I mention these two passages not to rebuke anyone at Zion, but because I see so many of you already living these scriptures out and I want to tell you how proud I am to be your pastor.

Have a great week and I hope to see you Sunday or at least have you see me online!

– Pastor 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.

As we gather physically together on Sunday, we continue a sermon series entitled 20 Minute Theology. Over the past 6 months, we have come face-to-face with the reality that the world is no longer the Garden of Eden. Our economy is struggling and millions are out of work. Protests continue in our cities and tensions between police and some citizens remains high. Conflict with China is on the rise and our relationships with allies are strained. And, the Corona Virus seems to be overtaking many states in our country rather than on the way out. All of this has revealed tensions in marriages, exacerbated addictions and unhealthy coping mechanisms and the unchanging reality that our world is not under our control. This week, we consider where the world went wrong and how God begins to put it back together again. Join us for the latest installment of 20 Minute Theology.

Grow in Community
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: $73,543.96
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $63,515.14
Giving Last Week: $7,971.82
Cash on Hand: $149,736.80

Zion E-News (7-16-2020)

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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