Earlier this week, someone on social media asked people to share their worst/weirdest/most awkward experience they could recall as a visitor to a church. Following are some of the stories:
1. On a Sunday morning, we were told at the door they were having a special event and then they asked us to go to the Starbucks down the road for an hour until it was over and then come back.
2. Being introduced as a newcomer and then asked to stand up and tell the congregation about myself.
3. I had a family get to service and ask me to move and sit somewhere else because it was the spot they always sit in.
4. Being handed a KJV since mine was a “perVersion”
5. Visited a small church and was offered the chance to play the offertory.
6. Walked in and I was handed a clip on tie, I asked why and the person said, “you honor God by how well you dress.” I’m sure God was honored to see me wear a clip on tie with my v-neck shirt.
7. We were asked our names, David and Joan, but were then introduced to the tiny church as Brian and Judy.
8. Absolutely no one greeted us coming in or out.
9. My wife and I sat down at a table for Bible study and two other couples got up and moved to a different table without saying anything.
10. Within minutes of visiting a church for the first time I was brought up front to walk with the pastor. As the service began he invited me up front and introduced me as the guest pastor for the morning and then sat down. I was just visiting.

It takes a lot of courage to come to a church for the first time. And, there are lots of ways to welcome people poorly to church. I am grateful for all of you and the way so many of you are intentional each Sunday to welcome new people, to reach out to people you don’t yet know, and create a community in our space. Thank you.

Connect to God
There is perhaps no greater influence in Christian discipleship and moral thinking than the Sermon on the Mount. In three short chapters, Jesus lays out a vision for how to live the good life, the life God intended for us, in our personal, public, and spiritual lives. This week, we continue our study of this influential sermon as we consider the type of heart that motivates kingdom behavior.

On Wednesday February 26 at 6:30 pm, we will be celebrating Ash Wednesday. During the service, we will both observe communion and the imposition of ashes. The Elders encourage you in the week ahead to examine your life to see if there are any relationships in which you need to be reconciled, if there is any sin of which you need to repent, so that we can gather in unity at Jesus’ table on the 26th.

If you would like a copy of the worship service, you can receive a complete copy by contacting Tom Verbrugge or you can find the weekly messages on our website.

Grow in Community
Anne Algra-Muizelaar went to be with her Lord and Savior early Tuesday morning. Her funeral service will be held  at 11am on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Matthysse Kuiper DeGraaf Funeral Home in Grandville. Visitation will be held from 10-11AM prior to the service. Please pray for peace and comfort for her family during this difficult time.

Please keep Kim Eling (sister-in-law to Matt and Katie Eling) who received some difficult news early this week in her ongoing battle with cancer. The cancer has spread to her brain and she will begin full brain radiation treatment beginning tomorrow. The family asks for prayers for 1) effective treatment with minimal side effects, 2) fluid to stay off of Kim’s lungs, 3) for a vertebrae fracture to remain stable and 4) for the peace of Christ to fill their hearts and minds.

This week our Sunday school students welcomed  Larry Westra as their honored guest. Larry taught Sunday School for 33 years, and he’s passionate about children meeting Jesus.  He still prays for the kids in our church on Wednesday evenings with the prayer group. We were so blessed to have him talk with the kids!

If you are a confessing member of Zion and over the age of 18, please remember to turn in your Consistory willing to serve response form by March 1.

Serve the World
We received an update from Jibit Asha recently about their work in Nepal in the month of January. During the month, they saw 15 new villages reached by their church planters, 7 people accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, 3 people baptized, a new church building begin to be built, and begin distributing warm blankets.

Administrative Details
If you want to keep up with our capital campaign, you can check out all sorts of information on our website here.

If you receive the denominational magazine RCA Today, you may have seen an article about our church. I was interviewed last fall to talk a little about what God has been doing through all of you here at Zion. I never want to pass up on a chance to brag about the great people of Zion, so I was happy to share. Unfortunately, I cannot share a link to the article here as it is not available on-line. But, you should check it out in the magazine and join me in thanking God for the work he is doing among us.

Our next Leaders Meeting will be Sunday, March 1 from 5-7 pm. We will enjoy a meal together, meeting in ministry teams, and Pastor Greg will share a little about potential changes in our denomination, the Reformed Church in America, as we await counsel from the Vision 2020 team established by our governing body two years ago. Child care will be provided for kids from birth through 5th grade. You can sign-up through the Connection Cards on Sunday. If you an adult interested in helping provide childcare, you can sign-up by the Welcome Center on Sunday.

We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures.

Fiscal Year to date budget: $421,489.16
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $412,230.49

2-16-20 Bulletin

On Tuesday this week, I met with the Church Multiplication Team from our Classis (local body of churches). This team is responsible for helping our Classis churches raise up future church planters, care for current church planters, and motivate and assist churches in planting new churches. Yes, it is a big job.

Our denomination is anticipating some big changes in the next 12-18 months and it is easy when people get together to focus on the anxiety and unknowns that face us as the Reformed Church in America. But yesterday, I was reminded of all the good God is doing in our denomination. In that little conference room, there were people involved in church planting in:
1. Nepal (Tom Elenbaas from Harbor Churches and myself)
2. India (Dave Jansen and Centerpoint Church in Columbus)
3. Russia (Greg Stamm the Classis Executive who also works with a church planting organization in Russia)
4. Brazil (Randy Weener from our denomination)

In addition to those global efforts, in our Classis, we have an African Church plant meeting in Grand Rapids, a church plant from the Allegan County Jail, plans for a new plant in East Lansing, another likely in Cleveland, and are beginning discussions of a new plant in Grand Rapids and/or Allendale focused on creating a welcoming place for people of all abilities and their families.

Our God continues to draw people to him and change lives. May God be glorified in all we do as a denomination and right here at Zion.

Connect to God
This week, we are taking a break from our study of Matthew to join Joshua and the Israelites as they prepare to enter the promised land. As God sends Joshua to lead the people and conquer the promised land of Canaan, there are some things Joshua knows and others he does not know, but there is always a next step to take. As we look ahead to remodeling our building as we continue living into a vision of developing leaders to flood our community with gospel conversations, we to know some things and don’t know a whole lot else. But we also know our next step is to remodel our building to support the vision and ministry to which God has called us. This Sunday we take a first step in building on the faithful past of Zion and stepping into the future God is laying out before us.

This Sunday, we are formally kicking off our capital campaign: Building Up, Reaching Out. We will share time lines for various events of the campaign, introduce the leaders of the campaign, share some of our values shaping the campaign, and let you know how you can be involved.

If you would like a copy of the worship service, you can receive a complete copy by contacting Tom Verbrugge or you can find the weekly messages on our website.

Grow in Community
Please be in prayer for our Middle School students who are on a retreat this weekend at Spring Hill Camps. Pray for great connections with each other and their leaders, lots of fun together, but most of all that students might take another step in their walk with Jesus.

Serve the World
Our church plant, City Chapel, recently celebrated the profession of faith of a young man. After the service, a visitor asked a beautiful question: How does this church live up to the promises we just made? Every time someone is baptized or makes profession of faith, we promise to help them grow in their faith and learn how to better follow Jesus, to disciple them. City Chapel is now pairing a spiritual mentor with this young man to help him learn even more how to follow Jesus. God continues to work at City Chapel, bringing new people into the community, and changing lives with the power of his Spirit.

Administrative Details
Our next Leaders Meeting will be Sunday, March 1 from 5-7 pm. We will enjoy a meal together, meeting in ministry teams, and have some other training. Child care will be provided for kids from birth through 5th grade. You can sign-up through the Connection Cards on Sunday.

We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures.

Fiscal Year to date budget: $399,305.52
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $394,259.46

On Sunday morning, former basketball player, Kobe Bryant and 8 other people died in a helicopter accident. He and his daughter Gianna were on their way to a youth basketball game after attending Mass earlier in the morning. According to his Bishop, Kobe was a faithful attender at Mass, but sat way in the back because he did not want to distract people from Christ by the presence of a celebrity in Mass.

I came across another story of his life on Twitter told by a doctor in Phoenix who met Kobe when a child, also named Kobe, dying from heart failure asked for a basketball signed by Bryant. Rather then signing the ball, he snuck into the hospital (apparently he often made these types of visits, but wouldn’t let any public relations or media people come along) and spent an hour hanging out with this boy, shooting hoops, signing lots of different things, and simply talking with the boy. As he left, he asked if money was holding back the kids treatment and if so he could pay for it. But it wasn’t a money issue and there was nothing anyone could do. The young boy died a week later and his mom said that hour was the happiest moments of his life and were some of her few pictures of him smiling.

As a huge fan of the NBA, I find myself grieving someone I did not know this week. I am not the only one. Working out on Tuesday, I avoided all political news on the TVs by simply changing the channel to whatever station was discussing Kobe. There was always at least one channel discussing his passing.

As many sing his praises this week, I am also reminded of a darker side of his life. Of a resort in Eagle, CO. A young woman. And charges of rape. And I grieve for the many people whose wounds are reopened this week as someone credibly charged with sexual assault is lauded as a hero. They must wonder if these crimes will ever be taken seriously. If their pain will ever matter to others.

Kobe’s life is a complicated one. Charged with assault, but later in life a strong advocate for women. A ruthless competitor, but also compassionate to the suffering of others. He was a ball hog and a shooter without conscience on the court and seemed selfish, but he also mentored many younger players and helped them develop their skills.

In the end, he is just a person like you and me. Filled with contradictions. Both good and bad. Holding high ideals and often falling short. A blessing in the lives of some, but wounding others along the way. We all need a lot of grace in our lives.

I have two primary thoughts throughout this week. First, I have hope because Kobe was apparently a believer and follower of Jesus, however imperfectly he may have followed, and we know as followers of Jesus that death does not get the last word and God will speak and the dead will be raised with imperishable bodies like Jesus was on Easter Sunday.

Second, I am reminded we do not know how long we have in this life. Some get 80 or 90 or even 100 years, but others only get 41 or 25 or 13 or even less. Use your days well. And invest these days preparing for and inviting others into the eternity with God that will endure for all time.

Connect to God
Zion is a place where our youth are encouraged to serve regularly in important ways, in leadership roles, throughout our church and in worship services. But today, our youth ministry is getting even more involved in leading worship. Our high school and middle school youth groups created this worship service from the concept of intergenerational ministry. They chose songs to relate to all ages, involved multiple generations and generational concepts in their skits, created and edited videos on their own, built and decorated a sermon response, and created intrigue by posting multigenerational pictures throughout the hallways. Today we look Psalm 78:1-8 together and wonder how we can do our best to pass on the faith to the next generation.

Please note, due to the Youth Service, we will not have Sunday School this week for 4th and 5th graders so they can be participate in the entire service.

Next week Sunday, February 9, we will formally kickoff our capital campaign: Building Up, Reaching Out. We will share time lines for various events of the campaign, introduce the leaders of the campaign, share some of our values shaping the campaign, and let you know how you can be involved.

If you would like a copy of the worship service, you can receive a complete copy by contacting Tom Verbrugge or you can find the weekly messages on our website.

Grow in Community
For the past two years, we have been holding 729 groups as a way to get to know more people in the congregation. These groups commit to meet together for a meal once a month for three months. It is a great way to get to know some new people in church. I have heard numerous people tell me how much they have enjoyed getting to know people in their group. If you are looking to make some new connections over the winter, new to Zion, or wondering who some of these new people are, sign-up through the Connection Card this Sunday for our next round of 729 Groups.

Serve the World
On Tuesday this week, I met with the principal and several staff of West Elementary. We were meeting to talk about how we could effectively partner with them through Camp Zion over the summer. They were excited to see how they could help us target our support to the kids who most need the help over the summer. As the conversation continued,I shared a little about Hand2Hand and the Personal Care Pantry. The social worker in particular was very grateful for the faithful support our Hand2Hand team has been to so many students in the school. And  they wondered how they could connect some families with our Personal Care Pantry. God is bring praised in our community because of your generous service.

Due to the in-climate weather on the 11th, we postponed the Zion Mini-golf event until February 1 from 12-3. This is both a great opportunity to casually connect with friends from Zion and also invite any unchurched friends to a family friendly event at church. We look forward to seeing you on the this Saturday!

Administrative Details
Our next Leaders Meeting will be Sunday, March 1 from 5-7 pm. We will enjoy a meal together, meeting in ministry teams, and have some other training. Child care will be provided for kids from birth through 5th grade. You can sign-up through the Connection Cards on Sunday.

We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures.

Fiscal Year to date budget: $388,213.70
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $380,403.46