I met someone for coffee this morning at Tea Trade Cafe on 44th Street between Ivanrest and Byron Center. Tea Trade Cafe supports Women at Risk International and is connected to their store the WAR Chest Boutique. WAR works to help women and children who have been trafficked. By selling products they provide employment for women and some men who have been trafficked and also financially support their efforts to free those who are currently being trafficked.

As I sat talking with a good friend, I kept thinking, why don’t more people come here? So, in my little effort to spread the word, if you are meeting someone for coffee or tea, check out Tea Trade Cafe. The service is great, the tea was good too, and you will be making a difference in the world just by meeting a friend for coffee.

This concludes the advertisement for Tea Trade Cafe. We now resume our regularly scheduled E-news. 🙂

Connect to God
In our Sunday School Christmas program this year, our students will present a play in which a teacher sends students to different rooms to look at stories of exile: Adam and Eve being sent out of the Garden of Eden, the Israelites enslaved in Egypt, and the Babylonian exile. As they discuss these stories they realize that the Christmas story is the beginning of the great restoration that Adam and Eve looked forward to. In Jesus, God is once again in close relationship to his people. With Christmas he really is “”God with us.”” Join us for a great morning of worship led by our Sunday school students.

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
Barb Overweg is recovering at home after a successful heart surgery last week.

We extend our sympathy to Mike and Kathy MacGraw and Tom and Megan MacGraw in the passing of their  mother and grandmother, Grace Bluhm, Monday morning morning. Please hold the family in your prayers during this time of loss and grief. Visitation will be Friday from 5-8 pm at VanderLaan Funeral Home in Hudsonville. The funeral will be Saturday, December 14, at 11 am also at VanderLaan Funeral Home.

Serve the World
At our Christmas Eve service, we will be holding an offering to support the ministry of United Church Outreach Ministry in Wyoming. For about 10 years now, we have partnered with UCOM through our Personal Care Pantry. UCOM provides material and educational assistance to meet basic needs, improve quality of life, and promote self-sufficiency in Southwestern Kent County.

We are in the early stages of planning a trip to Kenya in June of 2021. While there, we will see the progress on Jeremiah’s church we have been supporting, have a project planned to work on, do some visiting and touring of Mahi Mahui where Jeremiah and Mary live, and finish off this trip with a Safari. If this sounds interesting to you, please contact Pastor Rick.

Administrative Details
On Tuesday this week, our Consistory met with Mike Stadelmayer from Church Growth Services (CGS) to decide if we should go ahead with a capital campaign to fund our building remodel. After interviewing about a dozen members in our church, surveying our staff and Consistory and another 140+ people through a paper survey on a Sunday in November, CGS formed an assessment of our ability to move forward with a building campaign. According to their surveying of our congregation

• over 80% of those surveyed are already planning to support the campaign and just under 80% think now is the right time for a capital campaign.
• Of those who are unsure, the reasons given were a need more information, a concern about our present giving levels, or a personal worry about their own ability to give.

• Text ‘give’ to be prompted on how much you’d like to give.
• Text ‘update’ to change the credit card or bank account you give from or to modify recurring gifts you’ve set up by text
• Text ’50 weekly’ to set up a weekly gift of $50. Replace 50 with the amount you’d like to give. You can also replace ‘weekly’ with ‘biweekly,’ ‘monthly’ or ‘yearly’.
• Text ’50 fundname‘ to give $50 to a specific fund. Replace ‘fundname’ with the keyword General or Building to designate to specific fund. Replace 50 with the amount you’d like to give.
• Text ‘unlink’ to unlink your phone from the text giving service so that your phone is no longer authorized to make donations

You can also give directly from our website by clicking on the  “Give Now” button below.

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: $310,570.96
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $285,558.19
Thanksgiving Offering to date: $10,001.00

On Monday this week, Rachel and I had the joy of watching one o four children sing in the Jenison Elementary Honors Choir at Fountain Street Church with several high school choirs and a choir from GVSU. It was a night of beautiful Christmas music and a chance to see this child shine and be exposed to a broader world of music.

It was also a deeply sad experience for me. Fountain Street, if you are unaware, is a universalist church that according to the church strives to be a vibrant church community that challenges individuals to craft their own spiritual journeys, and to engage in creative and responsible action in the world.

Fountain Street started as a baptist church in the 1860s and had a long legacy of both evangelistic and discipling passion. They were engaged in caring for the poor and seeking a more just world. But over time, they slowly drifted away from their first love. It may have happened slowly as an effort to stay relevant to the culture or to reach unbelievers, but at some point, they started compromising the authority of scripture. They became less concerned with Jesus and his reign and more concerned with personal character and a secular humanist worldview.

And now today, rather than holding Sunday school, they have Character school where kids learn different moral principles from many religions of the world. They hold values for inquiry, love, justice, and community. But, there is no longer a passion for the kingdom of God, the gospel of Jesus, or even Jesus himself.

I love that at Zion we care about justice issues and caring for the weak and outsiders. We do this through Hand2Hand, Personal Care Pantry, Camp Zion and soon Kids Hope.

I love that at Zion we care deeply about discipling our kids, both children and youth, and are willing to invest deeply in volunteer time and our staff to raise these kids up in the faith.

I love that at Zion we care about evangelism. We plant churches. We support missionaries all over the world.

But what I love most at Zion is that I never doubt our motivation for all we do. We love Jesus and we want his name to be lifted high by our ministry. May he always be the center of our life together.

Connect to God
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, all around the world.” At some point during the upcoming holiday season we will almost certainly hear those familiar lyrics on the radio, on a TV special, or at the mall. For many, Christmas means thousands of shimmering lights gracing trees, bushes, front porches, and sometimes entire houses, transforming the familiar landscape of our neighborhood into a cozy fantasy kingdom. Christmas means  scented red candles, the shining eyes and flushed faces of children as they come alive to the wonder of the season, and mustering an attitude of “good cheer” as we all strive to create an aura of serenity, stillness, and peace on earth. But what do we do when Advent doesn’t feel like Christmas? When life is not all warm and aglow with the joy of the season? This week, we hear the voice of John the Baptist preparing the way for God to come and be with us.

Join us next week Sunday, December 15, for our annual Sunday School Christmas Program. They have been working hard for weeks to learn lines and prepare songs. All to share with us the good news that God is indeed with us and the exile of the garden has ended.

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
Barb Overweg had open heart surgery this morning and is currently recovering, please continue to hold Barb and Jim in your prayers during this time of healing.

Serve the World
We are in the early stages of planning a trip to Kenya in June of 2021. While there, we will see the progress on Jeremiah’s church we have been supporting, have a project planned to work on, do some visiting and touring of Mahi Mahui where Jeremiah and Mary live, and finish off this trip with a Safari. If this sounds interesting to you, please contact Pastor Rick.

Jeremiah Kuria recently sent several pictures of their Sunday school rooms with a roof on thanks to the generosity of Zion. You can check out some of the pictures at the bottom of this e-mail.

Administrative Details
On Tuesday, December 10, our Consistory will be meeting with a consulting firm we have contracted with to help us both conduct and assess the feasibility of a capital campaign for our proposed building remodel. Please be in prayer for our Consistory as they consider this weighty decision next Tuesday.

We have recently begun accepting donations to the General Fund and Building Fund online or via text. If you are interested in supporting the ministries of Zion financially, you can do so from our website www.zionreformed.org by clicking on “Give Online Now” or text 1-616-219-2181 using one of the commands listed below:

• Text ‘give’ to be prompted on how much you’d like to give.
• Text ‘update’ to change the credit card or bank account you give from or to modify recurring gifts you’ve set up by text
• Text ’50 weekly’ to set up a weekly gift of $50. Replace 50 with the amount you’d like to give. You can also replace ‘weekly’ with ‘biweekly,’ ‘monthly’ or ‘yearly’.
• Text ’50 fundname‘ to give $50 to a specific fund. Replace ‘fundname’ with the keyword General or Building to designate to specific fund. Replace 50 with the amount you’d like to give.
• Text ‘unlink’ to unlink your phone from the text giving service so that your phone is no longer authorized to make donations

You can also give directly from our website by clicking on the  “Give Now” button below.

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: $299,479.14
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $279,194.19
Thanksgiving Offering to date: $9,751.00

12-1-19 Bulletin

This Sunday is my favorite Sunday in the liturgical year, Christ the King Sunday. Every year, I am reminded again of the great insight of Revelation that in the end we know God wins. Jesus really is king of this world even though much of it still lives in rebellion.

In the news this week, we will read about violence and political turmoil in Bolivia, ongoing conflicts in Hong Kong, concentration camps in China filled with Uyghur people, impeachment hearings in the US,  conflicts between Syria and Israel. It is comforting to remember Jesus is still king. 

In preparing for this Sunday, I ran across a blog post from Scot McKnight responding to a new book by Michael Bates called Gospel Allegiance in which Bates argues the Greek work pistis, which we translate as faith. carries with it a strong connotation of allegiance, rather than intellectual assent.

Allegiance, after all, is what a king desires from his subjects. Kings do not desire for their subjects to think nice thoughts about them, but that their subjects obey them and seek the good of their kingdom. We are saved by faith, but this faith or allegiance always leads to actions that seek the will of God on earth as it is in heaven, that God’s kingdom might more fully come. This insight was so important to the early Christians they were willing to face imprisonment and torture for proclaiming Jesus the king over all the world, even over the Roman empire.

All of this makes me wonder what I can do to seek God’s will where I have been put? How am I living out my allegiance to Jesus today?

Connect to God
On this last Sunday of the church liturgical year, we celebrate both communion and Christ the King Sunday. We fix our eyes on the glory of Christ and the kingdom he began to inaugurate in his earthly ministry and has entrusted to the church to seek in its ministry. A world of both justice and mercy. A world where the hungry are fed, the blind can see, the lame can walk, and those far from God are brought near. As we celebrate his reign today we cannot help but also long for his kingdom to come fully when Christ returns.

This Sunday, we will celebrate communion, also called The Lord’s Super or the Eucharist. This is the family meal of Christians.  We invite all committed followers of Jesus Christ to partake of this sacrament: those who are baptized members of a congregation that proclaims the gospel, who are at peace with God and with their neighbor, and who seek strength to live more faithfully for Christ.  If you are not a Christian, or if you are not prepared to share in this meal, we encourage you to spend this time in prayer.  We hope that this time is helpful to you as you consider your relationship with Jesus Christ and with His people, the church.

Wondering how to start your Thanksgiving day? Join us next week on Thanksgiving morning at 9:30 for our annual thanksgiving service. We will pray, share our reasons to give thanks, and reflect on Paul’s command to rejoice in the Lord always.

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
Merle Ezinga fell earlier this week and hurt is shoulder. He will be recovering at home for the next couple of weeks.

Bev Nagelkerk is hoping to return home from HealthBridge Rehabilitation soon as she continues her recovery.

We extend our congratulations to Adam and Emily Morehouse in the birth of their daughter Charlotte last week Thursday afternoon. Charlotte was 6lbs 14oz and 19.5 inches long. Mother and baby are both doing well.

Serve the World
This year our Thanksgiving offering will support Good News Nepal, Forgotten Man Ministries for their folding machine, and the deacons will be shopping for local shopping for families for Christmas gifts. We encourage you to give generously and prayerfully both to the Thanksgiving offering and our general fund.

We are in the early stages of planning a trip to Kenya in June of 2021. While there, we will see the progress on Jeremiah’s church we have been supporting, have a project planned to work on, do some visiting and touring of Mahi Mahui where Jeremiah and Mary live, and finish off this trip with a Safari. If this sounds interesting to you, please contact Pastor Rick.

Administrative Details
We have recently begun accepting donations to the General Fund and Building Fund online or via text. If you are interested in supporting the ministries of Zion financially, you can do so from our website www.zionreformed.org by clicking on “Give Online Now” or text 1-616-219-2181 using one of the commands listed below:

• Text ‘give’ to be prompted on how much you’d like to give.
• Text ‘update’ to change the credit card or bank account you give from or to modify recurring gifts you’ve set up by text
• Text ’50 weekly’ to set up a weekly gift of $50. Replace 50 with the amount you’d like to give. You can also replace ‘weekly’ with ‘biweekly’, ‘monthly’ or ‘yearly’.
• Text ’50 fundname‘ to give $50 to a specific fund. Replace ‘fundname’ with the keyword General or Building to designate to specific fund. Replace 50 with the amount you’d like to give.
• Text ‘unlink’ to unlink your phone from the text giving service so that your phone is no longer authorized to make donations

You can also give directly from our website by clicking on the  “Give Now” button below.

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: $277,295.50
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $239,929.19
Thanksgiving Offering to date:  216.00

Consistory Update
1. We continue to discuss our Vision 2025 plan that includes developing leadership abilities within our members, finding new ways to reach our community with the Good News of Jesus Christ, and examining how to best use our resources to plant new churches in our community and make our own worship space more useful for the Zion family, and more welcoming for visitors. If you have questions regarding the 2025 Vision, we encourage you to talk to a staff or consistory member!

2. Consistory would like to make the congregation aware that as of Oct. 31, 2019, we are running a buffet deficit of roughly $45,000. We have received roughly 81% of our budgeted amount for expenditures year-to-date.  At this point last year (2018), Zion received $40,000 more towards the general fund than the current fiscal year. We give thanks to God for the resources we have to serve Him and we continue to strive to be good stewards.

3. Church Plant Updates – City Chapel continues to look for a new place to meet for worship, in order to save on building costs. Lifeline Community Church is doing great! They have hired a new part-time communications director and are holding conversations with a local Hispanic church to possibly use the Lifeline Community building to hold worship services. Andrew and Ellen Moore, Community Reformed of Zeeland, and Zion continue to pray over a possible church plant in Grandville using a “house-church model” and explore a possible partnership. Andrew Moore has been approved to be a church planter by the RCA.

4. Consistory continues to monitor the RCA Vision 2020 plans as it relates to the future of the RCA denomination. The Vision 2020 debate centers around a variety of theological and liturgical practice differences in our denomination including issues of human sexuality. For anyone interested in learning about the Vision 2020 plans being discussed, please reach out to Pastor Greg.