Zion E-News (12-9-2021)
This might be my favorite E-news introduction of the year because its the week I share my favorite books of the year. To be honest, I thought my reading was down a little this year because I spent much of the summer reading free mystery and spy books from Amazon Prime. But then I started making this list and realized I read a lot of books in the last 12 months. I stuck to my goal of reading from a wider variety of authors including multiple women, minorities, and a variety of Christian traditions, though heavily leaning toward reformed and evangelical. To be absolutely clear, I do not agree with all the books, I simply found them helpful and informative for my thinking and faith. So, in a little bit of a particular order, following are my top 10 books of the year:
10. A Church Called Tov by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer. Scot and Laura look at the various scandals in evangelical churches, predominantly abuses of power by pastors, and do some carefully thinking about how to create cultures of goodness (Tov) that can both resist/prevent those abuses and respond well when they do happen.
9. Future Church by Will Mancini and Cory Hartman. Will and Cory look at 7 changes they believe churches need to make to transition from a Sunday morning event to disciple making ministries. We read this book as a staff and now Consistory is reading it as well.
8. Beyond Doubt by Brian McLaren. McLaren swims in the more progressive strand of Christianity. This book attempts to help people embrace doubt as part of the process of spiritual growth. His overall point, I believe is dead on, doubt is always a part of faith. This book had more bones to spit out than many, but I appreciated reading a very different view than my own.
7. When Everything is on Fire by Brian Zahnd. Zahnd also reflects on the role of doubt in our spiritual growth, but emphasizes the importance of our experience of the risen Christ as the center of faith. I have not yet finished this book, but loved the first few chapters that brought in Nietsche and Kiekegaard and the poor response of modern Christianity to modern skepticism.
6. It’s Not Your Turn by Heather Thompson Day. Day is a professor at Andrews University in Michigan, but had been a professor at Colorado Christian College prior to this year. She is a millennial and I think this book really hits the target for younger millennials and Gen Zs who are wrestling with the bumps and bruises of launching into adulthood and early career. She offers great advice on how to handle the success of others and how to keep growing as you wait for your opportunity as well. I really liked this book and I thought all the way through that I wasn’t really the target for it.
5. The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr. Barr combines historical analysis with her personal experiences moving from a complementarian view to an egalitarian one. While allowing women to be Elders, Deacons and Ministers is not an ongoing discussion in our denomination as we have allowed woman in all those roles for over 40 years, it was interesting learning about all the ways women were preaching and leading in the church from the very beginning and well into the Middle Ages.
4. Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey. Few authors have had as much influence in my life as Yancey. In his latest book, he offers a memoir of his life and the way God kept reaching out to him as he struggled with the racist fundamentalist Christianity with which he grew up. If you have enjoyed Yancey’s other books, this is a great look at his personal story.
3. The End of the Christian Life by J. Todd Billings. Billings is a professor at Western Theological Seminary and for several years now has been living with a terminal cancer. Diagnosed in his 30s with two young kids in the house, he has written often on grief, death, and the providence of God. This latest book is a really thoughtful look at how embracing our mortality and limits puts our focus back on our hope in Christ and enables us to truly live. It moved me to tears often and left me with that confident hope of the resurrection to come.
2. What if Jesus Was Serious by Skye Jethani. I read this book and another by Skye on vacation this summer. This one offers 72 devotionals on the Sermon on the Mount. They are short, insightful, and they all have cute stick figure illustrations. Our staff will be preaching through the Sermon on the Mount beginning on January 9. This would be a great devotional tied to the series and a fun way to kickstart your personal devotional time as we begin the new year.
1b. A Burning in My Bones by Winn Collier. Collier wrote a truly moving biography of Eugene Peterson (the writer of the Message paraphrase of the Bible). I read Peterson’s own memoir a few years ago, which was good, but this is even better. The story of Peterson and Bono from U2 becoming friends is worth the price of the book. This one brought me to tears as well, especially as Collier tells of Peterson’s relationships with family.
1a. Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans. I almost forgot this book. Rachel passed away in her 30s the year before Covid hit and this book is written from her notes by Jeff Chu, a friend. There may be a theme in my favorite books because they all made me cry, but the introduction and conclusion written by her husband and friend were both very moving. The book itself offers Rachel’s trademark insights, great questions, humor, grace, and hope as she reflects on living authentically as a follower of Jesus.
I also read books on leadership development, responding to racism as a christian, a short book by a former professor, Jim Brownson, on questions Christians are afraid to ask, a couple other books by Skye Jethani, a book on Revelation by Eugene Peterson, the latest spy book by Daniel Silva, and a few more that were less memorable.
What books did you enjoy this year?
– Greg
Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship at 9:30 am. The service will be live-streamed at 9:30 and replayed again at 11. This weeks service will not be on Facebook because of the Zion Kids Christmas Program, but will be at zionreformed.online.church and streaming on our YouTube channel. We will also rebroadcast a version of the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.
Join us this Advent season as we consider the importance of prepositions in our spiritual lives. This year we celebrate the God who has not called us to live under, over, for, or from God, but in Jesus came to be with us. At Christmas, we remember again God loves us so much he came to be like us and with us. Unfortunately, we can often unintentionally live from God, treating God like a giant vending machine, rather than as our loving Father
We want to invite you to join us to celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas on either Friday, December 24 at 6:30 pm or Sunday, December 26 at 9:30 am. Both services will be very very similar (think almost identical) and will point us to the hope we have in our God who has come to dwell among us in the person of Jesus.
Grow in Community
Zion Kids practice for the Christmas Service practice is this Saturday morning. Kindergarten through 5th grade practice from 9:30 to 10 am. 3 years old through pre-school students practice from 10 to 10:30 am. They will also be practicing before church on Sunday as follows:
K-5th Kids meet in the sanctuary at 8:30 for practice.
Preschoolers meet in their classroom at 9:00 for practice.
Our Middle School youth group will be having their Christmas party this Sunday, December 12, from 11-2 in the youth room. Students should make sure they bring a white elephant gift!
Serve the World
We welcomed 35 families to Threads this week Tuesday. We continue to receive comments from shoppers about the high quality of the clothing and how thankful they are for this opportunity. We were also able to provide each shopper with a bag or box of items from the Personal Care Pantry. Your generosity is lifting up the name of Jesus in the people of our community.
Tim Mekkes and others from Good News Nepal returned from a recent visit to Nepal. But this week their hearts are saddened because a pastor in Nepal has been imprisoned by the Nepali Government for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a church. Although Pastor Keshab Acharya is not a GNN pastor, he is a brother in the Lord and a fellow servant of Christ. He also grew up in Jumla, one of the places they had just visited. Please pray for this pastor and his church.
We also have two missionary updates, one from Geoff Kooistra and the other from Keith Krebs.
Geoff Kooistra has been in Ecuador since November 28th and will return December 14th. He is participating in the 90th anniversary celebration and with the share-a-thon in Quito and Guayaquil. HCJB does lots of special programs for the season so pray that they will bring listeners closer to the Lord.
Keith Krebs will retired in March 2022 from his position as chaplain of the American Mission Hospital in Bahrain. Then he will continue with the RCA Global Missions as the Spiritual Care Coordinator for RCA Mission in Europe and the Middle East. In his eight years as chaplain he has met people from 134 countries! A new chaplain, Rev. Paul Deutsch, will start serving there in Bahrain January 1, 2022.
If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Jerrod Holzgen, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is Jholzgen@yahoo.com and his phone number is 616-520-1771.
Administration
We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures.
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Budget: $302,677.29
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $228,266.01
Giving Last Week: $10,654.46
Zion E-News (12-2-2021)
On Tuesday this week our nation experienced another school shooting. This was the 28th school shooting of 2021 and led to the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th deaths of the year from these shootings. In the 22 years since the Columbine shootings in Colorado, there have been over 230 school shootings. This doesn’t count the accidental misfires of guns in schools or the shootings that were stopped before any violence could occur.
As I read about the shootings in Oxford on Tuesday, I felt really angry and deeply sad. Sad for the families, classrooms, and churches who are grieving the loss of their children, classmates, and parishioners. Sad for the students who will be afraid to go to their school because of their experience. Sad for the students in our community who will attend school with increased anxiety that something like that could happen here. Sad for the kids of our church who have been raised in school not only to prepare for tornadoes, but also have “active shooter” drills every year so they know what to do if the unthinkable happens in our community.
And I am angry. Angry because I know nothing will change. Angry that another community will go through the same rituals of death and grief in a few months. Angry that we, the adults in our nation, seem to care so little about protecting the lives of our children at school.
I also know school shootings are not new, though they receive more media coverage now. The first school shooting in the US happened in 1764. There were 49 school shootings in the 1800s and 207 in the 1900s. While there are more school shootings than before, this has been a problem for over 200 years.
When confronted with the deep brokenness of our world, it can be tempting to yell into the void, to blame all those other people, to through ups our hands in despair. But the Christian response is to find a way we can respond with the love of God to bring more of God’s peace and wholeness to our world. I wonder what that might look like for you and me.
In reading a research article for school counselors, I learned recently that almost 90% of school shooters experienced significant long-term bullying. They also look like many of the kids in our community. Almost all are white boys. Many come from two parent homes and get mostly As and Bs in school. They have friends and are not loners. But, they are bullied.
So what can we do?
1. We can ensure our church is a place where every person (child, teen or adult) is treated as someone of great value. We can include people in our social circles who may be new or simply be alone on a Sunday.
2. We can model kindness by how we talk in our homes about other people and on social media. Be the type of person who avoids gossip and intentionally speaks of the good in others so that our children don’t learn bullying behaviors from us.
3. We can relationally invest in the kids in our community. Then, when they face bullying or other challenges, they will have multiple adults to turn to for advice and counsel and already have a deep well of emotional strength because they know they are loved by us. That is one reason I love mentoring through Kids Hope. I get to help a child in our community see how great he is and that even if his day is going terrible he has me in his corner cheering him on.
And, maybe more broadly, we can support and cheer on the teachers and school counselors in our community. They not only teach content, but also work hard creating school environments that are safe for all the kids, especially those at risk of being bullied.
All of these thoughts put me in a particularly Advent mood, longing for Christ to return and set all things right and make all things new again. Truly, come Lord Jesus.
– Greg
Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship at 9:30 am. The service will be live-streamed at 9:30 and replayed again at 11. You can find the services either on our Facebook page, at zionreformed.online.church, or streaming on our Youtube channel. We will also rebroadcast a version of the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.
Join us this Advent season as we consider the importance of prepositions in our spiritual lives. This year we celebrate the God who has not called us to live under, over, for, or from God, but in Jesus came to be with us. At Christmas, we remember again God loves us so much he came to be like us and with us. Unfortunately, we can often unintentionally live over God, trying to assume control, rather than with the God who loves us.
We want to invite you to join us to celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas on either Friday, December 24 at 6:30 pm or Sunday, December 26 at 9:30 am. Both services will be very very similar (think almost identical) and will point us to the hope we have in our God who has come to dwell among us in the person of Jesus.
Grow in Community
Our High School youth group will be having their Christmas party this Sunday from 12-3 at Josh and Shawn Sanders house. And, our Middle School youth group will be having their Christmas party on Sunday, December 12, from 12-3 in the youth room. Students should make sure they bring a white elephant gift!
The Christmas Program music practice is on Saturday morning, Dec. 11. K-5th kids will rehearse from 9:30-10:00, and preschoolers will rehearse from 10:00-10:30. We’ll meet in the sanctuary. Because the “play” portion is pre-recorded this year, and the rehearsal is short parents are asked to stay with their children during rehearsal.
Serve the World
Earlier this week, Jenison Public Schools called with an emergency need for support from Threads. Apparently, two students had recently become homeless and were in need of new clothes and a third student was living in a local campground because their family was also homeless and had been wearing the same clothes to school for a few days. Today I am so thankful for teachers who pay attention to each student and care about not only their learning, but helping provide as much stability in their lives as possible. And, I am thankful for all of you and the ways you care for our community through ministries like Threads, Hand2Hand, and the Personal Care Pantry. May your work point our community to the hope of Jesus and the coming of his kingdom of Shalom.
If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Jerrod Holzgen, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is Jholzgen@yahoo.com and his phone number is 616-520-1771.
Administration
I want to share a quick bathroom update. We sent our bathroom remodel plans out for bidding this week and plan to make a final decision on contractors by the end of this year. Our tentative hope is for the bathroom remodel to begin sometime in the middle of January.
We are also preparing to update some of our live-streaming technology through a generous donation. This work will add an additional camera and likely change the company we use to provide our streaming, This may change some of our we stream our services, but will hold drastically improve the quality and consistency of our online services. We will keep you updated with any changes to our online services as we learn more.
We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures.
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Budget: $291,467.02
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $217,081.55
Giving Last Week: $6,177.46
Thanksgiving offering $7,614.15
Zion E-News (11-11-2021)
The gospel is never for individuals but always for a people. Sin fragments us, separates us, and sentences us to solitary confinement. Gospel restores us, unites us, and sets us in community.
– Eugene Peterson (Reversed Thunder)
Western Theological Seminary just opened the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. Eugene was a friend of the seminary and several of my friends traveled to Israel with him back in the late 90s while they were in seminary. He had such a heart for the local church and for pastors. I find his writing often encourages me.
I just ran across this quote from his reflections on the book of Revelation last week. I love this explanation of both sin and the gospel. Sometimes we can narrow sin down to breaking the moral rules laid out in scripture, but I thin that misses the point. God lays out moral rules for us so that we don’t destroy relationships with God, others, creation or ourselves. The rules are there to help us avoid those behaviors that damage community. Sin destroys community. It separates us from other people. It separates us from God. It even separates us from ourselves. We are blind to those darkest parts of ourselves. Those hidden motivations. Those character flaws we cannot even see ourselves. Sin keeps us from knowing others and being fully known even to ourselves.
We see the results of sin in families estranged, in broken marriages, in the angry and fearful divisions between ethnic groups, income groups, political parties, and even within Christianity. But the hope of the gospel is that in Jesus all those divisions can be overcome. It heals us where we have been broken. It unites us not in a common enemy, but in a common love for God. And, it brings us into community where we can be known, loved, and accepted where we are right now.
For me, this is the joy of gathering together each week for worship. I get to be with people who are not all like me, who view life differently than me, who have different struggles than me, and yet, we choose to join our lives together through a common love for Christ and in a mutual mission to love this world God sent Jesus to redeem. We get to be the church.
– Greg
Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather for worship at 9:30 am. The service will be live-streamed at 9:30 and replayed again at 11. You can find the services either on our Facebook page, at zionreformed.online.church, or streaming on our Youtube channel. We will also rebroadcast a version of the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.
Churches are not places of model behavior. They have as many people struggling with sin, pain, and brokenness as those outside of church. Rather than being perfectly healthy communities, church is the place we can go to acknowledge, face, and deal with our brokenness. The book of James confronts the conflicts, tensions, and mess of church life head on. This week, as we conclude out study of James, we are called to respond to unjustice and suffering with patient perseverance and an enduring hope in our God.
This Sunday, we welcome Lisa Cook who will be sharing with us her work with Teen Deaf Quest as they reach one of the largest unreached people groups in the world with the hope of Jesus Christ.
Grow in Community
Over the past several weeks, I have had multiple nurses in our church ask for prayers for our nurses and hospital workers. Talking with those in our church who have been in the ER or admitted recently, all talked about how overwhelmed the ER seemed to be. Please join me in praying for nurses, medical workers, and their families as they have been working extra hours and with extra patients for much of the pas year and a half.
This Sunday, Nov. 14, kids in Kindergarten-5th grade are invited to sing the song “Raise a Hallelujah” during the morning worship service. Please have your child come by 8:45 so we can practice before church.
The kids will be rehearsing the music for their Christmas program every week after church until Dec. 12. Preschoolers stay in Room 206 after church for a 10-15 minute practice. Elementary kids meet after church in Room 205 for 20-30 minutes.
We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
11/15 Monday Revelation 13
11/16 Tuesday Revelation 14
11/17 Wednesday Revelation 15
11/18 Thursday Revelation 16
11/19 Friday Revelation 17
You can also find the reading schedule on our website under the Ministries tab.
Serve the World
Every year, we designate three organizations to receive our Thanksgiving Offering. This year the Deacons have chosen:
1. The Pregnancy Resources Center which provides health care and support to women and families facing an unexpected pregnancy so they feel empowered to choose the life of their child.
2. Oasis of Hope Center that provides medical care to low income residents in the Grand Rapids community in the name of Jesus.
3. The Family Network of Wyoming’s Christmas Store. This seems self-explanatory. 🙂
Many Christians in the Middle East, Africa and southeast Asia suffer for their faith. Last year an average of 13 Christians were killed every day for believing in Christ and they need our prayers. Many of them will find it too dangerous to celebrate the Christmas holidays.
Pray for their boldness to continue sharing the gospel and teaching God’s Word.
Pray for their wisdom and endurance so they will not grow weary in serving Christ amid opposition.
Pray that many will come to know Christ as their Savior and that they will know they are not alone.
Two organizations that minister to the persecuted are Voice of the Martyrs (vom.org) and Open Doors (opendoorsusa.org). Those web sites contain more specific information and how to donate.
If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Jerrod Holzgen, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is Jholzgen@yahoo.com and his phone number is 616-520-1771.
Administration
We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures.
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Budget: $257,836.21
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $188,582.09
Giving Last Week: $10,030.50
Week of Prayer Booklet
Thanks for joining us in a week if prayer. As we all try to learn to pray through scripture, we hope this booklet of scripture and prayers adapted from the Book of Common Worship is helpful for you.
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