Our family went to see all the Christmas lights at LMCU Ballpark for the first time last night. As soon as we left, the kids asked if we would be stopping at McDonalds for ice cream (this is an annual tradition when we go look at lights). As we looked at lights, kids swapped seats and sang Christmas songs. We even had to find a bathroom for those who drank too much at the beginning of the trip. (In my defense, I was tired and drank a lot of ice tea to stay awake.) And then, one kid chimed in with, “Now it feels like a Brower Christmas!”

I am sure you each have some treasured Christmas traditions. I know one family who has “calories don’t count” Christmas Eve every year where people can make whatever they want, no limit to cost or calories, and it is a highlight of the year for the family. Others attend midnight candlelight services. Others open presents before even eating breakfast on Christmas morning. I know some in our church will be having quiet Christmas seasons, while others will be feeling the stress of too many parties and not enough time.

Sometimes, I think we can all feel the pressure to live up to some idealized version of the Christmas season. A time when everyone gets along and everyone gets all their presents and homes are full of family and friends. Few of us experience that type of holiday season. Maybe that is why I still enjoy watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation because no matter what goes wrong in my Christmas celebrations it will never be as bad as poor Clark Griswold’s Christmas vacation! (Seriously, it is my favorite Christmas movie and I watch it at least once every Christmas.)

Amid all the traditions, busyness, and stress the holidays can bring, my prayer for each of us remains that we would experience Jesus again this Christmas, God taking on flesh and living among us. Something amazing happens at Christmas, God’s great rescue plan breaks into this broken creation and begins to put things back together again.

A few days ago, NT Wright and Francis Collins (Wright is my favorite theologian and Collins is both a Christian and the head of the National Institutes of Health) performed a song they wrote together called “The New World has been Born.” They are not professional musicians, simply friends who love Jesus and had fun making a song. But, the song captures so much of what our world can miss about Christmas. Christmas is not a cutesy story about a baby in a manger, but a story of God remaking the world and making in whole and new again. The production value is pretty low, but I loved the song and I think you should give it a listen. You can find it below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNDiTTECvRU

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (I’m on vacation next week, so there will not be an E-news.)

– Greg

Connect to God
This week we will gather for worship on Christmas Eve at 6:30 pm and Sunday  at 9:30 am. The service will be live-streamed both days and replayed again at 11 am Sunday. This weeks service 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. 

As we celebrate Christmas together, we turn to scripture to remember the big story of the Bible. The beautiful creation. The brokenness of our world caused by sin. And, God’s unrelenting pursuit of us which culminates in coming to be among us in the person of Jesus. It is this unrelenting, never giving up, always and forever love of God that forms the foundation of our hope and joy each Christmas, Join us at either or both services as we remember again how God came to be with us.

Nursery will be available for kids ages 0-3yr. at our Christmas Eve service, and we will have “Christmas Eve Activity bags” available for kids attending the service with their family. We will run our normal children’s programming on Sunday, December 26.

Grow in Community
Our youth are collecting recyclable cans and change to raise money for their Alaskan Mission Trip. Any money raised though change or cans donated prior to January 9 will be matched dollar for dollar up to $3,000. You can drop off any $.10 recyclables at Zion’s garage on Sunday mornings. The door will be opened. Thank you fro your generous support of our youth financially, through words of encouragements and in your prayers.

Following Kent County Health Department guidelines, we will no longer be requiring children to wear masks in Zion Kids beginning next Sunday,  January 2, 2022.

Serve the World
Our Christmas Eve offering this year will be given to both Jenison and Grandville Public School to assist students who need help with basic winters needs such as coats, boots, and hats.

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:  $325,097.83
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $245,083.81
Giving Last Week: $7,834.50

The Christmas season can be filled with so much joy and delight. For many people, the season is filled with family get-togethers, parties with friends, presents and great food. But for many people, this time of year is filled with an odd jumble of emotions. The joy of Christmas. Grief for the loved ones who are not with us this Christmas. Pain from family estrangements or tensions barely contained. Sorrow at the inability to be with family and friends due to distance or health. Pressure to make it to all the parties, buy all the presents, get Christmas clothes, prepare the food, pay the bills, earn a little extra money to cover said bills and so much more. Sometimes a season that should be filled with wonder and hope can begin to weigh heavily on our hearts.

If this is where you are this year, it is OK. Sometimes we don’t have the Christmas cheer. Sometimes we don’t have the energy to get all the to-do list checked off. Sometimes life throws us a curve and we can’t afford a big Christmas. It’s OK.

The first Christmas was not picture perfect either. Mary was likely exhausted, sore, and just plain worn outface giving birth. Joseph was probably tired and overwhelmed after a long journey and now becoming a new dad. The Shepherds who came were likely young teen boys and girls and may have been more noisy than helpful to these new parents. Though we like to paint idyllic scenes of the first Christmas, if was probably noisy, tense, and exhausting as well.

The joy of Christmas does not come from the perfect parties and presents and people, but from the presence of the God who came to live among us. The joy in your Christmas will come this year from presence as well. The presence of God in your life and your presence with whomever you may be sharing the holiday. Your presence is enough. You matter more than the parties or presents or pastries.

In the midst of the busyness of this season, may you experience the peace of Christ who through his life reveals date great love of God for the imperfect, broken, confused, and weary people that we are.

– 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 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 for God, finding out worth more in what we can do to serve God, than we do dwelling in the love and presence of God.

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 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
Nursery will be available for kids ages 0-3yr. at our Christmas Eve service, and we will have “Christmas Eve Activity bags” available for kids attending the service with their family.

Our youth are collecting recyclable cans and change to raise money for their Alaskan Mission Trip. Any money raised though change or cans donated prior to January 9 will be matched dollar for dollar up to $3,000. You can drop off any $.10 recyclables at Zion’s garage on Sunday mornings. The door will be opened. Thank you fro your generous support of our youth financially, through words of encouragements and in your prayers.

Following Kent County Health Department guidelines, we will no longer be requiring children to wear masks in Zion Kids beginning January 2, 2022.

Our Zion Kids did a great job leading us in worship on Sunday. If you missed their singing and program fro any reason, you can watch them all in our YouTube channel.
Pre-school Songs
Elementary Songs
Zion Kids Christmas Program

Serve the World
Troy and Jill Austin and I (Pastor Greg) had a very productive meeting with the principal and a social worker from Grandville High School about how Threads and other Zion ministries can be a support to them in the schools. They were quite impressed by the shopping experience at Threads and the obvious commitment of our congregation to be a blessing to our local community. Please join me in praying that our partnership with schools may grow and bring much glory to God as we love our community in his name.

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:  $313,887.56
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $237,249.51
Giving Last Week: $8,983.50