On Tuesday this week, I was driving home along the Grand River after a wonderful visit with someone from Zion. Along the way, I drove past a field with some cattle grazing, but this was a little bit different sort of field. It was entirely wetland. After the rain earlier in the day, you could see even more standing water than normal among the cows. The ground was simply saturated, oozing, overflowing with water.

In scripture, the presence of God, especially the Spirit, is often portrayed as water. The righteous are like trees planted by streams of living water. Jeremiah says God is the living water and Jesus promises the woman at the well living water. A river flows from the throne of God in Ezekiel’s vision and brings life to the world. This same river appears as the river of life in Revelation 22.

In a world where people are immersed in social media feeds, 24 hour news channels, sports radio, binge watching, and celebrity gossip, what would it look like for us to be a people whose lives are saturated with the Holy Spirit, overflowing with the grace God, oozing with scripture and prayer.

I wonder if we would look more like Mother Theresa caring for the poor in Calcutta or Eugene Peterson delighting in the turns of phrase of scripture or Julian of Norwich enraptured by God’s presence in prayer or St Francis of Assisi giving everything away to the poor and following Jesus. In a world where people either seem to have chosen the route of escapism through entertainment or anger through their particular information bubble, what if we chose scripture, prayer, and worship? What if we chose to soak our lives in God?

– 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 or at zionreformed.online.church. 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, we continue our study of James as we hear the call to not show favoritism, but instead to see people through the lens of God’s grace and mercy.

Jill Austin will also be sharing an update from our first shopping day at Threads on the 14th.

Grow in Community
Steve Landstra underwent his latest three month scan and the results, overall, were positive. They did see one spot on his left lung had grown a little. They will do a biopsy in the next two weeks to examine this spot.

Rog Beute continues his recovery and physical therapy at Mary Free Bed. Continued prayers for motivation, strength and perseverance.

We will be having a Parent/Student Meeting on September 26 at the beginning of youth group (High School – 4:00 PM) (Middle School – 5:45 PM).  Come and find out general information about youth group as well as mission trip information and upcoming fundraisers.

This Sunday, we will be holding an informational meetings at 6 pm about the Reformed Church in America’s upcoming General Synod meeting, our annual national assembly. Last week we talked about how we decide things in our denomination and this week we will focus on the specific issues before Synod this year. You can learn more about General Synod here.

We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
9/27    Monday         Hebrews 12
9/28    Tuesday        Hebrews 13
9/29    Wednesday  James 1
9/30    Thursday      James 2
10/1    Friday           James 3

You can also find the reading schedule on our website under the Ministries tab.

Serve the World
In light of the situation in Afghanistan, the RCA Global Mission is working to safely evacuate vulnerable Afghan people.   RCA Global Mission has reached out to Zion for help.  For $910, one person can be transported safely out to be resettled.  The hope is that Zion will be able to contribute at least enough to cover one person.  Please consider contributing.  Your contribution can be put in the love offering box in the back of church or included in the regular collection (if in the regular collection, please note “Afghan Evacuation” on the envelope).  We will be collecting on 9/19 and 9/26.  Thank you.

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:  $179,364.32
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $126,275.81
Giving Last Week: $7,061.00
Afghan Evacuation: $489.00

Next month I will be going to General Synod, our denominations annual national meeting. This will be my fourth time attending a General Synod. The location typically rotates between several different Christian colleges. I have attended at Central College in Pella, IA, Trinity Christian College in Chicagoland, and Calvin College, now University, here in Grand Rapids. But this year, due to delaying the meeting until the fall, which means colleges are in session, I will be suffering through 5 days of church meetings in Tucson, AZ at a resort. Truly, the life of a pastor is a deep burden. 🙂

The workbook for this five day meeting just became public on Wednesday, so I spent a couple of hours reading through a portion of the reports and recommendations we will be discussing in October. The entire workbook is 365 pages of bylaws, theological papers, summaries of other meetings, and financial statements, as well as letters written by local church bodies to the national meeting asking us to make this or that decision. Honestly, as I read through all these documents, the thought of sitting through all those meetings and discussions was starting to make me depressed. It doesn’t sound that fun at all.

I got up to stretch my legs and as I walked out of my office I realized I had not even looked yet to see who else was going to be at General Synod. So, I sat down and read through the roll call of delegates and found people who stood up in my wedding, a couple for whom I read scripture at their wedding, friends from our Classis and friends from seminary, someone from our downtown plant, City Chapel, and more. Suddenly, the thought of spending five days with friends both new and old sounded pretty good.

I often have a similar experience when I think about church. When I think about the institution and board meetings and programs, I don’t get particularly excited. Maybe you have that, too. It is not exciting to give money to an organization or donate your time and talent to a meeting. But, when I think about all the kids fed through Hand2Hand and the women I saw shopping at Threads on Tuesday and mentors hanging out with kids at Bursley through Kids Hope, and adults investing in the kids in our church and others pouring into the youth, churches being planted in Nepal and Europe, youth impacted in England, and so many other missionaries whom we support, and then I think of all the people whom I get to see on Sunday when we gather for worship, then I start to get excited.

Church is not an institution, but a particular people called together by God to live out the values and ways of his kingdom, to live like Jesus would if he were with us today. When I think of the time I invest at Zion or the money Rachel and I and our working children tithe to Zion, I don’t think about budgets or organizational structures, I see all the lives changed because of what God is doing in and through each of us as we share life together. Because your call, your God given dreams, and our shared sense of mission and shared ministries are worth investing my life, my time, and my resources.

God is working here at Zion and it is fun to be a part of it.

– 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 or at zionreformed.online.church. 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, we continue our study of James as we hear the call to both listen and apply God’s word in a life pursuing God’s Shalom in our world.

This Sunday, we also welcome Dr. Rachel Postle-Brown, the principal of Bursley Elementary. We have been partnering with Bursley Elementary and Kids Hope for the past year and will be doing so again this year to provide mentoring to students and encouragement to the teachers of Bursley. We look forward to hearing from Dr. Brown.

Grow in Community
Rog Beute continues his recovery after suffering multiple strokes a couple of weeks ago. Please keep both Rog and Teresa in your prayers as he continues his journey of recovery.

Nursery training for adult & teen volunteers will be at after worship this Sunday in the sanctuary. This training will include a “Keeping Kids Safe” portion, which is required for all adults 18 yrs. old and above, prior to serving with children.

On September 19 and 26, we will be holding informational meetings at 6 pm about the Reformed Church in America’s upcoming General Synod meeting, our annual national assembly. The first week we will talk about how we decide things in our denomination and the second week we will focus on the specific issues before Synod this year. You can learn more about General Synod here.

We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
9/20    Monday         Hebrews 7
9/21    Tuesday        Hebrews 8
9/22    Wednesday  Hebrews 9
9/23    Thursday      Hebrews 10
9/24    Friday           Hebrews 11

You can also find the reading schedule on our website under the Ministries tab.

Serve the World
In light of the situation in Afghanistan, the RCA Global Mission is working to safely evacuate vulnerable Afghan people.   RCA Global Mission has reached out to Zion for help.  For $910, one person can be transported safely out to be resettled.  the hope is that Zion will be able to contribute at least enough to cover one person.  Please consider contributing.  Your contribution can be put in the love offering box in the back of church or included in the regular collection (if in the regular collection, please note Afghan Evacuation” on the envelope).  We will be collecting on 9/19 and 9/26.  Thank you.

Thank you for all of your donations to Threads thus far! The first shopping day for Threads families was on Tuesday, September 14. We had a great first day of shopping and heard many great comments from those who came shopping. Thank you to all the people who helped make this first day possible! At this time we are in need of:
new and gently used clothing / shoes for girls and boys sizes infant through teen.
New underwear for boys (all sizes)
New underwear for men (all sizes)
Monetary donations are always welcome to purchase these needs.

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:  $168,154.05
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $119,214.81
Giving Last Week: $19,563.00

9-12-21 Bulletin