9-5-21 Announcements

Several years ago now, I received an e-mail ominously titled: How They See Us. A member of our church wrote to summarize a recent conversation they had with a new attender. The e-mail highlighted a variety of areas of our church ministry upon which we could improve. Reading the e-mail, I had to first take a few deep breaths to ensure I could hear the feedback without getting immediately defensive. (Do you ever have to do that? I do.) As I reflected on the e-mail, much of what was shared was either something I had not thought of, a misperception because of poor communication, or a frustration I already shared. Taking the time to reflect on the feedback allowed me to respond helpfully and improved the impact of our ministries.

I share that stories because earlier this week, I had an alternately fascinating and troubling conversation with someone who lives deeply in the teen culture of our community. They were sharing the perceptions of church going teens of their own churches. It was not pretty. Several of the teens this person knows are already planning on leaving church and not coming back when they are out of the house. They do not seem to dislike Jesus, but have been turned off by the church and thus dislike for many has grown in the last year and a half.

They identified three stumbling blocks for teens in claiming their parents faith as their own.

Biblical Illiteracy: Both the teens and their parents have limited Bible knowledge, limited ability to use scripture to interpret scripture when they come across hard passages, and rarely read their Bibles. Basically, their worldview is shaped by something other than scripture.

Christian Nationalism: They experience church as an odd mixture of Christianity, patriotism and ethnic pride. They do not see the people in church caring for those who are not like them or living out of a vision of God’s global church.

Anger: They see the social media feeds of church members and listen to sermons that seem more angry than grace filled, quicker to make a verbal dig than find common ground, faster to disparage than offer grace.

I don’t have any specific solutions to these challenges. I do not believe these concerns all fully apply to our church or to everyone in our church. But, I found them convicting. I offer them up as food for your thought.

– Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather in indoors and in person at 9:30 am and online at 9:30 and 11 am.  The online service will be pre-recorded and abbreviated as we will not be live-streaming services over the summer. 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. Beginning Labor Day Weekend, however, we will once again by live-streaming our worship services each week at 9:30 and rebroadcasting again at 11.

We live in an increasingly isolated world. People spend their days commuting to work, staring at screens, and can go days and weeks without talking with those nearest us. And yet, many of us have isolated ourselves from  unbelieving neighbors. We have worried about sin and failed to see them as Jesus does, What might God do if we embraced the lost art of neighboring and loved those nearest us as followers of Jesus?

Grow in Community
We will be kicking off our education year on September 12 with a bit of a party after church. Lunch will be catered by Brann’s. There will be a bounce house and other games for kids. Threads will hold an open house for everyone to see their space and learn more about this new ministry at Zion. Because the food will be catered, we are asking people to sign up ahead o fit if they plan to attend. (Obviously, we would never turn anyone away from a meal! But signing up will help us plan for the day.) You can sign up here.

Kids Ministry training for adult & teen volunteers will be at the following times:
Preschool & K-3rd class after worship TODAY, Aug. 29th.  Meet in the sanctuary.
Preteen (4th & 5th grades) at 4:00pm TODAY, Aug. 29th. Meet in Room 207.
Nursery training after worship on Sunday, Sept. 19.
All training will include a “Keeping Kids Safe” portion, which is required for all adults 18 yrs. old and above, prior to serving with children.

We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
8/30    Monday        1 Timothy 6
8/31    Tuesday       2 Timothy 1
9/1      Wednesday  2 Timothy 2
9/2      Thursday      2 Timothy 3
9/3       Friday          2 Timothy 4

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

Serve the World
Threads Announcement: Thank you for all of your donations thus far! The first shopping day for Threads families will be on Tuesday, September 14. 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:  $134,523.24
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $81,694.55
Giving Last Week: $3,526.00
Bathroom Building Fund (total given): $127,539.00

Normally, I begin the E-News with some sort of personal reflection or thought from my week. But this week, I want to give you an update eon our latest Consistory meeting.

Your Consistory met Tuesday night for our regular August meeting and made some decisions of which I want you to be aware.

First, late last month, Zion received an anonymous donation of $125,000 to go toward remodeling the two bathrooms near the church office. This is obviously a huge gift and completely unexpected. As a staff, Consistory, and congregation we want to extend our thanks to this donor.

Second, in conversations between our architect, Pastor Rick, and the donor, we determined we could gut and remodel the bathrooms without knocking down any walls and still be able to use our master building plan we had previously developed. Therefore, Consistory approved a plan last night to remodel the bathrooms without changing their existing footprint and using the remaining funds to update the women’s bathroom in the basement to become a family bathroom, which will be very helpful for Threads and any other events in our basement.

Third, we also approved funds to re-carpet and paint the education wing hallways, lobby, and youth room as well as updating the furniture in our youth room, cry room, and the lobby. These funds will come from our cash reserves and any remaining funds from those given to the building fund after the updates mentions in options one and two.

While this is not the extensive remodel we had discussed as a congregation throughout 2019, we believe these changes focused on 40 year old bathrooms and 15 year old carpet will provide the “biggest bang” for our dollars and represent faithful care of the property God has entrusted to us.

Fourth, we will be holding an open house on September 12 for our new Threads ministry. Everyone from church is invited on this day following worship to tour and check out this new ministry to love our neighbors. As this is also the first week of our regular education ministry year, we are also planning some food and other actives following worship. It is a day you will not want to miss.

Fifth, on Sundays September 19 and 26, at 6 pm, I will be holding informational sessions for those interested in learning more about General Synod (our national governing body meeting). General Synod this year may be making some significant decisions related to tensions in our denomination around issues like LGBTQ+, the role of women in the church, and baptism. The first week, we will talk about how decisions get made in our denomination. The second week, we will discuss the recommendations being brought to General Synod. You are welcome to attend just one event or both. I know for many the temptation might be to only come the second week, but, personally, I think the first week is more helpful in understanding how to move forward as a church no matter what may happen at General Synod.

If you see a Consistory member, make a point to thank them for their thoughtfulness and leadership of our church. They work really hard and we are blessed to have each of them serving.

– Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather in person at 9:30 am and online at 9:30 and 11 am. If you are joining us outside, you will want to bring chairs. The online service will be pre-recorded and abbreviated as we will not be live-streaming our outdoor services over the summer. 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.

We live in an increasingly isolated world. People spend their days commuting to work, staring at screens, and can go days and weeks without talking with those nearest us. And yet, many of us have isolated ourselves from unbelieving neighbors. This is true not only locally. This Sunday Chris and Christie Winkler from Wycliffe Bible translators join us to talk about how neighbor love is instrumental in the work of mission across the globe.

We will also celebrate with Andrew and Ellen Moore the baptism of their son Elliot.  As they celebrate his life, we give thanks to God for the gift of new life he has made available to all who believe. We thank God as well for the covenant he has established all the way back with Abraham to include children in his family. We honor this faithful God as we welcome  these children into the covenant community at Zion.

Grow in Community
Congratulations to Danny and Ashley Copron on the birth of their daughter Aria Louise. Aria was born on Monday, August 9 at 11:57PM weighing 7lbs 3oz. Both mom and baby are doing well. She will be welcomed home by her big brother Odin. We give thanks and praise to God for this precious gift.

Our regular Kids Ministry begins on Sunday morning, Sept. 12! I’m excited about the caliber of our teachers and helpers. We do, however, still need one more teacher, and one more helper for our 4th & 5th grade Preteen group. They are a great, small group of kids. Who else do we want investing in them? Kids Ministry training for adult & teen volunteers will be at the following times:
Preschool & K-3rd class after worship on Sunday, Aug. 29;
Preteen (4th & 5th grades) at 4:00pm on Sunday, Aug. 29
Nursery training after worship on Sunday, Sept. 19.

All training will include a “Keeping Kids Safe” portion, which is required for all adults 18 yrs. old and above, prior to serving with children. Please let Rachel Brower know if you are unable to be there.

We are reading through the New Testament over the next year as a congregation. The reading schedule for this coming week is below:
8/9    Monday         1 Thessalonians 4
8/10    Tuesday      1 Thessalonians 5
8/11    Wednesday  2 Thessalonians 1
8/12    Thursday      2 Thessalonians 2
8/13    Friday           2 Thessalonians 3

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

Serve the World
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:  $112,102.70
Fiscal Year 2021/22 Contributions: $70,640.55
Giving Last Week: $6,634.07
Bathroom Building Fund (total given): $127,499.00