This weekend is Halloween. While some Christians choose not to participate in Halloween, many others enjoy the fun of dressing up as something they are not. In my house this year, we have a greek goddess and a Michigan fan wearing a dunce cap. As a child, my mom was willing to go all out making costumes for Halloween and one year I went in a full E.T. hand made costume including a glowing heart and finger. In college, I borrowed a costume from the Holland Chorale Tulip Time show and went to a party as a One Eyed, One-Horned, Flying, Purple People-Eater. It’s fun to dress up for a night and pretend.

As a child, playing dress up and putting on costumes is a way to imagine what it could be like to be an adult or to think about how other people live. It’s why kids play house, cops and robbers, and school. They are making sense of their world and figuring out how they fit in. It’s fun to put on a mask and pretend for a while.

As a young adult, I was working at Herman Miller during a round of layoffs. People were tense. Scared. Short with one another. For a couple of years, it felt like one reorganization after another. I was talking with an executive about the anxiety and worry people had and she said, “Sometimes, you just have to fake it ’til you make it.” I have heard that advice several times since and it is often good advice. Sometimes we have to put on a brave face and just face the challenges we find overwhelming. Sometimes we have to pretend we know what we are doing as we figure it out.

But, when we are always faking it ’til we make. When we are always hiding behind a mask of competence and having our life figured out. Pretty soon we can begin to lose who we are. We  can begin to think our value and worth comes from the mask we wear rather than who we truly are.

The beauty of Jesus is that he unmasks our false selves, the people we pretend to be, and then when we finally see ourselves as we really are, he tells us we are loved. We see this over and over in the gospels. He sees Zachaeus in the tree. He sees the rejection of the woman at the well. He sees the sin of the woman caught in adultery. The denial, false braggadocio and fear of Peter. The doubts of the crowd. He sees them as they are and he accepts and loves them.

At our best, this is the beauty of the church. It is the one place we can go, messed up lives, doubts and fears, failures and successes, and know we will be accepted and loved just as we truly are. This is a place we do not need to pretend. It is a place we can be known.

Afterall, the church is God’s house. The same God who knit us together in our mothers wombs and knew us before we were born and knows us now even better than we know ourselves and he loves us enough to give up his life for us. Take off the mask this week and come to Jesus and receive his rest.

– Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather indoors at 9 and 11 am. In order to ensure we are able to practice social distancing indoors, we are asking people to sign-up for the service they are planning to attend. You can sign-up to attend worship either using the links in below or on the front-page of our website beginning on Monday mornings. Following are the links to sign-up for worship this Sunday:
9 am service: https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/598009
11 am service: https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/598010

If you are not able to join us in person or would simply prefer to not gather in a large crowd yet, you can still join us for online worship. We will be live streaming both our 9 and 11 am services at zionreformed.online.church and Zion’s Facebook Page. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.

On Tuesday next week, many people will go to the polls. Votes will be cast. Those already submitted will be counted. And then, on Wednesday or maybe a few days later after all the early ballots have been counted, our nation will have chosen its leaders for the next few years. Based on news accounts, social media feeds, and conversations, many people are anxious about this election. It feels like the most important election of their lives. As we consider Isaiah 40 this Sunday, we remember God is our true hope. He is our true security. And in him we find the joy and life we need.

This Sunday, we also have the joy of celebrating the baptism of Jason Sietsema, the son of Joe and Jill Sietsema. In baptism, we are reminded again our salvation is found not in any of our deeds or even the strength of our faith, but in the gracious and unfailing faithfulness of our God to his children.

Grow in Community
Meeting as a small group poses some particular challenges during this time of Covid. Between health concerns, deciding if you want a babysitter in your house, or if you even want to meet with several other families in person leave many unsure what to do. Let me offer a couple of suggestions. Some small groups have chosen to meet at church in one of our large education rooms. You can socially distance and still be in physically together. Or, if your group is doing a video study with RightNow Media you can now simul-stream (is that a word) to your whole group. The interface looks a lot like a zoom call with the video in the center of the screen and little videos of all the participants on the side. It is a great way to still study scripture, talk about life, and be sort of together when being all crammed in a small space isn’t an option. If you want to check our RightNow Media and need to sign-up you can do so here.

This Advent we will begin a church wide campaign to read through the New Testament together. We will not be reading at a breakneck pace. Instead, we will read 1 chapter a day, Monday through Friday for a year. In addition to reading scripture, we encourage you, if able, to use the app Through the Word, available on Apple and Google devices. We will be sharing more int he next few weeks, but I wanted to give you a heads up.

Zion Kids will be making a video of the kids telling us the Christmas story, using green screens and various backgrounds, in lieu of our typical Christmas program this year. If your child is interested in participating (in grades 3-5), please contact Rachel Brower by Sunday as the script is being finalized.

Serve the World
Last week, I shared an opportunity to help support Hand2Hand and Matthew Radcliff by donating your popcans. Matthew, with his parents,  will take them to the store to get them recycled. All proceeds will go directly to Hand2Hand. This Sunday is your last chance to donate any cans to Matthew for Hand2Hand so don’t forget to bring them Sunday morning. So, if you want to feel good about all your returnables, bring them to church and let’s turn them into food for local students.

Our Hand2Hand began ministry is currently serving 52 students in the Grandville school district. If you want to support Hand2Hand or learn more about the ministry, please contact Sheila Johnson (sheilaj2494@yahoo.com) or Shawn Sanders (joshandshawn@hotmail.com).

If you would like to support our Personal Care Pantry, following items (full size – not travel size) are needed and can be dropped off on a Sunday morning or during the week Monday through Thursday:
Laundry Soap    Bar Soap    Dish Soap         Disposable Razors
Shampoo    Conditioner    Toothpaste         Paper Grocery Bags
Deodorant    Tampons     Maxi Pads         Paper towels (1 or 2 pack)    Toilet paper (1-4 pack)
Donations can be placed in the box in the narthex marked “pantry donations”.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Chip Harkes, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is chip@harkeslandscape.com and his phone number is 616-299-4804.

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. We are especially grateful this week for all those who have adjusted their means of giving to give online, through the mail, and via text.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget: $220,631.88
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $187,642.57
Giving Last Week: $6,577.06
Cash on Hand: $168,604.05

Sometimes I share a devotional thought in the E-news, but today I want to share two events in the life of Zion that gave me a little joy this week.

First, and most importantly, I received an e-mail from Kim Radcliff on Sunday night that their son Matthew has been collecting popcorns to raise money to donate to Hand2Hand at Zion. Currently  from talking with family, friends, and neighbors, he has already collected about 500 cans. I think it would really cool for our church to come alongside this 2nd grader to help him raise even more money for Hand2Hand. So, we re doing a 2 weekend pop can drive to help Matthew. If you have pop cans at home, bring them to church (in a sealed bag) and Matthew will make sure they get recycled and all the proceeds will to go to support Hand2Hand. Wouldn’t it be great for Matthew to see all the people from church support and cheer him on by brining in their own cans for him?

(On a side note, in high school I worked at a grocery store and ran the return counter. I vividly remember sorting some pop cans and finding cockroaches in the bags. We quickly brought all the bottles to the dumpster because no one wants to shop at a grocery store with roaches. No one wants to go to a church with roaches either, so please clean the cans prior to brining them to church. :))

Second, and maybe this is mostly encouraging to me as your pastor, but this past Sunday we had 137 unique people attend at least one of our services. (We are careful to not double count staff or volunteers who are at both services.) This is the most people we have had join us in person since we started meeting together again in July. Ninety-seven attended the 9 am service, which is actually a little over the guidelines for a sanctuary our size right now. And, 40 attended the 11 am service. In addition, we estimate we had at least 60 people join us for worship at zionreformed.online.church plus those who watched through Facebook. It is good to be together in person and online.

On a related note, if you are planning to join us for worship this week, please consider attending the 11 am service to even out our attendance a little bit. And, don’t forget to sign up below so we can plan accordingly. Either way, we look forward to seeing you in person or online on Sunday!

– Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather indoors at 9 and 11 am. In order to ensure we are able to practice social distancing indoors, we are asking people to sign-up for the service they are planning to attend. You can sign-up to attend worship either using the links in below or on the front-page of our website beginning on Monday mornings. Following are the links to sign-up for worship this Sunday:
9 am service: https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/590855
11 am service: https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/590858

If you are not able to join us in person or would simply prefer to not gather in a large crowd yet, you can still join us for online worship. We will be live streaming both our 9 and 11 am services at zionreformed.online.church and Zion’s Facebook Page. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday.

This week, we conclude a series entitled “Christians at Our Best,” inspired by the book Christians in an Age of Outrage by Ed Stetzer. Living in a culture addicted to anger and outrage, it is easy to begin to take on the habits and practices of a world consumed with picking sides, dividing groups, and creating scapegoats. In this series, we will think together about how we can live as Christians in a way that brings the light and hope of Jesus to a world moving from one temper tantrum to another. In the midst of the outrage of our world, we can often struggle to differentiate between righteous anger that seeks to bring about God’s justice and the outrage of our world. This week we hear the reminder that our first obligation is to simply love our neighbor.

We will also be welcoming Andrew Moore for our moment for mission this Sunday. Andrew is a church planter from Community Reformed in Zeeland. He and his wife have felt a call to plant a new church in Grandville. Our staff and Consistory have been in conversations with Andrew about how we can be both a support and encouragement in this endeavor. We look forward to hearing about Andrew’s next steps in this planting effort.

Grow in Community
We have recently started a closed Zion group on Facebook to create a place to discuss sermons, share prayer requests, and stay connected asynchronously when direct face-to-face connections are more challenging. If you want to join the group, you can request to join at this link: www.facebook.com/groups/ziongrandville/

Zion Kids will be making a video of the kids telling us the Christmas story, using green screens and various backgrounds, in lieu of our typical Christmas program this year. If your child is interested in participating (in grades 3-5), please contact Rachel Brower by Sunday as the script is being finalized.

Serve the World
Our Hand2Hand began ministry is currently serving 52 students in the Grandville school district. If you want to support Hand2Hand or learn more about the ministry, please contact Sheila Johnson (sheilaj2494@yahoo.com) or Shawn Sanders (joshandshawn@hotmail.com).

If you would like to support our Personal Care Pantry, following items (full size – not travel size) are needed and can be dropped off on a Sunday morning or during the week Monday through Thursday:
Laundry Soap    Bar Soap    Dish Soap         Disposable Razors
Shampoo    Conditioner    Toothpaste         Paper Grocery Bags
Deodorant    Tampons     Maxi Pads         Paper towels (1 or 2 pack)    Toilet paper (1-4 pack)
Donations can be placed in the box in the narthex marked “pantry donations”.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Chip Harkes, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is chip@harkeslandscape.com and his phone number is 616-299-4804.

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. We are especially grateful this week for all those who have adjusted their means of giving to give online, through the mail, and via text.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget: $210,125.60
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $180,885.51
Giving Last Week: $13,475.00
Cash on Hand: $164,665.46

This morning in my devotions, I came across Hebrews 10 which reads:

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another… 
– Hebrews 10:24-25a

I have personally been feeling the strain and sadness over the past 7 months of not meeting together like we used to do. While we have been meeting together in-person for the last 3 months now, many people have chosen to not come back to physical church yet. There are so many different rationales that can lead people to make that decision.

For some people, not gathering is a health decision. We have members of our church with depressed immune systems, chronic lung issues, heart disease, and others who are simply older or care for a person at-risk who have chosen to stay home for their own safety. I want to affirm your decision today to take your health seriously. And, I want to encourage you to continue reaching out to fellow believers in ways that are safe for you: phone calls, face-time, small outdoor gatherings so that you can both encourage  others and be encouraged in your spiritual life.

Other people have chosen to not come back to a physical in-person gathering because they are worried about spreading Covid-19. They do not want to catch it or spread the disease to others. I want to affirm your concern about this disease as well. Just in the last 3 weeks, we have seen more than a 50% increase in new cases in our state. And, I want you to know that we take the health risks of gathering seriously at Zion, too. This is why we are requiring people to wear masks, limiting attendance, social distancing, and providing hand sanitizer throughout our building. Just Tuesday, the CDC Director said we are seeing more outbreaks from small gatherings in homes than in the public sector. Coming to church, given all our precautions, may well be safer than gathering in the home of a friend.

Other people have chosen to stay home because of young children and the lack of a nursery. I get that. As the father of four children, who has had a child run up in the middle of a sermon to get a hug, I can understand how taking young children to church can be stressful. (Honestly, Rachel gets this way more than I do.) If it makes sense to stay home and watch online so you can listen and pay attention during church and your child can play, that is a good decision for your family. Just know, no one else will care if you have a child fussing in the back of church. It’s OK for kids to be kids in church. It is part of being the family of God.

Others are simply overwhelmed with jobs and distance learning with kids. The thought of sleeping in or simply having a little slower day sounds awfully good. If that’s where you are at, sleep in some Sundays, but consider coming some Sundays to not only worship, but see some other adults who care about you and remember you are not the only one struggling in these times. We can encourage each other together.

Other people have chosen to stay home because all of these Covid requirements suck the fun out of coming to church. They don’t like to wear masks and find it harder to breathe. They miss shaking hands and giving people a hug. They miss singing with a packed sanctuary. I miss all those things, too. And, I still find so much joy and comfort gathering with the people of Zion on Sundays together. It is different, but it is also still good.

I have also had a few conversations with people who are angry about Covid and the response to it. They feel it is overblown and not that big of a risk. They worry about government overreach and perceive the guidelines established as a type of persecution and a loss of their rights. While I do not share those opinions, I know those feelings are there and strongly held. I suppose the CDC, WHO, and the MDHHS could all be wrong about Covid. Maybe it is all overblown. Maybe all these precautions aren’t really needed. Maybe it is a type of persecution of the church. Even if all that is true, are we really the type of people who would stop gathering for worship because of the need to wear a mask or sit 6 feet apart from our friends? Is that all it takes to keep us from encouraging one another and celebrating our God? My experience of Zion is that you are all a whole lot tougher than that. If this is where you are at right now, I want you to know it is OK to be upset, it is OK to not like masks, it is OK to think your pastor is a bit of a worrywart, you can still come to church. You don’t even need to bring your own mask. We have disposable ones you can use right by door ‘B’ on the south side of the church. Use one of our masks, gather on Sunday and refuse to let something like a mask or government overreach keep you away from the people of God.

I hope to see you soon!

– Greg

Connect to God
This Sunday we will gather indoors at 9 and 11 am. In order to ensure we are able to practice social distancing indoors, we are asking people to sign-up for the service they are planning to attend. You can sign-up to attend worship either using the links in below or on the front-page of our website beginning on Monday mornings. Following are the links to sign-up for worship this Sunday:
9 am service:n https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/579886
11 am service: https://zionreformed.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/579887

If you are not able to join us in person or would simply prefer to not gather in a large crowd yet, you can still join us for online worship. We will be live streaming both our 9 and 11 am services at zionreformed.online.church and Zion’s Facebook Page. We will also rebroadcast the service on WCET at noon on Friday and 4pm next Sunday. I apologize for a technological glitch at our 9 am service this past Sunday. We are getting used to some new software and hardware and a minor error on my part caused the loss of our livestream for a few minutes. We are still learning and hope to do better next week!

This week, we continue a series entitled “Christians at Our Best,” inspired by the book Christians in an Age of Outrage by Ed Stetzer. Living in a culture addicted to anger and outrage, it is easy to begin to take on the habits and practices of a world consumed with picking sides, dividing groups, and creating scapegoats. In this series, we will think together about how we can live as Christians in a way that brings the light and hope of Jesus to a world moving from one temper tantrum to another. In the midst of the outrage of our world, we can often struggle to differentiate between righteous anger that seeks to bring about God’s justice and the outrage of our world. This week we consider how to better leverage our online presence for the glory of God and in service of his kingdom

During both our 9 and 11 am services, we will be sending the McAnally family to Walker Harbor Church. Sarah was recently hired as the new worship director at Walker Harbor and will begin her new role there on October 25. Sean and Sarah have been active members of Zion over the last 10 years, both served as Deacons, led multiple small groups, discipleship triads, and served in our worship team. Sean has also served in children’s ministries and as the chair of our mission committee. It has been a joy to see God grow and develop them as leaders and servants in his church and we are delighted to be able to bless and send them as God calls them to a new ministry opportunity.

Grow in Community
We have recently started a closed Zion group on Facebook to create a place to discuss sermons, share prayer requests, and stay connected asynchronously when direct face-to-face connections are more challenging. If you want to join the group, you can request to join at this link:www.facebook.com/groups/ziongrandville/

Children’s programming for kids Pre-school through 5th grade begins this week at both our 9 and 11 am services. Kids will begin in the church service as in prior years and will then be dismissed to their classrooms. They will be in 3 classrooms and we will practice social distancing by requiring masks for children in K-5th and attempting to keep unrelated children 6 feet apart. We intend to follow the recommendations in the MI Safe Start for Schools documentation.

Serve the World
Our Hand2Hand began ministry is currently serving 52 students in the Grandville school district. If you want to support Hand2Hand or learn more about the ministry, please contact Sheila Johnson (sheilaj2494@yahoo.com) or Shawn Sanders (joshandshawn@hotmail.com).

If you would like to support our Personal Care Pantry, following items (full size – not travel size) are needed and can be dropped off on a Sunday morning or during the week Monday through Thursday:
Laundry Soap    Bar Soap    Dish Soap         Disposable Razors
Shampoo    Conditioner    Toothpaste         Paper Grocery Bags
Deodorant    Tampons     Maxi Pads         Paper towels (1 or 2 pack)    Toilet paper (1-4 pack)
Donations can be placed in the box in the narthex marked “pantry donations”.

If you need help, either with food, personal care items, help grocery shopping, or with financial needs, please contact Chip Harkes, our chair of deacons, and he can help connect you with the appropriate resources at Zion. His e-mail is chip@harkeslandscape.com and his phone number is 616-299-4804.

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. We are especially grateful this week for all those who have adjusted their means of giving to give online, through the mail, and via text.

Fiscal Year to Date Budget: $199,619.32
Fiscal Year to Date Contribution: $167,410.51
Giving Last Week: $8,174.00
Cash on Hand: $163,557.46