On Sunday, I shared one of may all-time favorite devotionals, which comes from Chuck Swindoll’s devotional In the Seasons of Life. We had some technical difficulties with the video of Sunday’s service, so I share the devotional below for your personal reflection as well.

On a dangerous seacoast notorious for shipwrecks, there was a crude little lifesaving station. Actually, the station was merely a hut with only one boat . . . but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the turbulent sea. With little thought for themselves, they would go out day and night tirelessly searching for those in danger as well as the lost. Many, many lives were saved by this brave band of men who faithfully worked as a team in and out of the lifesaving station. By and by, it became a famous place.

Some of those who had been saved as well as others along the seacoast wanted to become associated with this little station. They were willing to give their time and energy and money in support of its objectives. New boats were purchased. New crews were trained. The station that was once obscure and crude and virtually insignificant began to grow. Some of its members were unhappy that the hut was so unattractive and poorly equipped. They felt a more comfortable place should be provided. Emergency cots were replaced with lovely furniture. Rough, hand-made equipment was discarded and sophisticated, classy systems were installed. The hut, of course, had to be torn down to make room for all the additional equipment, furniture, systems, and appointments. By its completion, the life-saving station had become a popular gathering place, and its objectives had begun to shift. It was now used as sort of a clubhouse, an attractive building for public gatherings. Saving lives, feeding the hungry, strengthening the fearful, and calming the disturbed rarely occurred by now. 

Fewer members were now interested in braving the sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired professional lifeboat crews to do this work. The original goal of the station wasn’t altogether forgotten, however. The lifesaving motifs still prevailed in the club’s decorations. In fact, there was a liturgical lifeboat preserved in the Room of Sweet Memories with soft, indirect lighting, which helped hide the layer of dust upon the once-used vessel. 

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the boat crews brought in loads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty, some terribly sick and lonely. Others were “different” from the majority of the club members. The beautiful new club suddenly became messy and cluttered. A special committee saw to it that a shower house was immediately built outside and away from the club so victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside. 

At the next meeting there were strong words and angry feelings, which resulted in a division among the members. Most of the people wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities and all involvements with shipwreck victims . . . (“it’s too unpleasant, it’s a hindrance to our social life, it’s opening the door to folks who are not our kind”). As you’d expect, some still insisted upon saving lives, that this was their primary objective—that their only reason for existence was ministering to anyone needing help regardless of their club’s beauty or size or decorations. They were voted down and told if they wanted to save the lives of various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast! They did. 

As years passed, the new station experienced the same old changes. It evolved into another club . . . and yet another lifesaving station was begun. History continued to repeat itself . . . and if you visit that coast today you’ll find a large number of exclusive, impressive clubs along the shoreline owned and operated by slick professionals who have lost all involvement with the saving of lives. 

Shipwrecks still occur in those waters, but now most of the victims are not saved. Every day they drown at sea, and so few seem to care . . . so very few.

Do you?

Connect to God

At a time when the first-century church had been invaded by false teachers, John knew Christians who are not sure of God’s truth could wander away, never to return. He wrote 1 John to help these early believers not only to know the real truth, but to be confident of it, and to rest upon it. If then, why not today? We all urgently need to hear and obey God’s loving message in 1 John and let God’s love shape how we live in this world as light in the darkness bringing hope to the hopeless. In the second chapter of 1 John, we consider the call to love like Jesus even in the midst of conflict and tension.

This Sunday, we celebrate the ordination and installation of Brandon Deiter and Steve Boersma as Elders and Robbi Boeve and Dan Sundberg as Deacons. During the service we will lay hands on them and pray for God’s spirit to fill and guide them in these roles and will renew our promises both to and with the Consistory God has given us as a congregation. We are thankful for all who serve and lead in our congregation and particularly for our Consistory as we ordain these newest members.

If you would like a copy of the worship service, you can receive a complete copy by contacting Tom Verbrugge or you can find the weekly messages on our website.

Grow in Community

Our church recently signed up to give everyone access to RightNow Media. You may have received an invitation to RightNow in an e-mail this week and wondered if it was spam. It’s no spamt. But, it is free access to some great Bible study resources, leadership training, and Christian videos for children. Rachel and I have been using RightNow media to help us disciple our kids in our devotions together and in our personal growth as well. It is worth your time to check out, especially the Read Scripture series under Zion Reformed Church from the Bible Project.

As a member or regular attender of Zion you get free access to all these resources. RightNow media can be accessed through a computer, your smart phone or tablet, apple tv, Roku, Fire TV, and more. If you did not receive an invite, double check your spam folder and if you still can’t find the invite, send Pastor Gregan e-mail and he will send you a new invitation.

During the summer, we take a break from our regular children’s programming to allow our teachers have a break from prepping lessons each week. Instead, we show age appropriate Christian videos for kids ages 3 years old through 3rd grade. We are still looking for a few volunteers. Please consider volunteering to help over the summer! It’s a great way to get to know some of the awesome children in our church! You can sign up via the link below, or there’s a sign-up sheet outside of Room 205. Rachel Brower will meet with volunteers each Sunday before church so they know how to run the video. You must have gone through Keeping Kids Safe training and a background check in order to volunteer. If not, Rachel can meet with you to go over our policy. You sign-up through the link below:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e044cafad2ca2ff2-summer1

We also have a more flexible schedule for our First Impressions Team (ushers, greeters, and others) who so graciously welcome us every week, If you would like to try serving on one of these teams over the summer, you can sign up through the link below.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409054AAEAE23A6FD0-summer

On Saturday, June 29, Grandville will hold its annual Visser Family YMCA Buck Creek Run. If you are interested in running with people from church, please contact Pastor Rick. For more information check out www.visserfamilybuckcreekrun.com.

Serve the World

Camp Zion is an amazing, fun-filled, summer time adventure.  Anyone is welcome to be a part of serving at camp, from teenagers to retirees. Camp runs for seven weeks: June 17 – Aug 1, Monday through Thursday each week, 9am-3pm each day. You can serve one day a week or every day or anything in between. In particular, we are always open to adults who are willing to drive students to and from lunch and field trips. If you would like to know more, please contact Rachel Verbrugge.

Administrative Details

There will be a Town Hall meeting on Sunday, June 2 following worship to share the reasons and rational behind Consistory’s decision to move Sunday School to during church beginning next fall. After the meeting a survey will be e-mailed to our congregation to which we encourage you to respond. Following the informational forum, a paper copy of the survey will be available for those who don’t have internet access. To ensure you receive the survey please include your email on the Connection Card or email Connie this week at cstegeman@zionreformed.org.

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 to date budget: $565,510.40

Fiscal Year to date contributions: $548,801.12

Yesterday, I spent several hours meeting with pastors and denominational leaders from our region talking about how to create an environment where our churches raise up future church planters. The RCA has an ambitious goal to plant 1,000 new churches in the next 20 years. Many of these churches will be in ethnic communities, many will be outside the United States, and many will not look like traditional churches, but they will also be formed to help people far from God draw near to him, communities experience the Shalom of God, and people glorify God in all their lives. Church will not look like it does now in 20 years.

For the last 20 years, I have been reading church futurists predict the need for radical change in churches as our culture becomes more secular, younger generations drift away from institutions in general and the church in particular, technology both connects and alienates us, and the middle class shrinks and church budgets with it. Writers like Leonard Sweet and Alan Hirsch have written of the need to return to the less programmatic and more relational models of the early church, to the less professional and more gift based ministry, to both smaller and bigger forms of community and connection. We have wrestled through these changes over the years at Zion and have both started and ended various ministries when needed and made changes when necessary in many different ways.

One of the most influential church studies in the last 20 years came out of Willow Creek Community Church called Reveal. Reveal looked at the spiritual lives of regular church attenders and found something both challenging and very much in line with the futurists mentioned above. This is the big conclusion: more involvement in church activities (i.e., serving in the church, attending a Sunday school class or small group, going to church multiple times a week or a Sunday) had very little impact on someone’s spiritual maturity beyond the initial decision to believe and the first few steps of faith. Simply increasing time in church or serving did not impact their growth beyond those first steps of faith, but, personal spiritual practices of prayer and reading the Bible individually and then reflecting on it in a small community of spiritual friends are by far the most important activities to grow in our walk with God as we mature in the faith.

For years, many churches like Willow Creek (a huge mega-church in Chicago) believed that simply getting people more involved in church through programmatic activities (think Sunday school, mid-week worship, Small groups, etc.) would help people grow spiritually. But, they found beyond those initial steps of faith, adding more and more spiritual activities did not impact the continued spiritual growth of most people. In fact, for many people it burned therm out spiritually and led some to drift away from the church entirely.

Church busyness does not equal spiritual growth. In fact, they found for the most mature believers their busyness at church hindered their spiritual growth. For the most mature believers, who had a clear sense of call, they needed the time and support to engage in ministries beyond the walls of their church. I see that in many of our spiritually mature members who volunteer in organizations like Forgotten Man Ministries or the refugee resettlement ministries of Bethany Christian Services and supporting our church plants and others who have been instrumental in starting new mission agencies outside of a particular church structure.

What does all this mean? I’m not sure. But I suspect it means over time we will continue to be pushed to minimize programs, shrink structure, and raise up relationships, organic models of ministry, and will need to learn to constantly adapt to change and innovation in the church.

I recently came across a great study by Pinetops Foundation called The Great Opportunity that looks at the future of the church and recommends several steps including planting new churches, enraging youth in mission, and justice issues as part of the way forward for our churches. You can check it out here.

Connect to God

At a time when the first-century church had been invaded by false teachers, John knew Christians who are not sure of God’s truth could wander away, never to return. He wrote 1 John to help these early believers not only to know the real truth, but to be confident of it, and to rest upon it. If then, why not today? We all urgently need to hear and obey God’s loving message in 1 John and let God’s love shape how we live in this world as light in the darkness bringing hope to the hopeless. In the first chapter of 1 John, we consider the call of fellowship with God and the reality of sin at work in us all.

As our nation celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, we will take a few moments to remember those who have died defending our country and all those who have served in the armed forces and their families at the very beginning of our worship service this Sunday.

If you would like a copy of the worship service, you can receive a complete copy by contacting Tom Verbrugge or you can find the weekly messages on our website.

Grow in Community

Summer is just around the corner, so it’s time to start scheduling volunteers for our summer videos! This year, our K-3rd kids are going to watch the kids Bible study series, “Night Owls and Early Birds.” Our preschoolers will get to watch “Boz.” Everyone will get snacks and have some free playtime too.

This is the way that we give our regular teachers a break from prepping lessons over the summer, while still having something worthwhile for the kids during church. To make this possible, we need your help! We’re asking that all parents with children attending during the summer volunteer once or twice.

You must have gone through Keeping Kids Safe training and a background check in order to volunteer. If not, I can meet with you to go over our policy.

Please consider volunteering! It’s a great way to get to know some of the awesome children in our church! You can sign up via the link below, or there’s a sign-up sheet outside of Room 205. I will meet with volunteers each Sunday before church so they know how to run the video. You sign-up through the link below:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e044cafad2ca2ff2-summer1

We also have a more flexible schedule for our First Impressions Team (ushers, greeters, and others) who so graciously welcome us every week, If you would like to try serving on one of these teams over the summer, you can sign up through the link below.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409054AAEAE23A6FD0-summer

On Saturday, June 29, Grandville will hold its annual Visser Family YMCA Buck Creek Run. If you are interested in running with people from church, please contact Pastor Rick. For more information check out www.visserfamilybuckcreekrun.com.

Serve the World

Camp Zion is an amazing, fun-filled, summer time adventure.  Anyone is welcome to be a part of serving at camp, from teenagers to retirees. Camp runs for seven weeks: June 17 – Aug 1, Monday through Thursday each week, 9am-3pm each day. You can serve one day a week or every day or anything in between. In particular, we are always open to adults who are willing to drive students to and from lunch and field trips. If you would like to know more, please contact Rachel Verbrugge.

Administrative Details

There will be a Town Hall meeting on Sunday, June 2 following worship to share the reasons and rational behind Consistory’s decision to move Sunday School to during church beginning next fall. After the meeting there will be an e-mail survey sent out that to which we encourage you to respond. A paper copy of the survey will be available for those who don’t have internet access. To ensure you receive the survey please include your email on the Connection Card or email Connie this week at cstegeman@zionreformed.org.

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 to date budget:  $554,635.20

Fiscal Year to date contributions: $541,419.12