For the past month, I have been trying to meet with someone from our denomination. But, due to pastoral care calls, important unplanned meetings, travel schedules, and now yesterday my accidentally putting our meeting in Mountain time rather than Eastern time in my calendar, we will be trying to meet again next week.

All these scheduling challenges have got me thinking about the challenge of maintaining relationships. Life is busy. In our family, it is rare for all of us to be home one the same evening. Between church commitments, the kids extra-curricular activities, and time with their friends, every waking moment is often full.

I have come to the not very insightful conclusion that relationships require lots of intentionality and consistency. We have to decide they matter to us. We have to put time on the calendar. Or, those moments will get eaten up by the to-do list and the other demands for our time.

This is true for small groups meeting, for discipleship triads, for youth group, for Sunday worship. Either we make these times to gather a priority and put them before all the other items pushing their way onto our agenda or our attendance will quickly become sporadic, nominal, and eventually not really hardly ever at all.

Someone once said that you can tall a lot about someone’s spiritual life and worship by looking at their checkbook. I think the same could be said of our calendars. If someone looked at your or my calendar, what would they think came first in our lives? What would they say mattered to us?

Connect to God

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
Jim Oudbier is recovering at home from knee replacement surgery today. Continue to pray for those in our congregation who deal with ongoing health issues.

We extend our sympathy to Ryan and Treasure Trombley as they mourn the loss of their daughter Hope Grace who was stillborn on Sunday, September 1. Please pray for peace and comfort for the entire family in this difficult time of loss.

Our Sunday School ministry will begin this Sunday, September 8. Following is some important information for the year:

• Our kid’s programming will go until 10:50. If church gets out before that, feel free to grab a cup of coffee & chat until pick-up time.
• Kids ages birth-4th grade need to be checked in. (5th graders are “grandfathered” in this year, and don’t need a name tag.)  Kids 3rd grade and younger must be checked out, but 4th & 5th graders are free to leave on their own.
• We’re encouraging kids birth-age 3 to be dropped off before church starts in their classrooms.
• Kids in Kindergarten-5th will start out as a large group in Room 205, and then split into age-based small groups.

• Nursery – Room 207 (where the 3 yr. olds were last year)
• 3 yr. olds – Room 208
• 4 yr. & young 5’s – Room 206
• Kindergarten – Room 203
• 1st grade – Room 204
• 2nd/3rd grade – Room 209
• 4th & 5th grade – Chapel/Youth Room

Following Labor Day, all adults who are serving in a new role, will be invited to go through some leadership training. We have a great team of coaches to assist in this training. The training will be a combination on-line video and text resources through RightNow Media and face-to-face conversations with a coach and other members of Zion. If you are serving in a new role this year, you can expect someone to contact you in the next 7 to 10 days..

If you haven’t yet signed up for RightNow Media, a great free resource of Christian videos for kids and adults alike, you can do so here.

Youth and Worship Pastor Jeremy Zoet will be on sabbatical from August 5 to October 1. During this time he will not respond to calls, texts, or emails. In his absence please direct all communication to the following people:

Worship: Sarah McAnally at (810) 434-6841 or feelinsnappy@gmail.com.
Middle School Youth: Rachel Verbrugge at (616) 258-3291 or verbrugge.family@att.net.
High School Youth: Shanda VandePol at (616) 308-0700 or shandavandepol@yahoo.com.
If an emergency arises, contact Pastor Greg at (616) 340-7785.

Serve the World
Earlier this week, our church was approached by Kids Hope USA and Bursley Elementary school to consider becoming a Kids Hope partner with Bursley. Kids Hope USA connects local church with local schools to provide mentoring and tutoring of students during the school day. Consistory will be discussing this request on Tuesday and we ask for your prayers as we seek to determine our capacity to join in this work.

This Sunday, we welcome Doug McClintic, formerly on staff with our Regional Synod and now the European Church Planting Coordinator for the RCA. In that role, Doug provides support, strategic coordination, and expertise to congregations, classes, regional synods, and other agencies in European church planting efforts. He partners North American congregations with the next generation of European churches to develop a strategy of local empowerment, collaboration, and evaluation. 

Doug will also be leading a workshop on taking faith risks on September 12. The announcement and a link to sign-up are below.

Administrative Details
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: $155,285.48
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $119,239.05