This Sunday at COS:
Before worship, you can attend the 9:00am Hour in the church living room. Sunday, November 17’s meeting is Contemplate with Harry Plantinga. Each Contemplate gathering will help us discover the profound wisdom of Julian of Norwich’s “Revelations of Divine Love”. Learn more about the 9:00am Hour at COS.
On this Trinity season Sunday, Dr. Ruth deBorst will preach in the Tree of Life service in the large sanctuary from Isaiah 61:1-4; Luke 4:16-21; “What Did Jesus Believe About Justice”. Rev. Albert Strydhorst will preach in the All Nations Worship Service in Room 4.
Following worship, everyone is welcome to participated in Sunday School, which is available for all ages. Our Adult-ed GPS meets in Room 5.
The 10 am Tree of Life service is live streamed via Zoom for those unable to attend in person.. Sign up for our Newsletter to receive the Zoom links.
Worship:
Preaching Schedule
November 24 ANWS – Debbie Jin, TOL – Rev. Andrew Mead
December 1 ANWS – Rev. Andrew Mead, TOL – Rev. Len Vander Zee
December 8 ANWS – Charles Rugiramarora, TOL – Rev. Andrew Mead
December 15 ANWS – Rev. Andrew Mead, TOL – Rev. Len Vander Zee
Advent season is quickly approaching which means the O Come, O Come Emmanuel dance is also approaching. Advent runs Dec 1, 8, 15, 22. Anyone 5 years or older is welcome (and encouraged) to join us. The dance is at the beginning of the service so younger worshippers can still attend Children’s Worship. The season is 4 weeks, but a commitment to dance all four weeks is not required. Due to scheduling conflicts, a rehearsal will be held one week early on Saturday, November 23 at 11AM. Any questions, please reach out to Julie Yonkers at julie.yonkers@sbcglobal.net or 616-901-4835.
O Antiphons Advent service at Church of the Servant – December 15, 2024 at 6:00pm. The COS O Antiphons Advent service makes use of a series of medieval prayers referred to as the O Antiphons. They were composed for use in evening prayer services on the last seven days of Advent. They are best known to us as the seven verses of the advent hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Each antiphon is a petition for Christ to come, addressing the Messiah with a title from Old Testament prophecies. In anticipation of this year’s service, we invite members of the congregation to contribute artwork for our worship. If you would like to contribute artwork for this year’s service, please contact Maria Stapert, COS Worship Coordinator. Artwork is not limited to paintings nor limited to professional artists. Learn more here.
Holiday Service Changes – This year, we are experimenting with a few changes to our “traditional” holiday services.
Thanksgiving Day – 10:00am Worship at Radical Grace Church (formerly Coit Community Church – 600 Lafayette NE) – COS has had a long-standing tradition of worshipping with Coit Community Church (now Radical Grace Church) on Thanksgiving Day. In the past, their congregation have been our guests. This year, we are blessed to be their guests! A service of worship and thanksgiving (Pastor Andrew preaching) will take place at 10am on November 28 at Radical Grace Church (600 Lafayette Ave NE). Parking is available immediately to the south of the church building in a GVSU lot. Sadly, the building is not ADA compliant. The offering collected is an important part of Radical Grace’s annual budget for ministry. Please consider contributing even if you’re unable to attend.
Christmas Eve – 7:00pm Communion and Candlelight Service – This year we will have one worship service on Christmas Eve rather than two. The service will be similar to the service formerly held at 11:00pm, but earlier to accommodate families and those who could not attend a late service. The service will also include some child-friendly elements and is hopefully early enough for young families to attend. The intergenerational story-telling that formerly happened at 5pm on Christmas Eve, will move to the final Sunday of Advent.
Christmas Morning – 10:00am Carol Singing – The time of this service remains the same as in past years, but the format will become less formal, with extended time for singing Christmas carols together.
Faith Formation:
GPS: Following worship, everyone is welcome to participate in Sunday School, which is available for all ages. Our Adult-ed GPS meets in Room 5. “Good Neighboring”:Jim and Ruth Padilla deBorst, missionaries in Central America, will share about the life and ministry of Casa Adobe, a Christ-centered community in Costa Rica committed to embodying concrete expressions of welcoming love of neighbor —human and non-human– in a polarized world.
COS Women – the Women’s Winter Non-Retreat is back! It a ‘non retreat’ because we have no speakers and no agenda. What we DO have is fun, food, conversations, and time to renew old friendships and form new ones. Mark your calendars for Feb. 7 – 9 (technically, we can stay until the morning of Monday, Feb 10 for those who would like to stay that long). Questions? Call/text Deb Zondervan.
Outreach and Congregational Life
The final Classic Movie Night of 2024 features Christmas In Connecticut a 1945 American Christmas romantic comedy film about an unmarried city magazine writer who pretends to be a farm wife and mother. Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) is a single New Yorker, employed as a food writer. Her articles about her fictitious Connecticut farm, husband, and baby are admired by readers across the country. Her publisher, Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet), is unaware of the charade and insists that Elizabeth host a Christmas dinner for returning war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan). Comedy ensues as Elizabeth tries to fool everyone and host a Merry Christmas. Christmas In Connecticut will be shown in the COS Living Room Theater Tuesday, November 19 at 6:30pm. Popcorn and lemonade provided. $1 suggested donation.
Our fall campaign for Meijer Simply Give ended on September 28th. Thanks to our generous members and Ellen Westrate, Food Coordinator, for participating in the double match day opportunities, we received $18,660 in Meijer food gift card donations. Our next Simply Give campaign has begun and will end on December 28th. Our next double match day is Saturday, December 14. (For every $10 Simply Give card purchased on these dates, Meijer will provide an additional contribution of $20, bringing the total to $30 for a single customer purchase.) If you would like to donate to support COS and its food pantry, you may do so by using our online portal to give or by giving cash or check with Simply Give in memo line.
Christmas Brunch – December 22: Christmas Brunch following our Prism combined worship service. To remind you how this works: you will be assigned to contribute something based on your last name. Place your food in the café on one of the serving tables before the service. Have the food ready to be served—cut, sliced, and uncovered. The ovens and fridge in the kitchen will be available, as will serving spoons and knives. Enjoy the worship service and then head to the café to enjoy fellowship together. Your serving dish will be on a table near the kitchen. Please note that this year’s brunch is later than in past years.
Volunteers are needed to help with serving punch and to clear empty serving dishes. Please contact Jill Frazee-Eitman if you would like to help
Last names beginning:
A – E something “brunchy” —egg dish, deviled eggs, etc
F – K bread, muffins, bars or cookies
L – R veggies
S – Z fruit
Collecting Glasses: If you have unused prescription glasses you would like to donate to a ministry in Africa, bring them to the red bucket on the counter in the café throughout the month of November.
Did you know that 1 in 7 hospital patients need blood? Be a lifesaver and donate blood! Sign up today for Monday’s Blood Drive (11/18, 2-7pm) via this link: https://donateblood.versiti.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/11404512 We have seven available time slots. Questions? Contact Beth Karanicola or Ruth Huisman.
Deacons:
COS Deacons recommend this project: In October, Deacons approved giving $2,000 from our local discretionary fund to help fund a solar array + battery project at Rain Forest International School (RFIS) in Yaoundé, Cameroon. We hope you will consider giving too because COS missionaries Tony and Allison Westrate teach there. Tony, the RFIS chaplain, is leading the $125,000 solar portion of a larger RFIS campaign. Tony grew up at COS. While serving on the facilities team, he helped greatly reduce our building’s high electrical consumption through sustainable energy solutions.
Many times a week, erratic local electricity disrupts learning at RFIS. Allison says, “When electricity goes out, we run the school generator, which costs five times as much as grid power. One week, none of us teachers could print anything for three days. The main generator was broken. We had to rotate our small backup generator so we could pump water, keep fridges on, and use one copy machine—if you happened to have a hard copy.”
RFIS obtained a 0% interest loan to start building the array. Our gifts will help pay off that loan. Gifts of any size help. Project costs include 96 solar panels and mounting racks at $400 each; two $300 surge protectors; one $1,750 high voltage junction box; nine $3,300 5.3kWh batteries; and more.
You can give through Trustbridge Portal here: https://tinyurl.com/RFISsolar. Be sure to enter United States as the country you are giving from. You can give by physical check, credit card, bank transfer, or other options. All RFIS donations go to their G2G campaign. In the notes, you can designate your gift for the solar array + battery project.
Office and Facilities:
Bulletin Announcements: please submit bulletin announcement requests to office@coscrc.org by 8:30 am Thursday mornings.
To save space in the foyer, we are not putting out the portable coat racks. Instead, we encourage everyone to use the designated coat areas near Door A, Door D, Door M, and outside Room 3 or keep your coat with you as you worship.
Contribution statements for the period January 1 to October 31, 2024, were emailed on Tuesday, November 12. If you do not have an email on file with COS, you can find a hard copy of your statement in your cos mailbox. Please review the statement and let AJ Zahrt know by email aj.zahrt@coscrc.org or phone 231-736-6829 if you have questions or concerns.
Capital Campaign Update
You may have noticed the new doors that have been recently installed at COS. These doors replace the deteriorating wooden doors in the original COS structure. This upgrade is just one of the many projects that are part of the Capital Campaign for building upgrades initiated earlier this year. With gifts and pledges totaling nearly $490,000, we have already completed several of the projects identified in the Campaign. These include the following:
· Handrail for the steps on the right side of the stage in Tree of Life worship space.
· Replacement of the WiFi system for the entire COS facility providing better connectivity throughout the building.
· New controls for the Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning system. These provide easy access to the system for monitoring and control using up-to-date remote access software.
· A new camera system for live streaming the Tree of Life service. Previously we were still using Dave Hartwell’s personal 35mm camera. The new higher resolution system provides better control and zooming abilities.
· New doors replacing the nine deteriorating wooden doors from the six entry points in the original COS building. These doors provide much greater security, better handicapped egress, and are more durable than the old doors.
· Along with the new doors, the door access system has been upgraded for the entire building. This includes a new key fob system for unlocking doors and new remote access software to lock and unlock the doors during services and other events.
We have now spent around $175,000 with the bulk of that being door replacement. We have made some great progress, but there is still much more to do. Please consider the following.
· If your pledge involves payments over several years, this is a reminder to check when the next payment is due.
· If you would like to learn more about the campaign or would like to make a pledge, please go to https://www.churchoftheservantcrc.org/campaign/.
· If you would like to give a gift directly to the campaign, you can go to the on-line giving portal at https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZAN9/home.
A heartfelt thanks to all who joined or will join in this effort.
– Facilities and Capital Campaign Teams
Prayer and Church Family News:
Our prayer focus this week is on the work of James and Barbarita Lee. Missionary prayer requests for the Lee family in Mexico: Firstly, please pray for James as he recovers from surgery for the replacement of his left Achilles tendon. Secondly, pray for Barbarita, who is organizing the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) workshop at the H+ Cancer Center Hospital in Queretaro on October 22nd and 23rd. Thank you so much. Please send COS our warmest greetings from Mexico. May the grace of God fill you with His joy. Warmly in Christ, James and Barbarita
Mimi Bartleson’s sister, Betsy, died unexpectedly recently. Mimi was able to be present to her siblings as they grieved together. Please remember Mimi and her family in your prayers.
The Ngongo family invite the COS family to join them in celebrating the bridal shower of their daughter, Nathalie. You’re most welcome! Karibu sana! When: November 30, 2024 from 2 – 11 p.m. Where: Best Western, 141 28th St SE, Ste 6.
Louis Tamminga
We received news of the death of Louis Tamminga on Monday, November 11. His son Ken said, “Dad died peacefully. To the end, despite the impacts of Alzheimer’s, he remembered our names, asked about our families and careers each time we visited — his love and pastoral care was so deeply bred-in-the-bone that even dementia was no barrier to his person-hood. We will miss him so much.” Obituary Link:
https://obits.mlive.com/us/obituaries/grandrapids/name/louis-tamminga-obituary?id=56767831
Weekly Calendar – November 17-November 24
Sunday, November 17 – read more in this week’s Worship Resources Post
- 9:00am – “Contemplate” with Harry Plantinga
- 10:00am – All Nations Worship Service in Room 4
- 10:00am – Tree Of Life Service in the Large Sanctuary
- 11:45am – Sunday School and GPS
- 1:00pm – Soups On
- 1:00pm – College and Young Adults lunch
Monday, November 18
- 10:30am–12:30pm – Food Pantry
- 2:00-7:00pm – Blood Drive
- 7:30pm – Creation Care Team
Tuesday, November 19
- 9:30am – Friendship ESL
- 10:00am – Tuesday Morning Prayer Group – at Beacon Hill
- 6:00pm – Friendship ESL
- 6:30pm – Classic Movie Night
Wednesday, November 20
- 9:30am – Friendship ESL
- 11:30am–1:30pm – Food Pantry
- 5:30–8:00pm – Wednesday Night Meal and Programming
- 6:30pm – Joyful Noise Orchestra Rehearsal
Thursday, November 21
- 8:30am – Bulletin announcement deadline
- 9:30am – Thursday Bible Study
- 10:00am – ESL Bible Study fellowship
- 6:00pm – Friendship ESL
- 7:00pm – Parish Care Team/Deacon/Elder meetings
Friday, November 22
- 3:30pm – Friday Newsletter and Bulletin sent Sign up here
Saturday, November 23
- 10:00am – All Nations Prayer Group
Sunday, November 24
- 9:00am – Joyful Noise Orchestra Rehearsal
- 10:00am – All Nations Worship Service in Room 4
- 10:00am – Tree Of Life Service in the Large Sanctuary
- 11:45 am – Sunday School and GPS