This Sunday at COS:

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we will be incorporating the heart of our children’s Christmas Eve service into the Sunday Morning worship. Come hear the story of God’s Big Rescue Plan! (Check out the program reminders below)

Sunday night, return to COS at 11 pm for our Christmas Eve service with communion and candlelight. Rev. Jack Roeda will preach from John 1:1-14, 16-18.

Monday, we celebrate Christmas together at COS with worship at 10 am. This year, our children and teens are invited to share their musical gifts with the congregation by playing or singing a Christmas song in the prelude to the service. Rev. Andrew Mead will preach from Luke 2:1-14 and Hebrews 1:1-6,10-12.

The 10 am Prism Service will also be broadcast via Zoom. Sign up for our Newsletter to receive the Zoom links.   

Sunday Programming Reminders – Children’s Ministry

Check Children in at the Nursery This Sunday- No Little Lambs or Children’s Worship. Since the morning service will involve children and youth sharing the Christmas story, they will be helping to lead the service or enjoying the service instead of going to Little Lambs or Children’s Worship. If your children are not part of the program, find a seat close to the front so they have a great view! The nursery will be available for children ages 3 and under. Please check your children in at the nursery instead of using the kiosk this week. All Sunday children’s programming, including Sunday school, will resume on January 7th. 

Christmas Eve Service Program Reminders – Arrive Early For Church To Get on Your Costumes! This Sunday will feature our children and youth sharing the story of God’s great rescue of the whole world through Jesus Christ at our 10:00am service! If your children are planning to participate, please arrive at 9:40 so you can find a good seat close to the front to see your kids in the program, and so they must check in with Mr. Voetberg, find their assigned seat (if they aren’t an angel or shepherd), and use the restroom before putting on their costume before the service begins. All Angels and Shepherds will begin the service sitting with you and will come forward during the passing of the peace. Children and students who have other roles will have assigned seats in the front few rows of the side sections of seating. They may choose to start the service in their reserved seats or with you. Please note, if the service starts to fill up, and seating becomes limited, it may be helpful for them to start in their reserved seats to make room for others. After the service, please encourage your kids to put their used costume in the bin labeled, “used costumes” in the hallway behind the mailboxes. When they do, they may have a candy cane. 

Help Prepare the Sanctuary for the 11:00pm Service- Lend a Hand For a Few Minutes After the Service!  If you’re available to help move the Communion Table back into position, and clear the manger, and other props from the sanctuary please stay after the service to lend a hand. We’ll need help rolling the giant ribbon onto the garden cart and setting up baskets of candles for the 11:00pm. This shouldn’t take long and would be greatly appreciated! 

Events Coming Up:

December 25

10 am • Christmas Day service

Rev. Andrew Mead will preach from Luke 2:1-14 and Hebrews 1:1-6,10-12.

Christmas Day Musical Prelude Sunday, Dec. 25, 9:45am  

This year our children and teens are invited to share their musical gifts with the congregation by playing or singing a Christmas song before the Christmas Day service. This is a great opportunity for new musicians who are just learning an instrument as well as skilled musicians to play for an appreciative audience. Duets and quartets between a parent and child, siblings, or friends are welcome! If you are playing in the musical prelude, please arrive at church at 9:40am on Christmas morning. *Please note the change this year from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. 

December 31

Al Nations NYE: In Africa and other places in the world, churches traditionally have a New Year’s Eve watchnight service. All Nations would like to invite all who attend COS to such a service here on Sunday, December 31 from 6:00pm to 8:30pm. There will be a prayer service in the All Nations space, finger food to share (please bring by 5:45pm), and opportunity to share in song and dance. Everyone is welcome!

Church Announcements:

Pledge Drive: To live into our overall vision statement and recently adopted “Our Calling: a Community of Belonging” statement, COS leadership has chosen “refuge” as a guiding theme. When we support Church of the Servant’s mission with our time, treasure, and talent, we are responding to God’s invitation. God calls us to be a community “rooted in Christ, nurtured by the Spirit, to grow in God’s grace to share gifts of refuge, fellowship, and hope.”

The Stewardship team is inviting each of us to make a pledge of our finances as we live out our commitment to be a community of refuge. Both in our year-end giving and in the pledges for the 2024 General Fund that we make this December, we are showing ourselves to be people of refuge. Questions? Contact any member of the Stewardship team: Chuck Hampton, Joan Huyser-Honig, Carol Rienstra, Michael Zahrt, Andrew Zwart. You can pledge online. You can fill out a printed form at church to put in the offering bowl or designated box or to mail to the church office.

So far, we have received 82 pledges totaling $550,308 ( Avg pledge $6,711))

The Finance Committee has completed a report on our finances for the last fiscal year, ending in August 2023. We are pleased to show gifts to the General Fund at $1,246,073 and total giving at $1,496,402. Our total expenditures came to $1,441,524 and we ended the fiscal year with $32,709 as our General Fund balance.  A more detailed account may be found here.

Save the Foam: ‘Tis the season for shipping packages, and many of them contain Styrofoam and plastic. Please don’t throw it away in your trash or try to recycle it curbside. The COS Creation Care Team (CCT) will be providing an opportunity to recycle Styrofoam on two consecutive Sundays in January: the 7th and the 14th. Bring your clean, white Styrofoam to COS on either morning. A receptacle will be near the main entrance, door A. Note that plastic bags and film from your packaging can be recycled at many grocery stores. Questions? Contact Peggy Milliken.

Parents of Children in K-12 Christian Schools: If you need financial assistance, it’s time to apply for the tuition assistance program for the 2024 -2025 school year. Updated step-by-step instructions can be found here: coscrc.org/education. Application is completed online; you will find the direct link to the COS FACTS page on the website. Don’t wait for your taxes; apply now using 2022 taxes and meet the earlier deadlines!

Important deadlines:

  • Please submit your name using the online form by January 15 – This will help the team prepare for applications and track the process.
  • Submit FACTS app and documentation by February 1.
  • Mandatory meeting will take place March 20 between 6-9 pm. After your application has been received you will get an email to sign up for a meeting time.

Offering Cards: In bringing our gifts forward we give vivid expression to the fact that we give ourselves to God — “the offering of our life.” By coming forward to present the gifts, including gifts of bread and wine for communion, we actively express the fact that in gratitude we are presenting to God the good gifts that God has given us, some of them to be used by him in turn to give himself to us in communion. But what about those who give online or by other means? In the back of the worship space where the liturgies are located online givers have the option to pick up a card that they may use to place in the offering.

Facilities Team is looking for some shoveling volunteers who will monitor the snow fall during Sunday services and Wednesday activities, and be willing to clear the sidewalks. Contact Bob Hoeksema or Monica Smith if you are willing to shovel snow.

From Congregational Life: “As we continue towards the COS vision of being a “refuge”, the Inclusion Team announces a new initiative. Human language is powerful, and possesses the power to start and end wars, to convey the deepest love or hate and to lift up or tear down those who bear God’s image. One small step we at COS can take to ensure that our words uplift our siblings, is to use the newly available pronoun stickers on your name tags. It’s these little acts however, that go a long way towards leaning into our Statement of Belonging, by normalizing the very thing that so often isolates our trans and non-binary siblings. Many at COS are choosing to wear their pronoun as a sticker to stand in solidarity with those who have a very different experience of gender.

We know there are reasons why some may not feel comfortable displaying their pronouns. We recognize there are friends here with differing views, or those currently unable to display their pronoun because they’re not out. So, please honor each person’s choice to wear a pronoun or not. We want all to feel welcome here, and for those who are able, please consider this small act to help us as we seek to be that refuge of belonging.” 

You can find the stickers at the welcome table.

From Prisoners in Christ: “Good news: In 2016, the Prisoners in Christ team sponsored a viewing and discussion, organized and led by Troy Rienstra, of the documentary 13th. Thanks to pressure from Troy and other ‘credible messengers,’ measures are being considered at the state level to eliminate slavery from the Michigan Constitution. Section 9, Article 1 currently reads: ‘neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this state.’ This reflects the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution which provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.’ In 2022, four states approved ballot measures to remove this ‘exception.’ It’s time for Michigan and our country to do the same and more!

The proposed amendment is a hopeful step toward closing a loophole that allows slavery as criminal punishment. This takes the form of solitary confinement, labeled ‘torture’ by Human Rights Watch organizations, and the theft of talent, time, and treasure from people while under control of the state Department of Corrections, whether incarcerated or on parole or probation. But, according to Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, this change most likely will ‘merely adjust names, labeling, practices, even policies, doing that to maintain the system of mass incarceration as opposed to dismantling or correcting it. ‘In this interview, Alexander calls people of faith to engage in education, analysis and action – to go beyond praying for prisoners, and doing acts of charity which she calls ‘necessary but tinkering around the edges.’ Are you willing to join Prisoners in Christ as we put our hands to the plow and dig deep into advocating for real change? Follow our work on www.prisonersinchrist.org, or reach out to Troy by emailing info@prisonersinchrist.org”