This post contains church news. Access the PDF of the bulletin for all announcements including prayer requests and community announcements.


Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021

This Sunday:

This week we celebrate Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week. We continue to worship in homes, individually, but still as one body. On Sunday morning at 10am, we’ll gather for worship via Zoom for a reading of the passion narrative, led by Chad Engbers. Links to the service are sent Saturday evenings at 6 pm. Sign up to the COS Newsletter email list to receive the links.

Holy Week:

Our Holy Week services this year will be a selection of virtual and in-person gatherings. Please check the COS website for changes, as plans are formalized.

Palm Sunday (3/28): 10 am Zoom service including Passion reading. Palms for the virtual processional will be available for pickup at COS on March 26 and 27.

Maundy Thursday (4/1): service at 7 pm on zoom

Good Friday (4/2): call to prayer and fasting. Small group worship, pausing at stations of the cross on the COS nature trail. Initial sign-ups will be for 12 and 12:30 pm. Sign up here

Easter Sunday (4/4): worship outdoors in the patio area: 8:30 & 10 am using sign-up to limit capacity with social distancing and masks.

11:30 am bilingual Easter worship outdoors.

6 pm Easter testimony and profession of faith service outdoors
            Sign up here

In case of inclement weather on Easter Sunday, services will revert to Zoom.

Children’s News:

Palm Sunday Palm branches will be available to pick up near the front doors of COS beginning on Friday (March 26)! Check the Lent kit for kids for ideas for celebrating Christ as King this Palm Sunday. Before watching this week’s Children’s Worship video, find the tiny tunics in your Lent kit and help your kids to cut the leaves of the teeny paper palms so they can lay down their tunics and branches while shouting Hosanna! with Ms. Karanicola as she tells the story! A few kits are still available in a purple container outside of church if you’d like to pick one up when you get your palm branches.

A Good Friday Walk in the Woods This year’s Good Friday Service is a prayer walk through the COS trail. Your family is invited to join the guided service at 12:00pm and 12:30pm on Good Friday, or use a trial map and liturgy to walk it on your own, stopping for prayer at each of the stations of the cross. You’ll find maps and liturgies outside the front entrance of COS next Friday. You might also find bunnies, hawks, and songbirds along the trail!

Collecting Water Droplets and Clean Water Coin Banks As you grab your palm branches this weekend, or walk the nature trail for the Good Friday Service next week, please drop your colorful black paper water droplet into the purple bin at the front entrance of COS. Our 9th grade girls small groups will be assembling the water droplets into a mural for Easter Sunday! Please bring your clean water coin banks to church on Easter Sunday for collection.

Easter Sunday at COS Our Easter Sunday outdoor services will be family style! Bring a blanket to sit on, a snack for the kids, maybe a coloring book or stuffed animals–whatever would help you and your kids enjoy worship on the lawn at COS. Due to Covid, we won’t be offering nursery this Easter, so feel free to take a break at the playground if needed. We’ll also have children’s bulletins, doodle pads, a small craft, and ribbons for waving! Bathrooms will be available. 

Church News:

Financial Update:

Last week’s offering and online giving :  $20,605.52

Current Giving for the month of March: $99,721.48

Monthly budgeted General Fund Giving is:  $112,926

Spring Workday: April 5, 2021. Each spring we gather to clean up the grounds around the church from the winter events.  Please join from 1:00 to 7:00 on Monday, April 5th the day after Easter. Bring hand tools, rakes, wheelbarrows, and any other comfortable work items. Come when you are able and leave when you get tired. Reserve with Hope Bradley 616-389-3073 or Hope1033@gmail.com.

Sunday morning scripture readers wanted! If you would like to read scripture on Sunday morning, go to Signup Genius to sign up to read any Sunday. Click here to sign up.

Many of you have seen Ben Videtich, our new Congregational Life Coordinator, on Zoom and many have met him. We want to send out a huge thank you to the search team that received resumes from 10 people and then narrowed the field down to 7, then 4, then 2 and then offered the position to Ben. We appreciate the efforts of Andrew Mead, Nancy Remelts, Allison Timpe, Andrew Zwart. Nancy Pranger, Jamie Chang and Harry Knol. Thank you. Welcome Benn, Kaile, Silas, Maelin and Junia to our congregation.

Interested in becoming a member at Church of the Servant? We have 2 new member classes each year and so it’s again time. Even during these pandemic days the work of the church is thriving. If you are interested in learning more please contact Ben Videtich, our Congregational Life Coordinator, at ben.videtich@coscrc.org or leave a voice mail at 231-349-1328.


Households can meet in the building! During this pandemic, it has been difficult for households to meet properly. Zoom burnout is REAL. However, the Covid rules have been loosened slightly and now groups of 25 or less can meet together in our church building.  We will have a few spaces set up for there to be proper social distancing and masks are required. Per state and national guidelines, no food or beverages can be served. Please contact Ben Videtich, our Congregational Life Coordinator, at ben.videtich@coscrc.org or 231-349-1328.  He will then put you on the schedule and let you know how to enter the church and where to meet.

Updates on the Antiracism Library at COS, Spring 2021. The COS Antiracism Team continues to add resources to the antiracism library. The newer books are still housed in the doorway of the COS building for easy access. Read here for information on some of our recent additions, including Braiding Sweetgrass, Yes! Magazine, Halfway Home, How to Fight Racism, and more! And be sure to check out all the antiracism resources on the COS website.


Social Seniors meet every Tuesday morning from 10:00 to 11:00. We seek to be spiritually encouraged and to provide opportunities for sharing, humor, expression of our sorrows and joys, and prayer for one another and our church. The Zoom link below will work for every Tuesday. 

Topic: Social Seniors

Time:  10:00 11:00 AM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83263669013?pwd=UzE4Z1czT2h2Q0lsck0zaXV4T1NMdz09

Meeting ID: 832 6366 9013

Passcode: COS  

You can also join by telephone: 1 312 626 6799. When prompted, enter the meeting ID plus #, and then when asked for your participant ID, merely enter #, and you will be connected to the group.

Our next Mobile Food Pantry is April 3. Sign up here to help out. We hope you can join us in this wonderful chance to help our neighbors!

For our 1st Quarter educational offering, the Creation Care Team invites COS to join with the Climate Witness Project’s Michigan Region in a film discussion. Rent  “There’s Something in the Water” from Netflix, Amazon Prime, or iTunes.  Watch any time at home, then tune into a Zoom discussion group Wednesday 3/31 at 7:00PM to share your reactions and thoughts about action steps. This documentary spotlights the struggle of minority communities in Nova Scotia as they deal with lethal effects of industrial waste. Register Here!

Our Simply Give Campaign is in full swing. Please note that the Double Match Day will be April 3. The biggest change is that folks need to use ONE Simply Give 10.00 donation cards available at COS only. If you use a card from the Meijer store, the funds will not be applied only to our food pantry, but distributed citywide. You can give money to the Simply Give account by check to COS so Ellen can purchase all the cards with that money. Please note that you can swipe the one 10.00 Simply Give card 5 times for $50.00 or 10 times for $100.00. You do not need multiple Simply Give Cards. Thank you so much for supporting our Indoor Food Pantry.