Trinity Season, Week of Sunday, October 18, 2020
On Sunday, October 18, we will continue to worship in homes, individually, but still as one body as we seek to be prisms of God’s light in liturgy and in life. This week Rev. Karen Campbell will bring us a message based on the scriptures of Psalm 63:1-8 and Phil. 4:10-23.
Resources, videos, and liturgies can be found on the Church of the Servant website at coscrc.org/category/housechurch
Vesper service — On Sunday evening, October 18 at 6pm, please join our outdoor service. In case of inclement weather, please check the website before the service for updates on cancellations/rain date arrangements. Bring a warm coat/blanket and maybe some hot chocolate! This outdoor service is in addition to our 10 am Sunday morning Zoom services. Pastor Karen Campbell will lead us in a meditation on Proverbs 10:3-5.
Join us for GPS: COVID-style this Sunday following our 10am Zoom worship.
James W. Skillen (a Christian political philosopher, author of numerous books on politics including The Good of Politics: a Biblical, historical, and contemporary introduction, former president of the Center for Public Justice, and dad to our very own Jamie Skillen) will be leading the 2nd in a 2-week presentation and discussion in a Zoom breakout room after our worship service Sunday, Oct. 18. Tom McWhertor will be facilitating.
Oct. 18 – Politics: Redeeming & Restoring our Civic Calling. This presentation will use the same Zoom link as our worship service that day. After worship, you can choose to join the breakout room for the “GPS Session.” This session will be limited to 45 minutes and will include time for Q&A via the chat feature
Children’s Ministry
Pinewood Derby Race, Sunday Oct. 18th! Kids in 2nd-6th Grade (plus current 7th graders who built a car in Boys or Girls Club last year) are invited to the long-awaited Pinewood Derby race on Sunday Oct 18, 4:30-5:30pm! Families and friends are welcome to join this outdoor event held at COS. Please dress for the weather, wear a face mask, and bring a blanket or lawn chairs for sitting and staying warm.
Kids Club, Girls Club, and Boys Club November – Club ministries for kids in Preschool-6th grade will meet twice in November, from 4:30-5:30pm on Nov. 1st and Nov. 15th (the first and 3rd Sundays). These meetings will include outdoor games or activities as well as indoor Bible lessons, projects, or crafts. Please plan to send your kids dressed for outdoor weather and a mask. We are planning for very careful social-distancing measures to help ensure the health and safety of all kids and adults involved. Parents and grandparents, please let me know if you are interested in assisting as leaders or as safety supervisors..
K-6th Grade Sunday School in October- Sunday school for Kindergarten through 6th grade children will continue to coincide with the 6-6:30pm outdoor evening service through the end of October. Please drop your children off in the front lawn of COS before you go to the patio for the worship service. As weather gets cooler please encourage your kids to bundle up and wear a hat and gloves along with a mask. Please feel free to send along a cozy blanket suitable for outdoor use.
Church News
A COS Blood Drive in three weeks! The COS COVID task force has given the OK to host a blood drive in our building on Monday, November 9, 2-7pm. Over 4,500 Versiti blood drives have been cancelled since March, and the need for donations is great. Will you help?? Please schedule your appointment to donate on the Versiti website by using this link: https://donate.michigan.versiti.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/121464. All donors and staff will be wearing masks, and social distancing will be observed as much as possible. More information about Versiti safety protocols can be found here: https://www.versiti.org/home/coronavirus-information.
Also, please note that the SARS CoV-2 antibody test will be performed on all successful donations as part of Versiti’s standard testing. This test will inform donors if they have antibodies reflective of a prior COVID-19 infection and is not to inform donors if they currently have COVID-19. If you have questions, please contact Beth Karanicola or Ruth Huisman. Thank you for sharing your gift of life!
Financial Update- Last week’s offering and online giving: $15,830.10
Current Total Giving for the month of $50,972.06 (2 Sundays left)
Our monthly General Fund budget is $112,926. Contribution statements for the first three quarters of the calendar year will be sent out before the end of the month.
Fall Work Day: Join us on Monday, October 19th from 4 to Sunset to help clean up the grounds at COS. Bring work gloves, a hat to stay warm any tools that you like to work with. I have one leaf blower to use. If you have a hedge clipper or weed wacker they would be useful.
Dark Times, Deep Grace continues Wednesday evenings at 8.30 pm on our COS facebook group. We simply read God’s word together and encourage you to draw and use the vehicle of art as an opportunity to slow down and notice how God is present through his word. We know that this is a time requiring deep wisdom from each one of us. As it says in James, a wisdom that is from on high is pure, peace loving, considerate, full of mercy and good fruits. Therefore, our passages will come from the Wisdom literature of Proverbs. Our guest artist this week will be Carol Roeda. The session is recorded so if you miss it on Wednesday nights you can catch up during the week by looking for the recording on the COS facebook group. You can also view the videos on the COS website online here.
Starting soon! Our Meijer Simply Give program to benefit the COS food pantry will run a total of ten weeks from the dates of Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020, through Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. Please mark your calendars for Meijer Simply Give Double Match days, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020 and Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020 to purchase your $10 Simply Give cards at the Cascade Meijer. On those days, for every $10 card purchase, Meijer will match this with $20, so the COS food pantry will benefit with a $30 gift! If you buy a $30 Meijer Simply Give card, it will turn into a $90 gift to the COS food pantry. Watch for links to give on-line, coming soon! The last campaign generated $18,780.
Angel Tree is coming! It will be virtual of course, but our Prisoners in Christ team will be giving the children of prisoners presents in the form of gift cards, sent virtually by Prison Fellowship. We have asked for 10 children and will need to raise $220 to do this. If we raise more, we can give to more children. These will be local children and we intend to follow up with their families. If we raise more, we will put it in our Angel Tree fund so we can help send Angel Tree children to Camp Tall Turf when that becomes possible again. Please send donations to COS and mark them as “Angel Tree.” Any questions? Contact Lucie Marsden at: lucie.marsden@gmail.com
Children’s winter hats, gloves, and sock drive – It’s that time again, to begin collecting new and hand-knit hats, gloves, and warm socks for the students at Ridge Park Charter Academy. The students are in grades K-8th grade. Many of the children live in the Camelot neighborhood. COS will have our big basket in the entryway of the front doors. We will collect these winter items in October, November and December, bringing the items to the school each month. Thank you to all of you who help keep our neighborhood kids warm this winter!
The trustees of the Church of the Servant Legacy Foundation invite you to participate in any session on “Gifts that Reduce Your Taxes.” Hosted by Barnabas Foundation in October/November, we encourage everyone to consider joining these online sessions on different timely topics. They will be held October 21, 28 and November 4, with the benefit of enabling you to free more funds for charitable giving. Topics include; market security gifts, IRA gifts, real estate and business gifts, and commodity and other property gifts. If these topics interest you, register for the various sessions at: https://www.barnabasfoundation.com/ReduceTaxes. This opportunity is provided to members of our congregation free of charge, in conjunction with the partnership we have with Barnabas Foundation. If you are not familiar with the COS Legacy Foundation, please find information on the COS website: https://www.churchoftheservantcrc.org/giving/cos-legacy-foundation/ and, in the months to come, watch for more information on that webpage to help you develop a will or do estate planning for your family.