All sessions are at 9:40 a.m. in the Commons; masks are required.
Iona Community—September 12; Food Club—September 19
The Iona Community and Iona Abbey Pilgrimage
September 12
Iona Community leader Ruth Harvey will Zoom to Hope Church live from Scotland’s Isle of Iona, introducing the Iona Community’s history, mission (peace/justice/worship renewal), and current activities. Dede Johnston will describe her multiple Abbey sojourns with Hope students.
Jill Russell will introduce the possibility of a Hope Church pilgrimage to Iona. David Myers, who has visited Iona 30+ times, will illustrate the travel and the Scotland setting.
Food Club: An Innovative Approach to Increasing Healthy Food Access
September 19
Traditional food support has relied on a patchwork of emergency-oriented programs no longer matched to our community’s needs and trends. To meet our community’s needs, Community Action House plans to evolve its service model from a food pantry into a Food Club. Successfully piloted in Grand Rapids, this membership-based, grocery-store-style experience is an innovative, high-dignity approach to improving healthy food access. Partially financed through sliding-scale membership fees, the Food Club model enhances consumer choice, member participation, and access to healthy foods. Food Club will create the capacity to efficiently serve thousands more community members each month and dramatically improve our region’s ability to address food insecurity. The long effort to bring the Food Club model to the lakeshore is now in its final stages, and this new approach to food access and social services delivery is set to open this coming October. Executive Director Scott Rumpsa will introduce us to the Food Club.
Effective Altruism Series—September 26 through October 10
This three-week series will explore ideas for more effective charitable giving and for “impact investing” that enables investors to do good while doing well. Come and consider ideas for “doing good better.”
Making a Difference with Effective Altruism
September 26
Holland radiologist, Jason Dykstra — a subject of a Washington Post article on “The Rise of the Rational Do-Gooders” — will describe the faith-based choices his family has made about giving, and a simple evidence-based process for discovering highly cost-effective alternative giving possibilities.
Kim Tan Live from London:
Jubilee & Social Justice
October 3
Biotech-entrepreneur-turned-impact-investor Kim Tan will Zoom to Hope Church to explore the implications of biblical jubilee principles for the church, our lives, business, and society. He will illustrate how he is walking the talk with ventures in developing countries enabled by his social impact investment funds.
Effective Altruism in Holland-Zeeland
October 10
The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area works with donors and nonprofit partners to enable a thriving community for all. Executive Director Mike Goorhouse and Director of Community Impact Yah-Hanna Jenkins Leys will join us to share CFHZ’s approach to creating maximum impact with its endowment resources, and what they’ve learned from supporting hundreds of local individuals, families and companies as they developed their unique approach to philanthropic stewardship.
Kingdom—October 17; Synod Review—October 31
The Kingdom Will Come Anyway
October 17 and 24
Bob Luidens, a Hope Church member since 2016 and retired pastor in the RCA, recently published a personal memoir entitled The Kingdom Will Come Anyway—A Life in the Day of a Pastor. During the sessions, Bob intends to read aloud several pieces from the memoir, inviting those in attendance to reflect together, in one large circle, on what those pieces may evoke in each of us. The pieces will primarily draw from various experiences Bob had while serving congregations in rural Kansas and upstate New York during his three-and-a-half decades in pastoral ministry. (Those interested in securing their own copy of Bob’s memoir at cost can do so at the welcome desk; $10 cash or check payable to Hope Church.)
General Synod Review
October 31
General Synod Professor Jim Brownson will provide a review of the RCA’s General Synod meeting to be held October 14-19 in Tucson, Arizona.
Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic Series—November 7 through 21
To properly care for our home planet, we can cultivate certain virtues in our homes, schools, churches, workplaces, neighborhoods, and cities. During this series, Steve Bouma-Prediger helps us explore the components of a Christian ecological virtue ethic: wonder and humility, self-control and wisdom, justice and love, courage and hope.
Ecological Virtues We Need: Wonder, Humility, Self-control, Wisdom
November 7
Ecological Virtues We Need:
Justice, Love, Courage, Hope
November 14
Cultivating Ecological Virtues
in Everyday Life
November 21
Optional reading: Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic, by Steven Bouma-Prediger (ISBN 978-0801098840, Baker Academic), is available in both digital and paperback form on the Baker Academic website. It is also available at Hope College’s Geneva book store, Reader’s World, and amazon.com. If you have questions and/or suggestions for adult education, please direct them to Jane Schuyler, chair.