It’s the exciting time of the year when Zion begins to anticipate the arrival of our new vicar. It’s also always a little bittersweet to say goodbye to our current vicar and his family as he heads back to Fort Wayne for another year of classes. The “hand off” will occur at the end of July and early August, and we look forward to the next chapter of vicarage at Zion. Our new vicar is David Christensen from Crystal Lake, Illinois. As we look forward to welcoming them this summer, I’ve asked him to send us a brief bio to help us get to know them better. Vicar Christensen writes: Dear Saints at Zi ..read more

We live in a culture that doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on memorization. We’re so used to being able to read information in books, write down notes, or just look things up online that most of us go through our lives without ever needing to remember or memorize anything. Our schools nowadays rarely make students learn anything by rote memorization, so it might seem strange when the church has its children memorize Bible verses or learn the Catechism by heart. We don’t memorize anything else in our lives, so why should we memorize the Bible? The Why It’s important to remember that the Bible itse ..read more

Very soon, we will begin construction of our ground floor fellowship, office, and classroom space! It seems hard to believe after so many years of planning and setbacks, but with God’s help we are at the point where we are ready to begin building! While we have casually called this project the “new fellowship hall” for many years, Zion’s leadership has decided that the building should formally be referred to as the “Ministry Center.” Names matter because they subtly influence our view of things. While “fellowship” in the sense of community and camaraderie is important in a congregation, it is ..read more

Lent is a time of preparation. It’s a time when we refocus our lives on what’s truly      important—Christ and His Word. It’s a time of discipleship, or in other words, it’s a time of training in the Christian life. You can find lots of books out there that talk about what the Christian life is all about. Some of them teach from Scripture, but unfortunately most of them don’t. But in spite of the hundreds of books about the Christian life you can buy nowadays, the Christian life can be summed up in only two words: “repent” and “believe.” That’s how the Bible summarizes ..read more

This past fall our Sunday morning study focused on the topic “Always Ready: How to Have Faith Conversations with Non-Christians.” In this study, we explored different ways to thoughtfully witness about Christ to people with various beliefs and faith backgrounds. The focus was primarily on the idea of apologetics or defending the faith and giving honest critiques of other religions. In January the church will be celebrating the season of Epiphany, where we talk about how Christ reveals Himself to us and how the Gospel spreads to people all around the world. To go along with that theme, we will ..read more

For the past several years, Zion has partnered with the other congregations of the South Dakota District to financially support oversees missionaries who have served in as pastors or been affiliated with South Dakota. We call this partnership “Together in Mission (TIM)”. Just in this last year, there have been several additions to the list of missionaries that our district is supporting! God’s call to go out to all nations and preach the Gospel has come to several pastors who were recently serving in South Dakota, and they have answered that call faithfully. Rev. Samuel Bobby, who previously s ..read more

For the past several weeks in Sunday morning study we have been learning about apologetics. Contrary to what you may think, apologetics has nothing to do with apologizing, but really means defense. The word comes from 1 Peter 3:15: “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense (Greek: apologia) to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” Apologetics is really about giving a defense of our faith. It’s about explaining to non-Christians what we believe and giving them the reasons why w ..read more

Sometimes it seems like worship is hard work and we are often tempted to question why we’re doing what we’re doing, even if only to ourselves: “Why do I come to church? What am I supposed to be getting out of this service? What should I be putting into it?” These are all good questions, and it’s a good thing for us to ask why we do what we do and what can be done to make the worship experience more meaningful. The Advent and Christmas seasons always seem like a time where it is easier to focus on worship. From the glow of the candles on the Advent wreath to the Christmas nativity to the star o ..read more

Last month, we looked at why Zion’s leadership believes it is the right time to reexamine the Christian formation practices of our adults and children so that we might improve and strengthen faith development and education in our congregation. Practically, that means looking at a more comprehensive model of family education than traditional Sunday School. This month, I’d like to look at a broad overview of how the church in America got to where it is today regarding education practices, and in particular the regular segregating of the congregation according to age. As we look at the Scriptures ..read more

“Most of the kids are leaving the church after confirmation. We need to beef up education!” This sentiment is expressed in many ways in nearly every church in America. It’s not false either. We do need to improve education in the church. Biblical literacy is very low, and we are getting no help from the schools or culture in educating our children in the Word of God or the hope of the Gospel. On the other hand, it has always intrigued me that in many cases, kids who attended Sunday School and confirmation faithfully, and were active and attentive during those times, often still drop off sharpl ..read more