Zion Lutheran Church

Connecting

- Connect with Us!

Visitors & Membership Inquiry
Welcome,visitors to Zion! We’re glad you’re here! Please fill out an attendance/communion card. We hope you are blessed by worshipping with the Zion faith community and will join us again – often! Be sure to stop by the Hospitality table in the entryway to get a brochure and gift from Zion, and fill out a nametag. If you have any questions about our congregation, our services, or our programming, just ask Pastor Del, Pastor Ritva, Beth Longlett, or any of our members – we are happy to help!

If you have visited Zion and found it just “the place for you,” please speak to Pastor Del, Pastor Ritva, or Beth Longlett about becoming a member of Zion Lutheran. We will see you through the process of becoming a member and officially received into the Zion faith family! Any questions about this can be addressed by telephone (563-322-3533) or email: zionlutheranchurch@mchsi.com (Attn: Membership Inquiry)

Visiting Teams
Interested in regularly calling on your fellow Zion faith-family members with hospital or home visits, distributing home-communion, or calling on our folks in Care centers & Nursing homes? Or would you like to be called/visited? Let us know! Contact Pastor Del (prestondk@netins.net), Pastor Ritva (ritvahwilliams@netwtc.net), or the Zion office (zionlutheranchurch@mhsi.com)

- Kids Youth & Family Fun!

ELCA Youth - In the midst of what would seem to be a competitive relationship between school and church and the need sometimes to choose between good and good, Zion’s youth have chosen to remain active in ministry, embracing the belief that our youth are our future.

Although Youth ministry really begins at Zion as early as age 3 when we begin the faith journey in Sunday School , it is at the high-school level that our youth begin to own for themselves Jesus’ call to “Love One Another” in some creative, fun ways, including Lock-ins and Outings from swimming to skiing & snowtubing.

Our high-school youth also respond to Jesus’ call to “go and do likewise…” in service to their congregation, their neighborhood, and beyond, which are listed on the SERVING page of this website. The pinnacle event for our youth in 2009 was the triennial ELCA National Youth Gathering that was held in New Orleans. The gathering was deeply focused on community service and our Zion youth spent an entire day in sweltering heat volunteering for the local Red Cross Chapter. They managed to construct, label and prepare over 1,000 bed cots for distribution during future disaster relief needs. Other highlights included the emotional sharing of revelations discovered along the way and communing with over 36,000 other Lutherans from across the country at worship service held in the Super Dome.

Family Fun! - Here is where the Growing in Faith … part of our vision statement meets the Reaching Out in Love part in some wonderful ways! Zion is placed in a “mission-field of dreams:” a place planted in a south-central city neighborhood of need, AND a place where our children come and see the face of Christ in many and varied people - just as we teach them to see it in themselves. Zion has family-oriented activities periodically throughout the year that enable our congregation to connect with each other, our neighborhood, and our community, like our summer Vacation Bible School, September’s Fall Festival, October “Trunk-or-Treating” in the Zion parking lot, Advent Caroling, and more. More info on Family ministry through Zion can be received by contacting Pastor Ritva (ritvahwilliams@netwtc.net) or the Zion office (zionlutheranchurch@mchsi.com)

Neighborhood Cookout

- Adult Fellowship & Small Groups

T.G.I.S. (Thank-God-It’s Sunday!) – The coffee’s hot, the treats are dee-lish, and the conversation is easy - hospitality at its best, right here at Zion! During September – May, after the early Sunday service Zion’s Hospitality ministry team makes sure we have a little something to tide us over through the Sunday School hour with hot coffee, tea, and delicious (usually home-made!) treats in the Lounge. During this time folks are invited to sit and enjoy the goodies with open friendly conversation with each other, or grab your cup of ‘joe’ and a munchies and head for the FaithTalk education forum in the chapel. However you wish to partake, please do. Taste, see, and hear that the Lord is good!

O.W.L.s (60+ Fellowship) - Zion’s O.lder W.iser L.utherans get together about once a month for food, fellowship and fun. We LOVE to share lunch or dinner together, frequenting QC restaurants, even travelling as far & wide as Muscatine and Galena or taking a Riverboat cruise to share good times together! We openly invite ALL 60-plus-ers to join the group in our adventures – we’ll even let you 50-something youngsters in on the fun – we don’t “card.” J For more information about the O.W.L.s , contact Grace Haller (324-8463) or Phyllis Beck (391-7518).

Book Review – Lay-led small groups that meet monthly to share reflections and discussion on booksthey chose as a group to read.

The Morning Book Review group meets on the third Monday at 9:00 am. Here is a sampling of
books from 2009-2010:
                      The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
                      The Christmas Sweater by Glen Beck
                      Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore
                      Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle by Kent Annan

For more information about upcoming books, contact Anita Hagen (bandahagen@msn.com) for
the Morning Review, or the Zion office (563-322-3533).

Zion has also previously had an Evening Book Review group that has met monthly. If you would
be interested in a group that meets in the evening, please contact Beth or Betty in the Zion office
(563-322-3533) or e-mail: zionlutheranchurch@mchsi.com

Zion Lutheran Church Women (ZLCW) – As a community of women created in the image of God, called to discipleship in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to grow in faith, affirm our gifts, support one another in our callings, engage in ministry and action, and promote healing and wholeness in the church, the society, and the world.

A congregational Unit of the churchwide Women of the ELCA, Zion currently has seven active
“Circles” of Women, ranging in age from 18 to 98, who participate in monthly gatherings for Bible
study, fellowship, support as sisters in Christ, and plenty of love and laughter! Our monthly
studies are based on Biblical themes directed by our churchwide WELCA and guided by the
monthly publication, Lutheran Woman Today; the study base for Sept.2010 – May 2011 will be
The People of God: Unity in the Midst of Diversity.

Our Zion women serve the congregation, the local community, and the global community through
service projects such as serving meals and fundraising for various Zion ministries, serving at local
homeless services organizations, quilts and kits for Lutheran world Relief, and more…

We welcome ALL women to become part of this combination of small-group/large-group ministry
of caring, sharing, and burden-bearing women created in the image of God! Contact the Zion
office (zionlutheranchurch@mchsi.com) or Anita Hagen (bandahagen@msn.com) for more info.

Prayer Groups/Mission Groups – Eternal One, Silence from whom my words come; Questioner fromwhom my questions arise; Lover of whom all my loves are hints; Disturber in whom alone I find rest; Mystery in whose depths I find healing and myself; enfold me now in your presence; restore to me your peace; renew me through your power; and ground me in your grace. Amen

Spiritual nurturing and support are essential to living our call as People of God. Yet, time for spiritual nurturing is often one of the first things we “drop” when we get busy, estranging ourselves from what we need most, right when we need it most.

Zion’s Small Group Ministry seeks to foster opportunity for spiritual nurturing through Prayer Groups and Mission Groups. We currently have two active groups: the Offspring Prayer Group and the School of Christian Living Mission Group. For more information about Prayer groups, contact the Zion office (zionlutheranchurch@mchsi.com) or Pastor Del Preston (prestondk@netins.net). For more info on the SCL Mission Group, contact Mary Lou Kelley (gakelley1@yahoo.com)