Vacation Bible School 2024 Announced

Vacation Bible School Announced for 2024
VBS week is set for July 22nd - 26th please mark your calendars!

We thank Karen Kress for again volunteering to lead Vacation Bible School this year. The date for VBS week has been selected as July 22-26, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (time-tentative). Our program will be Concordia Publishing House's "Celebrate the Savior" VBS Promo Video.

Volunteers are needed!!! If you are interested in helping, please contact Karen at kkress5@gmail.com. There are lots of opportunities to help in hands-on roles with children, and with behind-the-scenes tasks!!

The Scammers are at it again!

Another scammer targets Zion!
Unfortunately, once again a fake email has been circulating to Zion members .... the email appears to come from "Pastor Edward O. Grimenstein" and requests "a favor" OR "money and/or gift cards."  The Most recent just says “Monday! You out today?”

THIS EMAIL IS A SCAM.  PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO IT! 
During the pandemic unfortunately these scams have been on the rise.

JOB DESCRIPTION: Director of Family Life

Director of Family Life
The Director of Family Life will work alongside the pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in developing and maintaining outreach programs to the local community (primarily through Zion Lutheran Preschool). The Director of Family Life will also focus upon strengthening the relationships between existing Zion members.

The overall goals of the Director of Family Life position are as follow:

• Create a preschool outreach initiative.

• Plan all youth programming/events.

• Recruit & coordinate volunteers for programs.

• Oversee ordering of resources related to events.

Download the PDF for a full description

DOWNLOAD: DETAILS on the position of Director of Family Life

Pastor’s Corner

Pastor’s Corner

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:7-11)

The passage above is a comfort for many. For those who wrestle with their sin, or for those burdened by their past, we can hear Christ’s words and know that because of Christ, the Great Judge, not even He will condemn us. For others, though, they may try to use the above passage as an excuse to continue in their sin. They might say, “Remember, even Jesus said, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.’ So, don’t tell me I’m wrong. Let me live my life however I want. Quit judging me!”

The question of how to deal with sin in the church can be a confusing one. We find passages like the one above that seem to say, “we shouldn’t judge anyone.” And yet we will find multiple passages that speak about repenting of our private sins and of stopping public sins from spreading like yeast throughout the church. In fact, most of Paul’s letters have mandates commanding the church to prevent sexual immorality and other public sins within her and expel those who say they are Christian and yet choose to remain unrepentant in their sin (Rom. 1 & 2; 1 Cor. 5).

So, what is the church to do, and how are we as Lutherans to hear Christ’s words in the world in which we live? In the passage above the last verse is crucial. Jesus told the woman to “go, and from now on sin no more.” The woman was called to live a new life now, not of openly sinning, but of openly repenting. She was called by Christ to live a life of faith in Him and turn away from her sins. During this season of Lent, we are also called into an identical life of repentance as that woman. Luther’s Fourth Part of Baptism in the Small Catechism speaks to this when it says,

What does such baptizing with water indicate?
It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

We are all sinners. And we are all called by Christ to daily repent (which means to turn away from sin) and to look more and more to Christ as our Savior. Seeing Christ as our Savior truly is what the season of Lent is all about.

VIDEO: Sunday March 10, 2024 - Complete Service

View the bulletin for Sunday, March 10, 2024
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of Bulletins

Old Testament Reading -- Numbers 21:4–9
Epistle Reading -- Ephesians 2:1–10
The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the third chapter.

AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Men’s Choir for Sunday March 10, 2024

View the bulletin for Sunday, March 10, 2024
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of Bulletins

Old Testament Reading -- Numbers 21:4–9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Epistle Reading -- Ephesians 2:1–10
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the third chapter.
[Jesus said:] “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”

Youth Group Event: Top Golf

Youth Group Outing to Top Golf!
Teens in 8th-12th grades are invited to join us next Sunday 3/17 at 6pm at Top Golf. Look for more info this week via GroupMe.

RSVP to Susie at secretary@zlcb.org by Monday 3/11 if you can join us!