Focus on Fellowship

Focus on Fellowship
On August 17th after worship the ladies of Zion came together to honor Deaconess Joanna Lee with a baby shower. Great food, games and fellowship was enjoyed by all! Baby Lee’s expected arrival is September 22nd! A big Thank You to the Women’s Ministry, particularly Tevia and Megan P., for organizing the shower. 

Zion’s Youth at the LCMS Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA

Zion’s Youth at the LCMS Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA
Held every 3 years since 1980, the LCMS Youth Gathering provides thousands of youth and adults the opportunity to come together as a community of God’s people to be encouraged in their walk with Jesus Christ and learn about the Christian faith and their Lutheran identity. 

The Gathering is more than the five days of the event. The preparation process for the Gathering brings together young people and supportive adults to encourage each other in their baptismal identity. The Gathering provides young people a vision for the vastness of Christ’s Church and equips them for vocational service as they continue their walk with Jesus.  

 This event is organized by LCMS Youth Ministry in Saint Louis, MO. For additional ways to connect to LCMS Youth Ministry, please visit www.lcms.org/youth. 

Pastor’s Corner

Great is Your Faithfulness 
Have you ever read much from the Old Testament book of Lamentations? Usually, it is not a book of the Bible we go running to for uplifting reading. After all, it is filled with lamenting the sorrows and torments of life (hence the name, “Lamentations”!) But this could be a book of the Bible we go running to because it is not just a book of griping . . . Actually it is a book of hope. 

In Lamentations chapter three, the prophet Jeremiah recognizes many of the hardships he is facing in life. 

I am the man who has seen affliction . . . 
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones . . . 
He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding . . . 
I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, 
the object of their taunts all day long . . . 
He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes . . . 
I have forgotten what happiness is. 

That last line is one that is utterly shocking but so entirely true for us at times in life, “I have forgotten what happiness is.” That happens to all of us sometimes, doesn’t it? Lamentations has an uncanny way of voicing the lives we all live at times. But lamentations doesn’t just stop with us sitting in dust, chewing on gravel and being unhappy. Jeremiah has a hope outside of himself, outside of the circumstances in life. His hope is in God. After his long litany of miseries, Jeremiah says this, 

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, 
“therefore I will hope in him.” 

Our hope, our only hope in this life, is not in ourselves. In fact, it doesn’t matter if your life is going well, or poorly. Our hope should never be determined by the circumstances of our lives, good or bad. Our hope is in God, in Jesus Christ who has brought us the greatest of hopes in all of creation. His steadfast love for you never ends. As Jeremiah says, “great is your faithfulness!” 

-Pastor Grimenstein 

VIDEO: Sunday, September 7, 2025 - Complete Service

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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Choir for Sunday, September 7, 2025

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Old Testament Reading -- Deuteronomy 30:15–20 
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” 

Epistle -- Philemon 1–21 
Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, 

To Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. 

Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will. For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 

So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. 

Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the fourteenth chapter
Now great crowds accompanied [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

Adult Choir -- Assurance (8:00 a.m. service) 

Food Bank Sunday: Sunday, Sept. 14th

The September collection for the Bridgeville Area Food Bank is Sunday, September 14th. The “items of the month” are PERSONAL HYGIENE PRODUCTS. 

Items may be placed in the wicker bin in the narthex near the coat rack. Thank you for supporting this vital community service! 

At the August distribution, 106 families were assisted which included 39 children, 84 adults and 78 of the elderly. 

Where do you fit? … The Board of Trustees

WHO: 
Any adult man or woman who is a member of Zion. 

WHAT: 
Maintain all the buildings (interiors and exteriors) and grounds of the church campus. 

WHERE: 
Tasks and oversight of physical property are conducted throughout the church campus. Meetings held in Conference Room 

WHEN: 
Tasks are performed throughout the month as needed. Meetings are the first Monday of the month at 7 PM. 

WHY: 
As stewards of the physical property God has entrusted to Zion, Trustees seek to ensure the church campus is functional, attractive, and safe to support and enhance congregational use and outreach. 

HOW: 

• Utilize board members’ time and talents when possible to perform tasks 

• Establish and utilize professional services when warranted 

• Encourage congregational participation through all-church workdays and TO DO LIST sign-ups as needed 

• Contact Trustee Chair Mike Debowski: mike.j.debowski@gmail.com