Welcome new members Dave and Lyn Ashlin. 

Opportunities to Help at Zion

  • Pray – (see Guide for Daily Prayer and Meditation) 
  • Visit homebound members – they would love to see you
  • Check on a member who has been away – ask how we can help them
  • Attend Women’s Society or Men’s Club gatherings – encourage and strengthen friendships
  • Participate on a board – encourage and offer relief for current board members (although some may be having more fun than they will let on.)
  • Volunteer for “as needed” projects – funeral luncheons, community service projects, church workdays, etc.
  • Give financially – in addition to your tithes and offerings, there are needs at Zion and other ministries that need financial support
  • Refinish pews – disassemble, sand, stain, polyurethane, reassemble…
  • Sort and organize old photos and information for display as well as for easier search and reference
  • Take new pictures for website and pictorial directory
  • Drive member to appointment/errand – some have difficulty driving 
  • Study God’s Word that you “may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:17b)
  • Tell someone what Jesus has done for you and for them
  • Invite someone to church – “…faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17)
  • Attend Divine Service – Through the Word and Sacraments, Jesus strengthens our faith in Him and our love for others. He restores, renews, and brings us into fellowship with Him and all the saints.

What else? If we missed something, let the church office know.

Introducing: The Congregation at Prayer – A Catechetical and Devotional Guide

Beginning this Advent, November 27, we are introducing “The Congregation at Prayer”. This is a weekly devotional and catechetical guide for use in the home and congregation.

Our hope is that this will help our members in prayer, reading the Scriptures, and learning the catechism at home. It will also unite us around the same sections of the Word of God and catechism. 

The first week’s guide is included in this issue of Parish Life. Lord willing, it will be distributed each week in the Sunday bulletin and posted on our website.

You should not feel burdened to use all of the material but pray and confess out loud as much from the order of meditation and prayer as you and your family are able.

This guide is based on materials from Concordia Catechetical Academy in Sussex, WI at wwwpeacesussex.org/CCA, which cite the following points in summarizing their “change of thinking about the task of catechesis”:

  • Faith in Christ is the goal of all catechesis.
  • Catechesis is God’s way of teaching the Word of God by which faith is established. God’s way of teaching always involves the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
  • Catechesis establishes preaching and teaching the Word of God as the center of congregational life.
  • Catechesis passes on the language of our holy faith as God’s gift that is received as a gift, rather than as something that is “force fed” into the catechumen.
  • The Christian life of faith is lived from the Word of God that is received and believed.
  • The Christian life of faith has concrete expressions:
    • in the ongoing reception of God’s gifts in the Divine Service through the hearing of Scripture, the hearing of preaching, and the eating and drinking of the Lord’s body and blood;
    • in the daily prayer of the Christian;
    • in the confession of one’s faith in the world;
    • in the confession of one’s sins to God or a brother;
    • in forgiving the sins of those who have sinned against him;
    • and in living “concretely” by faith in Christ in the vocation to which God has called him.
  • God has His own language for learning how to receive God’s gifts in the Divine Service, how to pray, how to confess, and how to live where God called us.
  • The Small Catechism preserves for us “the pattern of sound words” (2 Timothy 1:13) so that it functions as both a prayer book and handbook for the Christian faith and life.
  • The chief reason why the catechism is memorized or “learned by heart” is so that it can shape the faith and understanding of the catechumen and be used by him throughout his life as he learns to interpret Scripture, listen to preaching, receive absolution, pray, confess, and live in his vocation.
  • Catechesis is, therefore, much more comprehensive and involves the actual doing of things that Christians will continue to do for the rest of their lives: attend Divine Service, listen to preaching, receive the Lord’s Supper, confess their sins, receive absolution, pray, confess their faith, forgive one another, live as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children, workers of every kind, etc.

Radio Broadcast Ended. We thank God for 54 years of broadcasting Zion’s Sunday morning worship services over 105.7FM. He only knows the powerful and effective results of the proclamation of the Word over the airwaves during that time. But with the recent change in ownership, Zion’s services will no longer be aired. We encourage our radio listeners to join us in person if they are able. 

Pages