Entering Lent: Everything In Between

We are looking for individuals willing to prepare and share a devotion for our Wednesday evening Lenten Worship services.  We are inviting you to share your reflections on someone who has inspired you in your faith as a result of the way they lived out their faith and demonstrated the sacrificial love of Jesus. This could be someone you know or perhaps a historical figure.
The ELCA commemorates some of these individuals throughout the year. A few who are remembered during the season of Lent include Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Dietrich Bonhoefer, Albrect Durer, Oscar Romero, John Donne, St. Patrick of Ireland, and Jonathan Edwards.  If you are interested, please contact Pastor Marsha at msmith@zionlutheran-ic.org or call 319-338-0944.  

What’s Happening 2.20.2025

Lenten will soon be upon us, and we will be making some interesting changes in our worship order for Sundays and for Wednesday evening midweek services.

Sunday mornings during Lent, we will introduce ELW liturgy Setting Two. Setting Two comes from the well-known Lutheran musician Marty Haugen who, as you probably know, wrote the very popular “Holden Evening Prayer” for Holden Village as well as “Now the Feast and Celebration”, both of which we have used on several occasions here at Zion. (In case all you Luther alumni didn’t appreciate him enough already, I recently learned Marty Haugen is also a Luther grad.) For our Lenten Sunday worship services, we will include the Kyrie at the beginning of the service and replace the first and second readings with a responsive chanting of the psalm of the day. The Kyrie and the psalm will have a canter most weeks, so if you are interested in volunteering for that role, let Marlys Boote know. We will also include the Song of Simeon following Holy Communion to close the service, a practice done in many congregations.  Please remember, this will be just a short break of omitting a few things so that we can focus on other pieces of the liturgy we often leave out.

Additionally, on Sundays and the special holy days during this season, we will be using a resource I found from Sanctified Art, a group of gifted worship professionals from a variety of mainline denominations who are committed to allowing the scriptures to come to life through color, movement, poetry, song, and image. Here is a link to their website if you would like to learn more about them. https://sanctifiedart.org/ourstory
The theme is entitled “Everything In Between”. From their description

“Our theme, 'Everything In Between,' invites us to navigate the polarities in our lives with more faith, intention, and openness to be transformed. You will see that each weekly sub-theme explores two supposed binaries, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We often consider these ideas to be opposing. However, as we explore these concepts within the scriptures, we find nuance and complexity. We find that these dichotomies are false. We might begin to see a full spectrum instead of black and white. We might find that God is present in between. And so, this season, we invite you to look beyond black-and-white binaries and easy answers. We encourage you to notice the dichotomies that define our lives, but also imagine where God might be meeting us beyond the categories we create. This Lent, we're trusting that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues, and everywhere in between.”

One more exciting part of our Lenten Sundays will be the enjoyable noisy offering by our Sunday School children who voted to designate the money to go to LA fire relief (through Lutheran Disaster Response) and Lutheran Services in Iowa (part of Lutheran Services in America).

Finally, our Midweek liturgy is an evening prayer service with a compilation of pieces by our very own former organist, Tim Meier, which you have used while he was working here. We are once again asking laypersons to bravely step up and take on the role of “preacher” for the evening. If that is something you might be interested in, please let me
know sooner rather than later.

We will also be having the ever-popular Lenten meals every Wednesday except for the week of March 26, which is spring break.  Meals will begin at 5:30 pm and be hosted by a variety of groups from the congregation.

For those who are interested, our Adult Learning Team will host a short devotional time on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 pm – 6:45 pm down in the Gathering room. They will be utilizing a resource from Saltproject.org, entitled “Wendell Berry and the Sabbath Poetry of Lent.” Here is a link to this resource if you would like to learn more about it or the organization itself, https://www.saltproject.org/wendell-berry-and-the-sabbath-poetry-of-
lent/wendell-berry-and-the-sabbath-poetry-of-lent-personal-use

Image by Pastelila from Pixabay

Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay

What’s Happening 10.31.2024

Do you know any home-bound Zion members? One of the hardest things as a

congregation, and as a pastor, is to keep track of members who have moved into that

category we are calling home-bound, which we used to call shut-ins. Home-bound are

members that are basically un-able to attend a Sunday morning worship service, and

have a difficult time getting out and about for anything but the most critical of trips,

doctor’s appointments, grocery store, hair appointments. Some are still in their own

homes, many are in assisted living facilities or traditional nursing homes.

Often becoming home-bound is a slow process, and it happens in incremental steps,

one or two at a time. They may have moved to an independent living situation, that

eventually moves them over to their assisted living area. They may have given up their

driving, but their children are able to take them most places they need to go to. They

were in assisted living, but had a fall, ended up in rehab and then finally landed in a

nursing home. There are all sorts of variations as to how this happens.

As well, in the situation of a couple, quite often one of the members is able to get out

and still drive, but is very limited in the amount of time they can be gone because their

spouse is in need of almost 24-hour-a-day care. So, in a sense, they both are home-

bound, as well.

The point of this long explanation is that often in the process, neither the member, the

spouse or the family realizes that in amongst, all the other things that are changing

about their lifestyle, they also are not able to attend worship and receive Holy

Communion.

More often than you would think, the church is the last to know one of their members

have become home-bound. And if we are not aware of their status, they are missing

out on our ministry of home visits from the Pastoral Care Pastor, Dirk Stadtlander and

our monthly lay home visitors. In addition, when I do hear of a home-bound individual

or couple, I make every effort to get out to see them at least once, to let them know I am

aware of their situation and build a connection with them.

Below is a list of those who we are aware are unable to attend weekly Sunday morning

worship, whom we consider “home-bound”. I would ask that you take some time to

consider the members you have known here at Zion and ask yourself are you still

seeing them on Sunday mornings for worship? If you realize you haven’t seen them in

a while, I would ask that you either share their name with us, or if you feel comfortable,

give them a call and ask how they are doing. If they seem to fit into our home-bound

category, ask them if you could notify the church office and let us know of their situation.

Thank you in advance, for helping us be the kind of congregation that carries out our

Biblical calling to care for those in need around us.

Anne Hesse

Louise Kruise

Ellen & Keith Niehaus

Marilyn Larson

Carolyn Crowell

Priscilla Jacobsen

Nancy Kienzle

Mary Ann Conrad

Ada Crow

Jim & Shirley Hassman

Barb Lueder

Nancy & Les Cullers

Judy Gehrke

Hazel Wenman/Yoder

Lorraine Turnipseed

Elnora Smith

Gerry Gardner

John Ernst

Betty Norbeck

Al & Karen Albertus

Barbie Buddin

What’s Happening …11.6.2024

I am finally in the process of setting up a New Member class for here at Zion. It has been on my list almost since I got here, at least names of individuals who have expressed an interest in joining Zion Lutheran as a congregational member.

Unfortunately, so many other things needed to be done that were a higher priority, it tended to fall to the bottom of the list. And to be honest, it was a pretty short list when I first got it. You usually have a New Member class with at least 6 or more people to make it worth the time and energy of the person leading, myself, but also others, like the council and other ministry volunteers and sponsors that are involved in the process.

I am thinking we finally have more than 6 or so folks who have expressed an interest in joining, so it is time to offer this opportunity. So even if you have given your name to us prior, and we probably still have it, I would so appreciate if you would email me at msmith@zionlutheran-ic.org, if you and or your family are interested in joining Zion as a congregational member.

I usually offer three meetings for a New Member class. The first is for people to share a little about themselves, their faith background, family, occupations, hobbies, etc.

The second is with a group of individuals who are a part of various ministries here at Zion who will share just a little about the ministry to give new folks an idea of all the options of activities they can get involved in. They say, if an individual does not get involved in a ministry within the first six months of joining a church there is a good chance they will soon leave that congregation. It makes sense, in that if a person is not building relationships with people and investing in ministry, their sense of belonging is pretty low and they are likely to quit participating when a few other things rise on their priority list.

The third is a time where I share about Zion’s history, values and priorities. As well, if there are new members that are not Luther, I will share some of what it means to be an ELCA Lutheran here in America. And finally, a bit about the wider church such as our synod and national structure and ministries.

Again, if you are interested in attending, you also can attend and decide not to join I suppose, but either way, please let me know and I will hopefully find three dates that work for the majority of the group and plan it out.

Pastor Marsha

From the Desk of Pastor Marsha

Zion Lutheran Church

Zion Lutheran Church