Thinking about the body

Paul understood the whole church of Jesus Christ to be a body.  In 1 Corinthians 12 he writes, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”  On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

Now I understand Paul to be talking about more than the local congregation.  I understand Paul to be talking about the entire church of Jesus Christ.  Just as Jesus did in John 17  when he prayed that all his followers, and those who came to believe in him through them, might be one with him and with the Father.  The Church is one body, wherever it is, however big or small, whether persecuted or free.  We are one body. 

I think we work really hard on being one as a congregation, but we must never forget that the body of Christ is bigger than just our own church.  It includes Christians across eternity, across the world, and across town.  We all need each other and we should all honor each other and we should strive, as our Master commands us, “to be one.”  

Human sin and egotism makes it harder than you would think to live this out.  

Consequently, we have a core value at Zion (part of our values which we’ll roll out and explain in the fall) that says this:

We are a part of something bigger than ourselves. 

Jesus taught us to pray that God’s kingdom would come and that things here would be the way they are in heaven.  We believe that God’s kingdom is comprised of all his children and so we seek ways to work with others for the sake of making that kingdom real to the world around us.  We seek unity with other believers and churches and partnerships with other people and organizations and ministries who are engaged in doing good things in the world.  We do not believe that we have to own every idea or ministry.  In fact, we believe that our Master taught us how to die to ourselves and to our egos, and so we hope that we can find ways to bring people and groups together without having to “own it” or take credit for it.  We believe that this attitude will bring many good things into being without our egos getting in the way.  In all things we seek a kingdom orientation.

We try to show that we are a part of the greater body of Christ.  We have done this in the following ways:

• By supporting local congregations in Des Moines and other cities in Iowa that ask for our help.  We have sent worship teams, preachers and teachers to different locations in order to help cover empty pulpits or organs or classrooms.  We have especially tried to be of service to new immigrant churches which are trying hard to get established in this new land.  
• By reaching out in our community and “being church” for those who have no church or who have been forgotten.  
• By supporting missionaries and churches and evangelists and catechists in Tanzania, Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar), and elsewhere. 
• By sending mission teams to help do good things all over the world and to be the presence of Christ.  Our people have gone all over the world and all over the nation as part of this effort.  Whether it’s a youth service trip to Colorado or a three week trip to Africa, it’s the same concept.

I think we are called to do more at Zion to show our city that we are, in fact, part of something bigger than ourselves.  Can you imagine the witness that churches working and worshipping together would have?  I have a dream for Zion, that we would lose our dependence on the weekly offering.  That’s why we’ve been making such a push for electronic giving lately.  It’s also why we don’t pass the plate at services any more.  We want people to give regardless if they can make it to church services or not.  Ultimately, this will free us up to truly be a church on the move, and allow us to move out into our community and bless other churches on a Sunday morning by showing up and encouraging them.  In other words, we could have our service together with them at their church and they could keep the offering because we wouldn’t need it.  We could worship in parks and other public places.  Worship would become an outreach.   

All this talking about how we try to live out this value might sound egotistical but it isn’t.  The truth is, that for all the support we give to the body, we also receive a tremendous amount of support from the body for our ministry.  Here’s what I mean:

• This summer, three different Christian camps worked with us so we could send nearly 50 kids to camp.  They shared the financial burden and kingdom work was accomplished.
• We have volunteers from many different churches every Wednesday night for our STAR Kids program.
• We have volunteers from other churches staffing our clothes closet and helping in our furniture ministry.  
• We receive regular gifts of money from people in other churches to help support our ministry and outreach.
• Art Camp and our soccer team, Zion United, are all helped enormously by volunteers from various other churches.  
• We just received an invitation from other churches to band together and help a local man who was car jacked and is having a slow recovery and whose family is in desperate need of help.  

We have been so blessed by the body of Christ in our city.  Recently, a church in the suburbs called to ask if they could partner with us in our furniture ministry.  They are willing to make this ministry a part of their church as well, helping us with donations and with people and trucks to move things.  It’s amazing to see what can happen when we work together.  The fun part for me is that I have never met the pastor or any staff members from this church.  They simply checked us out on the web, found out that we love Jesus like they do and they offered a union of sorts to help.  That’s kingdom of God stuff to be sure. 

But everything isn’t always that easy.  Another church in town sent a high ranking staff member to tell us that they wouldn’t help us.  They even expressed dismay that some of their members were helping us in various ministries as volunteers.  They expressed concern that they might lose members to us.  This was really hard to hear, as this is a very large and very wealthy church and the people we serve have such incredible need.  But they expressed their belief that they couldn’t participate in someone else’s ministry in our city without owning it.  The irony is that they can freely participate with churches in other parts of the world but not here.  I suppose we’re all called to different ministries, but I’m not sure that nullifies the desire of Jesus that we be one.  

I give this example not to shame or embarrass anyone, but rather to show that working together as a body is harder than it seems.  For the most part, churches are in competition for members and money and fame.  To work together requires a real effort to die to yourself and trust Jesus to keep you in “business.”  But I believe that our Founder and Master showed us how to die and that he bids come and follow him.  Which, if we’re faithful followers, ultimately leads to the cross.  But it’s through that spiritual dying that we are reborn to eternal life and can really be useful to our Master, Christ Jesus.   One of the greatest witnesses we can give to the world, which is used to churches  being in competition and divided, is to put our self interest aside, overcome our egos, and strive to truly be one body for the sake of our one Lord.  

More Than Just Another Non-Profit

Some people have approached us about the idea of spinning off some of our more successful ministries as separate 501C3s.  They argue that it would be easier for us to raise money for these ministries if they weren’t associated directly with a church.  

I understand the point.  It’s just that we believe our call to ministry in this city is supposed to be associated with the church.  Our church, your church, and all the other churches that make up the Body of Christ in our community.  Our ministry, the Spirit has told us, is a witness that gives glory to Jesus Christ.  We don’t want to diminish that glory by forming a non-church corporation, even if doing so would make it easier to raise money and our lives that much less complicated.

Personally, I struggle with the idea that any aspect of our ministry is somehow diminished because it is funded by, housed in, or inspired by Zion Lutheran Church.  But the conversations keep happening.  

The foundational objections to supporting ministries that are identified with individual congregations seem to fall into the following categories:

1.)  “If I’m going to give to a church, I’m going to give to my own church.”  Christians don’t want to support a church’s ministry that isn’t their own church.  Pick your denomination, Baptist, Catholic, Free, it doesn’t seem to matter.  Christians, from what I’m told, don’t want to support the ministry of our congregation because we don’t belong to their particular denomination or congregation.  Really?  Seriously?  I makes me sad.  Are we really that competitive?  Do Christians subscribe to a some zero-sum idea about ministry and money that says, “If you have a successful ministry, it must somehow diminish the ministry of my group”?  Or, worse, “If I give to the good you’re doing, it means I have less to give to the good my own church is doing.”  Ouch!  Does our Lord not have cattle on a thousand hills and are we not One Body?  Apparently not.  

There must be other reasons, too.  Perhaps other theological traditions think we’re not really Christians because we bear the name Lutheran.  Ouch!  But that has historically been the case.  

I think that other churches worry that if they support ministry in other churches, somehow they might loose people to those churches.  At Zion we have a lot of volunteers who come from other churches.  They help us, some of them decide to worship with us regularly, but not many.  In fact, very, very few.  We are a peculiar church.  But it makes me sad that we can’t work together because of fear.  

There is a great deal of irony in this situation.  As congregations we’re happy to partner with congregations on the other side of the globe but we’re hesitant to do so on the other side of town.  This is a bizarre and inconsistent behavior.  

So I ask myself the question:  what ministries through other churches do we support?  The answer turns out to be very, very few.  So perhaps before I critique others, I better get my house in order.  We need to find a way to support others in what they’re doing.  We need to find a way to bless what God is doing in other congregations.  We have very few ideas about how to do this, but it will take some doing to implement them.  Why?  Because we’re guilty of the same mindset as everybody else.  

2.)  “I can’t give to the good ministry your church is doing because you might ask them to become Christians.”  This excuse isn’t limited to just non-believers.  Even some Christians are nervous about the idea of sharing the faith.  We are not shy to present the gospel to people we serve when we believe the Holy Spirit presents the opportunity.  We are not ashamed of the gospel.

Our primary mission is that we serve people who can’t serve us back and thereby serve our Master, Jesus Christ.  We serve to honor him first and foremost.  If people want to become his followers because of that service, that’s an act of God and His work through His Holy Spirit.  We don’t do what we do for people so that we can grow our church.  That would mean we were serving people who could give us something, their membership, in return.  We serve according to the paradigm of Luke 14:  when you give a banquet, don’t invite your friends and rich neighbors because they can pay you back.  Rather, invite the poor, the lame, the blind, the widows, the orphans, the forgotten.  Those who cannot pay you back.

The irony with this excuse is extreme.  Consider this:  You support the good we are doing, which we are doing because we are Christians.  But you don’t want to make any more Christians who might, in turn, help us do even more good things?  

It reminds me of a family that left our church more than a year ago.  They left because they wanted a church that was less structured around service and more structured around youth.  So I simply asked, “You plan to leave this church, which you admit  is doing beautiful things for Jesus, in order to go to a church which will focus more on your child in the hopes that he will grow up to be the kind of man who does the things we’re doing here?”  Yes.  I got it right.  Amazing.  Why wouldn’t you want to support an organization that does good things and has the potential to teach more people to do good things?  Ultimately, wouldn’t the world be a better place?  

So, I’m still trying to figure out how people think we must present the gospel.  “Convert or die?”  Simply at a loss as to why you wouldn’t want to create more followers of a global movement that has self sacrifice and service and love and justice and charity at it’s core.  We must really have a bad reputation out there.

3.)  “I am willing to support any ministry you do, but I will not support the church itself or help to pay it’s bills.”  We call this, “designated giving.”  I think I understand the point here.  It must be that people separate what we do for others, the service part, from what we do for ourselves, which must be the worship part.  I suppose people think that church services are for insiders.  But not in this church.  The church service itself is supposed to be a service of proclamation.  The gospel is supposed to be presented.  This is the place you invite your unchurched, de-churched, unbelieving friends to come and hear the Good News.  Worship is also mission.  

The whole point of the gospel is that those who were outsiders are now insiders with God through Jesus Christ.  Sunday School is a mission field.  It’s where you bring all the kids in your neighborhood on Sunday morning who aren’t going someplace else. 

I know that some folks believe it is more righteous to buy us the text books we need to teach English than to give money to “the church.”  But where are the English classes held?  In the church.  Who organizes the volunteers who teach and help and work and serve?  Church staff.  I’m not sure you can separate what is “church” from what is “ministry.”  Especially in our case, where the building is leveraged for mission as much as humanly possible.  There isn’t much idle time here, we’re truly a community church.  And we don’t charge for that normally.  So if people want us to be able to do the things we’re doing, they need to support “the church,”  because “the church” is essential to what’s happening. 

I suppose there is no glamour in paying the mortgage.  But there is glamour in supporting the program that get’s people jobs.  But without the building, that program has nowhere to meet, no a/c or heat, no electric lights, no bathrooms, no kitchen for coffee, no internet access, no computers for applying for work.  Supporting the church for the sake of the work of the church isn’t glamorous, but it’s essential.

We could not do any of the mission we do without our staff, building, etc.  Our church has become a home for many people.  A place to sit and have dinner, to worship, to fellowship, to work and to play.  

Recently, we spent three weeks as a church studying about giving.  The main point was simply this:  The New Testament is emphatic that “the church” is the body of Christ.  When you persecute “the church” you are persecuting Jesus Himself.  When you bless “the church” you are blessing Jesus himself.  Giving shouldn’t be about what makes you feel good or about what’s hip or glamorous.  Giving should be about you giving abundantly and blissfully to the person of Jesus Himself.  I’ve come to the conclusion that if we can’t do that, we probably shouldn’t give at all.

One final thought:  people love to see fruit on the trees of the church.  They love to see success.   I’ve seen people only want to give to that success.  But this is the funny thing about fruit:  it doesn’t just appear.  It has to grow.  If a nice big juicy fruit is what success is, let’s not forget that it begins with fertilizing the tree, watering the tree, pruning the tree, etc.  All these tedious things the gardeners have to do if we expect to see fruit.  When you give only to the fruit, you forget what it really takes to have fruit, gardeners, trees, orchards, etc.  It’s all part of the big picture that gives the fruit.  So we need to give to the “whole” process.  Not just to the end.  Or there will be no fruit.  And, let’s not forget that even with all the giving in the world, there is no fruit and no tree without the God who created seeds, sunshine, water, and all the other things that make the fruit grow.

Five Years Hence: A guess about what we'll look like at Zion five years from now

INTRODUCTION:  This is a simple attempt to paint a picture of where I think we’ll be as a church in five years.  God is in absolute control of everything and so this painting may look nothing at all like what our reality will be.  I felt moved to write it because without vision, we die.  What I’ve tried to do is simply take what we’re already doing and just draw out where that takes us in five years.  I offer this as a way of showing the church where I think all the wonderful things that God is doing here are going and where I think we’re heading.  It is offered to His glory. 

STAR Kids

STAR Kids has been the driving force behind much of our mission activity as a church.  It is because of STAR Kids that we have a clothes closet, a furniture ministry, a relationship with the local schools, distribute food to 100 families a month and do many other things.  We are now beginning to experience the graduations of our first STAR kids.  There is a lot of celebrating.  Those who understand the intent of STAR kids and the amazing opportunities we’ve been given as a church to minister to these kids are  profoundly moved. These graduating kids make it clear to the entire church that together, we did something beautiful for Jesus.  Together we were able to keep kids away from drugs, gangs, and what is more, to help them have a future and a hope.  These first ones to graduate are the most difficult cases because they came to America as older kids and have been struggling to catch up with reading and English ever since.  We have done everything we can think of to love them, help them, and give them a reason to hope and keep going.  As they prepare to move to vocational school or college or into the workforce, we see why the decisions we’ve made have been the right ones and why, for the sake of the these kids, we inconvenienced ourselves and asked the entire congregation to die to itself.  Seeing these kids graduate and become productive members of society and good neighbors goes a long way in healing any wounds we’ve suffered along the way.  

Volunteers still come from all over the city to help us support, teach, advocate and reach  the kids.  This strong presence of people from all over the city makes Zion feels more and more like the community church we are trying to be.  

We are just starting to intentionally help other churches in the city begin STAR Kids programs.  We could do more if we had more staff, but we do what we can and offer our experiences as a testimony to what God can do.  The most difficult concept for the churches who want to do what we’re doing to grasp is grace.  It is so hard for people to love unconditionally without trying to control everything.  We are seen as an innovative leader among churches and a place that is unafraid to take risks and even fail.

This strong, community focused ministry leads us into amazing partnerships with various organizations and agencies.  Just as in the past God led us into partnerships with Hidden Hills Ranch, Meals from the Heartland and others, He continues to bring new relationships to us.  Because our Master taught us how to die to ourselves and because we don’t need to take credit for everything, Zion continues to influence policies and procedures affecting our kids and their families.  

Because of the intentional discipleship program we put in place as a part of STAR Kids, there are regular baptisms as a part of our time together.  

WOW

Five years hence, a lot of the perceived differences between regular WOW programming and STARS kids has been overcome.  God has provided us with the people and vision to move many of the STARS kids into WOW and they love it.  WOW attendance is now 300 and many details have had to change.  We’ve revamped the entire WOW program and have an intentional discipleship plan in place for every age group.  

The youth classes and groups are among the most popular activities on Wednesday nights.  Young people are trained to be Christian leaders in a multi-ethnic context and do fascinating and engaging service projects together.  Youth are being developed to be leaders and our special relationship with the Bible camps is making it possible for many of our best students to be counselors.  

Wednesday Night Meals

In five years, Wednesday night meals are still going strong.  Nearly 100% of our funding for this venture comes from outside of the church.  Two additional dining rooms have been opened and we are regularly feeding 500-600 meals.  In addition, two other preparation teams have been deployed.  Having three teams to prepare meals makes everything easier for everyone and has freed up Dave Schaeffer to focus his culinary skills on other events.  The new preparation teams are also ethnically diverse and offer a wide ranging variety of menus.  

Thursday Night Meals

Yes, in five years we’ve added “another Wednesday night.”  While smaller in attendance, kids from all over come for homework help, activities, food and teaching about Jesus.  Thursday night feels just like summer camp.  Sports are a major emphasis and our new part time youth ministry intern has his hands full running Thursday night programming.

Every Kid has an advocate and a life plan

In one of the most innovative and thoughtful plans unveiled at Zion, we have mobilized the congregation to provide every child who comes through our doors on any day of the week to be connected to an advocate - an adult who is in their corner and meets regularly with them to develop and implement a life plan.  The program begins around sixth grade and continues through high school.  The kids are encouraged to consider who they are, what they were made to do, and how to go about doing it.  Prayer is a major part of the program and every child in the program is prayed for every day by someone.

We’ve come to the understanding together that telling children they “can do anything” isn’t productive.  But understanding who they are and who God made them to be and helping them become that person is very helpful.  As each child begins to understand the course of his or her life, mentors, internships and experiences are brought to bear on their life so that they will be supported and prepared for the future.

Sunday School

Sunday School looks more and more like Wednesday nights - big, fun and joyous.  We struggle to find room for the openings and the small group times.  Vans go out into the neighborhoods and bring in kids.  Way more van trips than ever before.  This integration causes us to grow in new ways intellectually and spiritually, forcing us to think more and more out of the box and to exemplify more of the fruit of the Spirit, especially, love, peace, joy, patience and self control.  

We now have a summer session of Sunday School as well.  We learned that not all the kids we minister to go away for the summer.  So we were blessed with a group of people who agreed to form a JV team to make sure Sunday School kept on through out the year. 

The Mizo

The Mizo speaking pastor has arrived!  Pastor Ringa’s coming in the spring on 2014 has really helped us overcome much of what divides us from the Mizo.  Pastor Ringa regularly preaches at the other services and music groups journey back and forth between the various services.  While we continue to have a Mizo language service and Sunday School, more and more we’re seeing participation from this group in the English language Sunday School and the “late service.”

Pastor Ringa’s presence has allowed us to go to family camp together as a church with our Mizo families and we have also grown in working together and completing mission projects together.  

Zion began contributing to missionaries the 1:00 service already supports back home in Burma.  

The Karenni

A new Karenni micro church has started at Zion.  It is made up of the families of the kids  who regularly come to Sunday School and their parents who have been attending ESL classes regularly at Zion.  Working with Pastor Ringa and internet resources, we do our best to meet the spiritual needs of this growing group within the congregation.

The Iraqis

We continue to host Iraqi community events and welcome this group to our community.  Thanks to Majed Bahidh joining our staff, we are sometimes known as the “Iraqi Church.”  Some Iraqi families have converted and now follow Jesus.  But because these conversions have taken place in an attitude of absolute humility and grace, the Iraqi community continues to look to us to help them and they continue to feel quite at home in our building.  Arabic language adult Bible Study is a Sunday morning favorite.  

Pastor Gakunzi’s Group: Bethseda Evangelical Church

It’s taken a long time and we’ve moved slowly, but Gakunzi’s group is now incorporated into greater Zion.  Gakunzi has joined our staff and ministers to the congregation as a whole.  Boaz is an integral part of our worship team.  There is a Swahili language service each Sunday and we continue to seek ways to integrate 45 new children into Sunday School. 

Vietnamese Outreach Mission

John Dovinh’s arrival at Zion five years ago and the subsequent beginning of the Lutheran Asian Mission Society really tied together a number of things for people at Zion.  People were stirred up for mission by this dear, grandfatherly man with a passion for Jesus and evangelism.  They also began to see how strange and wonderful the world is.  They began to appreciate more and more the plight of their persecuted brothers and sisters around the world and saw how they themselves could help to establish churches in a far away land.  They also began to understand how “micro-polity” is a global phenomenon: that there could be Vietnamese speaking people who needed to be evangelized in Khmer speaking Cambodia was a real eye opener and helped us all understand the plight of other ethnic and language minorities in our own neighborhood.  

The New Picture Directory that Changed Everything

After Pastor Ringa arrived and got settled, we were able to finally get all the information from all the families at church and pictures as well.  The new picture directory shows the world what we have become - people who are red, yellow, black and white, young and old.  We are a beautiful mosaic for Jesus.  The publication of this directory has an incredibly powerful effect on the entire membership and helps to create a new feeling of unity and excitement. 

Preaching

To keep pace with the sense of “fusion” we have at Zion where it seems everything is being mixed together all the time, preaching styles have changed a bit too.  While we still have a traditional sermon or message many weeks, more frequently gospel messages may be delivered in the context of a team of preachers, taking into account each one’s own identity as a particular generation or ethnicity or gender.  Sermons are thus more challenging, more interactive, and really seem to be hitting home.  There are also weeks where members of our community might be interviewed about how they are living out their faith and some weekends when the message might rely heavily on videos.  The most important thing for us is to get the point (the Word) across.  Some weeks there are segments of the service geared to keep the congregation current with things happening in the city or the world that concern Christ and his church.  Segments such as, “What in the World is God Up to?”, “Bullfighting,” and “Global Church Report.”  We are also certain to include at least two Sundays a year where the message is very specific to who we are and where we are in the vision God has given us.  These sermons are followed by Q and A sessions to be sure that everyone has the opportunity to get the information they want.  The one thing you can count on is that you won’t be bored.  We try and make our members the most globally aware and locally active church members in town.  We also try to instill in our attenders something we call a “biblical imagination.”  In other words, we try to help them see Jesus and his teachings in the things that are going on in their world and in their own lives and relationships.  

A path of intentional discipleship for the whole church

We don’t want to formalize or programmatize the Gospel.  We do believe that there are certain things every follower of Jesus should know and understand.  We want to make certain that those things are being taught in an age appropriate way to all age levels within the church.  The list is still being developed and implementation will be a huge undertaking. But they are essential, we believe, to understanding the nature of God’s kingdom.  We want everyone at Zion to have a knowledge of Scripture and we want to teach it to them with a focused approach.   We believe that the job of the spiritual leadership of Zion is to present everyone at Zion as fully mature in Christ by proclaiming, admonishing and teaching all wisdom about Jesus. (Col 1:28). 

We’re mastering videos

Better late than never, we’re figuring out how to effectively use videos in church.  We have interested volunteers who don’t mind coming early and staying late.  They don’t mind spending hours in production to get just the right effect.  So, at many services the announcements are done by video.  We’re also able to show video highlights of things that happened in the life of Zion that week.  Videos now enhance the Zion website. Videos also aid us in our fundraising, making it easy to show what kinds of ministry we do and to what effect.  And, Pastor John finally has a video blog.  

Evangelism and Outreaches

We’re really well known for our outreaches.  Once people see our “beautiful garden” of unity, they want to know how it came to be.  Then they want to know how to do a Luke 14 outreach.  We keep doing them.  Every year we pick a new complex to add to our list.  We’ve got the method down so well that we can do two on the same day.  It helps to have some trailers and pre-packed equipment at the ready. 

In our neighborhood we’ve put together some materials and a small campaign called, “We want to be your church” where we invite the community to utilize our facilities and services.  People are encouraged to have their gatherings, funerals, weddings, family events at Zion.  A crew of building hosts and hostesses make this possible.

WiFi

The wifi works everywhere in the building and the various networks are secure.  It didn’t take much money, just a consult with an expert and now we have a solid connection everywhere in the building and our ability to share information just got so much easier. 

The Basement 

The basement is finally finished.  We bit the bullet and did a fund raiser and finished off the flooring, got the classrooms equipped and the coffee station put in.  Mission accomplished!  It only took 15 years to get it done! 

Barn and Playground

The “younging” of the congregation highlights the need for a new playground.  WEE preschool needs a separate play area for kids under 5.  Through an outreach to the entire community, we are able to raise $100,000 for two new playgrounds, one for 2-5 year olds, one large one for 5-12 year olds.  Between the two play areas is a basketball court which serves as a driveway for a new barn near the bell tower which houses the 3 Zion vans with their new, very distinctive logos, lawn care equipment, our furniture ministry, and clothes closet storage and sorting and industrial driers.  The barn also has plenty of room for sports equipment for WEE and Zion.  In the winter, you can pull the vans out into the parking lot and play basketball inside.   Many seasonal items now stored in the church building can be moved out to the barn.

Campus Plan

The necessity of building the barn and new playground area forced us to develop a “campus plan” for the rest of the property.  We now understand how our future ministry will impact our property.  We know where we can build and how much we can build, we see how it relates to the gardens and our future parking needs.

Dreaming about a gym

The number of kids and activities we have pushes us to be in internal conversations about how much we really need a gym.  

Thinking Green

As we gain confidence in our ability as a church to succeed by the grace of God, we begin to explore ways to save money.  Thermal energy seemed the right way to go and we’ll shortly begin a campaign to raise money to install a thermal system in the front yard.  The expected savings are staggering.  

Interns.

People want to intern at Zion.  Because of the uniqueness of our ministry and because we’re way out in front of most churches in turning toward intentional integration and mission, we have a good crop of available interns to help us with different projects.  The benefit to us is amazing and helps us keep our staffing levels down.  The benefit to the interns is equally as amazing and helps to build up the kingdom of God. 

Adult Education:

Zion is known throughout the community for it’s seminars and classes.  We feature an amazing line up of speakers and teachers and people want to come and be taught.  We have very basic seminars to help teach the community how to parent, be married, and take care of the many responsibilities of life.  We have Bible classes that are challenging and life changing.  We offer a variety of seminars and classes in various languages as well.  The arrival of Dr. Richard Newkirk some years ago helped us focus on meeting the needs of the church and community by bringing great classes on parenting and marriage and other important skills.  He is helping us think through a strategy of what the neighborhood really needs.  His ability to counsel also helped us really strengthen marriages within our church and community.

Prayer

Prayer groups continue to sprout up everywhere.  Prayer is one of the things we do best.  After years of struggling with how to have a prayer ministry, the answer we’ve been given is that every person at Zion is to be a prayer warrior and is to pray at all times and in all places.  Our first response as a congregation to any task or opportunity is to pray.  

Redeemer Lutheran

We have a very close relationship with our sister congregation, Redeemer, on University Avenue. Redeemer became the first church to ask us to import our unique ministry philosophy to their location.  We have been helping fill their pulpit and provide them with other help on a regular basis.  We’ve now taken the bold step of sending them pastoral leadership and a bunch of people to help them restart their ministry with better demographics.  Redeemer is now beginning to thrive and is our close partner in ministry.  

A strong emphasis on Bible Camps

As a church we’ve learned that some of the best times are had at camp together.  The kids regularly head off to camp each summer and we are now chartering buses to bring Zion kids to Riverside and Okoboji.  Likewise, families from many different ethnicities are encouraged to attend Zion weeks at the camps.  Such weeks are always led by a Zion pastor who facilitates the fellowship and mixing of the groups together.  In such a way, we’ve built community within the church offsite at camp and it has become the backbone of our new, integrated church.  

Adoption and Fostering

Realizing that the world is an increasingly unsafe place for children and that the “traditional family” is hard pressed, a beautiful ministry develops at Zion to support and encourage adoption and foster parenting.  Many couples come to together to support each other in making a decision to foster or adopt and those couples encourage others to live out their faith by considering to foster or adopt.  Some churches have building drives, Zion is known for having adoption drives, and raising tens of thousands every year to help couples adopt locally and internationally.  As a church we understand that God values life and so should we, and that there are many, many children waiting for a home in which they can grow up loved and cherished.  We also understand that adoption and fostering are beautiful acts of love to Jesus, who loved the little children and it is also a beautiful act of evangelism and faith sharing as a child is received into a home where Jesus is Lord.  

Mission Trips

a.) We marked the 15th year of our sister church relationship with the Mhezi Lutheran Parish in Tanzania by sponsoring a delegation from Mhezi to come to Zion.  

b.) This year marked Zion’s first mission trip to Burma.  Led by eight Mizo members, another 10 Zion members made the trek to Burma and the Chin Hills to minister to people there.

c.)  Plans are under way for the first mission trip to Iraq.  It will be an interesting trip.  But the plan is to help various groups who are not receiving any help from anyone else.  We plan on going as soon as a few more security questions are answered.  

d.) Thanks to John Dovinh’s presence in Cambodia, we are able to send a yearly mission trip there as well.  

e.)  Shorter, cheaper trips have taken over the longer, larger trips as families in the church struggle with finances and time.   

Clerical Collar: Zion and the FBI

I’ve started a list of things that I never thought I’d see or do as a pastor.  Having the FBI come and visit is definitely on the list.   

Last week I was working in my office and a young man came and stood in the door and asked to see Pastor Kline.  Since most of my flock call me Pastor John, I figured he was a salesman.  (Believe it or not, pastors get a lot of sales calls.  It drives us crazy and it’s so disruptive).  He asked if he could see me and I was a bit short with him, telling him I only had a few minutes.  He introduced himself and gave me his card.  He’s from the FBI.  

I offered him coffee.  

He asked me if I’d spit in it.  

I kid you not.  

That struck me as odd.  Obviously he was joking.  But only sort of.   As he talked about why he was here, his initial defensiveness became understandable.  He was here because as he reached out to people who work with immigrants and refugees, Zion kept coming up.  Everywhere.  So he wanted to offer the FBI’s help with any civil right’s issues we might encounter.  Then I understood why he was defensive.  There’s a lot of tension around immigration issues in our country.  I think he thought that our level of involvement with immigrants might mean that we were radicalized politically.   Such a place would not be pleased to have the Feds around.     I explained we were just serving Jesus, our Master, who was a refugee himself.  

Then he asked what we did to help refugees.  I told him.  He asked to come back with his boss.  I assured him that the FBI was welcome.  

This week the man returned with his boss.  I was struck again by what I felt was a defensiveness from my guests.  Turns out, a lot of people, apparently, refer to these civil servants as “Jack Booted Thugs.”   I asked if the FBI would come and speak to the various immigrant communities we work with at Zion.  Yes, they would.  But...  We had to be polite.  They were pretty clear that while the FBI respected everybody, they also expected to be respected.  Oh.  Well, of course.  We’re a church.  We love everybody.  I guess that some of these meetings get out of hand.  Sad.  

So, we’re setting up an opportunity for the FBI to meet the community.  They will talk about civil rights, hate crimes and terrorism.  Sounds like a fine agenda.  So far, the community is responding very positively.  

What I’m hoping for is that God will use this coming together to build our community stronger and healthier.  It’s my prayer that this meeting will lead to peace and love and joy further breaking out in our city.  The various communities will hear how the FBI is here to serve them and the FBI will hear the fears and concerns and questions of the community.  And I’ll be in the back row, praying.  Praying that our city will be a bright light, a shining city on a hill.  I’d ask you to join me in this prayer.

The words of an Iraqi diplomat who visited our church last month still ring in my ears.  “If a church had reached out to our community in Detroit like yours has here, things would be so much better for us than they are today.”  

We’re called to be salt and light.  We’re called to be reconcilers.  Pray we stay the course and this newest opportunity to serve brings glory to God and peace to our city.  Thanks for reading.  God bless.  PJ 

Reflections from Pastor John

Reflections from Pastor John

Not preaching this weekend gave me a great opportunity to wander around Zion and observe what’s going on.  I have to tell you that I am so thankful to God for Zion Church and for those who choose to be a part of this ministry.  I’ve only been a pastor at Zion for seven years but I’m continually amazed by our ability to manage change and adapt.  In those seven years, for instance, we’ve implemented a new leadership structure which is radically different from what we had before; we’ve hired a pastor from a different denomination;  joined a new denomination; left a previous denomination; welcomed many new members, many of whom speak a different language; we’ve seen some long time members say “goodbye” and go to support other churches; we’ve launched a plethora of new ministries and been positioned by God to serve our community in a very unique way.  And I could go on and on.  I can’t think of a single area of our church that hasn’t been affected by major changes in the last seven years.

So, wandering around the church this weekend gave me an opportunity to reflect and I want to share some of those reflections with you:

Hurray for Sunday School!  

I’m so proud of our Sunday School and the great work that Denise Nahnsen and her team are doing.  It was really a balm to my soul to see all the little kids singing and jumping and praising the Lord.  My word, there are a lot of young kids at Zion!  There were way more kids than I ever imagined in Sunday School.  And then to wander down the halls and look in the classrooms of the older kids - again, wow.  So pleased to see so many junior and senior high school students with open Bibles. I’m especially proud of the racial integration we’ve witnessed in the last couple of years.  Changing dynamics significantly can lead to trouble and I’m so proud of how Zion has pulled together to welcome new faces.     

This year, I believe, is also going to be the year that Sunday School goes year ‘round.  Last year we experimented with Karenni Sunday School and it worked.  This year, I really believe that we’ll be able to offer English language Sunday School for everyone.  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am by this prospect.  It seems odd to me that in the past we’ve just “stopped” our programming for kids in the summer except for Bible School and Art Camp.  I think we thought that our volunteers needed a break, and perhaps they do, but others need to step up and help out.  Our kids need Jesus year ‘round, not just in the school year.  I’m pleased that so far, everyone I’ve talked to about helping out has agreed to help.  It will be a big effort, but I think it will yield amazing fruit. 

What language do you speak at home?

Our new data base, which we’re still learning to use, coupled with our growth in numbers lately and especially our numerical growth in people whose first language is not English, has left us scrambling to produce meaningful statistics.  But just in conversations during the 10:30 service I can share this with you:  we are a church that prays in 9 different languages.  Those languages are:  English, Mizo, Arabic, Karenni, Nuer, Vietnamese, Kunama, Bandi and Grebo.   Some of the language groups are quite small, perhaps one family.  Others are quite large, the Mizo, for instance, number close to 300.  Arabic speakers are growing in number, too.  We are now past 20 Arabic speakers who consider Zion to be their church.  I have to tell you that I’m really blown away by this.  Why?  Because, except for Arabic and Mizo, there are other immigrant churches in our city that worship in some of these languages.  Yet the families continue to regularly attend Zion and give and when I ask them, “What brought you to Zion?,” they continue to answer, “Because God said to come here.”  

مرحبا بكم في كنيسة صهيون

This means, “Welcome to Zion Church” in Arabic.  I’m very excited about the growing number of Arabic speakers coming to our church.  At a recent home visit with one of the families, an emphatic family patriarch grabbed my arm and said, “Zion is our Church, we belong to you!”  These are Christians who have endured terrible persecution since the war in Iraq.  They’ve lost their homes, businesses, and extended families.  Many of them do not have an evangelical understanding of our faith.  We’ve been trying to meet the needs of this community for the last two years.  Now God has brought us a wonderful man named Majed Bahidh and his family to help us.  Majed and his wife, Abeer, and their three children arrived in Ames in September.  We’ve been trying since January to get them to come to Zion and we’ve finally worked out the transportation issues and the weather has, at last, cooperated!  They are a family that is ready to serve the Lord at Zion by ministering to our Iraqi Christians and Muslims as well.  The entire circumstances of their coming to Zion brings tears to my eyes.  Majed and Abeer have been Christians since 2004.  Majed has served as a lay pastor in both Iraq and Syria.  We welcome him with open arms and he has graciously agreed to take over our Arabic language Sunday School class and to work tirelessly in the community that Zion has been reaching out to for the last two years.  Thank you, Jesus!    Majed gave his testimony recently at the 10:30 service and I’m sure that the other services will hear it soon.

We’ve Got New Wheels

I’m so proud to say that, as of today, we’ve been able to acquire another church van.  It’s a Chevy, 2007, and runs great.  We thank all our contributors for this special project, especially 100 Men in Mission and Stew Hanson Dealerships for their help in securing this new ride.  I expect it to be in service in time for Sunday’s Sunday School run.  We now have the ability to transport even more people to worship and education at Zion.  Now we just need more drivers!  Talk to me if you’re ready to volunteer!  We have a beautiful problem:  more people want to attend Zion on a Sunday than we can bring.  I’m so thankful to God for this and grateful to the congregation for making people feel welcome. 

The 65th Annual Chin National Day

The Mizo members at Zion are a part of the Chin people from Burma.  They come from Chin State in Myanmar.  Sunday I attended the 65th Annual Chin National Day Celebration, which was the third for Des Moines and I’m proud to say that Zion was represented at all three.  It was a celebration of song and dance and fashion and food.  A hearty congratulations to our Mizo dance team that performed three of four traditional dances in a “non-stop” format that wove music and dance together seamlessly.  The dance was a big hit with the packed house and I have to say it was, in my opinion, the best performance of the afternoon.  

The power of partnerships

I’m thankful to belong to a church that realizes it is a part of something greater than itself, that is, specifically, the body of Christ.  I’m grateful to the many partnerships we’ve enjoyed throughout these last years.  Freedom for Youth gave us our start in Whiz Kidz which this year became our very own STAR Kids program.  I’m thankful for the support of Meredith Drive Reformed Church which continues to loan us their van for taking kids to and from school and on field trips.  I’m thankful for our partnerships with others who are trying to serve the least of these with us.  I’m thankful for Stew Hanson Dealerships and their support of our new van and STAR Kids.  I’m grateful also to EMBARC, Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center, for partnering with us on numerous projects, most recently, summer programming for the kids and summer camps as well.  

We live in a world of constant and unavoidable change.  But I’m so grateful that Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Thank you for your partnership with us at Zion Church in the Gospel.  

Thanks for reading.  God bless.  PJ  

Sunday We Crossed A Line

Sunday, February 10, is a day that will stick out in my mind for the rest of my life.  I think it’s a date that I’ll remember as having cemented a change in who we are as a congregation.  

Sunday, February 10, is the day we crossed the line.

What line?  The line between talking about being a multi-ethnic congregation to showing the world that we actually are a multi-ethnic congregation.

Sure, we’ve worshipped with Kakunzi’s group before and prayed and worshipped in Swahili and English.  But this time, this particular Sunday, it was different.  A beautiful little girl named Jordyn Rose was baptized.  She was prayed for in English by me, in Swahili by Kakunzi, in Nuer by Jordan Long, and in Arabic by Majid.   Not only were the languages the pastors prayed in diverse, but so was the theological background of the pastors.  There were traditional Lutherans and low church Lutherans and Anglicans and Pentecostals.  It was amazing.  It was symbolic of the many becoming one people in Christ. 

We worshipped in English and Swahili.  That was also amazing.  Especially when you looked around the room and realized that this isn’t just a cross cultural experience for the white participants, but also for the Sudanese and Iraqi and Vietnamese participants as well.  

We then had a presentation by Pastor Jordan Long, president of the Lutheran Church of South Sudan, about ministry in that new nation.  It helped to remind us that we followers of Jesus are everywhere and find ourselves in a variety of situations.  And it helped us to remember that we are a part of a kingdom that is greater than any other here on earth.  We are part of the kingdom of God which knows no boundaries.  

The message that day was from Matthew 14, about Jesus walking on the water and Peter wanting Jesus to call him to come out and walk on the waves with him.  Each day at Zion we endeavor to get out of the boat and walk on the waves with our Savior.  We believe that he has called us out of the boat and to come to him and be a church where many nations are reconciled and welcomed, and where all the children grow up in Christ to understand that the Church is the place where the many become one people, united in him who is the head.  

I’m so excited to continue along this path of becoming a congregation that worships the Lord in a diversity of languages and music and styles.  I’m so excited that one day, when this fully becomes a part of who we are as a congregation, that people from within and outside the church, might experience something of what heaven must be like as we worship the Lamb as people from every race and tribe and tongue and nation.  

South Sudan, Same Sex and the Future of the Church

South Sudan, Same Sex and the Future of the Church

On June 3, we had a special guest at Zion.  He is the Rev. Jordan Long, president of the Lutheran Church of south Sudan.  he was in the  U.S. for three months to consider an affiliation with our association, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, and to raise funds for the work of building churches and leaders in South Sudan.

South Sudan is the world’s newest country.  The Lutheran Church of South Sudan may be the world’s newest church.  It has about 5,000 members, about 32 congregations, 18 pastors and 32 evangelists.  And one president.  Pastor Long came to the U.S. about 20 years ago as a refugee.  He eventually finished college and seminary and became pastor of a special outreach to African immigrants called the Nile Lutheran Mission.  In August of 2009, when the ELCA, of which Pastor Long was a part, approved same sex marriage and the ordination of practicing gay and lesbian clergy, Pastor Long and his congregation exited the ELCA.  Along with us.  

Pastor Long wept over the ELCA’s decision.  So did we.  Feeling a call to mission, he returned to Sudan and began preaching.  His family history is an interesting one.  He grew up in a Christian family.  The only Christian family in their village.  His mother started a church.  It quickly grew to over 100 people.  

Eventually, there was a refurendom on independence.  Pastor Long joined the happy throngs welcoming a new and independant South Sudan.  

It was an interesting visit.  We opened it up for questions after the sermon and at the 8:00 a.m. service we nearly used up all our time with questions and answers and had to go into “extra innings” for communion.  At the 9:30 service people lined up to ask him questions.  I’m not sure what happened at 10:30 because I wasn’t able to be there.  Even people who couldn’t understand him thought he was brilliant and wanted to support his work.  We had the second largest exit offering we’ve ever had.  Nearly $1500 went to aid the church in South Sudan.  And Pastor Long never asked for dime.

I had several observations about the visit and Pastor Long’s testimony which I’ll share with you now.

1. I think Pastor Long exemplifies what God is doing in the Church and among the Church’s leaders today.  Here is a man who knew terrible suffering.  Who had to flee his home country and suffer terrible things in order to survive.  A man who lived for years in a refugee camp, surrounded by barbed wire, with barely enough food to live.  Here is a man who was given a new life in the U.S. and who willingly, gave it all up and went back in order to serve those who need the gospel of Christ.  I’m awed by what Pastor Long has given up:  retirement accounts, a regular pay check, internet access, reliable transportation, air conditioning, running water.  Yet I see the Lord calling his servants to abandon their former ways of life, their creature comforts and most of all, their certainty, and follow him into ventures unknown.  And I see leaders following Pastor Long’s example and I see God providing.  I see God doing amazing and wonderful things through them and producing much fruit.  It’s like we’ve been called to go back to New Testament times.  Like Jesus has called us to “go,” and not take an extra tunic or walking stick or wallet or extra sandals.  Instead, as leaders, we are to rely more and more upon him and him only.  And he is glorified in the “sacrifice.”  We are learning this way to be a church in mission.  His mission.  And he will take care of his own.  Not with worldly comforts, but with fruits of repentance and salvation.  I’m awed and amazed.  I have to admit, I see lesser but no less keen suffering in most of my colleagues.  I begin to wonder if you’re not suffering now as a servant of Christ, are you really doing his work?
2. Pastor Long talked about the relationships that other African churches have with the ELCA.  One thing that has always worked in the ELCA’s favor was that it had money to give away.  This led other Lutheran churches throughout the world to affiliate with them.   One of the biggest affiliations with with the EECMY, the Evangelical Ethiopian Church Mekene Yesus, a celebrated church in Africa which does amazing mission work and which is now training the evangelists and pastors of the Lutheran Church of South Sudan.  Pastor Long says that they are reconsidering their association with the ELCA over the same sex marriage and clergy issue.  If the EECMY un-affiliates from the ELCA, I expect the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania will do the same.  Money, for the churches of the developing world, is no longer as important as sound, biblical doctrine.  This means that the churches of the Third World may well be last defense of historic, apostolic Christianity.   You see this not only in the Lutheran Church but also in the Anglican Communion, where African and Asian Churches are in open opposition to the Church in the West.  We may very well be on the verge of another historic split:  Not East and West, like in .... But this time, North and South, which we can also call developed versus developing. 
3. Which leads me very nicely to my third point.  Churches like Zion, which hold to historic, apostolic Christianity despite enormous societal pressure to amend our faith, may begin to look more toward Africa for fellowship and theological grounding than Europe.  For the entire history of the U.S., we have looked for theological grounding to Europe, especially Germany and Scotland.  I do not think it unlikely, nor does Pastor Long, that soon, American Lutheran pastors who love the Bible and who are missional in their theology will attend schools and conferences in places like Addis Abba, Ethiopia,  Dodoma or Arusha, Tanzania and perhaps even Juba, South Sudan.  Next month, Pastor Gakunzi will leave for a month in Burundi and Rwanda for a theologocial conference.  Why?  Because who can trust what the American Church is teaching.  And I agree.  
4. I know that some of my dear readers will consider this the rantings of a crazy man.  But remember, I’ve lived and worked in Europe.  I know what’s happening in the great  and historic centers of Christianity.  And it isn’t good for mission. And what is the Christian Church without mission?  What good is a church that doesn’t do what Jesus tells it to do?  Frankly, if I had the money, I’d ask that Zion pay for an evangelist from the EECMY to come here to Des Moines, Iowa.  Why?  Because as a Church in North America, so many of us don’t know how to make converts, let along disciples.  And they do.  And, don’t forget, that because of globalization, we have a growing population of Eritrean (formerly Ethiopian) people.  And Sudanese.  Even at Zion we have members from Sudan and Liberia.  Soon to be Eritrea and Iraq.  Why?  Because we preach the historic Christian faith and because we’re ready to receive them.  It’s so very odd, I admit, to consider that our future might be South and East instead of North and West.  But there you have it.

Please pray for our ministry at Zion.  Please pray that we might be faithful.  The times are confusing and may not look much like the past at all.  Please pray that we might follow Jesus into the glorious future he has prepare for us.  God bless you.

PJ