From Pastor Phil...

In Ephesians 1, Paul makes this wonderful statement of thanks regarding the church at Ephesus. He gives thanks for them personally, but also for all the work that God has done through them. Verses 15-19 read:

¹⁵ For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸ having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.

Zion itself is a congregation with a story. It's 175 years old. That's impressive by itself. Not a lot of congregations get there. By comparison, I was recently invited to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a congregation. Zion has been around the block once or twice. It's seen society change. It's felt the sting of war, and the joys of peace. Zion has celebrated the work of the Holy Spirit through numerous confirmation classes, baptisms galore, weddings celebrated, and mourned the death of more saints than we want to remember. Zion has been faithful. Like any body, there is more to the body than meets the eye.

Here at Zion we have a couple groups that we are recognizing this year for their work. The Ladies Aid/LWML and the Men's Club. The Ladies Aid here at Zion is celebrating their 125th anniversary while the Men's Club are celebrating their 90th. The LWML is marking their 80th year. These are wonderful anniversaries to celebrate as we can see these organizations still doing the work of the Gospel. All too often we only see mission work in terms of far flung places, but these men and women have been engaged in the mission of Gospel proclamation into each other's lives. They also carry that work out into the community around us through the various events that they host or sponsor.

As these organizations celebrate these milestones, we join with the Apostle Paul as we thank God for the men and women who are members. We thank God for their faith and the love that they show to the saints. It is my prayer that our loving Father would continue to empower Zion by His Holy Spirit, but also that our brothers and sisters in these organizations would continue to be used for the celebration of the love of God, for the uplifting of the saints, and a bold proclamation of the Gospel. To quote Scott Wadsworth, paraphrasing the Apostle Paul, Keep up the good work.

God's blessings in these anniversary celebrations.

Pastor Phil