President’s Perspective
Faith Springs Eternal -- Here Comes Summer!
Let's be thankful to Almighty God for our blessings and welcome the summer months ahead with joy and thanksgiving. Hopefully you are all going to enjoy this summer with your family and loved ones and of course, your family here at Zion. If you attended the Quarterly Voters Meeting in April, you know we're going to soon have a Deaconess onboard at Zion, probably as soon as the month of July. This is a big step in the history of our church, and I hope you are looking forward to welcoming Joanna into our family. On behalf of the Council and Call Committee, let me personally thank the 61 members who attended that meeting so that we could extend the call to Joanna.
June has five Sundays. On the final Sunday, June 30th, we'll have our Special Voters Meeting to adopt the budget for FY 2024/2025. Please attend that meeting. The operating budget for the next fiscal year should be over one million dollars, (or very close to it...), when the final figures are presented. Your church ministries are certainly operating at full-throttle these days. We are certainly a blessed parish and we will march onward as Christian Soldiers and continue to preach Christ crucified in the coming years. Please take an ownership stake in your church and attend the five Voter Meetings each year.
If you missed three young ladies being confirmed last month, you really missed a wonderful example of what your church is doing to lay a foundation of Christian truth in the lives of our children. Putting on the armor that is the Word of God is an important defense against the foe. If you're not one of the nearly 60+ regular attendees at Bible Class between the services, you're missing a lot of "armor". Let me encourage you to join your friends each Sunday at Adult/Teen Bible Class. Have a bagel, relax and enjoy Pastor's presentations on various books of the Bible.
You know, our church is capable of great things, in my opinion. We should try not to limit our potential by thinking purely in terms of our human limitations. Faith should always play a role in how we approach situations and problems. We need to realize we're chosen and not fighting alone either in our personal lives or as a church body. Pastor has posted a wonderful passage on the sign in front of the church. Our God is on our side, and He will watch over us, and pick us up and carry us as necessary.
Our Catechism teaches, in defining "worship", that our "God wants to be worshiped through faith so that we receive from Him those things He promises and offers"; and that "the highest worship of God is faith that receives all that He promises in His Word." Further, "faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ and faith speaks back to God, using the words He has given."
Pray for the Christians on earth, our LCMS, our District and circuit churches, and Zion. Amen.
-- Paul Klemash
