Joshua spoke: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! Joshua 24:15 Traditionally, Minnesotans have thought of summer as a “slower” time of the year. What a misnomer that is especially at this “house” we know as Zion Lutheran of Buffalo. Zion is a household filled with people who serve the Lord. It is amazing to see the many ways that manifests itself. A glimpse of one “slow” summer day at Zion reveals exactly what I mean:
“Making all things new.” Take note of the verb tense. Making. In the Greek, that active voice of the verb is emphasized even more than our English language can portray. God is “ongoing-ly” making all things new. It’s not translated, “I made all things new,” but rather, “…I am making all things new.” The trajectory is clear—God is still working. God is still creating, still redeeming, and still blessing our world. For our God, it is not just a one-time
Giving thanks to God for the work of our Sr. Pastor Call Committee, Zion welcomed Pastor John Hulden, Assistant to the Bishop in the Minneapolis Area Synod to preach the sermon and install our Senior Pastor. It was a day of celebrating a long-awaited new chapter in the life of our congregation. The fourth Sunday in Easter is always Good Shepherd Sunday. It couldn’t have been a better day for an Installation! Every year, the same Gospel text is read from the
And Many, Many Thanks For 16 years, Angela Bengtson has served as Zion’s Communications Coordinator. In that time, she has led Zion into a new era of communication mission, vision, and implementation. Angela has not only been key in sharing Zion’s mission, but she is also seen as a leader in church communications circles throughout our Synod and beyond. Her development of Zion’s newsletter was often lifted up as the example of “how to do a newsletter well”. Of course,
My first Call was to serve a rural parish in North Dakota. The location was further North than I had ever traveled. I felt like I had gone to the ends of the earth. Still, I wouldn’t exchange those first years of ministry in North Dakota for anything else. The ministry was challenging, but the people were warm and kind. They put up with my rookie ideas and my foolish mistakes. The parish was a three-point, which means there were
“Jesus said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:30 If this is where our story ended, we would be living a very different kind of life. Death would have the final word. Where would our hope be? Dead. Where would our joy be? Dead. We would stand at a crossroads that offered nothing but a dead end. Thanks be to God! This is not where our story ends. This is just the
In last month’s newsletter article, I shared a quote from Andy Mcilvain, who is the author of the blog Enacted Word. Now that we are further into the season of Lent, it bears repeating: God deserves more than our attention; He deserves our affections and focus. He doesn’t just want us to listen to Him. He desires us to know Him. He wants us to pursue Him. We are pursuing the theme “reLENTless” this Lenten season. It is a juxtaposition
“The Hound of Heaven” is a long poem written by Francis Thompson, which describes God as the One who continually seeks the writer even though the writer keeps running from Him. It echoes the words from Psalm 139: Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. To know there is nowhere you can go to flee
Do you know what I miss? Wall calendars. Yep, I know I’m showing my age! The reason I miss having one, though, is the feeling I would get when opening a new calendar and flipping the page to a new year: JANUARY. That clean slate. That new beginning. You don’t get to experience that in the same way on a phone calendar. New beginnings are all around us, even in the dead of winter. I am extraordinarily aware of new
On Sunday, December 4, the congregation voted unanimously to extend a call to Rev. Kari Bahe to serve as our Senior Pastor. Although pastors have 30 days to decide whether to accept a call or not, by the next day, the Bishop had received Pastor Bahe’s decision to accept the call to serve as our next Senior Pastor! Thank you to the members of the Transition Team and Call Committee for their work and dedication throughout this process. “I thank