What is Next?

Posted February 2022

An update from Zion’s Transition Team

March 16th through April 17th will be a crucial time frame for Zion’s next steps in this transition period. To help make the search for our next Senior Pastor as effective as possible it is vitally important to have congregational participation in these next steps. Your input, prayers, and participation will help shape the future for Zion’s mission and ministry.

On March 16th, the link for taking the Congregational Assessment Tool (CAT) goes live, giving Zion members the opportunity to participate in shaping the future of the ministry of Zion.
The CAT is a professionally designed survey tool created by a church consulting company.
- Hundreds of congregations have successfully used the CAT in the Call process for their senior pastor. The CAT helps summarize the prioritized mission emphasis and leadership qualities for the next Sr. Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church.
In order for the CAT to be most useful to Zion, we need a high degree of congregation participation.
The CAT will be available on-line via a confidential link. Your answers are completely confidential.
Zion’s Transition Team will be providing computer labs for taking the CAT for those who do not have computer access and/or do not feel comfortable completing the survey electronically from home.
This is also a confidential way of taking the assessment. We will provide 1:1 help in getting you set-up and comfortable taking the survey at Zion and then you will be able to complete the assessment, with help nearby should you need it.
Around April 25th, the results of Zion’s CAT will be made available to the Transition Team.
After a consultation with the HolyCow! Church consulting firm (to help us interpret and summarize the results of the CAT), the Transition Team will schedule Q & A opportunities for the congregation to see the results of the CAT and learn about our next steps in the transition time. We anticipate it will be early May when these sessions are offered.

9th Grade Lock-in 2022

From the evening hours of October 7, well into the morning hours of October 8, our awesome Zion ninth graders…

Fall 2022 at Zion!

Our mission is to partner with families for faith formation and connection. We are always looking for ways to connect with you and to be helpful to families as they seek to raise their children in the faith. There is nothing like fall in Minnesota! But, there is also nothing like the busyness that accompanies it. Registrations, new schedules, new routines, new forms to fill out and keep track of, new school supplies to find and purchase, and new anxieties to calm. We started asking: what if the church found a way to curb some of that, instead of participating in it?

We started asking parents: “Would it be helpful if we moved the start of Sunday School and Confirmation to October?” And, overwhelmingly, parents told us that would be AWESOME and helpful. So, Sunday School (both at 8:30 & 10:30 this year!) will begin Sunday, October 2nd, and Confirmation will begin Wednesday, October 5th.

September will be focused on connecting your family to the joy of Sabbath. We hope you will be connecting back to worship if you’ve taken some time away. To help you focus on Sabbath and worship this Fall, the 10:30am outdoor worship service is continuing into September. Children love the chance to dance, run, and worship under the trees, and Zion has the perfect set-up. It is casual, low-key, a little bit shorter, and filled with music. Bring chairs or a blanket and worship outside the first two Sundays in September. Then, be ready for Z-Fest on the 18th! Food trucks! Games! Fun!

Each Sunday in September will have extra special ways of connecting with children & youth in worship (beyond our ever-popular children’s sermon time. Enjoy the breather and grace this new start date will provide and connect with friends old and new at worship this September. After all, God has commanded Sabbath rest, because we need it!

Choirs & Bells Sunday School Confirmation