A Word from Stu

Dear Zion Family,

The sobering fire of June 9 has taken Zion on a short-term ‘wilderness wandering’.  The hospitality of St. Paul UMC and Capitol City Christian Church has been a great encouragement.  We have reached an agreement with Grace Lutheran Church for a trial period of joint use and rental at their 22nd and Washington facility.  Sundays at Grace Lutheran will begin August 5, with an education hour at 9:15 AM and worship at 10:45 AM.  If all goes well we will be doing ministry at 22nd and Washington until we have a new facility.

On our last Sunday at Capitol City—July 29—we will leave our worship service to join their late service.  We want to express thanks to them and they want to send us forward with a blessing.  It should be a real joy.  I hope you can stay to be a part of it.

As the elders and deacons have been praying, talking, and gathering information it has become fairly clear that there are only a handful of realistic options that sit before us:
1. Rebuild Zion at 9th and D.
2. Rebuild Zion at another location and plant a daughter church at 9th & D.
3. Purchase an existing facility and plant a daughter church at 9th and D.

We are not comfortable leaving the core of the city.  By God’s providence the officers have been preparing to church plant with Pastor Tobey after he was assessed and approved to have the essential qualities of a church planter by the denominational assessment process (January 2007).  We are prayerfully considering whether the event of the fire might be meant to speed up that church planting plan.

Please pray for the elders and deacons.  Specifically, that we would have wisdom in determining how best to proclaim and stand for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in downtown Lincoln, that we would use our resources wisely, that we would have a Kingdom mindset, and that we would work toward the larger goal of saturating Lincoln with gospel-preaching, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring churches. 

We have inherited a great legacy from those who have gone before us.  Let us labor for the Kingdom and leave a godly legacy in our wake.

Only by His grace,

Pastor Stu Kerns
For the Session

Posted on July 19, 2007.