Covenant Presbyterian Church was just a handful of people in the 1970′s. Our first building was a small frame building at 40th and Randolph. In the early 1980′s, Marlon Wismer was pastor, and he invested a great deal of energy on the University campus. Some of the college students he ministered to are officers in the church today with college students of their own.

Covenant Presbyterian moved to 40th and Sheridan, and through the 1990′s grew to a size that made the church’s longtime goal of planting another congregation a serious possibility. In order to grow the church to a size that would better support a daughter church, in 1997 Covenenat moved to 9th and D streets, combining with Zion Church, a 70-year old church with deep roots in the South Bottoms neighborhood.

In 2000, Zion planted its first daughter church, Grace Chapel, at the old 40th and Sheridan property.

Zion made plans to expand the facility at 9th and D, but on June 9, 2007, one day before the scheduled groundbreaking, the Zion church buidling, an eighty-year-old fixture of downtown Lincoln, was destroyed by fire.

Many individuals and congregations contributed to Zion’s Fire Recovery Fund. Zion used money from its Building Fund, insurance settlement, and the Fire Recovery Fund to buy our present building on south 27th, and do some updating and remodeling.

And in a way we hadn’t planned, we also were able to accelerate the plan to start our second daughter church: Redeemer Church was launched in June 2008 with two of our staff pastors and about 100 adults and children.

At Zion we continue our committment to church planting. Studies show that the fastest way to grow the church is by planting new congregations. And Lincoln needs lots and lots of good churches.