Happy Birthday Zion! Happy Birthday LCMS! Happy Birthday Lutherans!

November 7, 2017 -- Mark your calendar. That's when we will celebrate Zion's 170th birthday. Now we might have chosen another day on which to celebrate. After all we don't really know the 'exact' day of Zion's founding. Although many have tried, so far the exact day remains a mystery. But we do know the year, 1847 . . . same year as the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). On April 26 (to be exact) twelve pastors, representing 14 congregations met in Chicago and founded a new church body: The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States. So there you have it – 2 birthdays for us to celebrate. But wait . . . there's a third. Many more in fact celebrate the 500th birthday of the Reformation.

October 31, 1517 . . . Martin Luther, the professor-monkpriest nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. 95 statements (theological protests) for which Luther sought debate with the greater church regarding false teaching and abuse that had crept into the Church Catholic.

So how is an event that happened so long ago important to us? Today we find ourselves in a world of 'philosophical and religious pluralism' as never before. A world in which more than any other time over the past 1000 years, in decline and under attack. And yet our Lord's promise remains: Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail over it. And while we celebrate on the one hand, on the other we are reminded that the Church will ever be in need of being watchful of that which we 'Believe, Teach, and Confess' most of all that we cling steadfastly to the Gospel, salvation in Christ alone.

Pastor Kelly Mitteis