Our worship follows a liturgical season and (sometimes) specific themes. Want to know what season or theme we’re in right now? Zion’s worship leaders explain it all right here.

Freeze Sunday – Church From Home

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Church, Wherever We Are

This Sunday, winter weather is asking us to do something a little different — and a little familiar. With ice expected on the roads, we’re staying off the streets and gathering as church in our homes.

Whether that means watching worship with a cup of coffee and a candle lit, sharing Scripture around the kitchen table, checking in with a friend by phone, or moving slowly through the service at your own pace — this is still worship. This is still church.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been practicing Faith 5 — learning what it looks like to share our lives, read Scripture, talk honestly, pray together, and bless one another at home.

Today, those practices come alive in a very real way. Not because conditions are ideal — but because faith meets us where we are.

All of today’s worship and education has been pre-recorded and shared below so you can participate when and how it works best for you. If power or internet is uncertain, we invite you to download what you need ahead of time.

Home is holy ground.
You don’t have to do this perfectly.
You just have to show up — as you are.

Until we gather again in person, may you stay warm, stay safe, and know that you are deeply connected to this community.

For Families & Kids

Church looks a little different today—and that’s okay. 💙
These simple activities are here to help you create sacred space right where you are.

Using Psalm 139, children are invited to hear a powerful truth:
God knows them, loves them, and made them wonderfully.

You don’t need to do everything—just choose what fits your family today.

  • Read together.
  • Talk a little.
  • Color.
  • Pray.
  • Bundle up and notice where God feels close.

Whether you’re gathered around the kitchen table, curled up on the couch, or listening while the kettle boils, this counts. This is faith at home—exactly what we’ve been practicing together.

👉 Resources below are organized by age, with coloring pages and simple conversations to help kids engage at their own pace.

Click here for all Psalm 139 coloring pages

Click here for Elementary-Psalm 139 I am wonderfully made

Click here for Preschool-Psalm 139 I am wonderfully made

For Families with Youth

Faith at Home: Highs, Lows & Scripture Stories

Today’s practice invites youth (and the people who love them) to reflect on real life—what’s been hard, what’s been good—and notice where God might be meeting us in the middle of it all.

You don’t need to rush. You don’t need perfect answers. Just show up, listen, and be curious together.

Click here for Families with Youth 

Adult Formation – Village Time

Faith grows when we say it out loud.

This week, Faith 5 invites us into the practice of Talk—the simple but powerful act of sharing our faith story with another person. That might be with a spouse at the kitchen table, text with a friend, a child before bed, or even quietly with God in prayer and journaling.

You’ll find a short, guided reflection below that can be done on your own or with others.

Through prayer, Scripture, and conversation, we practice noticing where God has been present in our highs and lows—and how naming those moments deepens our faith.

This matters because faith isn’t meant to stay locked inside our heads. It takes shape when we speak it, listen to one another, and discover that God is already at work in our ordinary days.

Click here for Adult Formation – Week 3_ Talk

Entering Worship at Home

Wherever you are today, you’re invited to make a little room for worship.

Light a candle. Take a breath. Gather whoever is with you — or settle in quietly on your own.

This guide is here to help you move through worship at your own pace, following along with the pre-recorded service as you listen, pray, sing, and reflect. There’s no right way to do this — just come as you are, trusting that God meets us on the road, at the table, and in the ordinary spaces we call home.

Worship Link on YouTube: Click Here

 

Advent 2025 Theme

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For Advent 2025 we chose the theme “From Generation to Generation” from A Sanctified Art. I felt this theme was especially meaningful for Zion right now, because we are at a point in our congregation’s life where we need to lean on—and learn from—our past. Many of our long-time members carry wise, beautiful stories about why Zion has been their home and what keeps them coming week after week. Beyond that, we each bring different traditions and memories to the way we celebrate Christmas.

My goal for this year’s Advent Festival was not only to prepare us for the season of Advent, but also to honor the many ways our congregation experiences this joyful and sacred time of year. The various tables representing different countries reflect the heritage, traditions, and stories of some of our members. They give us a chance both to celebrate who we are and to learn how Christmas is observed across cultures and around the world.

We have also chosen to expand our Advent observance because it is such a rich and thoughtful season. Advent prepares us for the birth of Christ, and it marks the beginning of the church year. In the same way that many of us set intentions or make resolutions each January, I see Advent as the season that grounds and shapes the year ahead for the church.

A Sanctified Art provides thoughtful resources—written liturgy, art, music, reflections, and crafts—that weave beautifully into the theme From Generation to Generation. We only use about half of the materials simply because there isn’t enough time in worship to include everything (otherwise we’d be approaching two-hour services!). PM and I also enjoy blending in our own ideas and reflections. So A Sanctified Art becomes our roadmap: it sparks creativity and gives us a theological and artistic framework from which we can build.

A Sanctified Art reflects on the theme in this way:

“Despite the challenges and vulnerability she faced, Mary could glimpse the scale and scope of the good news she was part of bringing forth. This good news transcends time and space—it was and is bigger than just her. Christ is coming for collective liberation; God’s redemption is at work for years to come. Therefore, the promise is meant to be lived out and passed on from generation to generation.
 From Generation to Generation reminds us of the ways our lives, histories, actions, and stories are interconnected and woven together. The work of God is always unfolding—in and through us. This Advent season, how will we carry it forth?”

Guided by this roadmap, PM and I have curated custom services each Sunday in Advent, drawing from these resources and shaping them to fit Zion’s story. Another resource I deeply appreciate is the hymn text writing of Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (https://www.carolynshymns.com/). She crafts new hymn lyrics in the style of traditional writers, set to well-known tunes. It is always meaningful—and fun—to select hymns that resonate with our weekly scriptures and themes.

Post by Director of Worship, Seth R.