2421 Avenue C
Kearney, NE 68847
308-234-3410
school@zionkearney.org
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
is a Christ-centered, compassionate and confessional, loving and liturgical congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod located in the heart of Kearney, NE. Our Lord gathers us around His Holy Word and Sacraments in the Divine Service.
One way we care for our community is to operate and support an excellent and explicitly Christian school, which is a safe haven where God's children can learn and freely express the Christian faith.
A Greeting from Zion's Pastor
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
“The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations, praise the Lord!” (Psalm 146:10) Our Lord rules and will rule forever, O Zion, as He has these past 100 years, and so He will forever. Your God, O Zion, your Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--reigns and gives life to you in His Name. Our loving heavenly Father sends His Son, who gives His life for ours. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son in order to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian church on earth, and keep it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. The purpose of the church is to be a “forgiveness house.” For in this Christian church the Holy Spirit richly and daily forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.
Gathered in God’s name, we praise the Lord. The highest worship and praise of God is to receive life from Him, Divine life, life that lasts forever. As Eve was built from the side of Adam, we also at Zion Lutheran Church receive life from the side of Jesus, who laid down his life for His bride. Water and blood poured forth from the side of our Crucified Savior, Who then rose victorious over death. Our Risen Lord reigns and works through His church to give birth to disciples from all nations and to all generations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to cling to all that the Lord has entrusted to us.
At Holy Baptism we are planted in the death and resurrection of Jesus and made heirs of His forever kingdom. His forgiveness of sins spoken into your ears, and His body and blood put into your mouth, nourish you as branches of the Vine, Who is Christ. “Do this often,” Jesus says, and He reigns among us as we continue receiving His life in faith. Zion resides with Jesus and Jesus resides with Zion. Heaven meets earth and earth meets heaven.
The Life our Lord gives to us, O Zion, He also gives through us to our dying world. This happens as we regularly receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation from Jesus, where He has promised to give it. His forgiveness has its way with us and manifests itself in fruits of faith—the pure confession and worship of our Triune God, and acts of sacrificial love toward our neighbor.
Zion consists of “sainted sinners,” who confess their sins and receive holiness from Jesus—the One who by His dying and rising purchased salvation and eternal life for us. In turn, we forgiven sinners forgive each other and encourage one another in faith and in life. We pray for each other and, when necessary, provide for each other. And so others are drawn to the One who is our life, as we bear witness to Him in word and deed. Thus, the life of our Triune God flows from and returns to Zion in praise to the Lord. That is how He reigns over and sustains His Zion for generations here in time and forever in eternity.
Your Servant in Christ,
Pr. James H. DeLoach
