Thoughts From Your President

Dear Members and Friends,

Here we are in 2025 facing a radical time of transition for our beloved Zion church.  We have been in times of change many times during my lifetime, but perhaps none as drastic and formative as we are facing today.  What will happen to Zion church?  This is the question.  What will be our mission statement?  Why do we exist?  How can we find our niche in downtown Steubenville and the surrounding area?  I have thrown out a lot of questions here and hopefully over the next few months or years we can begin to answer some of them.  We need your support of thought, word, and deed if we are to continue to serve our Lord and Saviour.  We need the support from everyone reading this newsletter.

We have begun to make some progress.  Our Council has met with the Association Pastor of the Living Water Association from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  This is part of the Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ of which we belong.  We have begun the process of writing a congregational  profile which we will submit and then begin the process of receiving pastoral profiles from which we will interview and choose perspective candidates to fill the pastorate of Zion church

In the meantime we have been blessed with Pastor David Brown who has been filling our pulpit on Sunday mornings.  He has been preaching from the lectionary and provided many thought provoking and meaningful messages.  He has linked his sermons to many of the issues and concerns of the day.  Last Sunday we were blessed with a message from

our lay preacher--Renea Starkey-Hunt who happens to be our church secretary.  Pastor Brown will be back this Sunday and continue for a while.

This past week our council met with Pastor John Harris who is a retired Presbyterian minister.  After prayerful consideration, we have hired Pastor Harris as our interim pastor for a period of six months.  He will begin his duties here on October 19, Reformation Sunday.  He lives in Wellsburg, WV.  We will tell you more about him at a later time.

This may be our only chance for new beginnings here at Zion, so please come out and support him and our Zion family so that we may have a future for our congregation. 

One thing is for sure--there will be changes.  We must be able to change with the changing times in our world. That being said, the one thing that remains the same today, tomorrow and forever is the caring love of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

"No matter where you are along life's pathway, you are welcomed and loved here."

With loving hope and anticipation,

In Christ's name,

John Diekmann, Council President