All About Us

In 1954, a group of Lutheran Christians decided to hold regular church services in West Jefferson, Ohio. The first service was held on Christmas Eve, 1954, at the Grange Hall on Twin Street. The birth of Zion Lutheran Church while celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Zion was accepted as an official congregation of the Ohio District of the American Lutheran Church in June of 1955. In spring of 1956, nearly two acres were purchased at the end of Center Street, and an architect and builder were hired. The need for a full-time pastor had also arrived, and Daniel Snider was installed in January of 1957. The first worship in the space on Center Street was October 1957, and nearly twenty years later, a new sanctuary was dedicated in 1976.

A lot has changed since then. The American Lutheran Church is no more, merging with the Lutheran Church in America in 1988 to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). And in 2016, the building once known as Zion Lutheran Church was sold to the Village of West Jefferson, and is now the West Jefferson Community Center. By the grace of God and the wonderful partnership with the mayor’s office, the members of Zion Lutheran Church continue to meet each Sunday morning.

And this begs one to ask: What is a church?

Let us begin by stating what a church is not. It is not a building, a collection of bricks and materials, a space which must include pews and organs, paintings and stained glass windows, large screens to view worship services or even Sunday school rooms. It is not just a place for Sunday mornings.

A church is both the individual who is the follower of Jesus Christ as well as a collection of believers. In the words of the ELCA, we are what God has made us – people whom God has created by grace to live in union with Jesus Christ and has prepared us to live faithful, fruitful lives by the power of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:8-10).

WE are the church, whether on Sunday mornings at the Community Center, Monday through Saturday at our jobs or in our homes, and all those times we are among one another within our communities. We are the church, wherever we go and whenever that may be. Just as Jesus made it His practice to attend synagogue (Luke 4:16), members of Zion still meet each Sunday for worship, to give glory to God. But Jesus was just as likely to meet others where they were, in their places of need, so we can also be found having services at the West Jefferson Senior Center, and worshipping in unison with First English Lutheran Church in downtown Columbus as we reach out to those in need.

We are still the church, because we do not define “church” by the sign at the front of a building. We define church by who we are in Christ – and we continue to be His faithful followers.