Glorious history, promising future
Since 1878 our congregation has been served by the historic building at the corner of Mill and Spring Streets. It is a beautiful, solid building of brick and stained glass. It's even on the national historic register. I wonder how many weddings have been performed in this building over the years. How many babies have been baptized? How many have been confirmed and communed within her walls? Many wonderful memories have been made at the old Zion church. We give thanks for the wonders of God's grace worked at this location.
However, there are a number of issues with our beloved building and its location. The building and its bathrooms are not accessible to the physically disabled. There is not much parking and scarce space for gathering and storage. The age of the building makes maintenance a challenge. There is very little room for expansion on the site. And our school is located a mile away on the other side of town, creating a number of logistical challenges and making it difficult to conduct a joint church and school ministry.
Speaking of the school, our study revealed that this 55-year-old building is not in as good of shape as we once thought. The roof has had issues for years and needs to be replaced. The physical envelope of the building is far from energy efficient. The layout and infrastructure of the building - including plumbing and electrical - is vastly outdated. Bringing this decades-old structure up to current educational standards would be a challenging and expensive project to say the least.
When our school was built in the 1950s there was a plan to add a new church on that location, thus uniting the church and school on a single campus. We even have a model of this plan under glass. Sadly, those plans never came to fruition. Now it is time again to consider uniting our church and school on Western Avenue - this time in a single building, a new church and school complex. After extensive input from the congregation, our Zion Building Committee, working with Marty Sell and Tom Cox of RKETEK, have come up with some initial designs and plans for just such a project. This website has been created to keep you informed. Here you will find designs and drawings, facts and figures. We plan to update this site regularly. So have a look around, and come back often. Remember this is our church, our ministry, our project. The past has been filled with blessings. The future is full of promise - all thanks to our gracious Savior-God. Let's see what we can build together to his glory.
However, there are a number of issues with our beloved building and its location. The building and its bathrooms are not accessible to the physically disabled. There is not much parking and scarce space for gathering and storage. The age of the building makes maintenance a challenge. There is very little room for expansion on the site. And our school is located a mile away on the other side of town, creating a number of logistical challenges and making it difficult to conduct a joint church and school ministry.
Speaking of the school, our study revealed that this 55-year-old building is not in as good of shape as we once thought. The roof has had issues for years and needs to be replaced. The physical envelope of the building is far from energy efficient. The layout and infrastructure of the building - including plumbing and electrical - is vastly outdated. Bringing this decades-old structure up to current educational standards would be a challenging and expensive project to say the least.
When our school was built in the 1950s there was a plan to add a new church on that location, thus uniting the church and school on a single campus. We even have a model of this plan under glass. Sadly, those plans never came to fruition. Now it is time again to consider uniting our church and school on Western Avenue - this time in a single building, a new church and school complex. After extensive input from the congregation, our Zion Building Committee, working with Marty Sell and Tom Cox of RKETEK, have come up with some initial designs and plans for just such a project. This website has been created to keep you informed. Here you will find designs and drawings, facts and figures. We plan to update this site regularly. So have a look around, and come back often. Remember this is our church, our ministry, our project. The past has been filled with blessings. The future is full of promise - all thanks to our gracious Savior-God. Let's see what we can build together to his glory.
