Here is the text of their accompanying letter to the congregation:
21083 Emperor Phillips Lane
Silverhill, AL 36576
October 29, 2005
Zion Lutheran Church Congregation
7th Street at 4th Avenue
Silverhill, AL 36576
re: Centennial Celebration
Dear Friends at Zion Lutheran Church:
We have remembered a hundred years of God's grace to Zion Lutheran Church of Silverhill. When we did our Zion yearbook, it was pretty apparent that there had been more than one rough time in its history. Indeed, just a year after its formal birth along comes an unnamed hurricane that is responsible for many, many people leaving the area. Yet a core of people continued in faith and the church built its house of worship just ten years after its founding.
When we ask, how is that possible, we have to look to our Lord Jesus Christ. The Book of Colossians, our current Wednesday Bible Study, proclaims this Jesus as the very Agent of all of God's activity. With this in mind, think of the Lord Jesus in these verses:
Ex 33:21-22 And the LORD said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.”
God is talking to Moses, but we learn an important spiritual truth. God provides a place. It is a solid place. When we come to Christ at the cross, we come to God’s Rock. Yes, we understand that Christ is the Rock, a solid place.
As we remember our Lord’s suffering for us, as we remember the kindness of our Lord to Zion, let us as a fellowship remember Jesus. Cindi and I therefore present the congregation with a Centennial gift, a reminder of our Rock.
May God bless us in our spiritual walk as we begin our next hundred years together.
Cordially in Christ's service,
Cindi Johnson Pastor Dave Johnson
