Black History Celebration Service
11:00 am on Zoom Feb 28
We are a welcoming, caring community, called by Christ and enabled by the spirit, to share God’s love by living our faith.
Mount Zion
Lutheran Church, Waterloo
The Jyrkama Family
Our Mission
We are a welcoming, caring community, called by Christ and
enabled by the spirit, to share God’s love by living our faith.
This is Mount Zion’s Mission Statement. You will find copies of it scattered around Mount Zion’s building….at the front and rear doors, in the fellowship and meeting rooms.
It is a living statement - a constant reminder to all - of why we are here as a church and an organization. It’s also our members’ way of saying you will always find a welcome at Mount Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Our congregation is a member of the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The ELCIC, in turn, is part of a worldwide family of Lutherans that keep in touch with themselves and other churches through organizations like the Lutheran World Federation, the Canadian Council of Churches, and the World Council of Churches.
There are more than 600 ELCIC congregations in Canada, each with its own personality. But all share beliefs that are based on the teachings of Martin Luther, a l6th century Augustinian priest. Back then, Luther wasn’t trying to start a denomination, but to reform his church. However, his teaching and preaching sparked something that became the Protestant Reformation.
What We Believe
Whenever we begin to wonder about why we were born or why bad things happen to good people or what God is really like, we are “doing” theology. Theology (from the Greek, "the word about God") deals with our questions about God and how we answer those questions.
In his study of theology, Martin Luther arrived at a bold conclusion that we Lutherans believe is the heart of Christianity: "justification by grace through faith." What that means is that the way our lives turn out - for here and eternity - has nothing to do with how much we try to be good and do good, or how badly we fail in our efforts. Salvation is a pure act of grace on God's part.
The Gospel (the Holy Bible) tells us that God decided to treat us as if we are innocent of any guilt, as if we are saints without any hint of sin, just because God loves us.
And we call ourselves an “evangelical” church, because the word means "those who share good (or God's) news.” Notice the word "angel" in the middle? In the Bible, angels are God's messengers. Although we're no angels, we try to share God's grace by the way we live.