Mt. Zion Lutheran Church

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Mt. Zion Lutheran Church was born in the nearby Kipps School House on August 21, 1853. That day the traveling Lutheran minister Socrates Henkel, began preaching in the area. Six months later the members of the community organized a congregation and named it Mt. Zion. The first elders of the church were Albert Flemings and John Lowry. Original deacons were Moses Tusing, Michael Hess, George Lohr, and Peter Bushong. Many of these families are still carried on the church rolls.

On June 1-3 1855 the first services were held at the school. Over the course of three days the congregation sponsored their first communion, confirmations, baptisms, and sermons.

In 1870 the congregation began to raise the money needed to construct a church. George Lohr and his wife Magdalene deed an acre of land for the structure on May 18, 1871. Soon after that construction began. The work was completed, and paid for, on November 23, 1872.

Over the next century and a half major changes occurred at Mt. Zion.

• In 1918 a bell tower was added which drastically changed the appearance of the modest church building.
• In 1961 the balcony was converted into Sunday School rooms
• In 1973 the congregation demolished the old Kipps School House which they had been using as a social hall and built the John Kipps Educational building in its place.
• In 2008 a new and expanded social hall was constructed.

Who the church was aligned with also changed during this period. In 1932 Mt. Zion had joined with St. Martins in New Market and St. Marks in Forrestville for form the Quicksburg Parish. The small, rural congregations could not support a minister on their own so they sought to expand their services through cooperation.

This arrangement lasted until November 1988 when the church’s membership had expanded and each could then afford their own minister. Today, Mt. Zion continues to operate as an independent congregation and supports not only its religious work, but also community service projects in the county and elsewhere. Their efforts include a homecoming, vacation bible school, charity auction, golf tournament that supports the homeless, and a quilt sale whose proceeds support world relief organizations.