Zion and St. John

Lenten Services

Pastor Paul Winckler continues his Lenten services on "I AM"

Service Times and Locations

April 2nd - Montrose at 7:00 PM

April 9th - Canistota at 7:00 PM

Palm Sunday - Montrose at 9:00 AM

Maundy Thursday - Montrose - 7:00 PM

Good Friday - Canistota - 7:00 PM

Easter Sunday - Canistota - 9:00 AM

Saturday Services

Due to the vacancy of our parish, our service times will be different.
On the first, third and fifth Saturdays of the month,
we will meet together for worship at Zion, Canistota at 5:00 PM.

On the second and forth Saturdays of the month,
we will meet together for worship at St John, Montrose at 5:00 PM.

Welcome and thank you for visiting us online. We hope that our website offers you some more information about who we are and what we do. Please feel free to read more about our churches on this site or come by for a visit. We would love to meet you and walk with you as we grow in our relationship with God and one another.
Specific information about Zion Lutheran Church in Canistota or St. John Lutheran Church in Montrose can be found on their specific pages available in the menu above or by clicking the links below.

Pastor's Perch

Links To Past Sermons

How we got here

We believe that God created everything that we see before us today. We believe that He created the natural world including all of the people and animals in it. We also believe that, as God, He created the rules that govern the physical world in which we live and that He is not bound by them as you and I are.

What went wrong

There is something wrong with the world. We can see this in our own lives and in the world around us. Bad things that should not happen do and many times there seems to be no reason as to how or why these things occur. We believe that the problem is sin. Yes, the sins of individual people but more than that, we believe that sin has made its mark on all of creation. Natural disasters, accidents and death itself are all the result of sin and its effects in the world.

How it's fixed

We believe that the solution to the problem of sin is Jesus, God's Son. We believe that Jesus' chief job here on earth was to deal with sin and its effects. We believe that He has done this by dying on the cross to pay for and take away the sins of the world. We believe that His resurrection displays His victory over sin and particularly death. We also believe that Jesus' job is not quite complete in the sense that there is still sin in the world and that one day He will return to completely eradicate it. Individuals are saved from sin through faith in this message about Jesus.

Formal beliefs

Among Christians there are numerous variations when it comes to particular beliefs about God and salvation. We believe that these differences are not insignificant and that what one believes about God matters. For this reason the congregations of Zion and St. John have elected to formally state what they believe, teach and confess about God. We agree with the Lutheran understanding of God as it is found in the Lutheran Confessions. Zion and St. John belong to a larger group of congregations who share our beliefs that is called The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS).