May 2023 Update

The service dates this year are July 6–9. The service schedule can be found on the LLC website.

A children’s service will be held in the tent on Friday afternoon and a Sunday school lesson will be held in the tent on Sunday morning.

A special program in honor of LLC’s 50-year anniversary will be held Saturday afternoon. This program will feature a history presentation. Songs by North American songwriters will be sung by a continent-wide choir.

A detailed 50-year LLC history exhibit will be set up on the service site.

All youth activities will be hosted at the service site.

RV Sites for 2023 Summer services are currently full. Please visit the website to sign up for the waitlist.

Tent camping areas for families, adults, and youth ages 18 and older will be available during the service weekend.

The new restroom facility will be ready for services this year. The shower facility will remain where it has been at previous services at Silver Springs.

SignUpGenius will be used to coordinate work shifts. The link is available on the LLC website. Information has been sent to congregations. Please consider signing up to help Summer Services function smoothly.

The 2023 LLC Annual meeting will be held at Rockford church on July 7.

In preparation for the upcoming LLC 2023 Annual Meeting, your congregations have received the meeting material package including the proposed 2024 Operating Plan. May you prayerfully consider what has been proposed and review these items at your delegate meetings ahead of the annual meeting.

A workshop for Sunday School Directors was held on April 15 at the LLC office with online participation. Twenty participants examined the updated support materials for third grade Sunday School materials. In addition, there was discussion about greater support in congregations for expanding needs relative to Sunday School.

An updated curriculum for Preconfirmation will be piloted at this year’s Preconfirmation Schools.

Camp Evaluation forms will be sent via email to parents and guardians following attendance at LLC-owned camp centers this year. Parents and guardians are being asked to complete these evaluations with the attendees. Information gathered from the evaluations will be used to improve future experiences at camp.

Final planning was completed in April for RV Site expansion at Silver Springs. Now that our Minnesota winter is over, scheduling of the work can be completed. This effort will provide 220 electrical connections for RVs. Planning for non-electric RV sites is also being completed. The hope is to have 24 non-electric sites for use this year. Requests for additional RV sites are beyond what Silver Springs site permits; however, we continue to look for ways to accommodate all that are requesting to attend 2023 Summer Services at Silver Springs.

Stony Lake lodge restoration work is planned to be completed by the end of May 2023.

We have entered a busy time, with many brothers from Scandinavia and North America traveling on mission trips. The current and upcoming trips are noted on page 13. Please remember in your prayers the brothers traveling as well as the brothers and sisters in faith that they serve.

The annual plan is to hold four Ministers Webinars per year. The next webinar will be on May 25. These webinars support brothers in their duties as servants of God’s Word.

History project work continues. The manuscript of a book to be published this summer has gone through a final round of reviews and is now in the proofreading and layout stage.
 We extend a note of gratitude to those individuals who have diligently served over the last years in our History Project Reading Group. The regular meetings and discussions on the contents of the book are an essential part of producing the book. We are thankful our heavenly Father has given the group the heart and mind to serve in this way.

In April we had our annual Subscription Drive. Efforts were made to increase awareness about our periodicals and our publications app. Ultimately we hope that the contents of these Christian publications support believers in life and faith.

Our Broadcast team is yet hard at work preparing programming for our Summer services broadcast. We will be looking for volunteers to fill shifts in this area of work as well.

Camp season brings camps that touch on our areas of work, including music camps and language camps. This is just one way we can foster interests and gifts that will serve Zion for years to come! Thanks to all who support these camps by sending campers and serving at camps! Meanwhile, other educational efforts continue in e.g. the form of our monthly writers workshops. Let us know if you would like to learn more and be involved in these.

Did you know that our most used publication is our hymnal? It is used by thousands of people many times a week, in both print form and as our digital Songbook app. Songs and hymns of Zion are not only a historical work. There are new songs written and composed in our day as well! The LLC Hymnal Subcommittee meets regularly to review submissions of new or revised songs and translations of songs. When in coming years we have a large enough collection of fully vetted material, it will be time to plan a supplement to our current hymnal.