Rooted Deeply and Branching Out

Growing from strong roots, several generations deep.

In western South Dakota, close to the Black Hills and wide-open prairie, Zion Lutheran Church and School in Rapid City, South Dakota, has dug its roots several generations deep.

Zion has families whose parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents were members of the church, and some of the current members have relatives who have taught for decades at the kindergarten through fifth-grade school since it opened in 1957.

“There is a lot of longevity here,” explained Rev. Bryan Meadows, pastor at Zion. “People have met their spouses here, had their kids baptized, confirmed and married here; they’ve brought their kids through the school. We’ve got families with such deep roots within Zion.” While the familial atmosphere is strong, the church also knows how to branch out.

“We have new people coming in every year through the school,” said Meadows. “And what’s nice is there’s no dynamic of ‘old-guard Zion’ and new folks. Whether someone’s been here nine months or 90 years, they’re part of the family.”

A false start

As Zion grew, so did their needs. That’s why, years ago, the church decided to pursue building a new sanctuary to make room for everyone in worship.

“In 2014, we were looking at building a sanctuary large enough to fit 500 to 600 people,” recalled Kevin Aker, member at Zion.

The church put together a building committee and designs for a sanctuary with a chapel, a basement and even space for the youth group.

“We had a budget in mind, but when we went out for bid, it came back significantly higher than what Zion could afford,” shared Aker. “We decided to take out quite a bit from the design and leave the basement area wide open. We put it back out for bid … and it came back at the same price.”

The project was put on hold indefinitely until more funds could be raised.

In retrospect, added Aker, “We probably jumped into it quicker than we should have. We didn’t do near enough preparation. There was a lot of disappointment at that time, and it really took the wind out of our sails. It clearly wasn’t the direction God wanted us to go.”

A time to plant

With humility, the church decided to pivot. “Not only did we need to gain more funds,” said Aker, “but we realized, ‘Why are we trying to capture more of the city here. Why don’t we instead plant more churches?’”

Despite shifting the focus to enlarging the nearby LCMS community through planting another church, Zion continued to grow. Perhaps the time was finally right for the facility to grow with them, in one way or another.

The right time, the right people

Having learned a few lessons from the previous attempt, this time, Zion approached the project a bit differently.

“One of our biggest goals for the school has always been to get more children here,” said Aker. “Our lower grades are always at capacity, and we have to turn away families. Plus, our spaces are extremely multi-purpose here. We have a teacher who works out of a supply closet; we use our boardroom and cry room for naptime; and there is no dedicated space for the music program, so music happens right outside of the principal’s office.”

After everything the church had been through with the previous campaign, the people of Zion were understandably a bit apprehensive. But they overwhelmingly felt that the time was right.

“It was obvious that God was leading us in a different direction,” said Meadows. “The sanctuary wasn’t the way to go. We knew we needed to remodel the school and the gymnasium. Suddenly, God brought us all the right people to help: a general contractor who was a son of the congregation and two professional engineers who happened to show up at church the same weekend.”

“So much of this process has felt right,” added Meadows. “God outlined this and put the right people in the right place at the right time to do His vision, and it’s been amazing.”

A new start

The plan included additional school classrooms, a gymnasium and a dedicated space for the music program, which wasn’t directly outside of the principal’s office. In 2022, a new campaign was launched, and this time, Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) was closely involved in the process as well.

“As LCEF was helping us lay out the plan, they taught us how to truly get ready for a campaign,” recalled Aker, who served on the building committee and as the fulfillment director for the project. “There were so many people involved. It seemed like half the congregation had a job to do! It meant great participation that way. Everyone was willing to do a little bit to get it going, and LCEF prayed for us and helped us keep the campaign in front of everyone so they knew what was going on.”

This new campaign was night and day different from the 2014 attempt.

“In our previous one, we tried to go solo on the second half of the campaign,” said Meadows. “I think between the frustration of the bids coming in higher and poor planning, many were disheartened, and we didn’t have a coach pushing us through the harder moments. This time, we really looked to LCEF to be that coach, and Pastor Andreasen came in with a firm but very pastoral hand. He guided us through the capital campaign, and
he really became a mentor to me as a pastor.”

Rev. Phill Andreasen, LCEF Capital Funding Consultant, felt that it was also the congregation’s goals and focus on expanding their Christ-centered ministry that helped the campaign to be a success.

“They really desired to grow ministry in the community and provide an opportunity for people to come into contact with Christ, and that’s really the heart and core of their campaigns as their school ministry is in extremely high demand.”

For Meadows, having a partner that understood the goals and heart of Zion’s ministry meant everything.

“The nice thing about LCEF is not only do they know what they’re doing, but they know what it is to be Lutheran,” he said. “They know our theology, know what’s important to us. For them, it’s never about the money. It’s all about the ministry, with Christ alone in mind, and with proper preaching of the Gospel and administering of the Sacraments.”

Growing into the future

After construction concludes for this phase of the project, the plan is to eventually improve their worship space as well.

“Zion’s construction plan this time was to free their worship space to be a dedicated worship space, and that was embraced by the congregation a great deal more,” added Andreasen. “But in the second phase of the project, the goal will be to make the sanctuary even more of a sanctuary.”

For now, the hope is to be able to increase the school’s enrollment from 180 to 240 as capacity grows—and for Zion, that means more opportunities to share the Gospel.

“The more students we can bring into the family here at Zion, the more we get to share the Good News with these families,” explained Meadows. “The devil has been putting obstacles in front of us—it’s very obvious that he does not want us to grow the Lutheran school here in Rapid City. But God is doing it.”

As Zion steps into a new era with a new building, complete and ready to welcome more children, it’s clear that there are some things about this special church and school that will never change.

“During this campaign, we’ve had the kids involved heavily, with challenges for them to raise money for the school as well,” said Aker. “One girl, a second grader, was so excited that we are adding on to the school because she said she wants to send her kids here someday, too. How incredible is that?”

It sounds like the Gospel itself is rooted deeply in Rapid City, and it will continue to branch out and bear fruit for even more generations to come.

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