We had a visiting certification team on our campus in 2016, and they were assigned with investigating all the details of how our school operates—they looked at our buildings, they interviewed teachers, parents, and students, and they sat in on our classes. They came to several conclusions, but first and foremost they discovered this: Our kids are happy: They love being here. In their final report, the team wrote, “Strengths: Climate/atmosphere is ‘friendly’ and inviting. Students and parents are happy and want to be at ZLS.”
Part of their work was a survey of our 72 4th-through-8th graders. They gave them 19 statements to which the only available answers were Yes or No. The first statements on the survey were things like “Students treat adults with respect”, to which 77% answered Yes; and “The things I learn at school will help me as an adult”—92% Yes. We love these percentages because they show that our message is getting through: Our students see what is important to us.
Then we gave them the following statement: “My teachers care about every student.” 72 4th-through-8th graders responded “Yes”. That’s what we do well at our school. This is what Zion is about. Our teachers care about every student, and the students see that. The statement isn’t “My teachers care” or even “my teachers care about me”, it was literally “My teachers care about every student”, and 100% of these kids responded Yes. We care about every student.
Over the last 111 years, we’ve had thousands of students walk through our doors, and they have gone on to all kinds of success: Our alumni have been doctors and lawyers, pastors and teachers, professional athletes and congressmen. Recently, our alumni have been valedictorians at Lake Stevens (in 2012) and Glacier Peak High School (in 2016 and 2018). High schools love our graduates because they find them well-prepared, well-organized, and kind-hearted. Our eighth-graders leave our school ready for all those twists and turns that life will throw at them, confident in their faith in Jesus Christ. Our SAT scores show that our eighth-grade graduates leave our school more advanced in their education than their public school peers. In that same survey, we gave those 4th-through-8th graders the following statement: “My teachers want me to do my best work.” 100% Yes.
When your kids are at Zion, they have many more opportunities to achieve, to participate, and to excel than anywhere else. Our Middle School students participate in Robotics, Basketball, Flag Football, Cross-Country, Track, Soccer. We offer Knowledge Bowl, Science Club, Choir, Yearbook and Japanese. They can have a lead in the LEST Drama performance, or sing and dance in the Spring Musical. We have Art classes and Library classes. As one current parent suggested, her boys are able to participate in basketball at Zion, but wouldn’t be able to make the team at a large public school. We offer more and better opportunities than any other school.
Our lower grades offer private tutoring, Robotics, Digital Citizenship, Art, Music and Library. Our small class sizes are perfect for learning. Our newly certified reading intervention specialists are available to support any student. We have the opportunity to talk about Jesus all day long—our students lead devotions in their classrooms, pray for their classmates, and help with our weekly chapel services. They have the opportunity to discuss the Word of God with their teachers and their classmates in Religion Class.
In our 2016 survey, we asked the students if the following statement was true: “My teachers and principal want every student to learn.” 99% Yes. And that’s a tough one. That takes effort on the teacher’s part to reach every student in the classroom and a classroom climate that states learning is important. In order to do that teachers genuinely have to care about each child and his or her education. This is our specialty. When we take this survey again in 3 years, we’re going to get 100%, because learning is important to us. We provide care, excellence, and opportunities for our students and their families.
In 2019 and beyond, we will continue to add programs but our core values will not change. We’re purchasing Chromebooks for 6th through 8th graders for this school year. We’ll start our online Zion High School Academy this autumn. In 2019 we’ll install a new lighted entrance sign and electronic entrance gates. Beyond 2019, projects include adding a Daycare program, to add churches to our Association, and eventually planning a new building to replace our modular portables. Come join us, and be part of the foundations we’re building and the life-transforming work that God is accomplishing through us here at Zion.
Core Values
In review of Zion’s historical mission statement of Proverbs 22:6 – Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it – the board and administration of Zion summarized those thoughts and identified our core values – those deep truths and practices that identify us – into three categories: TEACH, PROCLAIM & SERVE. From these values stem our mission and ministry in all we do. Additionally, the tagline “Care, Excellence, Opportunities” accurately describes how we carry out our mission and where our priorities lie.
Philosophy and Goals
It is our belief that children are a gift from God to be nurtured and trained that they may grow strong in character, wisdom and knowledge.
By placing God at the center of our hearts, environment and curriculum, we desire:
- To share the love of Jesus;
- To model and instruct in Christian character, values and principles;
- To communicate an “I care” message while creating a loving atmosphere for significant adult/child relationships and bonds to form;
- To facilitate the development of skills necessary to learn independence, self-control and acceptable socialization patterns;
- To provide experiences rich in creativity, exploration and expression;
- To provide an environment that will challenge and excite young minds;
- To faithfully teach a basic and fundamental educational program in a consistent manner;
- To cooperate with families in the responsibility to train up children in ministry.
Statement of Faith
We believe and teach nothing more and nothing less than what the Scriptures themselves teach and what Christians through the ages have always believed. We Lutherans are rightly considered evangelical – promoting the Gospel, or Good News, of Jesus Christ. Firmly rooted in the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, we believe that sinners are justified (declared right) with the Creator God by grace alone and through faith alone, on the basis of Scripture alone. These three great Reformation declarations of the work of the Trinity provide an outline of what Missouri Synod Lutherans believe, teach and confess.
Grace Alone
At the heart of what we believe is the conviction that salvation is the free gift of God’s grace (undeserved mercy) for Christ’s sake alone. “Since the fall of Adam all men who are born according to the course of nature are conceived and born in sin” (Augsburg Confession II, 1). This “inborn sickness and hereditary sin” makes it utterly impossible for people to earn forgiveness. If salvation were dependent on human initiative, there would be no hope for anyone. But God forgives our sins, says Luther in his Large Catechism (1529), “altogether freely, out of pure grace” (LC III, 96). The basis for the grace of God that alone gives hope to sinners is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe, as Luther put it in his explanation to the second article of the Apostles’ Creed, “that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person…not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death…” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanations, p. 14). We believe that the Scriptures teach that God’s grace in Christ Jesus is universal, embracing all people of all times and all places. There is no sin for which Christ has not died.
Faith Alone
After years of struggle over this question, Luther finally discovered that the Scriptures teach that sinners are saved “through faith alone”. God’s grace is the sole basis of salvation for the sinner. The implications of salvation “through faith alone” permeate everything we Lutherans believe and teach. For example, we believe that the conversion of sinners is a gift of God and not the result of a human effort or decision. Lutherans therefore confess in the words of Luther’s explanation to the third article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, p. 15). “Through faith alone” also implies that through the proclamation of the Gospel – in Word and Sacrament – the Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith. The proclamation of the Gospel Word in public preaching therefore occupies a central position in our Lutheran theology, and the sacraments are the Gospel made visible. Finally, to say “through faith alone” means that we believe that, to use a phrase Luther made famous, Christians are at the same time sinners and saints (simul justus et peccator). Justification is an act, a declaration from the cross. It is not a process.
Scripture Alone
Luther’s insight that salvation comes from grace alone through faith alone cannot be removed from “on the basis of Scripture alone”. For it was directly as a result of his commitment to Scripture that Luther came to rediscover justification by grace alone through faith alone. Together with his contemporaries, Luther heard that the Bible is the Word of God and that it does not mislead or deceive us. Scripture alone, said Luther, is infallible. Missouri Synod Lutherans believe that Scripture alone – not Scripture and tradition, Scripture and the church, Scripture and human reason or Scripture and experience – stands as the final standard of what the Gospel is. But we also believe that confidence in the reliability of the Bible is not possible apart from faith in Jesus Christ. Christians believe what the Scriptures teach because they first believe in Jesus Christ. Christ is the object of faith, not the Bible. The key to understanding Scripture properly, we believe, is the careful distinction between the Law and the Gospel. The Law tells what God demands of sinners if they are to be saved. The Gospel reveals what God has already done for our salvation. The chief purpose of the Law is to show us our sin and our need for a Savior. The Gospel offers the free gift of God’s salvation in Christ. The whole Bible can be divided into these two chief teachings. It is in the proper distinction between Law and Gospel that the purity of the Gospel is preserved and the three declarations of “grace alone”, “faith alone” and “Scripture alone” are united.
Mission Statement
Our mission statement is “Building Foundations and Transforming Lives in Christ”. We believe that the basis of all teaching is God and His Word. Our desire is to share the love of Jesus Christ through education, friendships and restored relationships with the goal that each student would receive Jesus Christ as his/her personal Lord and Savior.
Zion reflects educational practices from a Christian perspective and offers its students opportunities to understand themselves and the world around them from a Christian worldview. Some of this education is formal (Chapel, Bible classes and studies) and some occurs as the faculty and students interact in the flow of school activity. The goal is to facilitate the development of the child spiritually, academically, physically, socially and emotionally. The School employs administration, faculty and staff who serve as role models in their Christian walks as they mature both professionally and in their Christian faith.
In training children to serve the Lord, Zion makes a strong statement for high academic and social standards of conduct. We believe that school is an extension of the home and we expect parents to support the goals of Zion as outlined in the Parental Commitment section.