The story of Mt. Zion

Mt. Zion Church has a long history of over 175 years of serving in Beavercreek and the surrounding areas.  It began through the itinerant horseback ministry of Rev. David Winters and where the church was built on the corners of Indian Ripple and Fairfield Roads.  After several building projects and outgrowing the original location, the church was moved to its new location on Shepherd Road when a new facility was completed in 2008.  No matter the location,  Mt. Zion strives to share the love of Jesus to others, grow disciples who seek to know more of Jesus and to become more like Him, and to serve others in need in the area and around the world.

The name Mt. Zion has a rich Biblical history.  We see it first appear in 2 Samuel 5 when David captures the fortress of Zion from the Jebusites. This becomes the city of David and eventually it grows to refer to the temple mount and then the entire city of Jerusalem.  It still is a mount that sits outside the Old City of Jerusalem and is actually older than any of the parts of Jerusalem.

But the term Mount Zion comes to mean even more Biblically in the prophets and comes to refer to the place where God (Yahweh) dwells and the place where He installed His Kingly line (David) and thus the place where the Messiah will reign. The Psalmist writes that blessed are those "in whose heart is the highways to Zion", perhaps referring to how every devout Jew would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem 3 times a year and knew the way from their home to Jerusalem by heart.

But for us, the map to Zion is in our hearts if we have come to put our faith and trust in Jesus. Zion is where God is and God wants our lives to be where He is. At Mt. Zion, we embrace that we are all on a journey to God. As a church, we are on that path together. We may all be at different points on that journey. Some of us might be getting closer to God everyday.  And some of us might keep stumbling and falling down to the bottom of the mountain. But as long as we’re on that path, as long as we are taking another step today to getting our lives closer to where God is and closer to becoming who He is, then we are exactly where we need to be.