Zion’s history reaches back to 1903 when one of the Synods great leaders in foreign missions began a personal program of home missions in Hopkins. The Reverend Professor Arndt of Concordia College, St. Paul, began conducting services in Hopkins for a small group of Lutherans. The services were held in homes and conducted in German. The work in Hopkins was turned over to Pastor Achenbach of Immanuel Lutheran Church of Minneapolis when Professor Arndt became his church’s first Christian missionary in China in 1912..

When Reverend E. G. Nachtsheim became pastor of Immanuel, he assumed the preaching duties in Hopkins. Under his energetic leadership the small group of Lutherans decided to organize into a congregation. In 1914, Reverend Nachtsteim started negotiations with the Norwegian Synod for the purchase of a small church building on 12th Avenue for $600.00. It was small, meagerly furnished, lighted with kerosene lamps, without pews and basement, but the seed that was planted by this small group of Lutherans began to bear fruit.. Under the leadership of Pastor Nachtsheim, and a group of seven men, the decision to form a congregation was made and Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was formally organized on January 24, 1915

1914 Zion Lutheran Church