Bio - Pastor Harvey Nelson
Pastor Harvey was born in Cornhusker country (Nebraska), grew up in Cowboy land (Wyoming) and graduated from the University of Wyoming. He came to Minnesota early in his service and after working in North Dakota, New Jersey, Nigeria, West Africa, and teaching at a seminary in South Africa, Pastor Harvey returned to Minnesota. Harvey and Marie have three children, a son who is a baker in Detroit Lakes, MN, a daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter in Calgary, Alberta, and a son and daughter-in-law in North Dakota. Pastor Harvey has been at Zion since 1997 and finds great pleasure in tell the news of God’s amazing love in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Harvey says “Howdy, sannu and sawubona.”
“Howdy partner” because I grew up in Wyoming and love the wide open spaces and God’s creation.
“Partner” because all of us are equal. We are sinners, forgiven by Christ, and we are in the work of life together. “Sannu” because it is the greeting of the Hausa people of West Africa where we lived for five years. With the greeting of “Sannu” people in Nigeria bring their hand back to their heart saying that I greet you from the core of my being. Jesus says the same to us except that his hands are stretched out on a cross showing God’s great love for us. ”Sawubona” because it is a greeting to an individual among the Zulu people of South Africa where we also lived for five years. God has a public word for all people in the good news of Jesus Christ, and yet God means for that news to live personally in each person’s life; so God says a deeply personal “Sawubona” to each of us in baptism and God continues to give us that same greeting every day.
With these greetings I welcome you to Zion Lutheran Church in Litchfield, Minnesota. We welcome you and we invite you to participate in our life of “Sharing and Growing in God’s Love”. That short phrase describes our mission statement. We share God’s love, because God at great personal cost has given love for us to share with other Christians all over the world. We do not own it, all we can do is share it. We work so that every board, group, committee and gathering at Zion will be a living expression which shows the love of God. We fall short, but God is gracious so we go on. We grow all the time because God is too great for us to know, and God’s love is too deep for us to capture. We can know a little and we can show it by what we say and do. We are growing together and we invite you and others to join us in growing and sharing.
Our logo is “Christ for All Generations, Zion for all Generations”. For us this means that Jesus came to love all people. He suffered much that people might know the love and grace of God. He did not place restrictions on who could know God. He was for all the people he encountered and whoever has trusted him has come to know the amazing love of God. This news of Jesus has sounded for people for two thousand years and we trust that it will continue throughout all human history. Jesus has been caring for all generations and because he is we want to be too. We welcome the high and the lowly, the rich and the poor, all the people in our community; because we believe that Christ is for all and we should be too.
So “Howdy, partner, come know the loving heart of God, who cares for each one of you, loving you to the core of your being, so you can grow in knowing his love and sharing it with every generation you know.
Pastor Harvey
Pastor Harvey’s Vision for Zion:
Zion is part of the body of Christ which stretches around the world. All of Christ’s people are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do Christ’s work where they live. We at Zion are blessed to live in Meeker County in central Minnesota. Since our sanctuary is located in the town of Litchfield, most of our mission is done in that area; but we respond to Christ’s command to take God’s good news to all people in the world.
Since we are Christ’s body in this place we want to include people of every generation, race and gender in our mission of having God’s news heard, shared, absorbed and acted upon by every member of the body of Christ. Our vision is that all everyone in the congregation and the people with whom the share life know the amazing and wonderful love of God. We do not want human divisions or distinctions keep anyone from knowing God’s love.
We are a congregation of people who fall short of what God wants. We share that in common, and since we do we have to rely on the forgiveness and grace of God. Being aware of God’s grace and our need for forgiveness we are cautious about sitting in judgment and condemning others. We want to be true to God’s will and we want to share God’s condemning and saving news truly, but we do not want to be in a superior position in judging others. We are a community of forgiven sinners working together with much lay leadership and that is a vision we want to keep as we seek to share and grow in the good news of Christ.
Contact Info:
Email: harveyn@zionchurch.net
Phone: 320-693-3207
Newsletter Article