You can find a brief description of our congregation's beliefs here. If you'd like to learn a bit more about the Lutheran church in general, click here‍ (coming soon). ‍

In short, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) is divided up into 35 districts, 33 of which are geographical in nature (i.e. Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, Missouri, Texas, etc.) but two of them are non-geographical in nature, namely The English District and the SELC District. This is because these were both previous separate church Lutheran church bodies that merged into the LCMS. The SELC District has its origins in the former Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church, which merged with the LCMS in 1971, while the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri merged with the LCMS in 1911. Both were basically granted District status with the promise that they would not be simply assimilated into geographic regions.

You can read a slightly more detailed history of the English District here.

There are 16. In addition to Shepherd of the Pines there are English District congregations in Gold Canyon, Green Valley, Mesa, Overgaard, Parker, Phoenix (Ahwatukee), Pinetop, Rio Rico, Sahuarita and six in Tucson. 

You can look up all the English District church locations here.

You can find an of the other LCMS plus Lutheran churches throughout Arizona and elsewhere here

In order to understand our services, there are three important things to know about us up front:

1. As Lutherans, we believe that Christ won our salvation in His death and resurrection.

2. We believe that Christ established His Church to be the place where we could receive the salvation won for us on the cross and in the empty tomb.

3. We also believe that we receive this salvation through the preached word of forgiveness, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.

It’s for this reason that we worship the way we do—beginning every service by confessing our sins and hearing Christ’s word of absolution, singing of God’s mercy in our hymns, confessing His triune nature in the Creed, listening to preaching that covers us in the love of Christ, feasting upon His body and blood in Holy Communion, and concluding with the benediction promise that we now have peace with God through His Son who dwells with us in Word and Sacrament. For our Sunday morning liturgy, we follow the Divine Service settings in Lutheran Service Book every week. And for our hymns, we avail ourselves of the great treasures found in that same hymnal. The piano and sometimes the organ are the primary instrument for our musical accompaniment, and we periodically have some choir selections and the like.

If you are not familiar with our worship service, it can often be tricky to navigate the hymnal. For this reason, we do print out a comprehensive bulletin that includes the entire liturgy, our readings, and all hymns for the day.

While we don't generally record our services with audio, Pastor Zill does upload his latest church bulletin and the audio/text of the sermon in the Most Recent area of our web page. To listen to our sermons, click here.

Absolutely! While we realize we don't have many children in our congregation, we are always overjoyed when Christ’s little ones gather with us to receive the gifts of salvation. While children may often fidget and fuss as they learn to sit and hear God’s word, we consider the noise that they make in our sanctuary to be a form of sacred music, as this is the sound of God’s children learning more and more what it means to be Christians. And it’s for this reason that we invite the children to stay with us for the entire service.

If you feel your children are being disruptive, we do have other areas where you can go with them temporarily. However, barring a sonic outburst of ear-drum shattering proportions, we encourage you to keep your children in the sanctuary as long as possible.

And, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, we also encourage those with young children to sit farther up front, as doing so makes it easier for them to see what’s happening, which tends to hold their attention longer.

Thank you for asking. There are several resources on our web page that we think would be helpful for you to learn more about our doctrine and practice regarding the Lord’s Supper. You can find them all through this page.

This is certainly also something that our pastor would love to visit with you about in person. Please just ask or fill out the contact form below if that is helpful.

If you are currently a member of another LCMS congregation and would like to join Shepherd of the Pines, please speak to Pastor Zill and your current pastor about requesting a transfer of membership.

If you are not currently a member of an LCMS congregation, please speak with Pastor Zill about the process of becoming a member. While the length of preparation for membership may vary from person to person depending on various circumstances, the standard length for Pastor Zill’s adult instruction class is normally 16-18 ninety-minute sessions called “Didache.” 

These classes are offered periodically throughout the year, based in large part upon your availability. Classes primarily focus on the following: Who is Jesus? What has He done for you? How does He bring this to you? We will also address any questions you may have about Christianity and the basic teaching of the same found in the Bible.

After successfully completing the class, you are free to join the church as a confirmed member, but you are under no obligation to do so. Like American Express, membership has its privileges, and it also has its responsibilities-we talk more about those in the class to.

Again, if you are interested in, or have questions about, the classes, please contact Pastor Zill.