Laborers for Christ making Zion church addition reality

    The Zion Lutheran Church in Imperial is under construction with a building addition put up by volunteer labor.
    Laborers For Christ is an organization of retired people from the construction industries that organizes building projects within Lutheran churches.  
    They originated from the Lutheran Church Extension Fund and partnered with the Missouri Synod in St. Louis, Missouri.  They have been doing these projects since the late 1970s.
    The mission of the Lutheran Church Extension Fund is to support the church in fulfilling its mission of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ by being a Christ-centered servant partner of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, ensuring that funds and services are available now and in the future.
    Joel Grosbach, an elder with Zion Lutheran Church in Imperial, has been a church member volunteer with the project since its beginning.
    The building addition has been under construction since April 2022, and completion is expected this summer, he said.
    The addition, in the planning stage for eight years, is 5,500 square feet with a lower level that will be used for additional classrooms, daycare/preschool space.
    There are two Laborers For Christ workers on the project with 45 local church volunteers on the roster assisting them, Grosbach said.
    Mike Crane has been the on-site project manager since April. He is retired from the industries and  from Garnett, Kansas.  
    Mark Fintel, also on the project, is a retired contractor from Denver, Colorado.  

    Crane said, “As volunteers for Laborers For Christ we are paid minimum wage by the church out of necessity.”  
    If either of them are injured on the job, the minimum wage payments qualify them for Workman’s Compensation, Crane said.
    When they undertake a project as Laborers For Christ they do only labor that does not require industry licensing, like electrical work or plumbing, because they are retired and no longer licensed, Fintel said.  
    How long a project takes for completion depends on how many volunteers come on site as laborers throughout the project.  
    Fintel recently worked a church project in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was a building of 14,500 square feet that took about a year.  
    “We had 35 regular volunteers assisting there,” he said.
    On the walls in the project bible verses can be seen spray painted here and there.  
    “That’s part of the stud signing,” Crane said.  
    Just before they covered the studs with drywall, the laborers host a holy graffiti celebration. This event allows congregation members to inscribe favorite Bible verses, or holy graffiti, on the studs.
    “When we are working these projects we live in the community out of our RVs,” Crane said.  
    “Now that it’s cold we need to get out of the elements and in better building cover,” he said.