October 2025 Update

Arvin Pirness | The Voice of Zion October 2025 - News & Notes Article --

In October, the focus at the LLC office turns to planning. We begin looking more closely at how to carry out the 2026 Operating Plan and prepare for the upcoming LLC Board Meeting. Several board committees will also gather during the month. In addition, we’ll connect with camp boards following the recent LLC Camp Board Workshop as we look ahead to planning for 2026 and early 2027. October also brings time to reflect on the Stony Lake Content Creators Workshop and other recent projects. 

We are excited to announce that Adeline Moll has been hired to work as the LLC Facilities and Events Planning Manager. We are happy to welcome Adeline and wish her God’s richest blessings in the work. 

October is when a number of congregations hold Fall Services. We wish to remember these gatherings around God’s Word in prayer. May God bless these moments for the strengthening of faith and to bring comfort from the fellowship of believing escorts. To our Canadian readers, Happy Thanksgiving! 

Updates on LLC Activities 

Pastoral 

• The 2025 Minister and Wives Camp was held at Prairie Shores Camp September 19–21. There were approximately 65 ministers and their wives that were able to attend this event. We were able to hear presentations and visit around the topics titled “The Gospel Begins at Home,” “Music in Zion” and “Supporting Those Experiencing Mental Illness.” God blessed our time together. 

• Arto Tölli and his wife Helena are serving many congregations in North America through the month of October. Arto will also attend the October LLC Board meeting. 

• The 2026 Service and Events calendar has been shared with congregations and those that have been asked to serve. There are over 350 events that are scheduled as camps, congregation special services and LLC trips. 

Global Mission Work 

• In the fall, the Local Operations Team works with each country to plan in-country activities and related expenses. This collaboration is part of the budget planning process for the global mission work and more broadly LLC budgeting for 2027. Trips and plans for 2026 are also adjusted during the Fall to ensure that mission work continues to serve believers in their own communities and areas. 

Facilities 

• The addition of additional LLC staff, approved at the LLC Annual meeting in July, has caused us to consider the existing office spaces and how they can be adjusted to better serve the needs. Plans are underway to add three office spaces at the LLC Office. Pending final approval, we expect completion around December 1, 2025.  

• The Silver Springs Camp Board continues to work through the considerations of constructing a new structure to support service events at Silver Springs. A building committee has been formed to assist in the planning of this structure.  

Publications 

• At the LLC Annual Meeting on July 2, 2025, in Outlook, Sask., delegates approved adding one full-time equivalent position to the Publications Department. During September and October, following a review of changing and expanding needs, a decision will be made regarding the specific roles to be filled. 

• The LLC Communications Department has been reorganized into the Publications Department. Phil Jurmu has been appointed Publications Director, and Matt Keranen has assumed the role of Editor and Content Curator. In the coming months, Sandra Pylvainen will transition to a part-time position, with her responsibilities refocused on supporting fiction writers. 

• This fall, we will publish a digital hymnal supplement, approximately a dozen new songs, on the Songbook app. Note that we are able to publish these only on the LLC Songbook app, and not on the older SHZ Hymnal app. Chorale arrangements will be available digitally as well. More information on this update will be sent to congregations in the coming month. 

• We will publish The Voice of Zion in an updated format beginning January 2026. The content will remain the same, but the issue that arrives in your mailbox will look more like a magazine than a newspaper. This aim of this new format is to increase readability and also to provide more flexibility in how much content is published each issue. 

• The Voice of Zion subscription will change slightly as well: Easter Messenger will become the March issue of The Voice of Zion, and Christmas in Zion will serve as the December issue of The Voice of Zion. These seasonal magazines will remain the same as before. In other words, the subscription will now comprise eleven items per year instead of the previous thirteen. 

• Our annual Content Creators Workshop, held September 12–14 at Stony Lake Camp, was well attended. There were three tracks: music composition, services broadcast, and writing. Harri Vähäjylkkä, SRK’s Communications Director, attended the workshop and kept several presentations, including one on current and future trends in communications and publications in God’s kingdom.