It all started when… 

The City of Angels came to Idaho....literally. Zach (an Idaho native) and Laura (a California-born girl) met in the city of Boise in 2007. Sparks flew and the wedding soon followed in 2008. The vision to make disciples, reach the lost, and display the heart of God through power and love, and sound biblical teaching, was a unified focus since they came together.

Zion Church, which began December 2nd 2018, is the culmination of years of anticipation and life-training that included both trials and triumphs. Nonetheless, Zach and Laura, by the empowering strength and grace of God, have found a way to fulfill the calling their both passionate about - making legitimate disciples who are unashamedly in love with King Jesus.

Zach

Growing up as an unbeliever in Idaho Falls, saturated in a high school culture of drug use, partying, and sexual immorality, Zach was converted from mormonism at the age of seventeen.

Having a spiritual awakening of her own, after fasting for seven days, his mother Noreen received a phone call from Zach’s kinder-garden teacher. She said she had found an old picture of him from twelve years prior while cleaning out one of her desks and that he was heavy on her heart. Noreen (a non-mormon) expressed to the teacher her recent fasting for her son’s salvation. The teacher said she knew just the person for him to speak with, a man by the name of Kevin Grimes, an international lawyer during the day and a Christian apologist at night who specialized in battling to awaken Mormons to the real Jesus.

Zach’s mother asked him if he would be willing to meet with Kevin for a friendly discussion on faith differences. On a Sunday evening after nearly five hours of debating, Kevin had done well to dismantle Zach’s position by means of showing him the copious amounts of contradictions in the original 1830’s Book of Mormon and by comparing current church teachings to those found in the New Testament. At 12:30 AM Kevin simply asked Zach if he was ready to give his life to the real Jesus Christ, to which he replied, “yes.”

Immediately, inside the living room there appeared a brilliant glow and then in seconds that presence hit Zach in the chest like a punch of fresh oxygen. All at once he collapsed in the couch and wept uncontrollably. This was what marked his salvation and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Since then Zach has hungered for the word of God and intimacy with Jesus. 

While attending Bible College Zach became an assistant pastor, worship leader and school of ministry teacher at Calvary Chapel. After completing undergraduate studies, Zach and Laura were married and then made their move to Boston where Zach studied theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, as well as immersing himself in the study of ethics and theodicy at Harvard Divinity School.

During graduate school Zach served as a minister and counselor in a psychiatric ward on the North Shore where he got to see the power of God move in the lives of those who were victims of anger, depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, suicide, and demon possession. He would come to see many of the patient’s get delivered simply by means of prayer and the Word of God.

Upon graduating with an M.Div, Zach and his family moved back to Boise. Sensing it was not quite the right time to start a church, he and his wife started a construction company while he served in local churches as a worship leader and teacher. These years of running a business, remodeling homes, raising a family, and being pruned in the Lord, were the perfect breeding ground for a deep work of sanctification.

Real life hit and Zach was forced to submit to the Lord and grow deeper in his relationship with God. All the while, his hunger for the true reality of the Father’s presence, for the evidence of power, signs, wonders and miracles, continued to solidify. During multiple trips to Bethel’s Open Heavens conference in Redding, California and a Power and Love conference with Todd White held locally in Idaho in 2018, Zach became convinced that it was time to begin the church he had always felt called to serve. The goodness of God, by nature, cannot contain itself.

The local church is nothing more and nothing less than the people group blessed to enjoy that goodness every moment of every day to the point where it becomes living water flowing through every individual and out into the culture of the world. As a result of living a simple Christian lifestyle, Zach has journals full of testimonies and miracles that have taken place in his own life and the lives of his wife and children.

Laura

The best way to describe Laura is that she was born to run. Her shoes wear out fast because of the miles put on them training to run marathons. It’s the same for her in the spirit, she runs with God at a pace of great humility and intimacy. However, she wasn’t always strong and healthy. While in the Air Force in her early 20’s she was diagnosed with 3rd stage Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer. Undergoing 8 months of chemotherapy in Boise, Idaho she was brought face to face with death with almost no chance of survival. 

Throughout childhood and youth, after experiencing the death of her father, Laura grew up with somewhat of a limited knowledge of God. But as cancer began taking hold of her life she was brought to a new brokenness that afforded her the opportunity to truly seek out the meaning of life. During the time of being miraculously healed from cancer, she stepped into a local Calvary Chapel and found home in the presence of God. Through a small group Bible study, Laura was converted and baptized and began her journey with Jesus.

Laura holds multiple degrees, the primary one being in psychology from Gordon College where she specialized in the study and principles of theory, philosophy, spirituality, counseling and social work. Laura is extremely passionate and gifted with youth ministry and connecting with the hearts of children and communication. She humbly relies on the power of God everyday of her life to raise her own children and to be a proclaimer of the Gospel both in word and deed. Her primary gift tends to be that of passion for the Lord through intercession, encouragement and prophecy.