If there is ever a contest for colorful church doors, Zion United Church of Christ in Henderson, Kentucky may win it. It is one of the most memorable churches I saw this summer.

The congregation erected its brick Romanesque building in this Ohio River town in 1873 when it was known as the Deutsche Evangelische Zions Kirche.

The Evangelical Synod of North America to which the congregation belonged united with the Reformed Church in the United States in 1934. Twenty-three years later the Evangelical and Reformed Church which they formed united with the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ.

(If you are interested in how the German Protestant denomination joined up with the denomination founded by New England Puritans I’ll recommend my friend Ted Trost’s biography of Douglas Horton as an excellent starting point.)

The colorful door signals Zion’s longstanding commitment to be an open and affirming church. Its website describes it as a place of “EXTRAVAGANT WELCOME” committed to being and “a progressive voice for Jesus in a conservative area.” It is just off a couple of Henderson’s main streets, and if you see its door. You can’t miss it.