According to the WPA Report, in the spring of 1878, a group of Scandinavian Lutherans met in Rochester, Minnesota, to consider organizing a regional "Zion Society for the liberation of Jews." Their mission was "to work for the conversion and the salvation of Israel." The society was officially organized on June 24, 1878, in Stoughton, Wisconsin. By 1881, it was sending out missionaries, first to Russia and later to Palestine, and in 1882 missionaries were working within the United States. The Minneapolis chapter was formed in 1913 by the Reverend J.P. Gjertsen, Professor Sven R. Gunnersen, the Reverend M. Falk Gjertsen, the Reverend Lars Lund, and the Reverend Gustav Oftedal. It was supported by several Lutheran Synods. In 1913, the group rented a building on Franklin Avenue, and the regional organization moved its headquarters to it. In 1922, the group purchased an existing church at 2021-17th Avenue South, enlarging the building for the offices and naming it the Zion Center, It was dedicated on June 18, 1922. Starting in 1922, the group rented a building at 1415 16th Avenue North, from which they also worked to convert Jewish residents to Christianity. The Reverend Elias Newman, himself a converted Jew, directed this site from 1933 to 1936. The group also ran a camp on Lake Minnetonka.