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Confessions of faith: Angie Zhang
A concert pianist discovers a new church family and grows in her faith through a congregational campus ministry program.
It all started with a Facebook post. A WELS student was expressing her excitement about going to the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance to pursue her doctor of musical arts degree. Angie Zhang was going to be attending the University of Michigan at the same time. The two women hadn’t crossed paths before, and Angie still doesn’t know how that post ended up in her feed. “When I saw it, I wanted to say, ‘Congratulations! I’m also going there,’ ” she says. Angie reached out and ended up gaining a new friend—and a new church home.
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Angie is an accomplished concert pianist, performing at concert halls around the world. She has worked with famous conductors and played with orchestras in the United States and abroad. She attended the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and has won countless awards and international competitions. She is also a teacher, lecturer, and ambassador for the arts.
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So how did she get to this point?
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Captions for photos: 1) Angie Zhang after her performance at Baranow Castle in Poland. 2) Angie at her graduation from Juilliard. 3) Jacob Haag, pastor at Redeemer, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Angie at her confirmation in April 2022. 4) Students Angie and Theresa Fadool getting ice cream with Pastor Haag and his family. 5) Angie after her performance at the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, Poland. 6) Angie, who now lives in Los Angeles, stopped in to see Pastor Haag when she was traveling through Michigan in October 2024. She also played for Redeemer’s church service while she was there. “We’re so thankful to hear her beautiful music in worship, but we’re even more thankful for what God has done in her life,” says Haag.
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Last year FIC produced a series of Advent devotions in partnership with musicians from Martin Luther College. Check this timeless series out as part of your Advent preparations. Each week, hover over the appropriate candle on the Advent wreath and open a storybook that includes a devotion and illustration as well as a video of Martin Luther College’s choir singing that week’s suggested hymn.
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A few years before Jesus’ Great Commission directed his followers to baptize and teach his Word (Matthew 28:19,20), John the Baptist baptized people (see Luke 3:3; 20:4; Acts 18:25). Was John’s baptism the same as the baptism Jesus commanded? The answer . . .
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The story of the Christian faith is that in Christ the best is yet to come. We are waiting for Christ to return and make all things new (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:5). God has given us a sign that this is true. Christ has already come into this world once. The birth of . . .
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In 1993, after years of scriptural study, our synod in convention adopted the doctrinal statement “Scriptural Principles of Man and Woman Roles.” Like all faithful doctrinal statements, it is an expression in time of God’s timeless truths and remains our doctrinal . . .
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