“The church is the church only when it exists for others.”

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and martyr

First Lutheran Church is not a building. If you ever hear us refer to it as one, you have our permission to give us a gentle nudge and correct us. First Lutheran Church is a people gathered for a purpose: to proclaim the love of God in word and deed. Everything that happens here (we hope) is ultimately for that purpose.

Jesus didn’t create the Church so that people could have pretty buildings to worship God in (although we like stained glass as much as the next person). Jesus created the Church so that the good news of God’s love could be proclaimed “to the ends of the earth.” We gather as the Church (which comes from the Greek work ekklesia, meaning “assembly”) so that we can be the Church in the world—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, befriending the lonely, speaking out for justice—God’s work through our hands.

The ministries of our church are varied and growing, and perhaps the one you feel called to hasn’t been invented yet. If so, we hope you’ll be the first to tell us. These are some of the places where we have felt God leading us right now.