St. Paul Lutheran Church has stood on Presa Street since 1913. The building you see when you pull into the parking lot has been here longer than most of the city around it. Generations of people have been baptized at this font, married at this altar, and buried from this nave. We are not a new thing. We are the continuation of something ancient, and we take that seriously.

We are Lutherans, which means we believe the Christian faith is received, not achieved. We don't come to church to perform our devotion or prove our sincerity. We come because God has something to give us: his Word proclaimed from this pulpit, water poured at this font, bread broken and wine shared at this altar. The liturgy is not a style preference. It is the form the Church has used for centuries to deliver the grace of Jesus Christ to ordinary people, and we believe it still does exactly that.

We are also a congregation of real people at different places in their faith. Some of us grew up Lutheran and have never left. Some of us left and found our way back. Some of us walked in off the street not knowing what we were looking for and found something we didn't expect. What holds us together is not that we have everything figured out. It is that we keep coming back to the same table, and that at that table, we find the same Lord who opened the eyes of two disciples on the road to Emmaus when he broke the bread.

On Sunday mornings we give ourselves fully to the ancient rhythms of Christian worship. On the other six days we try to give ourselves to our neighbors; especially those who are poor, isolated, or searching. We believe these two things belong together. The table we gather around on Sunday sends us back into the world on Monday.

If you are curious about what liturgical worship actually is, we would love to show you. If you are returning to faith after years away, you will find no interrogation here. If you are simply looking for a place to encounter the living God in the company of his people, come on Sunday. The service begins at 10am. We'd be glad to have you.

St. Paul Lutheran is a congregation of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.