St. John Lutheran Church
OUR WORSHIP SERVICES
We have 2 types of worship services here at St. John Lutheran Church. The first three Sundays of the month are traditional, and the fourth and fifth Sundays are contemporary. There are certain elements that we do each week regardless of the service. Holy Communion (The Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist) is celebrated every Sunday and special services like Christmas Day. Each Sunday we will confess our faith using one of two creeds (the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed), and we also pray The Lord’s Prayer as taught to us by scripture. We have four scripture passages. The first reading is usually, but not always, from the Old Testament. Next we read a Psalm responsively. The second reading is from the New Testament but not from one of the Gospels. The final reading is a Gospel reading from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.
Traditional:
Our traditional services consist of liturgy taken from the green Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) hymnal and the blue With One Voice (WOV) hymnal. We sing hymns from both hymnals played on our organ or piano.
Contemporary:
Our contemporary services have a structure similar to contemporary services in other churches. We still take some liturgical elements from the hymnals, but the setup is not set to a specific liturgy. We sing contemporary worship song like you would hear on Christian radio that are played on guitars and piano.
Holy Communion:
As, mentioned, we commune every Sunday, and all baptized Christians who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are welcomed to share in the Lord’s Supper. We do not require you to be a member of our congregation or another Lutheran church. We do not discriminate according to the type of baptism (infant or emersion/believer’s). If you were baptized in any form in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and believe in that baptism, you are welcome to our table. If you have not been baptized, you may still come forward for a formal blessing from the pastor.
On the first, third, and fifth Sundays of the month, we use unleavened bread, and small cups of wine. On those Sundays as well, we do offer white grape juice if anyone would rather not drink wine. On the second and fourth Sundays of the month, we have Communion by intinction where you are given a wafer to dip in the chalice of wine. There is no grape juice on these Sundays.
On the first Sunday of the month, we do what is called “Table Communion”. This is where you would come up to the Communion rails and either kneel as you are able or stand to receive the elements. The rest of the month we have continuous Communion where you would go to the front in a continuous line receiving the bread from the pastor and the wine from the Communion assistant and keep going back to your seat.