In Holy Communion, we joyfully receive Christ’s Body & Blood for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. In participating, we publicly confess our unity in Christ’s Body, and a harmony of teaching and practice. Congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod have promised to practice close communion. Guests who desire to commune with us for the first time are asked to speak with the pastor before the service, to answer any questions you may have.

You may also wish to review Luther’s “Christian Questions with Their Answers,” on pp. 329-330 in Lutheran Service Book, and refer to the “Before worship” and “Before communing” prayers inside the front cover of LSB.

If you are not in fellowship with our Synod, you are invited to come forward for a blessing. Simply indicate that by folding your arms over your heart while at the communion rail.

Those who wish to become part of our fellowship are invited to enroll in the Catechumenate as a time of study and reflection on God’s Word and our Lutheran confession of faith.

Music is an integral part of our worship and life together at St. John’s. In our service, both congregation and pastor chant much of the order of the liturgy. The custom of singing God’s Word is not new, but has its beginnings in the worship of God’s people in the Old Testament. St. Paul, in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 instructs us to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” Singing and God’s Word go together.

In addition to the regular music of worship, our services are often supplemented by our choir and handbells.

Our Sunday morning services are accompanied by our 15 rank Berghaus organ. Seated in the balcony, the organ is about 17 years old and the wood chest and principal stop polished facade pipes help beautify the sanctuary.  Sunday evening services are accompanied by a piano, with a more intimate setting. On occasion, other instruments are brought in to enrich our worship.

“I am not satisfied with him who despises music, as all fanatics do; for music is an endowment and a gift of God, not a gift of men. It also drives away the devil and makes people cheerful; one forgets all anger, unchasteness, pride, and other vices. I place music next to theology and give it the highest praise. And we see how David and all saints put their pious thoughts into verse, rhyme, and songs, because music reigns in times of peace.”

- Martin Luther, What Luther Says.

At St. John’s, we worship using the historic liturgy. Liturgy derives from the word leitourgia, which was a word in the ancient world to describe the service of an individual on behalf of the public. It is not merely an order of service. In the historic Christian liturgy, the individual who provides the service is our Lord, Jesus Christ, and service is provided through His Word and Sacraments. Therefore, worship is called Divine Service, because it is where God comes to us to give His gifts.

Historically, the liturgy has been organized around two services, the services of Word and Sacrament, along with five biblical canticles, each narrating a step in our journey from earth to heaven. These twin services and five canticles are surrounded by rituals of preparation, transition, and sending. All together, these elements comprise the historic backbone of Christian worship since its earliest days.

Both Word and Sacrament reach their respective climaxes in the proclamation and distribution of the Gospel, or, the forgiveness of sins. The Service of the Word peaks with the reading of the Holy Gospel and its application in the Sermon. The Service of the Sacrament reaches its high point in the proclamation of The Words of Our Lord and the Distribution of the Lord’s Supper.

​The five great canticles are the Kyrie (Lord, have mercy; Mark 10:47), which acknowledges our unworthiness to be in God’s presence and that He comes to us with His mercy and grace, and is immediately followed by the song of the angels, the Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest, Luke 2:14; John 1:29). The central canticle of the liturgy is the Creed, which summarizes the person and work of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the Service of the Sacrament, we again join our song with the song of the angels in the Sanctus (Holy, holy, holy; Isaiah 6:3; Matthew 21:9). Finally, the voice of the one who prepares the way of the Lord, John the Baptist, lends his words to our song in the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, John 1:29).