Welcome
Welcome, and thank you for visiting St. James Church online. We hope that our website highlights the wide variety of worship, fellowship and service opportunities available. Please feel free to read more about our church on this site, or come in for a visit. We would love to greet you and share with you our love for Jesus Christ and for you, our neighbor.
Weddings & Baptisms
Our church offers a traditional setting for your most sacred celebrations.
Our Mission & Vision
Mission statement:
Serving & Trusting Jesus by Abiding, Ministering, Embracing & sharing. Vision:
St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church is a congregation of believers in Jesus Christ - a people set apart by God for His purposes!
Click "read more" to view our Vision statement.
St. James Welcomes you !
10:30 AM Service Time
You can watch us on our Facebook page.
Online tithing and giving.
Food Pantry 08/16/2022
Masks are optional
Community Food Pantry is held in the fellowship hall.
Please park on the side with the ramp.
If you are coming in for assistance,
masks are optional.
Mid Week Reflection
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Pastors Message
St. Paul writes to the Romans, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.” Lutheran Christian never tire of reminding each other that, to quote Luther, the church is “a mouth-house.” We need to hear the gospel every day, every week. That isn’t always possible and so weekly sermons can be found here to let your faith be challenged and nourished.
I’m a runner. And, like any physical activity, the best way to be conditioned for a run is to run. The same is true for any sport, or really any kind of activity. An opera singer must practice in order to perform well. Sports stars must train in order to compete well. And brilliant technicians use their minds every day to help keep the systems that connect us working.
We can also see applications of practice-proficiency at the other end of the spectrum. I myself am not an opera singer, a sports star, nor a brilliant technician; because those are not muscles that I dedicate to exercising often. That’s not to say that I could not dedicate time to those activities and become more proficient in them; however, at this time I have exercised those skills that I apply every day.
My question for us all to consider as we focus on our relationship with God, “Do we think our faith is any different?” If a person considers his/her faith as only something done about an hour, or perhaps a single morning, per week we fail to truly exercise or live into that part of our lives. In which case, it’s easy to consider the critics of religious beliefs in understanding faith as illogical and on the decline.
In the book of Deuteronomy as the people of Israel are about to enter the promised land, God reminds these people of the covenant that was established a generation earlier at Mount Sinai. The LORD encourages them to “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite (these commandments) to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your foreheads, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deut 6:6-9) God was saying to make this thing of “living your faith in relationship with me and others” something that surrounds and happens all around you! Later, Paul picks this idea up in his letters. We read in Colossians 3, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Col 3:17a)
Faith is not something that we take off the shelf once a week, or action we do every so often. Faith is a way of living in relationship with the Divine, others, and ourselves. Faith is reality that surrounds us in how we love, express concern, and hope for a more just and grace-filled world than we experienced yesterday. Faith is a way of life that can be difficult to re-integrate into our lives; however, a more holistic understanding of our lives is experienced every day we live into it. Amen.