Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church

What are services like?
There is awareness and celebration of the Holy Spirit's presence, as promised! Informally led, yet containing the following ingredients within the services: Prayer - Scripture readings - Confession of sins and assurance of forgiveness - In place of a preached sermon, a message is presented directly from scripture usually by our designated pastor/deacon, plus a lot of participation open to anyone with comments or questions relevant to the message - several worship and praise songs or hymns - and a Community Life Time where people share experiences of God's work in or through their life this week. There is a worship plan each week but it is always open to the prompting and re-direction of the Holy Spirit.

What is the community like?
It is like an extended family, and yet guests frequently mention that they feel personally drawn into personal interaction with our disciple-members. We don't recruit guests for future membership. But there is an expressed desire to minister to the needs and struggles guests have in their lives. Often times, when an urgent and/or severe condition is shared the body will break into prayer on behalf of that person. People participate in almost all parts of worship services. The service is not a situation where one person leads everything and everyone else is a spectator. Every disciple-member of Spirit of Joy is open to the Holy Spirit's leading and empowerment for calls into a personal ministry. Over 90% of our people are involved to some degree in our prison ministry and drug/alcohol recovery ministry. Formerly incarcerated inmates from our recovery ministry tend to feel comfortable and accepted in our Sunday worship and other fellowship activities. Several people serve as a Coach to recovering addicts and are in daily contact with them. It is a great place to grow as a disciple of Jesus. Some people join us for a season and then return to their previous church with a readiness to make disciples there, who will make disciples.

What if I'm not a Christian?
We will not focus on you as a target for conversion and permanent church membership. We do not change what we are doing as you join us in our worship of the Almighty God we have come to know and experience as Jesus our brother, Jesus our SAVIOR AND LORD. In other words, we will just be who we are, and you are invited to observe or participate to any extent you find comfortable. It's like Jesus once said to some guys who were curious about Him and His disciples: "Come and see," You will get a good dose of God's Word - without hype. Just hope and truth!