An Urban Congregation In Transition

Pastor Tanney with the confirmation class

About to be confirmed

Studying for EIIT

Editor’s Note: Established on July 4, 1865, St. Johns Lutheran Church grew to a congregation of close to 1,000 members with an average Sunday attendance of over 500 worshipping in three services. Today, Sunday worship averages 60; half Anglo and half New American, primarily Nepalese. Here Rev. Michael Tanney tells the story of this transition.

With the closing of our Lutheran day school in 2011, St. Johns faced a challenge regarding our presence in our ever-changing urban community. As we took the inevitable next steps, however, what mattered most were the opening of a charter school in our educational facilities and our partnership with CFNA (Christian Friends of New Americans) regarding work among the growing number of New Americans in our neighborhood.

What we look like now reflects both the old and new. Our vision has changed from focusing on a Lutheran school to focus on the students and families of the recently established charter school. Similarly, our focus shifted from serving the members of a diminishing all-white congregation to linking with New Americans, especially Nepalese, through our partnership with CFNA.

The impact of this shift was considerable and can be seen in our Board of Elders, which now includes black, Vietnamese, and Nepalese members. Even more astonishingly, it resulted in one of the largest confirmation classes in the history of St. Johns. On Sunday, June 9, 2019, 27 Nepali people were confirmed into membership.

To be sure, this multi-faceted development didn’t happen quickly! It started when some members of Anugraha (Grace) Church, an independent Nepali congregation, enrolled their children in the recently established charter school. Desperate for space to accommodate their growing congregation, two Anugraha Church leaders approached St. Johns to seek permission for the use of our facilities.

The request was granted and more importantly, a friendly relationship soon began to develop. Curious about the teachings of the Lutheran Church, the two leaders spent more than a year in a guided study of Luther’s Small Catechism. After their confirmation, the entire congregation was also enrolled in a year-long guided study. On confirmation Sunday, in addition to those confirmed, some were also baptized.

More recently, the two Nepalese church leaders enrolled in Concordia Seminary’s EIIT (Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology) program to be trained as pastors.

This journey has been a huge learning experience for all of us. These “Lessons Learned” and their implications will be shared in the September issue of CFNA E-News. For now, I simply conclude with feelings of thanks and deep gratitude to our Lord for his presence and generous blessings.

By Rev. Michael Tanney St. Johns Lutheran Church