Visitor Guide

At St. John Lutheran Church, we dress like we're a family getting together for a holiday. Some of us come casually, knowing that they are family with Jesus and family with us. Others of us come dressed for a special event, knowing that here they are approaching the King of kings and Lord of lords in the house of God himself. As long as our casual isn't indecent or rude, and our special isn't vain, what we wear doesn't have to be a concern. Our concern is that we want you to feel welcome.

We have special visitor spots (the first spots in our main parking lot) and several handicapped parking spots along the school. We also have two other parking lots - a gravel lot across the street from church, and the clinic parking lot just east of the school on West Park Ave. (There's a walkway from the clinic lot to the main lot.)

Our main entry is at the northeast corner of the church (nearest the street corner). Some people take the short-cut through the school entry closest to the parking lot.

We have restrooms downstairs in our Fellowship Hall by the kitchen and upstairs in our school wing.

For those with mobility concerns, we have a wheelchair lift on the east (Garfield) side of the church that can help people up into church and down into our Fellowship Hall (handicapped accessible restrooms). If you or someone with you would be helped by the lift, just ask any of us to get an usher to help.

For those with hearing concerns, we have a hearing loop that can deliver sound from the pastor's microphone to most newer hearing aids. We also have a pair of personal hearing assistance devices. Please ask an usher or someone at the sound table in the back of church. We also have copies of the sermon available on the counters at both entries.

For those with eyesight concerns, we print several large-print service folders and large-print copies of the sermon, both available from the ushers.

We won't ask you to stand as a visitor; we won't mark you as a visitor with a flashing name tag. We do ask you to sign our guest register (at either entry) and the Friendship Register that we pass around during the offering. We also do hope that through the crowd of our family and friends, we find you and welcome you, and perhaps invite you to join us for some coffee.

Each week our order of worship is printed out in a service folder that keeps the juggling of papers and books manageable and makes the service easy to follow. If something does seem confusing, please ask. We'll be glad to show you.

We love to have children worship with us. Most of us learned how to worship as children in church. Some of us remember creating a bit of a ruckus when we were children in church (or we remember someone telling us the stories). We have children learning how to worship in church every weekend. To help our children focus we have children's activity packs and worship activity folders. If children need a stretch to work out some kinks, we have a Cry Room in the back of church and a great, big Fellowship Hall for them to stretch their legs (or lungs).

Let's sit down and talk. Baptism is a wonderful blessing from God. We'd love to be able to share that blessing with you and your family.

Let's sit down and talk. We see congregation membership as something different than a club membership. Rather than simply agreeing to be part of the church group, as church members we declare our belief in and commitment to what our congregation teaches. That's why we offer a class (Bible Information Class - BIC) in which we dig into the main teachings of Scripture. It's not a quick look, but once people start the class, they aren't thinking about how quickly they can get through it, they are looking at how deeply they can dig into it.

We'd be happy to talk with you about whether we are the right fit for your wedding. We'll tell you up front that we aren't a marrying and burying kind of church -- we're not in the marrying and burying business. We do, however, look forward to helping young couples connect with Christ and a congregation as they start their married life together. If you're looking for a congregation where you can grow together with God's blessing, let's talk!