Welcome
Many visitors to a congregation like to "check out" a congregation by looking at the congregations web page before visiting. It is a "safe" way to take a look at a congregation from a distance and see what they are about, without having to worry about being asked to chair a ministry event, or being embarrassed in worship. Rest assured, Pastor Andersen never embarrasses visitors in worship. He will embarrass his friends from time to time, but he never asks visitors to stand up, or identify themselves.
So have a look around at the web page. It was not made specifically for visitors, but it should give visitors a good idea about who we are. Most folks are not too stuffy or uptight, but we do take our faith seriously. I guarantee one thing however - we will be glad to see you on Sunday morning, or another time during the week.
The Congregation of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Massbach Illinois is a small, rural, congregation, and that is just the way we like it; though new members are always welcome, and visitors will be greeted warmly.
We know that EVERY congregation describes itself as "welcoming" or "warm" but we also know that many times that is just not the case. Particularly with Lutheran congregations. Particularly with rural, Lutheran congregations. But the congregation of St. John truly is warm and welcoming. Pastor Andersen relates his first experience with the congregation this way:
I came out to St. John the first time when I was supply-preaching there for a Sunday, I had never seen the place or even knew it existed prior to getting the supply-preaching gig. Now, worship at the time started at 9:00 am, and I lived about an hour away in Dubuque, so when you figure that I like to get to church at least half an hour early, in order to get my vestments on, chat up the organist, put my sermon notes in the pulpit, stuff my hymnal, find the treasurer and make sure he has a check all made out, and do all of the other things a worship leader in a strange land needs to do on a Sunday morning, I needed to leave home about 7:30, and if I want to be wearing clothes, and have some breakfast in my belly before I do it, I need to get up about 6:30, or if I want to tempt fate, 6:45. Not a big deal for some folks, but I am not a morning person. Seriously, I am not a morning person. When I think about getting up "early" I am thinking about 10:00 am or so, and even then I am not looking forward to being civil before noon. I HATE mornings, and I am generally quite grumpy when I first get up. So you can imagine my mood, and my reaction when I grabbed my coffee, my alb, my hymnal, my sermon, my map-quest directions and all of the other pastor junk I needed, and headed out the door towards Elizabeth, Illinois.45 minutes later I was off the main road, 10 minutes down a windy, curvy, obscenely twisty back-country road. I was about to pass the turn-off to the Duke farm when an older gentleman pulled out of a lane in front of me. I was late for church, I had spilled the last of my coffee on my self, and this guy was not in a hurry. Because of the nature of the road, (my mother in law has pointed out that there is no center line) there was no place to pass him and so I was forced to stay behind him at his pace that said: "IÕm not in a hurry - IÕm going to church," and in fact, he was.
So I arrived at the church a few minutes later than I wanted to, I was groggy, under-caffeinated, grumpy, and in an all together unworshipfull mood, fully expecting to find a mostly empty, musty smelling, poorly maintained, church with about 16 old, grumpy Lutherans simultaneously huddled into the back 2 pews and complaining about not being able to hear the sermon. You know, a standard issue, stereotypical, rural, Lutheran church.
I walked in the door and found something so significantly different than what I expected, I almost went back outside to check the sign to make sure I was in the right place after all. The people were warm, they were smiling, they were happy even, they were talking to each other and to me, there were children, the building was well maintained - including a recently completed building project, and there were children. LOTS of children. It was almost as if people enjoyed being a part of the congregation.
Honestly, I grew up in California, just outside of "Silicon Valley," I went to Arizona State University (Go Sparky) for my undergraduate degree, and did my first year of seminary at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, on ChicagoÕs south side. When I moved to Dubuque for my last 3 years of seminary, I was shocked and amazed - I thought Dubuque was rural. I grew up in the city, I have lived my entire life, until very recently, in the city, and NEVER imagined myself doing rural ministry of any sort. But the people here at St. John are irresistible.
All churches talk about being warm, and inviting; St John actually is.
If you decide that you want to come join us for worship, or another event, check out the contact page - the church is out in the country and can be a bit difficult to find, but we have great directions, a map, and a link to MapQuest there, so hopefully you should be able to get here. We would be delighted to see you. Seriously, we would.