About

The German Evangelical Lutheran Church was established in Lindenhurst – in Old Breslau – on which Pastor George W. Drees in 1885 said, “In this village, it is obvious that the work of the Kingdom of God and the salvation of souls is no easy task.”

The beginning of the original church structure goes back to February 3, 1871, when ground was broken on Falersleben Avenue, now known as West John Street. The actual beginning of the present Lutheran congregation occurred when connections were severed with the Reformed Consistory, and the congregation formally incorporated itself on February 27, 1876, under the title “Evangelische Lutherische St. Johannis Gemeinde.”

The congregation’s growth required new construction, and in 1953 and 1954, plots were purchased for a new church building. The current building, on East John Street, was dedicated in 1960. The new parsonage and the church tower were built within the next sixteen months, and on December 2, 1973, the last part of our church complex, the Education Wing, was dedicated.

The Lutheran tradition is a branch of Christianity started by Martin Luther, a Catholic monk in Germany in the 1500s. His crucial insight was that we don’t earn God’s love by being good. God loves us as we are without doing anything to earn that love. And that love is seen most clearly for us in the person of Jesus, whose radical welcome to all healed and transformed the lives he came into contact with. We believe the Spirit of that divine love meets us, and our lives are transformed today.

Lutherans are part of a reforming movement within the whole Christian church; as a part of practicing their faith, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and its predecessors have engaged in ecumenical dialogue with other church bodies for decades. In fact, the ELCA has entered into cooperative “full communion” agreements (sharing common convictions about theology, mission, and worship) with several other Protestant denominations, including the Moravian Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. In addition, the ELCA has an ongoing dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1999, representatives of the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. This agreement represented a historic consensus on critical issues of faith and called for further dialogue and study together.

Lutheranism is a faith tradition that is open to all, regardless of background. The ELCA alone is almost five million members strong, with nearly 10,500 congregations across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. We welcome you to learn more about our church and learn how we can help you along life’s path.