Messiah Church

Jeff Vanden Heuvel

Lead Pastor

Welcome!

How glad we are that you found your way to Messiah Lutheran Church. While we are part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America we are a community of over 2000 people from many different faith backgrounds. We are Lutheran, Catholic, UCC, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist and more! As you might imagine it takes many staff people to serve the various ministries that consist of hundreds of volunteers. And we have a terrific staff! Below you will find contact information for various positions. We are excited to be working alongside of you and always open to your messages, feedback and suggestions. Together let us do the mission of Jesus.

Messiah Lutheran Church

Our Mission Statement

We are a community called by God to be the heart and hands of Jesus to our neighborhood, our city and the world.

Our Calling

Every member of our church has come with a calling. To bring love and faith, to heal and listen, to find meaning in the world and to help discover meaning in this gift of life.

Messiah is a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) Congregation

Reconciling Works is an organization that has developed guidelines and procedures to help identify, support, and ensure organizations, like churches, live out a commitment of acceptance, inclusion, and celebration of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions in the life of the church

When a congregation meets all of these guidelines and have developed a welcome statement, they are reviewed and awarded with a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) designation. Messiah Lutheran Church spent over a year in conversation and education as we developed our welcome statement, and were graciously awarded the RIC designation in February of 2024.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

Messiah is one of many congregations a part of the ELCA. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with nearly 2.7 million members in more than 8,400 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region.

Lutherans believe faith is: A living, daring confidence in God’s grace.

When Lutherans talk about faith, we are talking about the relationship God’s Holy Spirit creates with us. It’s a relationship where God’s promise of steadfast love and mercy in Jesus opens us to a life of bold trust in God and joyful, generous service to everyone we know and meet in daily life.

Martin Luther was exuberant when he described the freedom of “a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that believers would stake their lives on it a thousand times.” He once wrote, “Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good things unceasingly.”

Faith convictions expressed as statements of belief flow from this confident trust in God. ELCA Lutherans share in the faith expressed in the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, in the Lutheran confessional writings (collected as the Book of Concord), and in the ELCA Confession of Faith.