Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church belongs to the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Worship is central to the life of the church, which offers traditional services from the Lutheran Book of Worship liturgy and informal worship services with old favorites and newer music.
The church offers a well-rounded music program including a youth choir, bell choir, a gospel praise choir for high school students and the Trinity Choir that brings traditional music and cantatas to Sunday worship.
Qualified and interested teachers teach children's Sunday school for pre-K kids to 12th graders that include Bible stories, crafts, singing and fun. Confirmation classes are available that teach children in grades seven and eight about the church and help them grow in their spiritual life. Trinity offers a preschool program and other activities for families.
Faith Lutheran is a Missouri Synod Lutheran church founded in 1939 that believes the Bible is God's Word and that it has been correctly interpreted by the historic creeds and confessions of the church.
The church offers both adult and children's religious education, including adult Bible study after Sunday services and an "Evening With Jesus" for children in grades preK-5.
Among Faith Lutheran's other ministries are a food pantry, mission trips and visitation to the infirm and shut-ins. It also avails its parish hall for Alcoholics Anonymous and Al Anon meetings.
If you know what churches are about, we offer all the usual things. If you don’t know much about church, worship is the center of our life together at Mt. Zion. We worship every Sunday morning at 10:30am. Anyone can come and take part. If you’ve been baptized in any church, you can receive the bread and wine during communion. If you’d like to find about more about what it means to be baptized, you can talk to the pastor. If you have children, there’s a quiet room for babies, where you can see and hear what’s going on. There’s also a nursery during worship, and Sunday School for kids fifth grade and under. We serve coffee and snacks after church, so that people can talk before they leave.
Our church is part of the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, so we welcome LGBT members. Our building is handicap-accessible, because we have several members who need this. Our congregation is very small, but we are broad in wide in who we are and what we do. Here are a few things that might be interesting to you:
+ The Mt. Zion Book Club is open to anyone who would like to come and discuss the next book we’re reading. Recent books include Brigid Pasulka’s “A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and Jodi Picault’s “Nineteen Minutes.”
+ We cook and serve dinners for a local PADS shelter once a month, October through April, and periodically collect things requested by the program, like hats and socks, or personal care items. We collect items for the community food pantry at Pilgrim Faith United Church of Christ year-round.
+ In the summer, our garden is open to anyone who would like to raise fresh produce for distribution to feeding programs through Share the Harvest. This program also provides a lot of valuable help for beginning gardeners. We practice composting in our gardens, and anyone can add to our bins. If you would like to reserve a garden space this summer, contact the church office.
+ During Lent, we prepare to bring an Easter party and baskets to the residents of one of Lutheran Social Service of Illinois’ group homes for men living with mental illness.
+ A favorite Sunday School project is raising money in various ways to buy farm animals for families in developing countries through the ELCA Good Gifts program.
+ In December our Live Outdoor Nativity is open to anyone who would like to be part of the retelling of the Christmas story in our large outdoor stable with animals from The Children’s Farm.
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Missouri Synod Lutheran church founded in 1910 by Lithuanian immigrants. The church continues to maintain its ties to the Lithuanian community and offers services in English and Lithuanian. It also includes a pre-school and offers several youth activities.
St. Paul is a traditional Missouri Synod Lutheran Church that was founded in 1950. The Sunday services are filled with music where a diverse congregation comes together to celebrate the world of God. The church offers three children's choirs, an adult choir, a men's choir, and instrumental music.
The congregation is welcoming and caring. Members support a Thailand missionary and operate a community food pantry. The church also supports a thriving and diverse elementary school, whose students help keep the all-ages congregation young.
In addition to its wonderful music program, St. Paul offers men and women's bible study groups and a teen youth group. A children's Sunday School is offered on Sunday mornings, as well as 7th and 8th-grade confirmation classes for public school students of the Lutheran faith.