St. Luke Lutheran Church has a dynamic range of worship styles and locations. Services include Living Heritage celebrations steeped in Lutheran tradition and Living Praise styles for those seeking a more contemporary experience. Holy Communion is served at each service. In addition to the focus given to worship, the congregational life includes a very active range of programs and activities. Explore the lists of ministries at the top of our site pages for ways to get involved. Scroll to the bottom of this page for a detailed description of what we believe.
St. Luke-Ann Arbor
St. Luke Lutheran Church was founded in 1958 and is known for its diverse worship styles and active ministries. As part of their mission and vision, the congregation decided to launch into multi-site ministry. St. Luke-Ann Arbor is the first of many locations for St. Luke Lutheran Church.
Living Water
In October 2004, St. Luke expanded its ministry to include a site in Northfield Township, MI. Living Water has a solid core of believers who are building a strong sense of community and reaching out with the love of God to the townships of Green, Webster, Northfield, and Hamburg.
University Lutheran Chapel
In 2006, at the request of the Michigan District, St. Luke took on leadership of University Lutheran Chapel on the campus of the University of Michigan. ULC is home of a University Student Center and coffee shop ministry The Common Cup.
What We Believe
Thanks for taking the time to learn a little more about who we are. We believe that when God calls someone, he calls them into a community of people called church. We are glad to be a part of what God is doing in the world that he loves. Below are some of the words and terms that you might hear. We don’t have any secrets, and so we want to make sure that everyone understands what we mean when we say:
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod – Funny name, great theology. As a member congregation in the LCMS, we work in concert with about 5000 other congregations and 2.3 million people to share the love of God in Jesus Christ. The LCMS is marked by an emphasis on the undeserved love of God, demonstrated by the unselfish sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and given through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. By the way, Synod actually means “walking together,” and Missouri is where the church first organized, that’s the reason behind the name.
Multi-site – We are still exploring what this means as well! (We suspect we always will be!) St. Luke Lutheran Church currently consists of three sites, Living Water, St. Luke-Ann Arbor, and University Lutheran Chapel. Though each worships in a different location and ministers to a slightly different community, we share common values and central resources and are one church. Our core values are Reaching Up—Worship, Reaching Out—Equipping, and Reaching In—Family Life.
Sacraments – This is a carry-over from a Latin word that means, “holy things.” We use this word to describe Baptism and Communion. Through these, God the Holy Spirit works faith in us and gives us forgiveness.
Baptism – As Lutherans, we believe that baptism bestows faith. We point to Bible verses like 1 Peter 3:21, “Baptism now saves you…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” When asked about the confidence we can have in faith, we can point to baptism and say that God claimed us as his own. The necessary parts of baptism are water, administered to a person by a believer, usually a pastor, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” See also Matthew 29:18-20.
Communion – We use three key words when we explain what happens at Communion. Those words are, “In, with and under.” Jesus Christ gives us his body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine. The body and blood are in, meaning that it is there. They are with, meaning you get all four things together. And they are under, meaning that you can’t see it, but understand it by faith. God has given us this meal in order that we might receive the gift of forgiveness. We focus special attention on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 where the apostle is giving instruction about the Lord’s Supper, another term for communion. We suggests that we should be of one mind and that we should be able to examine ourselves, our beliefs and our sins before communing. To that end, we request that people not communion until they understand what is happening in this special meal.
Bible – God’s Word of revelation for us. The Bible is not just a word for the church, it is the word. We believe that the Bible is inspired by God, through human writers and contains no errors. We further teach that it is the norm for all that the church does. The Bible doesn’t contain everything we want to know, but it does contain everything that we need to know about God and his plan for us.