Worship & Music
We offer worship on Sunday mornings with Holy Communion at 9:30 am
We also post the weekly sermon online, on our Online Worship page.
Children are welcome in worship. The best way to learn to enjoy worship is to BE IN worship. However, for those times when they are too restless for everyone else’s enjoyment of the service, our narthex (lobby) provides clear class walls and doors and a speaker to separate the sanctuary from the narthex so that parents can see and hear what is happening in worship.
Our minister of music, Don Ehrmann, is incredibly talented and has provided a large repertoire of beautiful music for before, during and after the service to delight our senses. In the video, Don performs a piece of Christmas music he has written. Christmas Medley by Don Ehrmann (c) 2016 c/o St. Andrew Lutheran Church.
If we get enough people interested, we sometimes form a hand bell choir.
Please check out our Worship page for more information.
Christian Education
Our hearts yearn to know and be in relationship with God; we are created for that purpose. In worship, our hearts and minds are opened to receive all the gifts that bring us into that relationship. Through study of God’s Word, the Holy Bible, we come to know God as the Creator who is revealed to us through the inspiration of the prophets and the testimony of the disciples of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Please call the church if you are looking for something specific… the class you are looking for might be scheduled in the future:
Whole Family Sunday School -Sundays at 10:30 am during the school year.
Our Sunday School program has been revamped to include members of any age in a whole family Sunday School program, with families taking turns teaching specific lessons. Classes run as deemed appropriate. Please speak to Vicar Psomi.
Confirmation Classes
Our Confirmation program is developed for 7th and 8th graders and is a two-year program of study of Luther’s Small Catechism with a lot of fun and games mixed in. After completion of the two-year program, these youth provide a testimony of their faith to the congregation at the Affirmation of their Baptism, Confirmation Sunday
Adult Bible Study - Special short-term studies at specific times during the year, as the interest arises. Our adult program provides a discussion forum based on a continually varied list of topics. Sometimes the group discusses a specific book in the Bible, but sometimes the discussion centers on a popular book or movie, Lutheran theological position discussions, ELCA policy statements, or current events. Check the Events & Outreach page for the current study, or contact the church office at 973-887-6713.
Ministry in Action - Check our Events & Outreach page
for all the good stuff going on at St. Andrew!
Evangelism
Many people find evangelism to be an offensive word, thinking only of people knocking on doors to harass you into converting to their faith.
That’s NOT what evangelism is about at St. Andrew!
Then what IS Evangelism at St. Andrew?
We are commanded by Jesus Christ to “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)
St. Andrew takes this commission to heart by being invitational and welcoming. It is in how we each live our lives that we are to be examples of Christ’s love in our communities. We hope that by being beacons of light and hope in a dark and lonely world, we will invite people to discover that which transforms our lives into lives of hope and joy… the Grace of a loving and merciful God.
There is an expression that goes “your life might be the only Bible some people read.” As Christians, we need to be prepared to tell our own “God story” … that story that we each have that explains to 0thers why we align ourselves with Jesus Christ, and why we go to church to worship with a community of faith called St. Andrew Lutheran Church. We need to live differently because of Jesus Christ.
In the process, we use a variety of tools and activities to get your attention:
Our annual Easter Egg Hunt; Our Children’s Circle Day Care Center; our front sign; our newsletter; this website; social media; special events; special worship services; participation with our community in programs and events; and new member or visitor events.
Join us on this journey. We invite you to find and build your relationship with God in this place… to begin to write your own “God story.”
Come on in… it’s fun!
Stewardship
St. Andrew is …
a place of Faithful Lives and Generous Hearts…
Because of Christ.
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
We work hardest for the things we treasure most. Unfortunately, most of us don’t treasure most the thing we should. We are supposed to treasure our relationship with God above all else, for when we do, everything else that we need will fall into place… our families, our personal relationships, our finances, our vocations, our recreation, and our peace of mind.
But this is so hard to do, isn’t it?
It’s really about our mindset. This kind of thinking, and living, comes with practice. And with practice, it becomes not that terribly difficult to do. Will we falter? Of course. But to work to put ourselves back into this mindset gets easier every time we stray, as we practice.. because living in this mindset becomes easier than living out of it.
Keeping this mindset… that we are to treasure our relationship with God above everything else… begins with remembering that everything we have and everything we are comes from God. We have earned nothing on our own without God’s help. When we remember that, it becomes second nature to think of everything we do as being done for the glory of God. And when we live as if everything we do is a testament to the abundance of God’s love, which is never-ending, then we end up doing God’s Work with Our Hands, and multiplying the very gifts God has given to us.
Then there is enough for all.
When we live in the mindset that our relationship with God matters more than anything else, the trickle-down effect moves us to give back to the One who gives us everything, even His Son to die for our salvation. In our giving back, we enable the Church to do God’s Work, with Our Hands.
Fellowship
Fellowship is the time we spend in community together. Go to our Events & Outreach page for what’s happening this month.
At Saint Andrew we have lots of fellowship opportunities and it’s always fun. We are a community of faith in the family of God. We truly enjoy being with each other and enjoying the diversity of the gifts and talents we each bring to the community here. Some of the ways we life to have fun together include:
Sunday Morning Coffee Hour - after each worship service, volunteers provide coffee and refreshments while we meet and catch up with each other. (temporarily suspended during this pandemic)
Book Club - we’ve been reading books together for 24 years and we still have a great time every month. The group reads an eclectic selection of books each year - some classics, some mysteries, some biography, mostly novels - and has a riotously fun time discussing the books over delicious snacks. The highlight of our year, however, is our annual Christmas party where we take the art of “stealing” to new heights. Join us and see what the fun is all about. Check our this year’s reading list on our Book Club Reading List page. Please RSVP to SaintAndrew@elcaAndy.org
Game Night - Every other month (January, March, May, July, September, and November) a bunch of trivia and dice rolling game lovers get together on a Friday night to challenge each other in the quest for the “coveted” Game Night Trophy. It’s a blast. (temporarily suspended during this pandemic)
Annual Church Picnic - Each June, we get together for our annual picnic. It’s picnic fare with games, and usually some water balloons or Super Soakers! AND, we got the only “Sparkling Spoon” dessert contest we know, where congregation members bring their best dessert recipes to compete for bragging rights to earning the “Sparkling Spoon”
Easter Breakfast, Stewardship Breakfast, Annual Meeting Luncheon, and even Sundaes on Sunday… Are you sensing a theme on this topic?… We like to eat together, and have fun together! These meals and events give us a chance to spend some time together, and chat with people we don’t often get time to talk to for more than a few minutes in passing.
To make it simple… we like to have fun together! So come on in and join us!
Please contact us at Office@elcaAndy.org to confirm the meeting or event arrangements.
