St. Luke is a place where your stories come alive in God’s story.
And God’s story comes alive in our stories.
From the beginning of our church story, when Pastor Don Simonton knocked on doors in the neighborhood to start a mission church over 60 years ago, St. Luke has collected and become a part of the stories of countless people: members, friends, and the surrounding community.
Here members have found a safe place to express and explore their faith. Maybe faith has always been a part of their life, or maybe it was found along the way. For some, St. Luke is a refuge; for some, it is a place to learn and to challenge their thinking; and for all it is a place to share their faith stories.
At St. Luke we proudly follow the Lutheran traditions of worship and education. Worship (Word & Sacrament) is our center. We typically offer at least three worship services per week with different times and styles, but the same underlying Lutheran/catholic liturgical tradition. St. Luke has a history of strong, biblically-based and currently relevant preaching, with a lively children’s message each week. We like to think of the children’s message as a message led by the pastors and the children for the benefit of the whole congregation!
Music is another important part of our story, and we are blessed by our Casavant organ and Steinway piano and the musicians who play them. St. Luke is writing a new story as a concert venue for the community; our space has been used by a local high school chorus as well as musicians from the Santa Fe Opera and New Mexico Philharmonic.
Our faith formation activities include Sunday morning and midweek activities for children, where they learn the stories of the Bible; Confirmation instruction for youth, where they learn to apply the lessons of those stories into their lives; and Bible studies and explorations of current issues and theological thought for adults, where they can continue to learn and grow. As part of our ministry, St. Luke Preschool has been serving Albuquerque families for over 50 years, and we are also involved with Vacation Bible School to explore creative faith connections
during the summer.
Our praise to God naturally leads to service. St. Luke seeks to help change the stories of those in our local community who yearn to experience God’s grace and love in their lives. In the recent past, we have been a part of the Family Promise for several years, helping families get back on their feet; we have gone out in the community as part of God’s Work Our Hands to help at St. Martin’s Hospitality Center and to clear trash in Albuquerque’s Bosque; and we’ve provided back-to-school items for students and diapers for needy families. We look forward to new avenues of service and relationship-building in the near future. We’ve recently identified Lutheran Family Services and Camino de Vida Church NM (both in Albuquerque and the Navajo Lutheran Mission, as local organizations we hope to partner with more closely. Through the Rocky Mountain Synod and ELCA World Hunger projects, our gifts of time, talent and treasure also reach out to the world.
That world is changing. People are often pressed for time and bothered with worries. Priorities are different than they were before. But the questions about who we are and what our purpose is in this world still remain; they come from being part of God’s on-going creation, God’s story of redemption, transformation and hope. At St. Luke, what we know is that the most important story, the one that never changes, is of God who created us, loves us, and forgives us, as the saints and sinners we are. We know through God’s grace we don’t have to do anything—so we are inspired to do more than we thought possible.
And that is the best story of all.