Mission:

Our mission is to reach out with the love of Jesus to grow disciples and serve our community.

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church has been serving the Westerville community for more than 100 years, supporting local ministries such as the Westerville Area Resource Ministry, Westerville Partnership Habitat for Humanity, Westerville CROP Walk. Grace also supports Lutheran Social Services programs like Faith Mission and provides weekly meeting space for Boy Scout Troop 502 and two AA groups.

Beliefs:

The term “Lutheran” was probably first used by Martin Luther’s enemies to label all who supported him. In 1522, Luther criticized this use of his name. He said all baptized believers should simply be called “Christians.” But the name “stuck” and to this very day people around the world who are part of the movement begun by Martin Luther during the great Protestant Reformation are called “Lutherans”

Of seeing

Of hearing

Of teaching

Of following

All of these “ways” are not found only in the Lutheran church.

However, taken together, one can identify a specific “Lutheran way” of following Jesus.

About Us:

Meeting on the third Sunday of each month in the Westerville Town Hall, Grace Lutheran Church found its beginnings with the first sermon preached on January 17, 1904. Soon, with increased attendance, regular worship was conducted on two of every three Sundays with a Sunday school organized in May 1906.

Grace was begun as a mission congregation by the Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Westerville, (organized in 1852) Pastor C. W. Pflueger, who subsequently began the first pastor of the congregation serving both parishes from 1909 to 1916. During the spring of 1909, members of the newly formed church requested permission of St. Paul’s congregation that it form as a separate “sister” congregation to serve the growing Lutheran community of Westerville.

On May 2, 1909, the new congregation formally organized as the Evangelical Lutheran Grace Congregation of Westerville. The first officers of the congregation selected were Ed Tedrow, elder, Peter Trapp, trustee, Milton Schott, deacon and treasurer and George Schick, Sr., secretary.

A constitution was adopted June 6, 1909.  This area, first known as Blendon Township, was settled in 1806 with many families coming from Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  With significant German ancestry and some with a Lutheran heritage the area was primarily family farms.

The congregation prospered and on April 17, 1910, the congregation voted to build a chapel on East Home Street, on a lot which had been purchased the previous August. The chapel was to have an “altar, pulpit, folding chairs and fixtures” for a cost not to exceed $2000. A committee of Pastor Pflueger, S. W. Henry, Peter Trapp and Milton Schott were to direct the building effort. The cornerstone of the chapel was placed on July 17, 1910.