Do you remember the first part of that childhood verse, “Here’s the church and here’s the steeple”? This picture of our church and steeple gives a clue or two about St. John’s.

We’re a “downtown” church. At the least that means: a) we have no parking lot (and at current land values probably never will), and b) we have no expanse of lawn by which to think we are “suburban,” even though most of us live in the suburbs. If those things are important to your experience of Christian community in honesty you won’t find them here (but there are many fine churches in greater Lafayette where you will). If these limitations are OK, read on.

We’ve been on this corner since 1837. We’ve built, remodeled or added a building about every 50 years. Our last effort wrapped up in 1996, and we are debt free with no capital campaign on the horizon. We have great stained glass windows representing over 150 years of artistic style, the original walnut pews, a “traditional” nave and sanctuary with a modified Wicks pipe organ and a sound system with recording capability and an infra-red loop for the hearing impaired. We have a fully functional elevator, modern and well-lit restrooms, a Sunday morning nursery staffed by two paid adults per week, and air conditioning and gas forced air heat throughout. In Jesus’ name we have dedicated an entire floor at street level to feeding and recovery work, and we enjoy a serene Memorial Garden that is a quiet place to sit a spell, walk a small labyrinth, administer holy baptism in good weather, and bury human ashes in any weather. Our Chapel of the Resurrection is in the Garden and is open for private and corporate prayer daily.

We’re committed to staying downtown. By God’s grace that decision saves us from wasting energy deciding which side of the river we would relocate to if we moved. We use that energy instead to grow in ways we might serve others and expand our welcome to all.

The second half of that childhood verse is “Open the doors and see all the people!” So here’s a picture of a recent parish picnic.  We share this picnic with the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, the Episcopal Campus Ministry at Purdue. About the people who are St. John’s you may want to know this:

We average 170 people at worship in two services, and are getting younger. Our total active baptized membership is about 350. Some are life-long Episcopalians and some are not Episcopalians in any formal sense. We join together regularly to worship God, and to share our time, talent, and treasure in ways that help us serve God. Some of us find we connect better through the music or outreach than through the creeds. Some even appreciate the sermons! 

We maintain the basic staff necessary for a congregation this size: a full-time Rector, a full-time Parish Administrator, a half-time Director of Music, a part-time cleaning service and a quarter-time Education Coordinator. We share the ministry of a young priest and mother with the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, and she helps with Youth and Young Adult ministry in both congregations.  Everything else necessary to make St. John’s work is done by laypersons as a part of their individual ministries and stewardship of time and talent.

We’re proud of a healthy and increasing dialectic between the “old” and the “new” in the life of the parish. Younger folks and the way they see and do things help us to face hard questions about how and why we do things, and how we might more effectively worship or form Christians for ministry and witness today. On the other hand the older folk have been around the block, and from that accumulated experience they can share “how they handled” this issue or that when it comes to our younger members for the first time.

About half of us are associated with Purdue University in one way or another, and most of us are not retired. We belong to both political parties, and some of us are actively involved in community political life. We are not all of one mind about questions of human sexuality as they are being lived out in the life of the Episcopal Church, but we also recognize that Holy Scripture talks a lot more about the poor and needy than it does about sexual behavior. We pray for our servicemen and women serving in Iraq and elsewhere because they and their families are our friends and neighbors, for persons who are facing execution as well as for their victims and executioners because such human brokenness should be laid before the throne of God, and for our enemies and those who wish us harm because that’s what Jesus did.

And, because how we spend our money says much about our values, in calendar 2006 we gave $86,049 to work beyond the parish.

Jesus’ Summary of the Law: to love God and love neighbor, to live a life of worship and service, is good counsel and we find that St. John’s helps us do that. If you’d like to know more, please work your way through this site, email us at stjohns@stjohns-laf.org or call 765-742-4079.