Abiding Presence Lutheran Church sits on the far north side of San Antonio at 14700 San Pedro Avenue, where a congregation that began in 1980 as an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America mission church has grown into a worshiping community, a day school, and a campus of gathering places. Its identity is repeated often: A Place of Grace. All Are Welcome. The church is known for generous hospitality, for worship that pairs traditional liturgical patterns with a wide range of music, and for a habit of sending people out to serve. Ten wells funded since 2010 with Water to Thrive now bring clean water to communities in East Africa, and locally the congregation builds wheelchair ramps, cooks meals for grieving families, packs school kits, and partners with a long list of neighborhood nonprofits.
Your First Sunday: Times, Parking, and What to Wear
Worship is offered at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. on Sundays and 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and the 11:00 a.m. service is livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel. The congregation's guidance for first-time visitors is relaxed: wear what you are comfortable in, because you will see business casual and even shorts on a hot August Saturday. Enter the parking lot from the Oak Shadows entrance. Immediately to the left is a section of parking reserved for guests, and signs point toward the Sanctuary. The entire campus is handicap accessible, and the sanctuary includes wheelchair seating areas.
Near the sanctuary entrance, the Welcome Team greets arrivals in blue vests. These volunteers direct visitors to seating and hand out a printed order of worship and announcements. After worship there is an opportunity to meet the pastor and give enough information to be in touch.
Children are treated as part of the congregation rather than something to be handed off. The stated preference is that children stay with their parents in worship, where they hear a children's message told especially for them, and a children's worship bag or children's bulletin helps younger ones stay engaged. Nursery care is available for children from newborn through age four during all worship services, with trained caregivers in what the church calls a loving and safe environment.
Sunday mornings are busy and sociable. Breakfast is served in the gym from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., and guests are welcome to join the conversation around the tables before or after worship. Sunday School runs from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. in rooms across the campus, with groups for every age. More about arriving and what to expect is covered in the plan a visit information.
Gathering, Word, Communion, Sending
Worship at Abiding Presence follows a liturgical pattern that regular attenders describe as familiar: Gathering, the Word, Holy Communion, and being sent to share the Good News of Christ. A service lasts about an hour. The congregation hears the Word of God, prays for those in need, gives thanks for the gift of salvation, receives the bread of life and the cup of blessing, and is renewed for daily witness.
Holy Communion is celebrated in every weekend worship service. The table is open, so membership is not required, and the church extends its welcome to everyone at the Lord's table. Communion is received by intinction, and gluten-free wafers and individual communion cups are available for those who need them. The pastor provides verbal directions, and printed directions appear in the order of worship. Children who have not yet received communion instruction come forward with their parents to receive a blessing.
Music is a substantial part of the service. The blend ranges from old hymns and pipe organ to contemporary sounds carried by piano, guitars, or handbells. The congregation describes experiencing rich traditions in liturgy and song, whether proclaiming a creed learned long ago or singing a praise song heard on the radio the week before. Members take part as greeters, ushers, assisting ministers, acolytes, readers, and communion assistants. The sanctuary walls are often adorned with art in various forms, expressing what the church calls the beauty and mystery of transforming faith.
For those who cannot attend in person, the 11:00 a.m. Sunday service is livestreamed, and the recording remains available on demand through the week. The library of recorded services and sermons has grown deep over two decades, with services for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and ordinary Sundays available whenever someone wants to hear a message again.
Forty Years from an Elementary School Cafeteria
In 2020, the people of Abiding Presence celebrated 40 years of ministry, which places the founding in 1980. The congregation began as an LCA mission church on the far north side of San Antonio. Members still tell the story of the founding pastor going door to door, ringing doorbells and inviting neighbors to a new church where everyone would be welcome.
The first years were humble. Worship took place in an elementary school cafeteria, and the faithful, young congregation launched a capital fund drive and building plans while interest rates were at a record high. They wanted a sanctuary that could serve the community with worship, education, and meeting space. As San Antonio grew, the congregation grew with it, and the founding principle that all are welcome was maintained through the years.
Today the Abiding Presence campus is a gathering place for children in day school, for Bible study and fellowship groups, for Boy Scouts, and for a variety of community and support groups. The church describes its people with a single word: generous. Looking toward its next 40 years, it says it will keep finding new ways to support the growth of faithful families, generous hearts, and hands ready for service.
Abiding Presence is a congregation of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a member of the Faith Growth Digital Ministry Network. The refrain comes from its mission statement, Seek God. Serve Others, supported by the verses "Seek first God's kingdom and God's righteousness" from Matthew 6:23 and "Through love, serve one another" from Galatians 5:13.
Grace Poured Out Freely
What Abiding Presence believes is stated plainly. The church believes in the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It celebrates the resurrected Christ who has set us free from sin and death, and it embraces the presence of the Holy Spirit active in lives today. Because of this Good News, serving others is central to the church's baptismal call.
The welcome has a theological basis. Abiding Presence welcomes each person as a beloved child of God, regardless of what labels the world provides, because God's grace is poured out freely to all. The congregation describes itself as the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God's grace, liberated by faith and embracing people as whole persons, with questions and complexities and all.
Two sacraments are celebrated. Holy Communion is offered each week in worship with an open table, and the church believes the body and blood of Jesus Christ come through the bread and wine, not merely symbolically but as a true presence. Baptism is a gift of God freely given for all, with infant baptism and new believers of any age welcomed at the font, marked as God's children forever through water and the Word.
That confidence is meant to travel outward. The church says it shares the good news of Jesus Christ with the greater community, and that its people are active in the community through partnerships with other churches and nonprofit organizations locally and around the world.
The Parkey Organ and a Sanctuary Full of Song
Music ministries at Abiding Presence are extensive, and the church invites anyone interested to join an ensemble. The Sanctuary Choir, the adult choir, sings music from classical to contemporary and takes part in weekly worship as well as special services and concerts; knowledge of music reading helps but is not required. Bells of Praise rings a five octave set of Schulmerich handbells and requires the ability to read music and a commitment to weekly rehearsals. Noteworthy, a women's ensemble that meets monthly, gives singers who cannot commit weekly a place to sing. The Men's Chorus gathers monthly for fellowship and singing in men's harmony. The Worship Band, with guitars, percussion, bass, and vocalists, leads worship on several weekends a year using acoustic arrangements of contemporary praise songs and familiar old hymns. An Instrumental Ensemble draws players of brass, woodwinds, strings, rhythm, keyboard, and percussion to accompany anthems and festival services.
Children and youth sing as well. The Cherub Choir, for the youngest singers, and the Chapel Choir for second through fifth graders, meet weekly through the school year and learn the fundamentals of the Christian faith through song, bells, and rhythm instruments. Middle and high school students have a Youth Choir and Youth Handbells, and they take part in worship regularly. Wonderful Wednesdays is the glue: a simple pizza and salad dinner each Wednesday evening makes it easier for families to join choir rehearsals, Bible studies, youth group, or occasional meetings, and doubles as fellowship around the tables.
The sanctuary's anchor instrument is a pipe organ dedicated in October 2005 as part of a sanctuary expansion. Parkey OrganBuilders of Atlanta installed its Opus R38, with two manuals, 31 stops, 27 ranks, and a total of 1,420 pipes. The instrument was rescued from a church in Pennsylvania that closed and rebuilt. In August 2014 the congregation began a major fundraising effort to replace one rank of reed pipes, 73 pipes in total, and to make repairs to the wind chest. Donations exceeded the initial goal, which also funded a custom built adjustable bench. Parkey OrganBuilders completed the work in June 2015, and the instrument was rededicated with a celebration concert honoring the tenth anniversary of its installation.
Little Children Learning the Way of Jesus
Children from infants to fifth grade are a particular strength of this congregation. Nursery care welcomes children from newborn through age four during worship and special congregational events, with trained caregivers offering what the church calls a loving and safe environment.
Family events give the youngest members a recurring rhythm. K-1-2 Bible Rookies gathers children and families for a storyteller, a craft, or a game each month. The 3-4-5 Bible Scholars group meets monthly to learn foundations of the faith, including the words to the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed and other parts of the liturgy, so children can take part more fully in worship. When children are ready for their first communion, a one-time class with their parents is offered in the spring and fall each year. Because the communion table is open, that instruction is offered to young ones as well.
The Abiding Presence Day School is part of the same campus and reaches toddlers through age five with enrollment options of two or three days a week. It is accredited through the National Association for the Education of Young Children, covering curriculum, staff-child interactions, parent participation, physical environment, staff qualifications, and health and safety. Children hear messages from the pastor in chapel each week. The campus also includes an Outdoor Sanctuary, an open-air space the congregation tends with property workdays and uses as a setting for gatherings.
Middle School Through High School
Youth ministry at Abiding Presence focuses on building compassionate young people through learning, service, and fellowship, and it gives them a foundation for healthy relationships and lifelong engagement with the church. Middle school students in grades 6 through 8 gather weekly to learn the foundations of the Lutheran faith through varied learning, service, and fun activities, preparing to affirm their Baptism through the Rite of Confirmation in their eighth grade year. Weekend retreats and a week long summer camp at Lutheran Camp Chrysalis give them time to build relationships with God and with one another and to practice their faith in the larger community. Middle schoolers also attend the Synod Junior High Youth Gathering annually.
High school students in grades 9 through 12 meet weekly for BUZZ Session, a time to discuss a current event, special study topic, or social challenge. The group sometimes goes out for dinner together and often shares pizza in the youth room. Senior high students take part in service projects throughout the year and travel together on a summer mission trip to serve in places of need. They attend the Synod High School Youth Gathering each December, and they have also participated in the National Youth Gathering.
Adults Learning Together
Pastor Steve challenges every member to find a learning group, and the adult offerings give people several ways to do that. The Women's Monday Night Study Group meets regularly, typically working through a topical video series with study guides and discussion; topics change regularly and generally run four to six weeks. Topical Book Discussions approach current or historical subjects in relation to faith, with recent studies including Scott Sauls' A Gentle Answer and Derek Cooper's Twenty Questions that Shaped World Christian History. Grace and Joy Women's Groups meet monthly using materials from GATHER, the Lutheran women's magazine.
Monday Coffee with Pastors meets Monday mornings for coffee and conversation, exploring how God's Word resonates with life in community through group discussion around the previous week's sermon and upcoming Gospel texts. Study and small group leaders also serve, and the church notes that group leaders often say they are not sure who received the bigger blessing, the teacher or the student. Fellowship groups for men and women are part of that same landscape of adult learning.
These gatherings sit alongside the church's wider invitation to serve. Members are asked to find a place where their talents can be used as leaders within the congregation or out in the community, from teaching and facilitating groups to greeting on Sunday morning and running sound and video.
Care That Comes Close
Some of the most distinctive ministry at Abiding Presence happens one person at a time. Stephen Ministry is built on the motto "Christ Caring for People through People." Stephen Ministers undergo extensive training and provide confidential, one-to-one Christian care to people going through difficult times or crises, listening, supporting, encouraging, and praying with and for them.
The ministry is led by Gizelle Henricksen and Sheryl Stanton, who serve as Stephen Leaders, alongside Stephen Ministers Linda Menchaca, Ron Njus, Donna Stewart, Linda Seewald, Sue Evans, and James Rodriguez. The team carries long experience into the work. Ron Njus has been part of Abiding Presence for more than 35 years and completed Stephen Ministry training as another way of giving back. Donna Stewart served as a Stephen Minister for 22 years before helping pass the ministry to Henricksen and Stanton. Sue Evans found her way into the ministry from the church office. James Rodriguez points to his mother's example of faith and service as the reason he gives back through Stephen Ministry. Linda Seewald says the call to care for people in difficult times has been one of the most rewarding parts of her retirement from education.
Other ministries provide practical care. The CARE Ministry provides meals for families when babies arrive or when sickness and hospitalization recovery are in progress, and can provide a meal and time of fellowship for a family that has lost a loved one. A Prayer Chain serves the church's practice of holding joys, sorrows, and concerns before God, and members pray for one another together in worship.
Mission Partners Near and Far
Each year the congregation selects Mission Partners to support with money and volunteer time, learning about the ministry being accomplished and how members can be involved. The list reaches across San Antonio and beyond.
Locally, the church holds quarterly blood drives for the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center and partners with Haven for Hope, baking and serving homemade cookies, gathering hygiene kits, and running sock drives. With Habitat for Humanity and the San Antonio Lutheran Cluster of Churches, the congregation helps build a home each fall and supports the work with fundraising events. Teams regularly build wheelchair ramps through the Texas Ramp Project for people physically unable to leave their homes. The church's own food pantry receives hygiene kits assembled by volunteers. For Transplants for Children, families facing complicated transplantation processes receive Thanksgiving food drives, Christmas gifts, and holiday meal baskets packed by families on Sunday mornings. For the Children's Bereavement Center of South Texas, cooks provide a family style meal that relieves the after work and school time crunch for families attending evening support sessions. Towne Twin Village provides housing for seniors who have experienced homelessness.
Internationally, the partnership with Water to Thrive has funded ten wells since 2010, a network that serves more than 5,200 people across East Africa. The newest well, Abitibit, is a rehabilitated borehole in the eastern region of Bukedea that now provides safe, clean water to more than 500 community members every day. Earlier wells include a community water point at Warren, hand dug wells at Lotole, Tamgedal, Semercha, and Wudam keleko 2, and spring developments at Tuluba and chatlu. The church also works year round with Lutheran World Relief, making quilts and collecting school and personal care kits, and volunteers assemble school kits and health kits for students and families. The annual God's Work Our Hands service weekend brings it all together, with volunteers of every age building ramps, cooking, cleaning, packing kits, baking cookies, and sending handmade Mission Partner Christmas cards to raise funds.
The People Who Lead
Senior Pastor Steven J. Cox says his mother taught him that no one is better than anyone else, and that sense of equality and teamwork sits at the center of his work at Abiding Presence. Heather Hansen serves as Associate Pastor and describes her own pastoral work as getting to know people, listening to their stories, and loving them for who they are. Mike Ceyanes is Minister of Youth and has spent 21 years helping the church shape compassionate youth, walking with young people through questions, retreats, camp, and mission trips. Sigrid Stern is Music Associate, a piano player who has also played organ, violin, bass, and harp, and she previously taught middle school orchestra and elementary music. Alejandra Kleinert is Director of the Abiding Presence Day School and works to build a warm, welcoming place where children feel safe, happy, and excited to learn.
Lay leadership runs much of the church's work. Steve Johnson serves as Executive Director and Laura Cauley-Hrncir as Assistant Executive Director, with Theresa Spiess as Treasurer and Sue Johnston as Secretary. Ministry Action Team Leaders guide particular areas: Margot Rucinski in Evangelism Ministry, Mary Jo Bolster in Care and Nurture, Dan Shauver in Worship Arts Music Ministry, Rebecca Gidish in Stewardship, and Holly Blackmon in Faith Formation, with Ashleigh Smerick as Day School Chairperson.
Serving is not limited to the official leaders. Every member is invited to find a way to serve, from handshakes and smiles at the door to teaching, leading, preparing breakfast, assisting with communion, and building.
A Place of Grace, Still
Abiding Presence describes itself as a vibrant and life giving church in San Antonio, celebrating God's abiding presence in the lives of people who seek God and serve others in worship and learning, and who share the good news of Jesus Christ with the greater community. The phrase that runs through everything, from the sanctuary to the gym to the ramp builds and the kitchen work, is that this is a place of grace where all are welcome.
The founding pastor rang doorbells. Members now ring doorbells of a different kind, through volunteer teams, mission partnerships, meals, ramps, and water wells, and they do it with the same invitation that started the congregation: come as you are, with your true self, your uniqueness and your questions, and find a church home. Giving is available online, and the church office keeps a Welcome Center, a Giving Kiosk, and a mailbox for those who prefer to give in person or by mail.