A Neighborhood Church in Hyde Park
Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park stands on the corner of 55th and Woodlawn, a few steps from the University of Chicago and within walking distance of the Museum of Science and Industry and the lake. The congregation's own tagline describes it best: a place to learn, work, share, find fellowship, and build peace. The people who walk through the doors are diverse in race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, and economic status, and the welcome stretches from lifelong Lutherans to those still working out what church means to them.
Augustana sits in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Its life runs on three weekly hours, the assemblies on Sunday morning, and a long list of programs that connect liturgy, learning, music, and neighborhood work. The building itself serves as a base for partners across the community, including refugee resettlement, a mutual-aid food fridge, and a summer grief camp for children.
Sunday Worship at the Heart of Everything
Worship is at the center of Augustana's life together. The congregation celebrates Holy Eucharist on Sunday mornings at 8:30 am and 10:45 am, with a fellowship hour at noon. In summer, the schedule collapses into a single 9:30 am service. The 10:45 am liturgy is livestreamed on Augustana's Facebook page for those who are homebound, far away, or simply not ready to come in person; no Facebook account is required to watch.
Sunday worship is intentionally liturgical. The bulletin follows the shape set out in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, with confession and forgiveness, prayers of the day, readings from the lectionary, sermon, prayers of the people, sharing of the peace, Eucharistic prayer, communion, and sending. Hymns come from the ELW hymnal and other shared sources; the service is also enriched at different points of the church year by canticles such as the Prayer of St. Francis, the Maori Lord's Prayer, and the Dresden Amen. A pastoral article on the site makes the case for this kind of worship plainly: liturgy gives words to pray when our own fail, the regular use of familiar prayers shapes our thoughts and actions over time, and the same patterns join us to the global and historical church.
Children are part of the 10:45 am service. After the opening hymn and before the readings, kids from potty-trained age through eighth grade are dismissed for Godly Play, and they return during the Sharing of the Peace so that they can join their families at communion. Parents who prefer to keep small children with them are welcome to do so, and the earlier 8:30 am service remains a pet-free option for those who want a quieter hour.
The congregation also gathers for special moments through the year. On the Feast of St. Francis, the 10:45 am liturgy includes a Blessing of the Animals, with leashes, crates, and the usual zoo of household pets filling the nave. The space where all of this happens is the church's Nave, the traditional name for the main worship room.
Music That Carries the Service
Music is treated as a form of worship in its own right at Augustana. Cantor and Director of Music Michael Terry Caraher leads the program. A lifelong church musician, he received his early training through the Royal School of Church Music Voice for Life program (one of the first Americans to earn the Gold Award in 2010), attended Interlochen Arts Academy as an organ major, and went on to study church music at St. Olaf College, where he sang in the St. Olaf Choir and the Cantorei under Anton Armstrong and studied organ with Cathy Rodland.
Music shapes the Sunday liturgy and reaches well past the walls of the church. Augustana hosts organ recitals open to the public, organ crawls for local students, and is a regular site for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. A Lenten organ recital by the Cantor, titled Apparitions and Revelations, features the cross veiled for the season and is one of the recurring musical offerings of the year. The Keith Cooper Fund's annual benefit, an Evening of Jazz, Community and Purpose, also draws on this musical identity, pairing live jazz with a silent auction and food in the social hall.
Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Chicago
Tucked into one corner of the congregation's ministry is a thriving campus ministry for University of Chicago students. Pastor Matthew Stuhlmuller leads the work, supported by an extensive list of programs that pair study, worship, and shared meals.
Weekly rhythms for students include a Wednesday noon Gospel of John study and Thursday evening Vespers with dinner at 6:30 pm. The campus ministry season opens with a kickoff bonfire at Promontory Point in early October. Campus ministry students also have an associate membership option at Augustana for those whose home congregation is elsewhere. Pastor Matt came to Augustana from Redeemer Lutheran Church, where he served as mission development pastor, and he holds degrees from UCLA, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and the University of Chicago. The congregation's council has voted unanimously to recommend that he be called as the next parish pastor, with a congregational vote scheduled after the second service on a Sunday in late September.
Learning at Every Age
Education at Augustana is organized around three interlocking programs that meet on Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, and in the children's wing during the late service.
Godly Play for Children
Godly Play is the children's faith formation program, drawing on a Montessori-based curriculum that immerses children experientially in the symbols and stories of the Christian tradition. It runs concurrently with the 10:45 am service and is led by a member of the pastoral team, currently Pastor Matt and Vicar Adam, along with a rotation of adult leaders. After about thirty minutes of storytelling, wondering, and reflection, the children return to the nave for communion. The program is offered at the 10:45 am service now, with plans to extend it to both Sunday services once a full pastoral team is in place.
Adult Forum on Sunday Mornings
Between the two Sunday services, at 9:45 am, the Adult Forum gathers in the Gustavus Adolphus Room for discussion of a wide range of topics, from theology and scripture to current events and the life of the congregation. Anyone is welcome to grab a cup of coffee and join. Recent series have included a multiweek conversation on climate change that helped seed the Green Team.
Midweek Faith Formation on Wednesdays
Wednesday evenings at 7 pm are reserved for Midweek Faith Formation, a rolling set of Bible studies, theological studies, book studies, and prayer gatherings held in the Gustavus Adolphus Room. The fall calendar begins with a two-week series called Conscience and Conversation on how Christians can disagree well in the church, followed by a four-week study on Paul's Letter to the Philippians, then a longer study of Miroslav Volf's Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, and a closing Advent series of Vespers titled Waiting for the Word. The same room is also the meeting place for the Tuesday evening listening sessions the council has been holding to listen to the congregation about its next lead pastor.
The Keith Cooper Fund: Honoring a Life, Funding a Future
The Keith Cooper Fund is the congregation's signature social-justice project. It honors the memory of Keith Cooper, a longtime Hyde Parker, father and grandfather, Vietnam veteran, jazz lover, and very active member of Augustana, who was killed in July 2021 in the Kimbark Plaza strip mall during an attempted carjacking. Keith believed deeply in transformation and was a mentor to several young men. The fund carries that work forward.
The fund gives $500 grants to promising young people between the ages of 16 and 26 who live in the city of Chicago and who want to launch themselves in life but do not want to pursue a four-year college degree. Grants can be used for vocational training through a community college or trade school, for growing a startup business, or for launching a career in the performing or fine arts. Applications and nominations are accepted on a rolling basis. The fund is overseen by a committee that includes Pastor Nancy Goede, Dorothy Pytel, Bennie Curry, Keinika Carlton, Grace Chan McKibben, Elaine Worcester, and Rod Sawyer. Recent grants have been presented in partnership with Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation on the border of the Back of the Yards and Englewood neighborhoods.
Each year the fund hosts a benefit event to support its work. Past gatherings have included a fundraising launch featuring saxophonist Fred Jackson Jr. with beer from CHAOS Brew Club, supported by the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, and a meditative memorial performance titled Memoria de Memoria composed by Christophe Preissing, performed by twelve voices of The Adrian Dunn Singers, and supported by the Illinois Arts Council. The annual Evening of Jazz, Community and Purpose remains the centerpiece of the fundraising year.
The Love Fridge and the Hyde Park Refugee Project
Two long-running partnerships round out the congregation's community presence.
The Love Fridge sits by Augustana's front entrance on 55th Street and is available around the clock, every day of the week. Community members can drop off donated food and supplies, or take what they need. Donation guidelines posted at the fridge distinguish between items that are welcome (sealed packaged foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, eggs with a use-by date, canned goods, dry pasta, peanut butter, and personal care items) and items that should be left elsewhere (raw meat or fish, raw milk and raw-milk cheeses, half-eaten leftovers, opened packages, alcohol). Volunteers from the University of Chicago and the broader neighborhood rotate through week-long shifts to keep the fridge clean and stocked.
The Hyde Park Refugee Project, sponsored by Augustana and its members, welcomes refugee families into Hyde Park, including people fleeing civil war and violence in Syria and Central Africa. The congregation donates office and meeting space in the building for refugee caseworkers, volunteers, and interns, and helps host speakers and trainings. The project is always looking for volunteers.
Other Ways the Congregation Shows Up
Several other programs fill out the picture of what Augustana does beyond Sunday morning.
- Community Breakfast. On the third Saturday of every month, Augustana opens its doors for a free community breakfast. Volunteers arrive at 8 am to cook and set up, serve at 9 am, and clean up afterward, with breakfast included.
- Green Team. The Green Team works on environmental stewardship on several fronts. Current work includes installing solar panels on the church roof, organizing trips to forest preserves for prairie restoration, and sponsoring educational programs and garden workdays. The team is open to anyone who wants to work outdoors.
- Hyde Park Village partnership. Augustana members help older neighbors stay independent. One recurring opportunity is the Tech Cafe, where volunteers help older adults navigate phones, tablets, and computers.
- Storytellers Youth Grief Camp. Each summer, Augustana hosts the Chicago Survivors Storytellers camp for children and teens ages 5 to 18 who have lost an immediate family member to violence. The multiweek day camp uses art, recreation, and peer support in a safe, caring environment.
Pastoral Counseling and Pastoral Welcome
The pastors page out one common understanding of pastoral care: it is about the person's relationship with God, not only about the person. Conversations with a pastor can touch on relationships and breakups, family decisions, work or the absence of work, substances, interfaith relationships, spiritual questions that nag at the heart, or finding a religious community that fits. The congregation describes this kind of care as a way of accompanying people through what Jesus is known for in the earliest Christian tradition: being the Great Physician. Counseling is offered by Pastor Nancy Goede.
The same welcome extends to the wider congregation. Augustana invites members and friends to serve as choir members, instrumentalists, readers, and sacristans; to join one of several committees (worship and music, hospitality, property, education, stewardship); to help with gardening and building maintenance; or to step into lay leadership through the church council. Membership is offered in two forms: traditional membership and an associate membership for students and others whose home congregation is elsewhere.
What Lutherans Mean at Augustana
The congregation's own statement of Lutheran belief is short and plain. Lutherans confess that Jesus is the embodiment of the Word of God, that his death and resurrection is the way God breaks the power that sin and death have over human life, and that anyone who calls on his name can be raised to new life. Lutherans hold that the Bible is the word of God, even though it is also a collection of history, poetry, stories, and letters written by many people over many centuries. Scripture is the guide for Christian life, and the gospel of God's love and mercy is the lens for interpreting it.
Baptism is central. Lutherans teach that in baptism our old selves are drowned and we rise with Christ as new, reborn people, and that this gift needs to be remembered every day in confession, forgiveness, and renewal. Finally, Lutherans at Augustana emphasize that God continues to reconcile with us because God is gracious, not because of our good behavior. This reconciled life shapes how we live now, in a broken world, with God's justice and mercy reflected in our daily choices.
Joining in Sunday Morning
First-time visitors can expect two Sunday morning liturgies, an adult learning hour in between, and a long coffee hour afterward. Both services celebrate Holy Eucharist; the 10:45 am includes Godly Play for kids and is also livestreamed on Facebook. The church is at 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue, and the phone number for the church office is 773-493-6451. Office email is office@augustanahydepark.org. People interested in campus ministry can reach Pastor Matt at campuspastor@augustanahydepark.org, and music inquiries go to cantor@augustanahydepark.org. Online donations are accepted through a secure payment gateway linked from the donations page, and a recording of recent sermons is available through a shared drive linked from the sermons page. The church's mailing address is 5500 S. Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60615.