Twin Sunday Mornings on Glenlord Road
Grace Lutheran Church and School has its home on Glenlord Road on the eastern edge of St. Joseph, Michigan, a few blocks south of the highway that carries travelers between the Lake Michigan shoreline and the orchards and vineyards of Berrien County. The same address hosts both the church and its PreK-through-8 school, a pairing that has shaped the congregation for generations. Members worship in the sanctuary, send their children to classrooms just down the breezeway, and gather for fellowship meals in rooms the building also lends to funeral luncheons and community events. Grace is a member congregation of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), a fellowship of churches that share a common confession that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and that Jesus Christ is the only Savior from sin.
The church's own description of itself is brief and direct. Its motto is "Connecting People to God's Grace." Grace teaches that Jesus Christ is the only Savior from sin and that the Bible, recorded for us as the Holy Scriptures, "is without error and is not to be changed in any way." The unity of faith and doctrine is the thread that runs through every Sunday service, every Bible class, and every subject taught in the school. The church's eager goal is to share that Word of forgiveness and salvation within the congregation and out into the surrounding community, building up one another in faith and reaching out to those who do not yet know the blessings of faith in the Savior.
What to Expect on Sunday Morning
Two worship services are held each Sunday at 8:00 am and 10:30 am, with Bible classes and Sunday School running at 9:15 am between them. Both services follow the same liturgical order, but the prayers, music, and sermon change from week to week. The rotation between musical styles is intentional. Some Sundays the congregation sings traditional hymns accompanied by the church's pipe organ or piano; other Sundays a music ensemble leads with contemporary songs. Preaching is always the same in focus: the gospel of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness he won on the cross.
Visitors are welcomed as members are. Greeters greet them at the door. Ushers hand out bulletins, assist with the offering, and help distribute Holy Communion. A printed service folder is available at the entrance; a PDF of the same folder is posted online for those who want to follow along ahead of time or use it for devotion later in the week. The shape of the service is the historic liturgy of the Western church: a confession of sin, the absolution spoken by the pastor, readings from the Old Testament, the Epistle, and the Gospel, a sermon drawn from those readings, the Apostles' or another historic creed, prayers of the people, the Lord's Supper on communion Sundays, and a closing blessing.
For those who cannot be in the sanctuary - whether traveling, away for the winter, or staying home for health reasons - both services are livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel and Facebook page. The feed carries the liturgy and music as text on screen alongside the camera shot, the work of a small team of volunteer AV technicians who keep the system running. The same system makes the service accessible to shut-ins and snowbirds who want to remain part of the congregation even when they cannot walk through the door.
The Bible Class Hour at 9:15
The hour between the two Sunday services is built around formation. The Teens Bible Class meets in the church basement under the leadership of Dan Crowder and follows the school-year calendar. It is an open discussion format for students in eighth grade through high school and college, working through topics by drawing on Scripture and Bible stories to apply God's word to daily life.
Children's Sunday School meets during the same hour, covering the same Bible stories at an age-appropriate level. Adults gather in classes that range from a verse-by-verse walk through a book of the Bible to topical studies. Recent offerings from Pastor Paul Jenkins have included a series called Ten Bible Stories You Should Know...But Probably Don't, a sweep through Scriptures that are rarely taught in Sunday schools or read in the lectionary.
Faith Foundations is Pastor Jenkins's standing membership class. It walks through the basic teachings of the Bible and is offered each Thursday at 7:00 pm in the Christian Center, with each lesson repeated the following Saturday at 2:00 pm in the same room. The class is designed for people exploring membership at Grace, longtime members who want a refresher, and visitors with questions about what Lutherans believe and why.
Midweek Bible Studies Across the County
Grace extends its teaching well beyond Sunday morning. A Women's Bible Study meets twice a week - Monday evenings at 6:00 pm and Tuesday mornings at 9:30 am - hosted at the Titan Center on the campus of Michigan Lutheran High School. Ladies from Grace and other nearby WELS congregations gather around the Word under the leadership of Louise Hartman.
A Men's Group meets Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm at the Titan Center. Led by Josh Campbell, the men work through studies chosen for the group; the current study is a walk through "101 Important Words of the Bible."
For seventh-graders attending public school, Pastor Jenkins leads a catechism class on Saturdays at 10:30 am in the Christian Center on the Grace campus. The class works through Martin Luther's Small Catechism and prepares students for the confirmation testimony they will one day give before the congregation.
A Home Bible Study meets once a month on a Sunday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, hosted by member Richard Swartz. The current series, "My Brother's Keeper," looks at what it means to call a wandering brother or sister in Christ back to faith. The group meets at different homes around the area and is open to anyone who wants to dig deeper into a passage or topic over the course of a few weeks.
Grace Lutheran School: PreK Through 8th Grade on One Campus
The school side of the campus is the main ministry partner of the church. Grace Lutheran School has been a fixture in St. Joseph for decades and now serves about 212 students, with 42 in the early childhood programs and 170 in kindergarten through eighth grade. It is nationally accredited by the National Council for Private School Accreditation (NCPSA) and by the WELS School Accreditation agency, and has earned "exemplary accreditation" status - the highest tier available - by meeting or exceeding more than 97 percent of the standards of excellence. Grace is part of the athletic conference whose teams wear the Titan name, and its middle school teams partner with the other Lutheran schools in the area to field enough players for competition.
Every class day begins with devotion and every subject - reading, math, science, social studies, art, physical education, Spanish, sign language, music - is taught in the light of God's Word. The school describes its culture in three accents: academic excellence, with a rigorous standards-based curriculum and teachers who push students to reach their potential; Christ-centered, with discipline carried out in the spirit of Christian love and values drawn directly from Jesus' own teaching; and a positive environment, where parents and students consistently remark on the family atmosphere among classmates and teachers, brothers and sisters in Christ working to live out their faith.
Teachers use technology without leaning on it. Kindergarten students work one-to-one with iPads; first through eighth graders each have their own Chromebook. SMART Interactive Displays in every classroom let teachers engage with the curriculum while keeping screen time balanced with conversation, books, and hands-on work. The school's assessment tool is the NWEA MAP test, a computer-adaptive test that helps teachers track each student's growth through the year and shape instruction to the student rather than to a grade-level average. The school frames the work in the word "yet": "I can't factor polynomials...yet" turns an unattainable task into an achievable one with practice and hard work.
The school day runs from 8:15 am to 3:15 pm. After School Care is available until 5:30 pm for families whose work schedules do not line up with dismissal. There is no uniform requirement - the school has a dress code rather than a uniform policy - and tuition scholarships are available to every student, with additional financial aid for families who need it. The Board of Education quotes "some of the lowest tuition prices in our area." Parents serve a large role in the life of the school through the Partners In Education (PIE) group, classroom reading, field trip driving, classroom parties, hot lunch preparation, library operations, and athletic coaching.
Early Childhood Programs
Two early childhood programs sit at the entry point of the school. The PreK 3/4 program is for children who are at least three years old by August 1 and fully potty-trained, with parents choosing how many mornings per week their child attends. Sessions run from 8:15 to 11:15 am, and each day is capped at twenty students so that lead teachers can give individual attention.
The Young 5s program is a kindergarten-readiness year for children who missed the September 1 cutoff or who would benefit from an additional year before entering kindergarten. The class meets every afternoon from 12:15 to 3:15 pm, Monday through Friday, with a cap of twenty-four students per day. Hannah Mueller serves as the Preschool Director and lead teacher. Applications open well before the start of the school year and the limited space generally fills quickly.
Titan Athletics
Athletics are woven into school life at Grace. The Titan Athletics program offers elementary teams for students in third through sixth grade and middle-school teams in cooperation with the other Lutheran schools in the area, all coordinated under the umbrella of Michigan Lutheran High School. Fall offerings include girls' volleyball, boys' soccer, and co-ed disc golf. Winter is basketball season for boys and girls. Spring brings girls' soccer and football. Athletic Director Kevin Lemke coordinates practice schedules and game days across both programs.
The Titan Flag Football program, administered by Michigan Lutheran High School, is a co-ed league for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Practices and games are listed on the athletic calendar and the program is open to families regardless of whether their children attend Grace Lutheran School.
The school frames its athletics program around character. The Titan Athletics page includes the line, "We strive to give glory to God," and the middle-school page emphasizes that sportsmanship and camaraderie learned in team play "are character-building qualities that extend into many other aspects of life." Parents volunteer to coach many of the teams, and the program relies on the same partnership between school and family that the classroom side of Grace calls out as one of its strengths.
Beliefs: A WELS Congregation
Grace is a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the third-largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. The WELS traces its history to a doctrinal stand taken by a group of Lutheran pastors and congregations in Wisconsin in 1850 and now numbers more than a thousand congregations across the country plus additional mission churches overseas.
The basic beliefs of the congregation are summarized in three statements. Grace teaches that Jesus Christ is the only Savior from sin. The Bible, in its entirety, is the inerrant Word of God. The unity of faith and doctrine taught at the altar, in the classroom, and in print is a unity that the congregation does not change to fit the surrounding culture.
Worship at Grace is liturgical in shape and confessionally Lutheran in content. The congregation confesses its sin at the beginning of the service, hears the absolution spoken over the assembly, receives the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper on appropriate Sundays, and prays the historic collects of the church year. Because the synod's confession is consistent across its congregations, members traveling for work or pleasure can locate a WELS church near where they will be and receive the Lord's Supper with full confidence in the unity of the faith.
Ways to Serve at Grace
The congregation lists hands-on opportunities for members who want to put their faith into practice. Ushers assist during one of the two Sunday services by passing bulletins, collecting the offering, and helping with the distribution of Holy Communion. The Altar Guild prepares the sanctuary and sets up for baptisms and communions, and welcomes both women and men. Greeters are the face members and visitors see first when they come through the doors; individuals, couples, and young adults rotate through the schedule on a regular basis.
For those who enjoy the outdoors, a small team of members rotates turns throughout spring, summer, and fall to mow the church's grass. Inside the building, a team of AV technicians operates the system that displays liturgy and music on the screens and that livestreams services to those watching from home or away - a role the church notes is in urgent need of additional hands. Funeral luncheons are organized by a team that serves a meal to grieving families after a funeral service at Grace; volunteers can sign up to help serve or to bring a side dish or dessert to the spread.
Notes from the Shadow of the Cross
Grace publishes an active pastoral blog called "In the Shadow of the Cross," a series of personal devotions written by a Grace pastor under the pen name Shaddow. Recent essays have included reflections on why Christmas church feels different from weekly church, the difference between isolation and community, the limits of self-help in salvation, the call to make a difference one small moment at a time, the case for prayer and Bible reading as a conversation with God, and the absurdity of asking a chatbot to write your theology.
The recurring theme is the contrast between life lived in the glare of performance - measuring a day by how much gets checked off a to-do list - and life lived in the shade of the cross, where the burden of self-justification lifts. The essays are short - two to three minutes of reading time - and use the author's own experience of perfectionism, distraction, and the search for identity as the working surface for applying gospel comfort. Archived sermons and service folders from recent Sundays are linked from the church's online resources page, and giving to support the ministry of the church and school is available online through a secure portal.