A Small Lutheran Congregation on East Thomas Road
Mount of Olives Lutheran Church sits on East Thomas Road in Phoenix, a low-profile ELCA congregation whose size is in no way matched by its reach in the neighborhood. The church's tagline, "God has led you to the desert and spoken to your heart," sets the tone: a community that takes its setting seriously and builds its life around three intertwined practices, study, serve, and faith.
Members and visitors describe the congregation as a loving and welcoming community that tries to make Jesus real in an imperfect world. Worship is held on Sunday mornings, and the rhythms of the week unfold around a community food pantry that has become one of the larger feeding operations on the east side of the valley.
Sunday Morning Worship at 9:00 AM
The principal Sunday service begins at 9:00 AM at 3546 E Thomas Road. The liturgy follows Lutheran tradition, with weekly Holy Communion as a normal part of the gathered assembly. The congregation affirms, in the language of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue it has chosen to highlight, that Holy Communion is a sacrament with the real presence of Christ's Body and Blood, and that it should be offered each Sunday.
The order of service includes community confession, as the congregation also acknowledges the need to confess sins before receiving communion. Private confession is offered as well. Baptism is recognized as a sacrament of initiation, and the doctrine of the Trinity and the full divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ are foundational.
The tone of the welcome is unembarrassed: "We believe in God's love and kindness, and we aim to share that message with everyone, including you. With a strong dedication to serving the community, our church eagerly anticipates the chance to worship alongside you and discover together the joy that comes from being in the presence of God."
Music for Food: Monthly Jazz Vespers
On one Sunday evening each month, the sanctuary fills with a different sound. The Music for Food Jazz Vespers series brings jazz musicians into the church for a free 5:30 PM concert, followed by a reception with light refreshments. Recent and upcoming performers include pianist Beth Lederman (the series host), vocalists Alice Tatum, Juli Wood, and Diana Lee, saxophonist Juli Wood, flutist Joe Corral (a longtime Phoenix Symphony flutist), bassist Felix Sainz, percussionists Todd Chuba and Joe Garcia, and bassist Dallas Huber.
The concerts are offered at no cost. Some are underwritten by Thrivent Action Grants, and others by an anonymous grant from the Vanguard Charitable Trust. The music covers a wide range, from Bonnie Raitt to blues, pop, and straight-ahead jazz, with each concert reflecting the friendship the musicians share.
Every concert in the series benefits the Olive Branch Community of Hope Food Pantry, the church's own feeding ministry. It is a deliberate pairing, "beautiful jazz meets bold mission," and an invitation: "Bring a friend, enjoy the music, and support the work of feeding families in our community."
The Olive Branch Community of Hope Food Pantry
The Olive Branch Community of Hope Food Closet is the social-service heart of the congregation. Once a coat closet, the pantry has grown into a vital community lifeline that feeds more than 200 families each week through partnerships with St. Mary's Food Bank and Waste Not.
The pantry is housed and operated by the church itself, and the Music for Food series exists in part to keep its shelves full. It is also a place where the Lutheran conviction that "the person who benefits from God's grace is called to serve the neighbor and the community" becomes a practical, weekly reality in east Phoenix.
Discipleship: Study, Serve, Faith
Mount of Olives organizes its life around three pillars that it calls the path of becoming better disciples. Study centers on Scripture and is published every Sunday on the Study page, with a sermon theme, written reflections, the appointed scripture readings in PDF form, and questions for Bible Study. Recent titles include "The Quarry and the Living Stone," "The Overflowing House of Mercy," "Why Did You Doubt?," "You Feed Them," "The Hidden Treasure That Holds Us," "Cultivating the Good Soil," "Hope with Dirty Hands: Discipleship in Action," and "Our Work as Christ's Disciples: Share God's Love."
Serve is where study and faith meet the neighborhood. The church points to "Faith in Action Together" as the description of its pantry work and to its partnerships with Peace Chapel Funeral Home for grief care and CampFormation for youth formation as the other expressions of that serving call.
Faith, the congregation writes, "underpins both study and service," a reliance on God's promises and power that moves believers from intellectual assent to lived experience. The result is a discipleship formation that "moves beyond mere information acquisition to a holistic development of our character, actions, and relationship with God."
Lutheran Identity, Ecumenical Openness
Mount of Olives describes its faith in a section called Lutheran Mosaic, with four core convictions. God adopts people solely out of generosity, without prerequisites; the Christian calling is to share the Good News of God's grace, not to decide who needs it; those who receive grace are called to serve the neighbor by listening attentively and exercising the freedom that comes with grace; and Christians simply do not know enough to claim they have God figured out, so interfaith and inter-religious dialogue is valued.
The phrase the leadership has made its own comes from the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue: "what unites us is greater than what divides us." The congregation walks that out in two directions. First, with Roman Catholics, it lists substantial agreement on Baptism, Eucharist, Confession, the Trinity, the person of Christ, the authority of Scripture, and the doctrines of sin and salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ. Second, with other Protestants, it acknowledges full communion partnerships with the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, and the United Church of Christ, sharing a common confession of faith, mutual recognition of Baptism and Eucharist, and a common commitment to evangelism, witness, and service.
The church also reaches out to those who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious." In a section written for the curious and the skeptical, the congregation suggests that many SBNR values (inner exploration, personal relationship, contemplative practice) overlap naturally with Christian discipleship, and invites respectful dialogue. The hope is to "engage in respectful dialogue" with anyone who walks through the door.
Church Life: Weddings, Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation
The Church Life Ministry handles the church's sacramental and pastoral milestones: weddings, which can be held in the church or elsewhere; Baptism; First Communion; and Confirmation. The same ministry is the point of contact for these rites of passage, and the pastor's office is where the conversation begins.
CampFormation: Lutheran Youth Camp in Prescott
For middle and high school youth, the congregation supports CampFormation, a Lutheran outdoor ministry that has been running for more than 60 years. CampFormation provides faith formation for students in grades 6 through 12 in a wilderness setting near Prescott, Arizona, and remains one of the signature ELCA youth experiences in the state.
Grief Ministry with Peace Chapel
Funeral services for members and others in the community are coordinated through Peace Chapel Funeral Home, which the church calls a ministry partner. The arrangement means families have a single, trusted point of contact during a difficult season, and the church's Grief Ministry stays close to the family through the funeral and afterward.
Prayer Wall
A prayer wall is part of the church's ongoing care for one another. Anyone can submit a request through a form on the Prayer page, choosing whether to share it publicly, share it anonymously, or keep it private. The community holds the requests in prayer, and the submitter can also ask to be emailed whenever someone prays for that specific request.
Pastor Tim Perlick
Mount of Olives is served by Pastor Tim Perlick. His background, as the church tells it, runs from a Catholic upbringing and Catholic Boys School (Franciscan and Christian Brothers), through non-denominational experience at Saddleback and Mariners in Orange County, California, to a United Lutheran Seminary degree and roots in the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue. The shape of his ministry at Mount of Olives reflects that journey, Lutheran at the core, openly ecumenical, and committed to the conviction that "what unites us is greater than what divides us."
Visiting Mount of Olives
The church sits at 3546 E Thomas Road in the 85018 ZIP code of Phoenix. Sunday worship begins at 9:00 AM. The monthly Jazz Vespers begins at 5:30 PM, runs about an hour, and is followed by a reception with light refreshments. Both are held at the church. Giving is available online through Tithe.ly. Events and the full calendar are published at the Events page, with subscriptions available for Google Calendar, Outlook, and an exportable iCal feed.
The Music for Food Jazz Vespers concerts remain free to attend, with donations directed to the Olive Branch Community of Hope Food Pantry. For anyone who has wondered where a Sunday morning Lutheran service in Phoenix might lead into an evening of jazz, into a food pantry that serves more than 200 families a week, into youth camp in the Prescott pines, or into conversation with someone who describes themselves as spiritual but not religious, the answer at this church is into all of the above.