On East Second Avenue in Indianola, Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church is known for two distinct Sunday worship services and a shared emphasis on God’s Word. At 2214 E Second Ave, on Highway 92 east across from Pickard Park, the congregation offers liturgical worship at 8:00 a.m., contemporary worship at 10:30 a.m., and a blended service at 9:15 a.m. on fifth Sundays. Around those gatherings are Sunday school, a Wednesday L.I.F.E. meal and Bible classes, adult education, youth and family ministries, mission support, and fellowships for men and women. The church’s motto, A Caring Family Sharing Christ, captures a community that values biblical teaching, warm fellowship, and service.
Two Sunday Styles, One Focus on the Word
Mt. Calvary presents Sunday worship as a shared response to God and participation in the church’s sacraments. Each service includes prayer, preaching, and giving, and biblical text stands at the center rather than the pastor’s personal ideas.
- 8:00 a.m. liturgical worship: The early service follows the liturgy in the Lutheran Service Book. Its prayers, hymns, and order of worship reflect God’s Word and the message for that Sunday. The worship expresses a communal response through praise, thanksgiving, supplication, and repentance. Holy Communion is celebrated on the first and third Sundays.
- 10:30 a.m. contemporary worship: The later service uses a more contemporary approach with song leaders and an order of worship printed for each person. It also brings people together around praise, thanksgiving, supplication, repentance, and the sacraments. Holy Communion is celebrated on the second and fourth Sundays.
- Fifth-Sunday blended worship: On the fifth Sunday of each month, worship begins at 9:15 a.m. and draws from both the liturgical and contemporary traditions. An Elders’ Breakfast follows the service.
- Advent and Lent worship: Special Wednesday services at 7:00 p.m. take place during Advent and Lent. These gatherings are more contemporary in character and celebrate the life of Jesus Christ through the season of the Church Year.
The preaching is expository, with each sermon built around the biblical text being addressed. The stated aim is not merely to communicate an idea but to transform lives to be more like Jesus Christ. Visitors may take part in the service or remain seated and observe. Immediately after worship, everyone is invited to share coffee and conversation, making the time after the service a natural place to meet other members of the church family.
A First Visit on East Second Avenue
Mt. Calvary greets visitors with an emphasis on making people feel welcome. Greeters meet guests at the Welcome Center and help them find their way. Smiling children may hand out Bibles as people enter, and the congregation describes the ordinary sounds of shuffling feet and young voices as part of the life of worship rather than something to be discouraged.
Arriving, Parking, and Dressing
- Clothing: The church is more concerned with a visitor’s presence than with what the visitor wears. Members commonly dress in a range from business formal to business casual, while remaining focused on honoring God.
- Parking: A parking lot is located near the church building. During events with larger attendance, additional parking is available south of the storage building on the east side of the church.
- Arrival from Indianola: From the traffic light where Highway 65/69 meets Highway 92, the church is about one mile east on Highway 92. It stands on the north, or left, side of the highway.
Children and Families in Worship
Children and families are welcome throughout the congregation. Families may sit wherever they are most comfortable, and children are invited to the front before the sermon for a children’s message. Most children’s messages use an object lesson based on a short portion of one of the week’s readings. Children of any age may participate, and parents or grandparents can accompany their children or grandchildren if they would prefer not to sit up front alone. The congregation regards children as models of faith within the worshiping community rather than as distractions.
A first visit can therefore be relatively simple: arrive, meet a greeter, take a place in the sanctuary, and join as much or as little of the service as desired. The same Sunday school for preK through fifth grade meets between the two worship services, allowing children to participate in age-appropriate Bible lessons while their families remain part of the church’s primary worship rhythm.
Wednesday Begins with a Meal
L.I.F.E. stands for Learning Is For Everyone, and it is Mt. Calvary’s midweek Bible education program. The Wednesday rhythm starts at 5:30 p.m. with a light meal and moves into classes at 6:00 p.m. The meal is intended for L.I.F.E. students as well as adults, and members and the public are welcome. A free-will offering supports the gathering.
- Grades 1 through 3: Students begin together with music and opening activities and then move to age-level classroom instruction, discussion, crafts, and other activities.
- Grades 4 and 5: These students also study in a grade-group classroom, with lessons and activities designed for their stage of learning.
- Grades 6 through 8: Pastor Tom leads a study of Luther’s Catechism. That course is required for students preparing for confirmation in the Lutheran faith.
The Wednesday schedule follows the Indianola public school calendar. When school is canceled for weather or another closure, L.I.F.E. classes are canceled for that evening as well. The shared meal, age-specific classrooms, and confirmation study create a consistent midweek rhythm for children and families connected with the congregation.
Learning Across the Weeks and Years
Mt. Calvary’s education extends from early childhood through adulthood. Sunday school for preK through fifth grade meets between the worship services. All students in those grades may hear the same Bible story and central truth, but each grade receives lessons shaped for its learners. The classes focus on who God is, how God loves children, and how that love changes their lives.
The congregation has also developed Sown Together as an intergenerational Sunday School expression. It is an intentional setting in which teenagers, adults, and older adults can open the same Scripture together. The premise is that people of different generations bring different questions and experiences while sharing one Savior. Learning from someone with a very different life story becomes a way to build relationships across age and technology divides.
Adult education is offered between the Sunday services as well. The large-group class runs from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. in The Ark and focuses on the day’s worship lesson. Additional recurring study opportunities include a Monday noon men’s group, a Wednesday 10:30 a.m. class in the fellowship hall, and a Thursday class at 6:30 p.m. in The Ark.
Mt. Calvary also encourages daily individual study and small groups for lay-led study in homes or at the church. Resources connected with its Lutheran faith include Portals of Prayer, Lutheran Hour devotions and studies, youth resources such as Gospel Adventures and LHM Teen Studies, and Bible study materials from Concordia Publishing House. These options support the church’s emphasis on teaching and studying the Bible throughout every stage of life.
A Caring Family, from Christ to Service
The phrase A Caring Family Sharing Christ is expressed through five purposes: Christ, Adoration, Relationships, Education, and Service.
- Christ: The church declares that people are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for sins, rose from the dead, and will return to take all who believe in him.
- Adoration: Jesus Christ is praised and worshiped as Lord and Savior. The congregation gathers as God’s people through Word and Sacrament.
- Relationships: Members love and care for one another in fellowship and reach outward to tell others the Good News that Jesus cares for them.
- Education: The Bible is taught and studied as God’s inspired Word, with teaching directed toward children, youth, and adults.
- Service: People serve one another by following Jesus’ example of love.
This shared life is also expressed through the congregation’s Bridging the Gap vision. Mt. Calvary wants to build meaningful relationships across generations and use technology as a bridge to reach people in the community with the timeless Gospel. The vision is practical: a message of encouragement, a video that opens a spiritual conversation, or an online reminder that someone is part of a community of grace can cross barriers of age and communication. Technology serves the relational mission rather than replacing it. The goal is faithful presence, shared worship, shared study, and relationships that plant seeds of the Gospel in people’s lives.
Missions in Riga, Taiwan, Botswana, and Iowa
Mt. Calvary supports missions at local, district, synod, and international levels. It has committed a percentage of the gifts received during the year to mission work, with local congregations and organizations considered alongside support for missionaries farther from Indianola.
- Cody and Aurelie Mock in Riga, Latvia: The Mock family serves through the LCMS in Riga. Cody serves as an IT project manager, working with Luther Academy and the Eurasia mission team on technology systems, project solutions, and staff training so the Gospel can be communicated clearly throughout the region.
- Stephen and Maggie Oliver in Taiwan and Asia: The Olivers serve in Asia, based in Taiwan. Rev. Stephen Oliver teaches New Testament at China Lutheran Seminary in Hsinchu, Taiwan, helping prepare students for ministry and theological work.
- Grulke family in Botswana: Their ministry is connected with Lutheran Bible Translators and the Bible Society of Botswana, concentrating on Bible translation in Botswana.
Mission support also includes Camp Okoboji, Mission Central, Lutheran Family Services, LCMS World Missions, HEAL House of Warren County, Lutheran Church Extension Fund, Lutheran Hour Ministries, and Hope Ministries. Mission ambassadors coordinate awareness and support for these areas of ministry, while the congregation remains committed to sharing the Gospel both within the community and beyond it.
Serving with Time, Talents, and Treasures
Mt. Calvary teaches proportional giving as the intentional giving of a percentage of time, talents, and treasures. Those gifts are understood as gifts from God, and service is a response to what God has given. Volunteers support the church and community by preparing meals, assisting with Meals From the Heartland, decorating for the Christmas season, refurbishing pews, creating a recreational area, helping with youth activities, and participating in mission work. Giving and volunteer service are presented not as additions to faith, but as expressions of Christian love in everyday life.
Ruth’s Circle, Textiles, Men, and Youth
Ruth’s Circle meets on the second Thursday of each month at 9:30 a.m. It is one of the congregation’s continuing fellowship opportunities for women.
The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League is an official LCMS auxiliary. LWML affirms each woman’s relationship with Christ, encourages her to use her God-given gifts, and equips women to live out their Christian lives through mission and service. Its work supports global missions, and its Bible studies provide additional opportunities for women to study and discuss God’s Word.
Textile Tuesdays meet year-round at 9:00 a.m. Members share knowledge, fellowship, and ideas while creating quilts and other projects for charities. No sewing experience is required. The group turns an ordinary recurring morning into both creative work and service.
Men’s Bible Study meets at noon in The Ark. The youth groups, while described as small, concentrate on helping young people develop faith in God and manage their lives with guidance and knowledge. Their recurring rhythm includes fellowship, recreation, mission trips, serving meals, helping with Vacation Bible School, and events such as bike rides, skating, and other group activities. Volunteers support young people through spiritual, financial, moral, social, and other forms of assistance.
Confessing Grace, Faith, and Scripture
Mt. Calvary summarizes its confession with three phrases: Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Scripture Alone. Its beliefs are centered on the Bible and Jesus Christ, and the congregation walks in fellowship with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
- The Bible: The church believes the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments to be the complete Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit as originally written. Scripture is the final authority in faith and conduct.
- God: God is confessed as one Creator, holy, sovereign, and eternal, existing in three equal Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- Jesus Christ: The church affirms the full and essential deity of Jesus Christ in his eternal existence with the Father, creation, virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, mediatorial ministry, and personal return.
- The Holy Spirit: The Spirit is affirmed as fully divine and personal. The Spirit convicts concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment; regenerates, indwells, seals, sanctifies, illuminates, and comforts believers; baptizes them into the body of Christ; and bestows spiritual gifts as he wills.
- Mankind: Adam is affirmed as divinely created in God’s image. His disobedience brought a fall, his posterity inherited spiritual depravity and defilement, and all people are accountable to God and subject to physical and spiritual death.
- Salvation: Salvation is confessed as the sovereign grace of God. Christ voluntarily suffered a propitiatory death, justification is by faith alone in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, and those whom God effectively calls are preserved and ultimately perfected in his image.
Messages and Study to Continue at Home
The 8:00 a.m. service is livestreamed through the congregation’s YouTube worship channel and Facebook. Each weekly service is also made available for viewing after it concludes, allowing the liturgical service to reach people who cannot attend in person and to support continued reflection on the sermon.
Mt. Calvary also produces regular written and video resources for further learning. Calvary’s Current accompanies the weekly worship folder with information about upcoming events, needs within the church’s boards, and congregational activities. The monthly Shadow of the Cross includes staff support, local stories, a calendar of events, and duties connected with worship. Additional material offers announcements, sermon notes, thoughts from pastoral leaders, and extended messages that examine biblical teaching in greater depth.
Giving is also available through the church’s secure online giving, supporting the ministries, missions, meals, education, and service projects described by the congregation.
Tom Vanderbilt and a Leadership Team
Tom Vanderbilt serves as Mt. Calvary’s Senior Pastor. He was installed on September 22, 2019, after previously serving as pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Lansing, Michigan. His pastoral work emphasizes strong preaching, leadership development, and counseling. He spends the first hours of each day in Bible study and prayer and approaches worship and teaching as central parts of ministry.
The broader leadership team provides overall direction and watches over the spiritual needs of the congregation. Its work is described as dedicated to Christ and attentive to the needs of people both inside and beyond the church. Within the LCMS, Mt. Calvary also identifies Iowa District West as its regional setting.
Mt. Calvary’s identity is not confined to one worship style or one age group. It is carried through liturgical and contemporary worship, Word and Sacrament, children and adults learning together, fellowship across generations, meals, mission support, and service. That combination of biblical teaching and shared life stands at the center of the caring family at 2214 East Second Avenue in Indianola.