Redeemer Lutheran Church serves two Maine communities with a common worship life: its Gorham congregation meets at 410 Main Street on the eastern edge of Gorham Village, and its Sanford congregation meets at 1725 Main Street #10 in Airport Plaza. The church is known for historic Lutheran Divine Service, music spanning ancient and modern Christian tradition, a nursery that lets families take part in worship, and mission work that reaches from Gorham and Sanford to missionaries and English Bible camps abroad. Founded in 1962, Redeemer has developed from a first worship service in South Portland into a Greater Portland-area congregation with Sunday worship in Gorham and Saturday worship in Sanford.
Sunday in Gorham, Saturday in Sanford
Redeemer keeps two distinct weekly rhythms. In Gorham, Bible Class is held at 9:00 a.m. before the 10:15 a.m. Divine Service each Sunday. At Sanford, Bible Class takes place at 4:00 p.m. before the 5:00 p.m. Divine Service each Saturday. The Gorham service has an online option, allowing the congregation's Sunday worship to extend beyond the Main Street building.
The Gorham church stands on Route 25 at the eastern edge of Gorham Village. Redeemer describes the location as accessible to several main arteries connecting Southern Maine communities from the Lakes Region to the coast. The Sanford location is in Airport Plaza on Route 109 at Jagger Mill Road, with convenient access from York County communities and the Rochester, Dover and Portsmouth region. These are two locations of the same Redeemer Lutheran Church rather than separate congregations, sharing one pastor, worship life and mission.
What a first visit feels like
- Arrival: Visitors are welcomed at the door, introduced to the pastor and seated next to someone who can assist them as needed. People who are new to the area, visiting, or simply exploring the church are invited to participate in any service.
- Communion: Those who wish to receive communion are asked to arrive early enough to speak with the pastor before the service, or to call him before Sunday.
- Clothing: There is no dress code. People dress according to the season and their comfort, in a wide range of styles.
- Children: Children are welcome to sing and take part in the service with their parents. A nursery is available with a closed-circuit television that broadcasts the service.
- Parking: Gorham has parking on either side of the church building, with street parking permitted if the lots are full. Sanford has ample parking throughout its lot.
The two services share the central practices found throughout Redeemer's life: historic liturgy, the preached gospel, the sacraments, congregational song and a regular choir. For people arriving in Gorham on a Sunday or Sanford on a Saturday, the schedule, welcome and music form a consistent pattern rather than two unrelated programs.
Historic Liturgy with Ancient and Modern Music
The Divine Service follows the historic liturgy of the church using one of the settings available in the Lutheran Service Book. Redeemer's messages are consistently paired with an Old Testament reading, an Epistle and the Gospel. The services also include psalmody, with introit and gradual texts appearing alongside the biblical readings, and hymns chosen in connection with the Church year. The result is a worship service in which Scripture, psalm, hymn and sermon remain closely connected.
Music in the service includes both ancient and modern elements. Chanting and congregational singing are common, and hymns from every age of Christian church history are sung throughout the year. The congregation does not merely listen to music; it joins in the chanting and singing that carry much of the historic liturgy.
The choir sings regularly as well. That combination gives the music both breadth and participation: some pieces belong to the inherited repertoire of the church, while the congregation also encounters contemporary arrangements and newly written material within the same liturgical framework. The worship remains anchored in the Lutheran Service Book while reflecting the variety of musical life in the congregation.
The welcome to Redeemer is woven into that worship in practical ways. Visitors are not left to find their place alone, but are greeted, introduced to the pastor and paired with someone who can help. Communion is approached through direct conversation with the pastor, and children are treated as participants rather than observers. The nursery, complete with a television carrying the service, gives parents another way to remain connected to the service when a child needs to be taken out.
From South Portland to Gorham, Then On to Sanford
Redeemer's story begins in South Portland, where the congregation held its first worship service in 1962. In 1965, Redeemer purchased the property for its first church home on Spurwink Avenue in Cape Elizabeth. Groundbreaking followed in 1967, and the new building was dedicated one year later. In April 2005, the congregation moved to 410 Main Street in Gorham. For more than 50 years it has remained a Christian presence in the Greater Portland area. In March 2019, Redeemer began holding Divine Services in Sanford, creating its second regular place of worship.
Redeemer is part of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, commonly called the LCMS. The congregation traces its Lutheran heritage through Europe and Martin Luther in the early 1500s. The LCMS includes more than 2.5 million members in more than 6,000 congregations across the United States, mission fields in almost 60 countries and an education system ranging from pre-K and grade school through high schools, colleges and seminaries. Redeemer holds that larger body in view while remaining focused on its own mission in Maine.
The church's stated ambition extends beyond maintaining two worship locations. Its vision is, “By God's grace, Redeemer Lutheran Church will plant confessional Lutheran congregations in Maine that work together in ministry for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” The words “word and action” in its mission - “Faithfully proclaiming the Gospel in word and action” - describe both its historic worship and the practical service that follows.
The Confession That Shapes Redeemer
Redeemer's mission statement identifies the Holy Trinity as the object of worship: one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as confessed in the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. It holds the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and the only rule and norm for Christian faith and practice. It also confesses the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as contained in the Book of Concord of 1580. The congregation's detailed confession gives those commitments a specific shape.
Concerning God and sin, Redeemer believes in the one triune God described in the three Ecumenical Creeds. It teaches that since the fall of Adam into sin, all people born in the natural way are conceived and born in sin. Its confession begins with the reality of humanity's condition and the necessity of God's grace.
Concerning Jesus, the Son of God took on human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary. Redeemer confesses two natures, divine and human, inseparably joined in the unity of one person: one Christ, truly God and truly human. Christ truly suffered, was crucified, died and was buried so that he might reconcile God the Father with humanity. He also descended into hell, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and is seated in power and glory until he returns to judge the living and the dead.
Concerning justification, human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits or works. Instead, justification is a gift given on account of Christ through faith. In response to God's grace, faith yields good fruit and good works as God commands, but those works are not trusted to earn grace. Redeemer likewise teaches that people have limited freedom in the will to live an externally honorable life, but no power to become pleasing to God apart from the grace, help and operation of the Holy Spirit.
The public ministry has a central place in this confession. Teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments were instituted as means through which the Holy Spirit gives and works faith in the heart. The church is the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly. Good works, in turn, are the necessary result of faith in Christ: a Christian as a new creation does what pleases God.
Redeemer holds particular teachings about baptism, the Lord's Supper, confession and repentance. Baptism is necessary for salvation and offers the grace of God; children should be baptized, receiving them into God's grace and making them pleasing to him. In the Lord's Supper, the body and blood of Christ are truly present and distributed for the forgiveness of sins, while those who receive without believing or recognizing this eat to their judgment. Private absolution is retained, though an exhaustive enumeration of faults in confession is unnecessary. Those who fall after baptism may receive forgiveness when they repent, and the church should not deny them absolution.
The Bible is the true Word of God, written by people through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the only source of doctrine and revealed knowledge of God. At the end of human history, Jesus Christ will return on the Last Day to judge, raise all the dead, give eternal life to those who believe and are elect, and condemn the ungodly. These convictions join worship, teaching, sacraments and Christian life into one confession centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Missionaries, English Bible Camps and Freedom to Serve
Redeemer supports the worldwide ministry of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod through relationships with specific missionaries and ministries. Jonathan Anderson serves in Panama. Timothy and Lisa Sandeno are associated with Germany, and Benjamin and Rebecca Helge with the Czech Republic. Redeemer also supports The Lutheran Heritage Foundation. These partnerships place the congregation's witness within the wider confessional Lutheran church.
Redeemer also takes part in English Bible Camps, both in person and online. The camps help students learn and practice English, form friendships and share God's Word. Redeemer has participated in person and online in Hong Kong, online with students in Puerto Rico and in person in the Czech Republic. In each setting, language instruction and Christian teaching meet in a shared week of conversation, worship and relationships.
In the Czech Republic, the camp worked alongside a church plant of the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession. The host congregation used a community center for worship and offered an English Talk Group for people of all ages. The camp gave students a reason to enter that community, while local families were introduced to the worship and Gospel shared by the congregation. English practice, friendship and spiritual teaching took place in the same setting.
The Czech mission setting also gives the church's message of freedom a concrete context. The region has a history of religious struggle that includes the Bohemian Reformation and Jan Hus, who was burned in 1415, before the wider Protestant Reformation. Protestant worship was at times outlawed, and worshippers met secretly in homes and wooded areas, sometimes walking for hours in darkness and risking imprisonment for sharing their faith. In that environment, the recurring themes of English Bible Camp teaching - forgiveness, praise, mercy, trust and restored life - connect the Gospel of Jesus with the human history of religious liberty.
These efforts embody Redeemer's conviction that mission belongs in word and action. Members are encouraged not only to support missionary families and ministry partnerships but also to participate directly in shared work. The English camps, the sponsorship of missionaries and the local meal ministry show the same conviction in different forms: Gospel faith is meant to be lived where people can encounter it.
Mercy for Families and Neighbors
Redeemer says its members serve their communities daily through their various vocations. Alongside that everyday service, the congregation has organized ministries in several concrete ways. The Saints of Redeemer Mercy committee keeps a supply of meals for families in need. These are direct acts of care placed alongside the church's teaching, worship and mission partnerships.
Meal contributions are freezable and placed in disposable containers, with each one intended to feed at least two people. Donors label the contents and explain how the meal should be heated, allowing the church freezer to hold meals that can be used without additional preparation. The simple format reflects the committee's practical purpose: to make care available in a form that can be given directly to a family.
Redeemer also supports “The Locker Project” of the Gorham School District by collecting snack items for students. Its wider pattern of assistance includes rides, help with supplies and medicine pickups for people who need a practical hand. These ministries do not replace the congregation's teaching or worship; they give the Gospel's fruit a visible form in everyday life.
Food also has a place in congregational fellowship. Potluck suppers following Divine Service and coffee hours create occasions for people to share food and spend time together. The meal ministry and these shared tables express related themes in different ways: some tables are gathered for fellowship, while others are prepared for families in need.
Gabriel Strawn and the Story of Christ
Rev. Gabriel Strawn grew up in the Minneapolis area and attended Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota, where he studied history and met Jennifer. After they married, the couple moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, so he could attend seminary. Strawn then served a year-long vicarage at Catalina Lutheran Church in Tucson, Arizona. Following his graduation, he received a call to Redeemer in Gorham, and he was ordained and installed as pastor on August 17, 2024.
Pastor Strawn's interests include games, cinema, literature, history and Holy Scripture, all joined by a deep love for stories. He describes the Christian story in terms that place people within a larger narrative: “True stories are authored by the Creator, and the end of our story is the triumphant return of Christ, and our resurrection to new life with Him.” His emphasis at Redeemer is that the Gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments rightly administered.
That focus joins the congregation's two locations to its confession. The same historic Divine Service is heard at 10:15 a.m. in Gorham and 5:00 p.m. in Sanford, with the same emphasis on teaching Christ's Gospel and administering the sacraments. Pastor Strawn's literary and historical interests add a human dimension to a ministry grounded in the church's historic confession.
Worship, Announcements and Giving Across Two Campuses
Redeemer provides live and recorded worship through YouTube and Facebook. Its sermon archive preserves the biblical readings, psalmody and hymn numbers associated with messages, allowing the congregation's liturgical study to continue beyond the Sunday and Saturday services. The church also prepares downloadable versions of its liturgies in PDF form for use in worship.
Church news and announcements are published each Friday, while text-message announcements provide an additional channel for news, events and time-sensitive updates. This structure keeps the Gorham and Sanford locations connected through a regular rhythm of shared information while preserving the distinct schedules of a Sunday congregation and a Saturday congregation.
Electronic giving is offered as both an automatic weekly plan and a one-time contribution. The giving page offers electronic giving as a way to support regular offerings and provide consistency for the congregation. The practical systems, from parking at Sanford to nursery television in Gorham, reflect Redeemer's pattern of pairing historic worship with practical care for the people who participate in it.
Redeemer's story has moved through South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Gorham before reaching Sanford, but its center remains the same: a confessional Lutheran congregation committed to the Trinity, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the historic Divine Service and service that takes concrete form in meals, mission partnerships, teaching and the everyday callings of its members.