Three Worship Services Every Weekend
St. John's Lutheran Church sits up the hill from downtown Buffalo, Minnesota, just off 2nd Street Northeast, and its doors stay open for three distinct services each weekend. Saturday evening at 5 pm brings a contemporary service held in the Family Life Center, with a worship team leading praise songs. Sunday morning moves to the Sanctuary, where a traditional 8 am service is followed by an Education Hour at 9:15 am (covering Sunday School, youth Bible study, and adult classes), and a second traditional service at 10:30 am. The 8 am service is broadcast live on KRWC 1360 AM and streamed on the church's YouTube channel, making it accessible to anyone who tunes in from home, the car, or anywhere the signal reaches.
All three services share the same shape. Readings from the Bible, a confession of sin, a creed, a sermon rooted in those readings, and on the first and third Sundays of each month, Holy Communion. The Saturday evening leans contemporary, while the Sunday morning services feature classic hymns. The 8 am service can be previewed any week on YouTube, and a Healing Prayer time follows the Saturday 5 pm service on the first weekend of every month. Visitors can plan on about an hour for the service itself.
What Visitors Should Know on Day One
The Welcome Center, staffed before and after services, hands out maps and information packets and answers questions from anyone walking in for the first time. The north parking lot across 2nd Street NE offers the easiest access for worshipers, who should use Door #1. Anyone needing an accessible entrance can drive past the building along 2nd Street NE and use Door #2, which has a power-assist opener and special needs parking just beyond. Events held in the Family Life Center have their own parking in the back lot and entry at Door #4.
Children are welcomed in worship. Before the sermon, a Children's Message speaks directly to them, and "Little Lutheran Bags" filled with quiet activities sit in the pews for restless hands. A nursery is staffed during Bible class and the 10:30 am service for infants through age four, with a nursing room right beside it. As for attire, the congregation runs the gamut from jeans and flannels to suits, and the only expectation is that people come as they are.
What St. John's Believes
St. John's is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Beliefs are stated in plain language: belief in one God in three persons, in the Bible as the inspired and infallible Word of God, in Jesus Christ as virgin-born, sinless, crucified, and risen, in salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, in Baptism as the means by which a person is united with Christ's atoning work, and in Holy Communion as the true reception of Christ's body and blood. The congregation also affirms the ecumenical creeds (the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian) along with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism as faithful witnesses to the gospel.
The church's motto captures the heartbeat of the teaching: "Sharing the changeless Christ in a changing world." A short video from Pastor Ryan Clark walks newcomers through what it means to recognize spiritual need, ask Christ for forgiveness, and begin following Him.
Children, Sunday School, and Faith Milestones
Sunday School at St. John's runs from the Sunday after Labor Day through early May, meeting from 9:15 to 10:15 am. Preschool through third grade starts together in the Family Life Center with Ms. Kelly for an opening time, then breaks into smaller classrooms. Fifth through twelfth graders head straight to their own rooms. A separate nursery is available during Bible class and the 10:30 service. Each year, a monthly mission offering collected in Sunday School goes to a chosen organization, with past recipients including the local food shelf and Feed My Starving Children.
The Faith Milestones ministry marks life's ordinary moments as God-moments: First Faith Steps for toddlers, My Church for preschoolers, Teach Me To Pray in first grade, Bible Basics in third grade, Love Thy Neighbor in fifth, Confirmation in eighth grade, and a Graduation Celebration at the end of senior year. The Cradle Roll program stays in touch with families whose children were baptized, sending monthly devotional newsletters with developmental tips and a baptismal birthday gift each year for children three and under.
Confirmation, Junior High, and Senior High
Confirmation at St. John's is a family affair. Students in seventh and eighth grades meet with their parents on Wednesdays during the school year from 6:30 to 8 pm, beginning after Labor Day. Pastor Chris Ryan oversees this ministry.
Junior High youth (grades 6 to 8) gathers one to two Sundays per month from 5:00 to 6:30 pm for devotions, games, and snacks. A yearly Camp Omega servant event introduces middle-schoolers to the idea of mission work, and there's a summer trip rotation to match.
Senior High youth (grades 9 to 12) has a fuller schedule. Sunday mornings at 9:15 am bring Bible study in the Youth Room, and Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 pm pack in games, teaching, and hang time, except during the six weeks of Lent, when students serve meals instead. Summer Wednesdays continue the tradition at various houses around town. Every three years, the youth cycle through a domestic Group Mission Trip, an alternative summer trip, and the LCMS Youth Gathering (San Antonio in 2028).
LIFE Groups, Sunday Mornings, and Adult Enrichment
Small groups called LIFE Groups meet at five to seven locations at any given time, with most gathering weekly. They're designed to move people from "I sat in the same pew for a year and never learned a name" into real Christian friendship. Visitors are invited to "find a group" and not do life alone.
On Sunday mornings at 9:15, Pastor Clark teaches an adult Bible class in the Fellowship Hall beneath the Sanctuary, often going deeper into the current sermon series with time for questions. That same hour also hosts a men's LIFE Group led by Pastor Ryan and a group for Sunday School moms facilitated by Stacy Rutten.
Other adult offerings include PEP (People Enjoying People), which meets on the first and third Tuesdays of every month from 9:00 to 11:30 am for a brief Bible study and games. Women in Mission gathers for service work, spiritual growth, and the annual Country Fair on the second Saturday of November, when the church fills with crafts, quilts, baked goods, candy, produce, and attic treasures. A Women's Circle meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 2:00 pm for Bible study and refreshments. A men's breakfast and Bible study convenes at the Buffalo Perkins every Thursday morning at 7 am, led by Jed Larson. Community Bible Study meets on Thursday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15 am and is currently studying through the Psalms.
A Musical Church
Music is woven through nearly every part of the church's life. Director of Parish Music Noah Gundermann oversees five distinct ensembles. The contemporary worship team rehearses Saturday afternoons and leads music for the Saturday evening service. The Worship Choir, made up of high-school-aged singers and adults, rehearses Wednesdays at 6 pm during the school year and sings at the traditional services roughly once a month plus special services. The Gospel Ringers handbell choir, with members ages ten through adult, follows choir at 7 pm on Wednesdays and rings for festivals, introductions, and accompaniments to hymns. A Band of brass, woodwinds, and percussion rehearses Tuesday nights at 7 pm in the three to four weeks leading up to festival services, and a Strings group of orchestral players rehearses Tuesday nights at 6 pm for the same special occasions.
The church also partners members with RightNow Media, a free streaming library of more than 20,000 biblically-based videos on marriage, parenting, youth, recovery, leadership, and finances, plus a kids' library of over 2,000 videos.
Prayer Ministry and Healing
Prayer at St. John's is its own ministry. A Sunday morning prayer group meets in the prayer chapel (Room 210) at 7:27 am and finishes by 7:47 so members can greet worshipers and find their seats. A Prayer Chain, coordinated through the church office, sends urgent requests out by email. On the first weekend of each month, after the Saturday 5 pm service, the pastors and elders offer individual Healing Prayer for spirit, mind, or body. Anyone can also submit a prayer request online or contact a staff member to pray together by phone or in person.
Compassion Ministries Close to Home
St. John's members serve their neighbors through several compassion efforts. MOSES (Members Offering Service to Elderly and Singles) matches more than seventy members willing to help with small projects: rides to church or medical appointments, simple home or car repairs, light yard work, grocery pickups, mobile phone help, mending, meal preparation after surgery or bereavement, and companionship by phone or visit. Anyone can both offer help and request help through the program.
Project Compassion visits homebound members and those suffering in mind, body, or spirit, offering visits, cards, and prayer shawls. The Sewing Circle creates quilts for inner-city missions and for fundraising sales. The church also gathers food, raises money, and volunteers for the Buffalo Food Shelf, and supports Love In the Name of Christ of the Big Woods, a network of Buffalo-area churches that coordinates services for struggling families across Buffalo, Maple Lake, and Hanover. Wrapped in Love, a non-profit clothing store in downtown Buffalo serving foster, kinship, and adopted families, hosts a "Warm and Fuzzy" corner with St. John's support. Timber Bay, a youth ministry blending large group times, small groups, mentoring, retreats, and camping, is another local partner.
Missions Across the Globe
Mission partnerships span several regions. In Uganda, the church supports Joshua and Whitney Smith, who serve with International Messengers. Their work centers on Legacy Mission High School, a secondary school reaching hundreds of students with education and discipleship, plus a Leave a Legacy scholarship program currently supporting twenty-four children. In Mexico, GDP (God will Provide) runs a daycare serving fifty children daily, and Casa Hogar, an orphanage, houses twenty-six children around the clock in the community of Maneadero. In Thailand, the church supports HIS (Hope International Schools) and School of Promise, which has grown from twelve students in 2010 to nearly 150 today. In Ghana, West Africa, the church partners with End Times Harvest Bible College, which trains future pastors and church leaders. In the Middle East, an unnamed family serves in a sensitive region, with a link for prayer support. At home, Noah's Ark Preschool serves as the church's in-house mission to children and families across the community.
Noah's Ark Preschool
Tucked inside the church building, Noah's Ark Preschool has provided quality Christian education in Buffalo for more than thirty-five years. The preschool admits children of any race, color, or national and ethnic origin and welcomes students of all backgrounds. Classes for three-year-olds through pre-kindergarteners run in the mornings throughout the week, with options including Tuesday/Thursday (9 to 11:30 am, $180/month), Monday/Wednesday/Friday (9 to 11:30 am, $230/month), and Monday through Thursday either 9 am to 1 pm ($380/month) or 9 to 11:30 am ($330/month). Church members receive a 10% discount, as do families with multiple children enrolled. Tuition assistance applications are available for families who qualify.
The teaching staff includes Director and Lead Teacher Anne Harvey (a Minnesota State University-Mankato graduate who took over as director in 2025), Lead Teacher Megan Hegland, and teacher assistants Jodi Lachermeier and Tammy Root. The philosophy, as stated by the program, treats every student as a unique and special child of God, building spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development in a safe, caring climate with play-based learning, a smart board, handwriting, math, language and literacy, and a strong Christian curriculum.
Giving, Records, and the Welcome Table
Members and visitors can give online through the church's giving portal, set up bill pay through their own bank to send checks directly to the church, or place envelopes in the collection plate. Members can request personalized numbered envelopes from Beth in the church office. The Children's Message, the Connect Card for visitors, the coffee fellowship after services, and the Fellowship Team's monthly pizza lunches, progressive dinners, Thanksgiving lunch and pie bake-off, Twins games, and seasonal events all keep the social fabric of the church knitted together. The Greeters and Coffee Fellowship teams welcome worshipers every weekend, and an extensive Ministry Booklet lists every serving opportunity available, from nursery attendant to Fellowship Team volunteer, for anyone wanting to put down roots.
Sharing the Changeless Christ
St. John's Lutheran Church keeps a steady rhythm. Three weekend services. Sunday School with its milestone markers. LIFE Groups meeting in homes across town. A music ministry that fills both Saturday praise and Sunday liturgy. A preschool with three decades of graduates. Missionaries supported across Uganda, Mexico, Thailand, the Middle East, and Ghana. Quilted prayer shawls sewn on Tuesday afternoons. Healing prayer after the Saturday service on the first weekend of every month. Bibles distributed through the Cover to Cover reading plan. The whole of it, including the beliefs, the children's programs, the music, the global partnerships, and the Sunday morning prayer group, is held together by a single sentence: sharing the changeless Christ in a changing world, from a church on the hill in Buffalo.