At 958 Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Santa Monica is known for a century of Lutheran congregational life, a 1927 sanctuary filled with stained glass, and a musical tradition built around a rebuilt tracker organ. Founded in 1926, the congregation belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Southwest California Synod. Its identity is both distinctly Lutheran and intentionally welcoming: St. Paul’s calls itself an inclusive, intergenerational community and a Reconciling in Christ congregation. Sunday worship is at 10:30 a.m. in person and online, with Sunday School for grades K through 6, professional childcare, and complimentary parking for services, concerts, and other events.
From a Wilshire Boulevard Mission to Lincoln Boulevard
St. Paul’s grew indirectly from the founding of UCLA in Westwood. The Rev. Dr. Jesse W. Ball, pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Los Angeles and secretary of the Home Mission Board of the United Lutheran Church, identified the Santa Monica Bay region as a promising mission field. He gathered ULC Lutherans for the first worship on January 17, 1926, in a Seventh Day Adventist sanctuary on Wilshire Boulevard. The congregation incorporated on April 23, then bought land for a church and parsonage with mission-board support and a bank loan. Groundbreaking came in October 1926, the cornerstone was laid in January 1927, and the first worship in the new sanctuary took place on May 15, 1927. They took the name St. Paul’s after the apostle who spread the gospel and planted churches.
The Depression tested that beginning. By October 1929, many households were struggling, and the Dorcas Society, the congregation’s women’s organization, became central to its survival. Its philanthropic committee aided members, helped pay church staff costs, purchased choir robes and sanctuary carpeting, and even covered the mortgage for an entire year. Weekly receipts still plummeted, and the bank eventually foreclosed. Easter 1936 brought the final service in the building before foreclosure. The following Sunday, the congregation returned to the Seventh Day Adventist church where it had begun, continuing worship, mission work, fundraising, and social activity. In 1938, the Home Mission Board repurchased the property and sold it back for $1,000 a year. The congregation returned that Easter with a Homecoming and Rededication service under the theme “Victorious Faith!”
During World War II, the council ordered blackout curtains so evening gatherings could continue in the parish hall. St. Paul’s supported 20 members in military service and cared for families at home. The congregation raised money for war bonds, shared ration coupons, volunteered weekly at The Lutheran Welcome Center to welcome service members on leave, and supported the wider war effort. After the war, worship attendance grew rapidly. In 1955, the congregation reported 900 weekly communing members and 1,150 baptized members. Sunday school and confirmation classes expanded, Luther League took shape, and new groups for men, couples, and singles began. The church supported California Lutheran Hospitals, Camp Yolijwa, wider church missions, and neighborhood outreach. A successful fundraising campaign enabled construction of offices and Sunday school rooms in 1960.
By the late 1960s, St. Paul’s was making visible changes to its sanctuary. A Memorial Window campaign began in 1968, and the final side window was dedicated in 1971. In 1972, as the Vietnam War ended, the congregation offered a nearby house to a family of Vietnamese refugees. St. Paul’s also opened its doors in 1981 to the Westside reform synagogue Sha’arei Am, which remained there until finding a permanent home. In 1982, the church called its first female pastor since the ordination of women began in 1970. During that period, the congregation organized small groups, added a second worship service with contemporary music, and became more diverse as people of color and people with differing sexual orientations joined. A gay couple was permitted to hold a union in the sanctuary, although the congregation did not vote to adopt the Reconciling in Christ program at that point.
A 6.7 magnitude Northridge earthquake struck in January 1994, damaging the sanctuary and parish hall. Sha’arei Am, the first organization to offer St. Paul’s space, welcomed the congregation for worship. Donations covered $30,000 in repairs, while about $7,000 was directed to families affected by the quake. The congregation worshiped in the repaired sanctuary at Easter. A difficult pastoral transition followed in 1998, but a retired interim pastor helped the congregation heal. Pastor James Boline arrived in September 2000 and continues to serve St. Paul’s as an ordained pastor and ELCA rostered leader.
Grace Without Conditions
Lutheran theology at St. Paul’s is centered on the Gospel of grace. The church teaches that salvation is a totally free, unearned gift of God, given to all people without condition in Jesus Christ. For St. Paul’s, the word “evangelical” means being centered on the Good News of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. The congregation describes itself as progressive within the ELCA and emphasizes joyful word and sacrament worship, group study, prayer, fellowship, and intentional face-to-face partnerships with people who are most in need. Its mission combines worship, learning, and service with the pursuit of justice, reconciliation, and wholeness for all.
That welcome has a particular meaning at St. Paul’s, which has publicly identified itself as a Reconciling in Christ congregation since 2001. The affirmation of welcome is directed to all people, with particular intentionality toward lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people who might not feel welcome in other faith communities. St. Paul’s also names race, age, ability, gender expression, and ethnicity among the dimensions of its full welcome. In 2005, Pastor Boline came out to the congregation and later to the Churchwide Assembly. Since 2012, the church has served as an internship site for LGBTQIA+ ministry candidates and has welcomed 11 vicars. It has also supported Ugandans in Uganda and the United States who face persecution because of their sexual orientation.
A Sunday Morning at Lincoln Boulevard
Sunday worship begins at 10:30 a.m. in the St. Paul’s sanctuary and is also offered through a worship webcast. The church has maintained hybrid worship since March 2021, when the congregation returned to the sanctuary after the pandemic suspension of in-person services. Its worship draws on Lutheran liturgical practices, the lectionary, hymnody, choral music, and an inclusive range of instrumental styles. The congregation’s approach to music is described in the same terms as its wider life: musical excellence, active participation, and a place for many voices.
Children are included in the Sunday rhythm. Sunday School for grades K through 6 meets during worship, and professional childcare is available during services. The church also lists confirmation and Bible study among its education ministries, alongside the group study, prayer, and fellowship named in its mission. Palisades Preschool provides an early-learning connection to the congregation. Children and youth also participate in St. Paul’s musical life through singing and instrumental skills.
Visitors do not need to search for the parking. It is complimentary for services, concerts, and other events, with the lot at the northeast corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Washington Avenue. The parish office at 958 Lincoln Boulevard is open Monday through Friday by appointment. St. Paul’s can also host community events and concerts, and its music ministry provides music for wedding and funeral worship when available. Parish contact information is available here.
The Organ, Choir, and a Room That Sings
The Abbott & Sieker organ is the musical center of the sanctuary. Its 17 ranks contain 892 pipes, arranged across two manuals and pedal with tracker action, slider windchests, and low wind pressure. The Great division is exposed above the Swell, while the Pedal division sits in a shallow chamber behind it. Four ranks of pipes came from the church’s original 1927 ArtCraft organ, preserving part of the building’s musical history in the instrument that replaced it. The present organ was built in 1973 and 1974, dedicated on Reformation Sunday that October, and has since been extensively rebuilt. It is joined in worship by a 1917 Steinway piano and a Hubbard harpsichord.
St. Paul’s Choir has more than 20 voices and sings most Sundays from September through May, as well as Christmas Eve, Holy Week, and Easter. Rehearsal is normally held from 9 to 10 a.m. on Sunday before the 10:30 service, with a Saturday rehearsal from 10 a.m. to noon once or twice a month. New singers are welcome throughout the year. Instrumentalists add orchestral and band instruments, percussion, guitar, and global instruments to the musical life of the congregation, and Cantor Kevin Anderson welcomes inquiries about the choir and opportunities to play.
Stained Glass as a Visual History
Three windows above the altar were designed and created by Judson Studio of Pasadena for the church’s opening in 1927. The center window includes Luther’s coat of arms, while the surrounding figures depict centurions whose faith is affirmed in the Gospels. Sixteen narrative windows line the north and south sides of the sanctuary. Their biblical subjects include Jesus healing the blind, the baptism of Jesus, Christ blessing the children, the Nativity, Mary and Joseph finding Jesus in the temple, Jesus walking on the water, the ascension, the Good Samaritan, the women at the empty tomb, Jesus healing the sick, and Jesus feeding the multitude. Memorial inscriptions connect these scenes with founding families and later members of St. Paul’s.
Four upper-chancel windows designed by T. C. Taylor were installed in 1976. Their symbols include a golden chalice, interlocking circles for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the lamb of God, and a butterfly representing resurrection and eternal life. A medallion cross above the balcony stairs bears Alpha and Omega with the words “Our beginning and end is with Christ.” The last major stained-glass addition, a Crucifixion triptych, was installed in 2009 as a testamentary gift from Gertrude F. Miles. Its words, “God So Loved the World,” place Christ’s saving death at the visual center of the balcony.
Learning, Service, and Shared Resources
Education at St. Paul’s is intended to connect Scripture with relationships across generations. Sunday School for grades K through 6 occurs during worship, while confirmation and Bible study remain part of the church’s education life. The mission also calls for group study, prayer, and fellowship. Music offers another way into participation, with children and youth invited to develop their singing and instrumental abilities and share those gifts in worship.
Service has long been more than a committee activity. The Dorcas Society combined fellowship dinners, mission work, fundraising, and annual bazaars. St. Paul’s supported hospitals, Camp Yolijwa, wider church missions, and neighborhood outreach, while a $400,000 bequest from Cora Morrow eventually became the Mission and Ministry Fund. The church’s continuing vision emphasizes direct partnerships with people who most need support. Its musical and community reach extends beyond worship through orchestral concerts and the hosting of community events.
St. Paul’s frames stewardship as sharing time, talent, and treasure in support of ministry and mission. Contributions can be placed in the offering, left in the church office mailbox, mailed to the parish, arranged through a bank, or made as one-time or recurring gifts through online and mobile giving. Online giving can be made without installing an application or creating an account. This practical side of mission grows from a clear conviction that faith is lived through worship, learning, service, and care for the wider world.
Renewal for the Next Hundred Years
The pandemic forced another chapter of adaptation. Worship in the sanctuary stopped in 2020, annual meetings moved to Zoom, and Lenten, Christmas, and Easter services were broadcast online. A Paycheck Protection Program loan was eventually forgiven, and congregational giving helped sustain the church through the disruption. Weekly hybrid worship returned in March 2021. Earlier, the congregation had embraced practical sustainability for its 90th anniversary, replacing the lawn with decomposed granite and pavers, adding drip irrigation and native plants, and caring for the church grounds in a more water-conscious way. Capital work has also renewed the physical plant, including a new HVAC system, roof and gutter replacement, security cameras, solar panels, sanctuary doors, kitchen repairs, narthex restoration, and new office and parish hall flooring.
St. Paul’s also responded when the Palisades Fire displaced families and destroyed nearby institutions. The church itself escaped damage, but it opened its doors to assist churches and schools that had burned and to support families displaced by the disaster. Such responses remain consistent with a long history of hospitality, from the return of the 1938 congregation to its own building to the later sharing of space with Sha’arei Am and other organizations. Looking across a century of change, St. Paul’s remains centered on grace, held together by worship, learning, service, and an insistence that the table is open. Its charge remains simple: worship faithfully, minister to one another, the community, and the wider world, and proclaim, “To God be the glory!”