A Church Born from Two Calls
St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church gathers at 3800 E. Third Street in Bloomington, where the building has grown, decade by decade, since the congregation first claimed its own space in December 1963. The story begins earlier, though, in a chapel at the Indiana Memorial Union. On December 6, 1959, worshipers met for the first time under the leadership of the Rev. William Rowen, drawn together by two overlapping visions: to serve the people of Bloomington and to provide a Lutheran expression of Christian faith for students and faculty at Indiana University. Four months later, on April 3, 1960, sixty-four charter members and twenty-seven children signed the charter that formally established the congregation.
That dual identity - congregation and campus ministry - still shapes everything the church does. Lutheran Campus Ministry at Indiana University, known locally as Rose House LuMin at IU and housed at 314 S. Rose Avenue, remains an integral part of the parish's ministry, guided by a written partnership covenant. Students continue to find a worshiping home at St. Thomas, and the two ministries share staff time and space. The arrangement reflects the founding conviction that the church would not choose between serving the city and serving the university; it would do both.
Liturgical Worship, Orderly but Not Starchy
Sunday morning worship at St. Thomas follows a pattern recognizable to Lutherans and Episcopalians and to anyone familiar with the historic liturgical traditions of Christianity. The service opens with prayer and singing, then three readings from the Bible and a Psalm. There is a sermon, more singing, and an extended time of prayer for the church, for peace among nations, for the care of creation, for healing, and for other concerns named by members. Worshipers greet one another with the Peace of Christ, and the offering follows - some give money, some give intentions, some give music. After the table is set and thanks are given, the congregation gathers for Holy Eucharist, or Holy Communion.
Two services are offered on Sunday mornings during the academic year: 8:30 AM and 11:00 AM, with Sunday School for all ages meeting between them at 9:45. In summer, the schedule shifts to 8:30 and 10:15, with no Sunday School and fellowship between services. The 8:30 service is livestreamed on the St. Thomas YouTube channel each week, and recordings of the full service, the children's message, and the sermon remain available afterward.
At Communion, everyone is welcome. The table belongs to Jesus, not to the congregation. Worshipers receive hand-torn bread or gluten-free wafers, pink wine or red grape juice. Children who can eat solid food are welcome to receive the sacrament or a blessing, with the choice left entirely to parents. Classes are offered each year for children who wish to deepen their understanding of communion.
A Reconciling in Christ Congregation Since the 1980s
St. Thomas has been a Reconciling in Christ congregation since the 1980s, the first Lutheran congregation in Indiana to adopt that designation, which publicly welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people into the full life of the church. That commitment shapes the congregation's welcome statement, which extends without exception to all of God's children, regardless of sex, race, national origin, educational background, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, physical and mental ability, age, or economic condition.
The church's neighbors include Congregation Beth Shalom and University Baptist Church, and the three congregations have developed a long-standing relationship of shared study and service. When Beth Shalom's building was damaged by fire, St. Thomas opened its sanctuary to them for worship. University Baptist's ministries include a Global Women's Gathering of international mothers and children, and St. Thomas worshipers have engaged in service projects alongside both congregations. The parish also formally recognizes the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's full communion partnerships with the Episcopal Church, the Moravian Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
Music as a Central Ministry
Music is one of the defining marks of worship at St. Thomas. A quote attributed to Martin Luther reads: next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The congregation loves to sing, and hymn singing anchors every Sunday service.
The Adult Choir leads worship each week, drawing selections from the broad heritage of the church. It is a no-audition choir that emphasizes ministry over performance, and the choir's fellowship is as valued as its musical offerings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, choir members gathered virtually, recording hymns and anthems asynchronously that were layered into virtual performances.
The Children's Choir, led by Melissa de Graaf, meets three Sundays a month during Sunday School and welcomes young singers up through grade six. Singers learn through games, Orff instruments, handbells, and rhythm work. Sixth graders can serve as Junior Leaders, helping with song, prayer, and games.
The church's organ, dedicated on February 7, 1999, is a J.C. Wilson instrument in the American Eclectic style, blending four separate instruments and more than 1,700 pipes. It is used both for worship and for recitals by students and faculty from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. The organ department's Halloween Spooktacular Pipes event draws community members each year.
Concerts are a regular feature of parish life. The Worship and the Arts Concert Series, established in 2003, brings in guest ensembles and offers performances by the Adult Choir in December and April. The Bach Cantata Project, a Bloomington ensemble, performs cantatas in the sanctuary several times a year.
A Building That Grew with Its Mission
St. Thomas moved into its first sanctuary in December 1963, on land that had been carved out of acreage shared with what would become neighboring congregations Beth Shalom and University Baptist Church. The first structure held a sanctuary, four rooms, and a kitchenette. From those modest beginnings, the building has expanded every decade to accommodate a growing congregation and its programs. Two capital campaigns over fifteen years raised more than $1.5 million for facility improvements, additional office and meeting space, energy efficiency upgrades, and the Mission Endowment Fund.
The sanctuary is designed in the round, with moveable chairs, a layout that has shaped worship at St. Thomas since the 1970s. Members remember sitting in a circle as central to the congregation's experience of gathered worship. Stained glass windows created by Charlotte Paul of Bloomfield, Indiana, include the Creation Windows in the sanctuary, the Spirit Window in Heritage Hall, and the Alpha and Omega windows in the narthex.
Art and craft by members are part of the building's character. Suzanne Halvorson has woven many of the liturgical textiles used in worship. Jim Doering, a master carpenter, crafted the baptismal font and the welcome table. Jim Halvorson created the inset tiles on the altar and pulpit. Visitors find handmade ceramics, handwoven vestments, and a stone bear, and each week the altar flowers are arranged with care.
The Narthex, the Prayer Garden, and the Labyrinth
The narthex, the entrance hall, is the social heart of the building. Visitors are invited to make a name tag, help themselves to coffee, and get to know the people around them. There is no dress code; some wear hats and neckties, most dress casually, and all are welcome.
Just south of the church, the Prayer Garden offers a quiet place for meditation and prayer. The garden's centerpiece is the steeple from the congregation's first sanctuary, relocated when the building grew. The garden includes a waterfall, a pond, patios, benches, sculpture, a columbarium for inurned remains, and a scatter garden for ashes.
Up the hill behind the church, the Community Garden is laid out as a labyrinth. Gardeners are covenanted to practice organic gardening and to share at least twenty-five percent of their harvest with Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, a Bloomington food pantry. The garden includes raised beds, water hydrants, and benches, and serves both as a site for sustainable agriculture and as a contemplative space. The garden committee hosts workshops and events open to the wider community.
Children and Youth
Children are warmly welcomed in worship at St. Thomas. The Prayer Pond, a rug in the sanctuary near the front, provides a safe place for infants and toddlers up to age two with their caregivers, complete with soft toys, board books, and a rocking chair. Backpacks filled with quiet toys and Bible-themed activities are available in the narthex for children ages three to six. An unstaffed nursery with speakers broadcasting the service is available for families who need a break. A children's message is part of every service, when a worship leader shares a message to help children connect with the day's Scripture.
Sunday School meets between the two Sunday services from 9:45 to 10:45 during the academic year. Curriculum follows the lectionary used in worship: Spark: Activate Faith for kindergarten through third grade, a deeper dive into the Gospels for fourth through sixth grade, and Daniel Erlander's Manna and Mercy for confirmation students in seventh and eighth grade. High school students have their own Sunday morning gatherings at Needmore coffee and participate in the Adult Forum.
Vacation Bible School is a full-day program for children entering kindergarten through fifth grade, usually held for three days after Memorial Day. Middle and high school students volunteer alongside adults.
The Youth Ministry, for students in grades five through twelve, hosts gatherings, retreats, and fellowship events throughout the year. The pastor of youth and Christian nurture has historically led this work.
Adult Formation
Worship itself is the primary means of adult formation at St. Thomas, but several ongoing programs deepen that work. The Adult Forum meets between services each Sunday during the academic year and explores the Bible, ELCA social statements, faith in everyday life, and the work of mission partners. Gather Bible Study meets once a month in the Conference Room, led by a lay person. The Monday Bible Study meets at 1:00 PM in the Conference Room and is open to all adults, whether newcomers to Scripture or seasoned readers; the pastor leads discussion of the upcoming Sunday readings, with no preparation required.
Book groups have included discussions of Jan Richardson's The Cure for Sorrow and Barbara Rossung's The Rapture Exposed. The parish library is open whenever the building is open, and the sanctuary and Prayer Garden are available for quiet prayer throughout the day.
Mission: Local, National, Global
The Mission Committee oversees the congregation's partnerships with local, national, and global organizations. Locally, St. Thomas supports Beacon, Inc., which began as the Shalom Center day shelter and now provides street outreach, breakfast programs, rapid re-housing, and other services to people experiencing homelessness and poverty. The church also supports New Hope for Families, the only shelter in Monroe County where families with children can stay together, through donations of household goods and financial support. Pantry 279, a zero-barrier food bank serving Monroe and surrounding counties, receives shelf-stable food donations and volunteer support from the congregation.
Other local partners include the Community Kitchen Backpack Buddies program, which provides weekend food to children at twenty-one local schools; Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, a food access organization to which the Community Garden donates produce; the Bloomington Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which provides safety-net services to neighbors in need; and Pathways (formerly MCUM), which offers early childhood education and family support.
Nationally and globally, the congregation supports Lutheran World Relief and the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. Members have made 391 loans totaling $13,300 to borrowers in fifty-seven countries through Kiva, a crowdfunding microlending nonprofit. The congregation supports ECHO, which trains small-scale farmers in the developing world, through an annual plant sale. A long-standing Sister Parish relationship connects St. Thomas with Lutheran congregations in Guatemala.
Members prepare 110 lunch bags each month for the Welcome Table lunch program at First Christian Church, and they volunteer at the Bloomington Severe Winter Emergency Shelter. The Mission Endowment Fund, established with capital campaign funds and grown over the years, distributes its earnings quarterly to support new mission initiatives and existing ministries. Any congregation member may apply for funding.
Creation Care and Community Garden
Environmental stewardship has been a congregational priority since 1989, when St. Thomas banned Styrofoam and began using mugs for coffee. The congregation recycles, uses fair trade coffee and tea, and has invested in energy efficiency: on-demand hot water, better insulation, zoned heating, LED lighting in the sanctuary and Heritage Hall, high-efficiency furnaces, and Energy Star roofing. In 2013, the church installed twenty-seven kilowatts of solar panels on its roof, and in 2022, an additional eleven kilowatts of ground-mounted solar brought the congregation to one hundred percent renewable electricity use. The prayer garden area was replanted with native species to attract pollinators.
In 2011, members helped create Hoosier Interfaith Power and Light, now known as Faith in Place, an organization that works with faith communities on climate and energy issues.
Staff and Leadership
The Rev. Adrianne Meier serves as pastor of St. Thomas, having joined the staff in September 2020. A graduate of Capital University and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Pastor Adrianne previously served congregations in Ohio and Pennsylvania. She lives in Ellettsville with her spouse Matt, their two daughters Hope and Lucy, and their dog Finn McCool.
Matthew Benkert serves as Director of Music and Organist. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in organ performance from Central Michigan University and is pursuing a Doctor of Music in Organ Performance and Sacred Music at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where he studies with Dr. Christopher Young.
Ben Wegner directs the Adult Choir and is pursuing a Doctor of Music in Choral Conducting at Indiana University. Melissa de Graaf directs the Children's Choir and brings experience as a music professor, youth choir director, and early childhood music educator.
Erica Whichello serves as Parish Administrator.
The Congregation Council includes council president Ashley Ahlbrand, vice-president Lynn Coyne, secretary Johnathan Frank, and members Dean Arnold, Randy Arnold, Janine Giordano Drake, Savannah Hadley-DeMark, Carol Seaman, Greg Valenta, and Mike Witt.
Connecting and Getting Involved
St. Thomas offers several pathways for newcomers and members who want to deepen their involvement. Pie with the Pastor is a relaxed gathering with Pastor Adrianne that includes conversation, actual pie, and an introduction to the congregation's ministries and membership process. The Adult Forum and Gather Bible Study offer weekly and monthly opportunities to learn alongside other adults. The Adult Choir welcomes new singers without audition. The Piecemakers quilting group meets regularly. The 60+ Group gathers for outings and events. And the Mission Committee welcomes volunteers for Welcome Table lunch packing, Pantry 279 volunteer Wednesdays, the Winter Shelter, and other community partnerships.
Visitors are also invited to consider becoming a member of St. Thomas through the Affirmation of Baptism ritual, which includes a period of conversation and preparation. Because the congregation draws many members from the transient Indiana University community, an associate membership option is available for those who wish to retain membership in another congregation while participating in St. Thomas's life.
For those unable to attend in person, the 8:30 Sunday service is livestreamed on the St. Thomas YouTube channel, and recordings of each week's full service, children's message, and sermon remain available afterward. Worship bulletins are posted online each week.