A Landmark of Faith on Highway 55
Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran Church and School sits on a rise at 2950 Highway 55 in Eagan, Minnesota, a building so associated with the southeast suburb that longtime residents still call it the big, beautiful church on the hill at Dodd and Lone Oak Roads. Founded in 1880 and dedicated on its cornerstone two years later, the congregation has now been a visible part of the community for nearly a century and a half. Two sanctuaries, three school buildings, generations of stained glass windows, and a 9.5-acre campus later, Trinity Lone Oak is still rooted in the conviction its founders wrote down and sealed into the original structure: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
The congregation belongs to The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), the same Bible-based, mission-oriented denomination it joined in its earliest years, and it operates TLO School, a Christian preschool-through-eighth-grade program housed in the same campus. Together, the church and school form a single ministry that teaches the Word of God, prepares children to be Christ's witnesses, and supports a quality education from the first day of preschool through the start of high school. Weekly worship, a deep adult education program, a Trail Life troop, a quilters' workshop, a food shelf ministry, and partnerships with missionaries from the Twin Cities to Taiwan all radiate out from the same campus.
Sundays in the Sanctuary
The weekend rhythm at TLO is anchored by two Sunday worship services. Holy Communion is offered every Sunday, and the 8:00 a.m. service is livestreamed and remains available for viewing any time afterward. Worship moves across the church year - from Advent midweek services to Lent to Easter Sunrise - and the 10:30 a.m. service gathers the largest share of the congregation each week. A children's message is given at both Sunday services, and activity bulletins are available so that the youngest worshipers can engage with the service from the pews alongside their families.
The bulk of adult Bible study and Sunday school happens between those services at 9:15 a.m. Adult classes meet in the gym and the conference room. Kids from 3K through eighth grade gather for Sunday school, taught from the Enduring Faith curriculum that walks students through the whole story of Scripture, with crafts, games, and hands-on lessons at the preschool and kindergarten levels and a more discussion-driven approach for older students. High school students meet in the youth room for their own Bible study during the same hour.
Two organists, Diane Streich and Merlin Simon, lead the music from the console of the church's pipe organ, an instrument with a long history on the campus (a Kilgren pipe organ was purchased in 1914, a Hunt organ in 1980, and the organ was expanded in 2000). Worship folders are printed each week so that visitors and members alike can follow the liturgy, the prayers, and the readings without missing a beat.
The Church Year: From Advent to Easter
Worship at Trinity Lone Oak does not stop with Sunday morning. During Advent and Lent, midweek services are held on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., often preceded by a soup supper at 5:30 p.m. Holy Week brings additional services, including Easter Sunrise. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day each have their own services, as do Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving Day - a rare combination that reflects how thoroughly the church year is woven into the congregation's life.
Every service is livestreamed on YouTube and shared through the church's worship resources page, with bulletins, children's bulletins, and sermon notes available for download. Recordings going back several years remain on YouTube, so anyone traveling or homebound can worship alongside the gathered congregation. Worship Anew, an LCMS program of half-hour services led by LCMS pastors, is also promoted for use while traveling, with an app available for iOS and Android.
TLO School: Hearts and Minds in Christ
Teaching children has been part of Trinity Lone Oak's ministry since 1890, when the first separate school building was raised next to the second church. Today, TLO School serves students from preschool through eighth grade under Principal Stacey LaMere and Preschool Director Andy Olson. The mission statement hangs over the whole program: Equipping children for life-long learning and service by nurturing hearts and minds in Christ.
Christian instruction is integrated into the study of every subject. The staff includes both teachers and pastors whose presence witnesses to the Christian faith throughout the school day. Children's Chapel, daily religion classes, and a devotional rhythm shape the week, and a weekly newsletter called Tiger Times keeps parents connected. The Tiger Gala dinner and silent auction, and the school's marathon, are the two largest fundraisers that help keep tuition affordable for families.
Outdoor learning is built into the campus itself. The TLO School Forest, a partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources begun in 2014, fills part of the property with trees, shrubs, ferns, flowers, grasses, and sedges planted and documented by students. The forest gives the school an outdoor classroom and a daily reminder that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.
What Lutherans Believe
Trinity Lone Oak is a member congregation of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the doctrines it confesses are the historic Lutheran position as set out in the Book of Concord. The teaching of Luther and the reformers can be summed up in three short phrases: Grace alone. Faith alone. Scripture alone.
The church teaches that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, that the one true God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - three persons, one divine essence - and that God created the heavens and the earth in six days as Genesis describes. Humanity fell into sin through Adam, and the whole human race is born in sin and subject to God's wrath; no human effort can reconcile us to God. The eternal Son of God became truly man through the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Spirit, lived the perfect life demanded by the Law, suffered, died, and rose again to reconcile the world to God. Faith in this reconciliation, received as a gift and not produced by human effort, is the only way to obtain forgiveness of sins.
The Means of Grace - the Word of the Gospel and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper - are the ordinary channels through which the Holy Spirit creates and sustains that faith. TLO teaches that Christ will return visibly at the Last Day to judge the living and the dead, that there will be one resurrection of the dead, and that the time of that Day remains unknown. The congregation's published statements affirm that God creates each person as male or female, that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death.
The Mission and Vision: Faithful, Joyful, Gifted
The motto that guides Trinity Lone Oak is short enough to memorize in an afternoon and wide enough to shape a whole church's life: Faithful in Word; Joyful in Fellowship; Gifted to Serve. The full mission statement reads, To proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, making disciples of all people, leading them to demonstrate God's love to one another, the community, and the world.
Faithful in Word means confidently accepting that God's Word is truth, teaching the true Word to neighbors and to the world, being daily in the Word and constant in prayer, and faithfully attending worship to hear that Word and to receive God's grace in the Sacraments. Joyful in Fellowship means walking together with other Christians, building each other up, and celebrating the joy of receiving Christ's forgiveness in Holy Communion. Gifted to Serve means recognizing that every believer has been given spiritual gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit, and using those gifts to serve the Body of Christ at every stage of the Christian life.
Children, Youth, and Confirmation
The Children's Ministry at TLO is built around the conviction that children grow spiritually through the faithful study of the Holy Scriptures. Sunday school is offered for ages 3K through twelfth grade, and registration is open every fall using either an online form or a paper form available at the church. Enduring Faith curriculum is used from preschool through eighth grade, with the high school class engaging students in God's Word to strengthen faith and embolden their witness.
Confirmation Ministry welcomes seventh and eighth graders to study what they believe and to affirm their faith as their own. Drawing on Deuteronomy 6 - You shall teach them diligently to your children - and the promises made at Holy Baptism, the program walks students through the basics of the Christian faith and prepares them to take their place as adult members of the Body of Christ.
TLO Youth, for grades 8 through 12, gathers once a month on Sunday evenings during the school year for music, games, Bible study, and small group discussion. Service is woven into the calendar: youth have packed meals at Feed My Starving Children, served at coffee hours and soup suppers, and joined other congregation-wide mission events. The senior high group also meets for Bible study on Sunday mornings.
Young Adults, B.R.E.W., and Adult Life
The young adult ministry at TLO is called B.R.E.W. - Building Relationships, Exploring the Word. There are two B.R.E.W. groups: one for the college-age range (18-24) and one for young professionals (25-35). Both groups meet to study God's Word, pray for one another, do life together, and remind one another of the encouragement in Hebrews 10:24-25 not to give up meeting together.
Adult Ministry centers on the church's three-word vision. The aim is to help adults grow in faithfulness to the Word of God, to deepen joyful fellowship with one another, and to find a place to use the gifts the Holy Spirit has given them. Faithful in Word means digging into Scripture week by week; Joyful in Fellowship means gathering around the table and the cup; Gifted to Serve means building up the body of Christ through a hundred small acts of ministry.
Bible Studies for Every Weekday
TLO offers a remarkable range of Bible studies across the week, with groups for men, women, mixed adults, and online learners.
- Malachi - Sundays at 10:15 a.m. in the TLO Gym. A study of the book of Malachi, exploring the Gospel of God's covenant election and the coming Messiah.
- That the World May Know - Sundays at 10:15 a.m. in the TLO Conference Room. A video-based study with Ray Vander Laan that uses archaeological evidence and on-site footage from Israel to bring the biblical world to life.
- Exodus - Mondays at 10:00 a.m. in the TLO Conference Room, led by Pastor Kroonblawd. A study of the book of Exodus - the way out - and the redemption God worked through Moses.
- Men's Bible Study - Wednesdays at 6:30 a.m. in the Conference Room. An early-morning look at the prophet Jeremiah and how God's people have endured sorrows.
- Women of the Word (WOW) - most Fridays at 9:00 a.m. in the TLO Conference Room. A women's Bible study that opens with prayer, study, and fellowship.
- Women's Bible Study - Saturdays, once or twice a month, 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. A study tracing Christ through the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi.
- TLO Online Library - through a free RightNow Media subscription the church provides for every family. Anyone can text TLOLC to 49775 to sign up and access thousands of on-demand Bible study videos.
There are also two recurring prayer gatherings for adults: Privileged to Pray on the first weekday of every month at 4:00 p.m. (location rotates among member homes), and Moms in Prayer, which meets twice a month to pray on behalf of children, teachers, and the school.
Prayer at TLO: PrayerCares, Prayer Chains, and Prayer Walking
Prayer is treated as a whole-congregation ministry at Trinity Lone Oak. My house will be a house of prayer for all the nations, Isaiah 56:7, appears at the head of the Prayer Ministry page, and the work of the ministry is to keep that promise visible.
Requests can be shared online through the PrayerCares platform linked from the church site. A prayer request submitted through the app can be sent confidentially to the pastor, passed on to the prayer chain, or shared across the congregation's prayer feed. The PIT Crew - the Pastor's Intercessory Team - gathers to pray before Sunday worship. Every TLO member is paired with a prayer partner and given resources to pray for one another through the year. Portals of Prayer devotionals are available in regular and large print in the narthex.
For anyone wanting a guide to pray on the move, a Neighborhood Prayer Walking Guide is published on the TLO site so that members walking their own streets can lift up the homes they pass.
Reaching Out: Twelve Baskets, Quilters, and Mission Partners
The Board of Social Ministry shows the love of God by ministering to the entire spectrum of human need - spiritual, social, and economic - within the congregation, the surrounding community, and the wider world. Many of the projects take shape under the Twelve Baskets banner.
- Bagel Packaging - Saturdays from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. in the TLO Kitchen. Volunteers repackage bagels and redistribute them to people who are hungry across the Twin Cities.
- Food Shelf Donations - a big blue barrel in the narthex collects non-perishables for area food shelves.
- Toothbrush and Hygiene Kits - ongoing collection of travel-size soap and toiletries to assemble kits for men and women experiencing homelessness.
- Operation Christmas Child - annual packing and potluck event for shoe boxes filled with gifts and the Gospel, sent to children around the world.
- Culver's Nights - periodic fellowship nights at the Eagan Culver's, with a percentage of proceeds supporting TLO School.
The TLO Quilters stitch quilts to bring God's comfort, life, and peace to recipients. Over the years the group has donated quilts to individuals in and outside the congregation, to M.O.M.'s organization, to Ronald McDonald House, to men's and women's homeless shelters, to Sharing and Caring Hands, and to the Dorothy Day Center. A TLO Annual Craft Fair has been a tradition at the gym as well.
The Lutheran Women's Missionary League (LWML), the official women's auxiliary of the LCMS, is active at TLO. Trinity Lone Oak also partners directly with the Amnion Crisis Pregnancy Center - a Christ-centered ministry sharing the Gospel and upholding the sanctity of human life - through Baby Bottles for Life and the annual Walk for Life. TLO's Sunday school offerings for the 2025-2026 year help support Rev. Dr. Tom Park, an LCMS theological educator serving in Taiwan who is helping to start a new Lutheran seminary on the island.
Trail Life Troop 2950
Trail Life Troop 2950 is chartered at Trinity Lone Oak for boys in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Trail Life combines outdoor skills, leadership, and discipleship to help boys grow into courageous young men who honor God, lead with integrity, and serve their families and communities. Troop meetings are held on the first, third, and fifth Mondays from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m., with weekend activities added for outdoor adventure and service. Troop leadership can be reached at TrailLife@trinityloneoak.org.
Becoming a Member: GodConnects
TLO offers a new-member course called GodConnects three times a year - in winter, spring, and fall - for teens and adults who would like to explore church membership. The course covers twelve topics that lay out the foundations of the Christian faith: the Bible, the nature of God, the truth about Jesus, the Lutheran view of the Sacraments, and a comparison with other religions and Christian denominations. Classes are offered at no cost and with no obligation. Upon completion, individuals and families are invited to join the TLO church community.
First-Time Visitors
Once inside the narthex, the sanctuary is easily accessible, with men's and women's restrooms on the same level. A children's nursery is available on the sanctuary level - stocked with toys and books, including a pint-sized restroom and a private room for nursing mothers. TLO asks that children remain under parental supervision while in the nursery for their safety. Children's activity bulletins are available in the pew so little ones can engage with the service alongside their family. Guests wondering what to wear should know that TLO simply asks visitors to wear what helps them feel prepared to worship - modest, neat, clean attire, from business to casual.
The Lord's Supper is a gift of God's grace, in which the true body and blood of Christ are received in the bread and wine. Because Holy Communion is also a confession of common faith, guests who have not confirmed their faith in an LCMS congregation are asked to speak with a pastor before communing.
Online Resources, RightNow Media, and Giving
TLO's resources and media page is a one-stop clearinghouse. TLO Together is the weekly e-newsletter that keeps the congregation informed of upcoming events. TLO Disciple is a monthly topical study, with recent issues on freedom, discipleship, living in God's forgiveness, gifted to serve, joy in fellowship, and faithfulness to the Word. The page also links to Concordia Academy Roseville, a 9-12 LCMS high school in the Twin Cities that many TLO School graduates attend.
RightNow Media access is free for every TLO family. The library includes thousands of Bible study videos for adults, kids, and students, often called the Netflix of Bible studies. Worship Anew provides half-hour services led by LCMS pastors for use at home or while traveling.
Giving can be done during the offering in any worship service, online through Vanco (one-time or recurring gifts), by texting a gift to 651-538-1727, by donating stocks or bonds through the church office, by supporting the TLO endowment, or by mail. Undesignated gifts are placed in the general fund.
Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran Church and School meets its community at the corner of Highway 55 and Lone Oak Road, in the same building it has occupied for over a century, and teaches the same Gospel it has taught since 1880.