On Sunday mornings in the northwest suburbs of Columbus, two sanctuaries fill with the sound of prayer, song, and the rustle of bulletins. One of them, on Lytham Road in Upper Arlington, is the original home of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church. The other, a few miles west on Mill Run Drive in Hilliard, opened its doors just before the turn of the millennium. Together they form a single congregation that members simply call UALC, a community of roughly 1,200 people who describe their church as an oasis of God's kingdom for a dry and thirsty world.
An Oasis Vision Rooted in the Burbs
UALC sees itself as a place where people who don't yet know they are loved can find a home. The church's vision statement gathers around four convictions: people need hope, and Jesus is it; people need love; people need a compass, and Jesus has given his example, his teaching, his Spirit, and his Scriptures; and people need a home. The mission underneath all of it is the one Jesus gave the church two thousand years ago, to be and to make disciples.
The way UALC lives out that mission takes shape across two campuses that are essentially the same church expressed in two neighborhoods. The Lytham Road Campus in Upper Arlington holds the congregation's history. The Mill Run Campus in Hilliard, which opened on New Year's Eve 1999, is where much of the church's growing ministry happens. Both campuses offer Sunday services at 9:00 and 11:00 am, both have a Connect Center where newcomers can learn about the church, and both share the same preaching calendar, the same sermon series, and the same staff team.
Worship at the Two Campuses
Each campus has its own personality on Sunday morning. At the Mill Run Campus, both services are Modern, led by a worship band and featuring contemporary Christian music. The Lytham Road Campus blends the two styles: the 9:00 am service is Traditional, with organ, choir, hymns, and anthems, while the 11:00 am service is Modern with a band.
Beyond the musical style, every service at UALC follows the same shape. Worshipers confess sin together, hear the announcement of God's forgiveness, share the Lord's Table in communion every Sunday, pass the peace with a handshake or a hug, and hear a sermon rooted in Scripture. Some attenders wear their Sunday best to the Traditional service, while others come in jeans and a flannel. The pastoral team is quick to point out that what matters is worship and fellowship, not fashion.
Kids' Church is offered during the school year at both campuses for children in Pre-K through fifth grade. At Mill Run, Kids' Church happens during both the 9:00 and 11:00 am services. At Lytham Road, Kids' Church is offered during the 11:00 am Modern service. A nursery is available at every service, year-round, at both locations. On the third Sunday of each month, children are invited to Rally Sunday, a kid-friendly parallel service that runs the entire worship hour.
For those who can't be there in person, the 9:00 am service is livestreamed each Sunday, and past services stay available on YouTube. The UALC Teaching Podcast carries the sermon conversation further, with episode-length explorations of the same texts preached from the pulpit.
Sacramental, Evangelical, and Charismatic: The Three Streams
What makes UALC distinctive among Lutheran congregations is the way it holds three traditions together. Members describe the church as a three-streams congregation.
The sacramental stream shows up in the weekly communion, the regular rhythm of confession and forgiveness, and a worship life that follows a dependable pattern week after week. The evangelical stream is seen in the prominence given to Scripture reading and teaching, and in the regular invitation to say yes to Jesus for the first time or in a deeper way. The charismatic stream is present in the willingness to pray with anyone who asks, in listening for the Holy Spirit's guidance, and in seeking God's healing in body, mind, and spirit.
None of these streams crowds out the others. The pastoral team calls the practice a healthy and constructive tension, and it shows up in everything from the bulletin to the prayer ministry after services.
What UALC Believes
Underneath the variety of worship styles, UALC subscribes to a clearly Lutheran confession of faith. The congregation affirms the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and accepts the historic creeds of the church: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Members affirm the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the written, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.
UALC is a member congregation of two Lutheran bodies: Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). It subscribes to the Lutheran Confessions, often called the Book of Concord, including the unaltered Augsburg Confession, the Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Small and Large Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord. The full confession of faith is published in the congregation's constitution.
From Birth to High School: Next Generation Ministries
UALC takes an intentional path of discipleship from the cradle through high school graduation. The Next Generation team, led by Next Generation & High School Ministries Director Steve Almquist, organizes programming for every phase.
Infants through Pre-K receive nursery care during every Sunday service at both campuses, with a paid nursery staff and check-in procedures. Elementary-age children join Kids' Church during the school year for an experience designed to be highly engaging, with grade-specific small groups on Small Group Sundays and the monthly Rally Sunday.
Children's choirs extend the ministry into the middle of the week. Cherub Choir is for children in kindergarten through second grade, meeting Wednesdays from 4:00 to 5:00 pm at Lytham Road. Carol Choir, for grades three through six, runs Wednesdays from 4:00 to 5:30 pm at the same campus, with an extended evening once a month. Both choirs sing in Sunday worship several times a year. Children's music ministry is free for Cherub Choir and modestly priced for Carol Choir.
Middle School Ministry, or MSM, gathers on Sunday nights from 5:00 to 7:30 pm at the Mill Run Campus during the school year. The evenings include games, dinner, small groups, and teaching from God's Word. A separate MSM Thursday Morning Bible Study meets at 7:00 am at the Lytham Road Campus, with breakfast and a ride to school. An annual fall retreat in Hocking Hills is a highlight of the MSM calendar.
High School Ministry, or HSM, also meets Sunday nights from 5:00 to 7:30 pm at the Mill Run Campus. Like MSM, it includes dinner, friendship, worship, and teaching. Events like The Amazing Race give high schoolers a chance to bring friends along. The High School Director works alongside Steve Almquist, who oversees both ministries.
Adults Growing Together
Adult formation at UALC takes several shapes. A long-running Thursday Morning Bible Study meets at 10:30 am at the Lytham Road Campus, led by Campus Pastor Joe Valentino. The conversation is in-depth and the topics vary across the year.
Sunday Nights at UALC, a fall discipleship program for adults and kids, runs from mid-September through late November. Adults gather for Deeply Rooted, a study that walks through the story of the Bible; the fall 2026 semester focuses on the Old Testament. A series of shorter Topical Courses run alongside, covering subjects like forgiveness and books like Ecclesiastes. Kids in grades Pre-K through fifth join Rooted Kids, a parallel track that ties family faith conversations to the adult study. Dinner is included for the whole family.
Celebrate Recovery meets on Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the Mill Run Campus. It is a Christ-centered, twelve-step program that offers a confidential, supportive environment for anyone working through hurts, hang-ups, and habits.
Women's Bootcamp for the Soul is a multi-day retreat held several times a year in Hocking Hills. The fall session is built around the book Captivating by Stasi Eldredge and includes lodging, meals, and group study time.
In His Image: A Place for Everyone
Accessibility is not an afterthought at UALC; it is a named ministry. The In His Image ministry, directed by Tonya Riedel, walks alongside members and friends with disabilities and special needs.
Several programs make that visible. The Friendship Bible Class meets Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at the Mill Run Campus for individuals who are differently-abled, with opportunities for fellowship, worship, and Bible study. First Friday Friendship is a monthly social gathering at the Lytham Road Campus with food, activities, and friendship. The leadership team of First Friday Friendship includes adults with disabilities themselves.
On Sunday mornings, UALC offers ASL-interpreted worship services, assisted listening devices, noise-cancelling headphones, wheelchairs, a buddy system for Kids' Church, ample handicapped parking, and handicap-accessible bathrooms.
Prayer That Stays Alive All Week
Prayer is woven into the rhythm of the church. Every Tuesday from 12:15 to 12:45 pm, Campus Pastor David White hosts a Weekly Prayer Meeting in the Mill Run Sanctuary, open to anyone who wants to join.
Outside the church building, the Daily Worship Devotional sends members and friends a written reflection seven days a week. Each weekday devotional is written by a different UALC member and tied to a short Bible reading. A printed bookmark, available at the church, follows the same lectionary through the months.
A Weekly Prayer Team receives prayer requests and prays regularly for those who have asked for prayer. Visitors to the church can submit prayer requests online, and members can request to join the prayer team through the Care Director.
Rooted in Place, Reaching Out
Even with its two buildings and full programming for its own members, UALC sees itself as a church that exists for the neighborhoods around it.
The UALC Community Garden, which began in 2008, grows organic vegetables on the Mill Run Campus and gives the harvest away for free to neighbors in Hilliard and the surrounding area. In a record year, the garden produced more than 24,000 pounds of food. The garden is volunteer-run and welcomes gardeners of all ages; volunteers meet Saturday mornings through the growing season, with Wednesday evening family picnics in summer.
Red Cross Blood Drives happen at the Mill Run Campus every other month on Saturdays, with online registration available through the Red Cross. Trunk or Treat, an evening of trunk-or-treating, dinner, and a chili cook-off, draws the wider community to the Lytham Road Campus each October.
Mission trips carry the congregation beyond central Ohio. A long-running men's work trip sends volunteers to Cedar Bay Christian Retreat Center in Michigan's Upper Peninsula each fall for repairs and improvements to the camp. When disasters strike closer to home, UALC organizes relief trips. A recent flood relief effort sent a team to Crooksville, Ohio, to repair flood-damaged homes alongside homeowners.
The church also maintains a network of national and international mission partners, coordinated by the Partnership & Mobilization team, and tithes 20 percent of all undesignated giving to mission work locally and around the world.
Preschool and Kindergarten
For families with younger children, UALC runs Preschool and Kindergarten programs at both campuses, with a director at each location. The program operates during the school year and is staffed by a team of classroom teachers. Job openings for part-time Preschool Teachers and Nursery Staff are posted online.
Buildings, Property, and a Piece of History
The Lytham Road Campus is the older of the two. On July 8, 1956, sixty-five people gathered in the basement of a small parsonage in the heart of an Upper Arlington neighborhood for the first worship service. Two years later, the first worship service was held at the Lytham Road location, where the church has been ever since. The Mill Run Campus opened on New Year's Eve 1999 to accommodate the growing congregation.
Each campus includes a sanctuary, classrooms, library, fellowship spaces, and a Connect Center. UALC libraries at both campuses carry Bibles, books, DVDs, and audio resources for all ages, with an online catalog and a self-checkout system. An outdoor columbarium at the Lytham Road Campus hosts a sunrise Easter service each year.
Leadership and Governance
UALC is led by Senior Pastor Steve Turnbull, with Executive Pastor Aaron Thompson overseeing much of the day-to-day ministry and operations. Campus Pastors David White (Mill Run) and Joe Valentino (Lytham Road) shepherd the two locations. A Church Council, chaired by Lindsay Notwell, governs the congregation, with Vice Chair Dan Like, Past Chair Jane D. Leach, and members elected from the congregation. Council meetings are open to members and meet on the third Tuesday of each month at the Lytham Road Campus. Congregational meetings happen twice a year, in spring and fall.
Becoming Part of UALC
Visitors who want to learn more can fill out the online Connect Form. A baptism class is offered on the second Sunday of every month at 1:00 pm at both campuses, for anyone interested in being baptized or in baptizing their children.
The church maintains a presence on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Vimeo, and offers a mobile app for iOS and Android. Members and friends can sign up for email updates, listen to sermons through the UALC Teaching Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music, and follow along with sermon series journals and small group guides posted online.
Two community Facebook groups, the Mill Run Community group and the Lytham Road Community group, help neighbors stay in touch between Sundays.
A Lutheran Church for the Way People Actually Live
What UALC offers is, in the end, a steady rhythm of prayer, teaching, and gathering in two locations that share one congregation. Some members grew up in the basement of that 1956 parsonage. Others walked in for the first time last Sunday. The church's hope, set out plainly in its vision statement, is that everyone who comes through the doors will find themselves in a place that is well-watered by the love and truth and Spirit of Christ, and that those who encounter the community will say, See how they love one another, to the glory of God.