Faith
Evangelical Lutheran Church
Home Page
A Warm and Hearty Welcome to Our Visitors!
Our mailing address is:
1320 Rte 764, Duncansville PA 16635
The Location is Just North of Duncansville PA and Just South of Altoona PA at the
Intersections of Rte 22 and Rte 764
Our Sunday Worship Service (Gottesdienst) :
Worship (Word & Sacrament) at 7:45 A.M.
Worship and Study times on Wednesdays:
10:00 A.M. Matins Service followed by Bible & Confessions Study led by the Pastor
7:30 P.M. Vesper Service (Word & Sacrament) followed by Bible & Confessions Study led by the Pastor
Our worship format & orientation:
We use The 2nd Setting of the SBH a Red Hymnal whose full title is the Service Book and Hymnal.
The "Thees" and "Thous" as well as other phrases can be tongue twisters but there is a sense of continuity with those who have gone before us in the Liturgy. We are after all called to pass on only that which we first received.
The Sacrament of Holy Communion
is offered every Sunday at both Services of Worship, at all special festivals occurring on a Week day, at Matins worship during Advent and Lent, and at all midweek evening Vesper worship services.
Our worship experience without an "Church" facility
Our worship began in a Hotel conference room and then moved to a Hotel meeting area. This was our setting until we officially opened our charter 4 months after our beginning worship service.
We then moved to a community center which we rented for the next 3 years and 11 months. We include a grey scale picture here of the congregation gathered for our late Sunday morning Service of Worship in that rental facility .
Our Congregation purchased one acre of land in October 1995. The property came equipped with a 3 year old commercial warehouse. We picture the building as it originally was here.
We were able to take the warehouse
facility and with the labor of our own members turn it into our new worship facility. We
include several pictures of our efforts here in .jpg file format. The exterior of the
building still has the appearance of a warehouse despite the cross and the red doors but
the interior leaves no one in question that this is a house of the Lord where "Gottesdienst"
(God's Service to those who worship) is given.
Next we portray our building as it now looks after the replacement of two large overheard warehouse doors (The main entrance is visible on the right as you look at the church a second entrance is on the left side of the building)
The exterior was left simple and plain with only the addition of the large Cross and the name of our Church. This was in anticipation of expansion of the facility in the not distant future.
We also black topped a portion of our parking area immediately adjacent to the building.
Our main efforts were concentrated on completely renovating and finishing the interior of the church and amazingly we were able to do this and to furnish the entire interior with everything paid for in cash.
We had begun work to expand our facility and to make the exterior more visible as a church at the Duncansville, PA. location but discovered that we needed to purchase additional land adjacent to the church. We sought to purchase an additional acre but found the price of the land in a Commercial/Industrial area too much for us to handle and build the church expansion. The Price tage on the additional land was $300,000.00 for one acre and our planned expansion was at $500,000.00. Clearly we could not handle the Expansion plus the additional property acquisition. However when one door is closed another is opened.
Through the amazing generosity of several families we have been able to acquire at a minimal cost 5.8 acres of ground in a superb residential location approximately 4 miles from the Duncansville location. A small church facililty is located on this property and the Faith Congregation will plan to build it major new Worship facility on that property while continuing the present location as a Worship and Preaching point for the general parish. Truly the Lord has dramatically increased our sphere of outreach and witness. Sola Dei Gloria!
The Pictorial we share with you is a recent photo to the interior of our church as members begin to gather for the 11:00 A.M. Sunday Service (Gottesdienst) of Word and Sacrament.
We hope you enjoyed your visit to our Home page and the viewing of these attempts to convey that which the Lord has accomplished through our little band since our 1992 beginning. We began with very little indeed - A pastor, The Word and sacraments, 40 people willing to gather each week for "Gottesdienst" (God's Service to them).
Somehow we survived 4 years and 2 months in a rental situation, were enabled to provide a full pastoral support package, engaged in Mission outreach by establishing two additional congregations, and acquired land with a building upon it which we then labored successfully to renovate into a church home.
As of today our congregation numbers have moved beyond 300 baptized members and continue to grow. We look at all the blessings poured out upon us since our November 1991 and January 1992 beginnings and realize that all of this is by the Grace of God alone through Christ Jesus alone.