St. John’s Church Child Development Center
For over two decades, St. John’s Community Child Development Center has been providing preeminent childcare and early childhood education to Salt Lake City. It began in 1998 as a mission of St. John’s Lutheran Church and has grown to four locations serving over 300 families.
It is a nonprofit, state-licensed, and nationally accredited school bringing Jesus to a diverse student body from all over the valley.
For more information, you can visit St. John’s Community Child Development Center’s website.
Sudanese Ministry
St. John’s began working with the Sudanese in 1997 when three young Sudanese men came to the church looking for help with the needs of the newly arrived Sudanese refugees.
Since that time, the Sudanese Ministry has grown and changed as the Sudanese community has changed.
St. John’s congregation was able to locate and purchase Bibles, Luther’s Small Catechism, and hymnals in the Nuer language. (The congregations’ mother tongue.) They also translated the Divine Service into Nuer so that the Sudanese congregation could participate in liturgical worship services. The Sudanese now have their own worship service in Nuer and Paul Chuol, one of their members is studying to become their pastor.
The ministry has grown to include mission trips to South Sudan to plant Lutheran Churches and train native Sudanese church leaders. One member of the South Sudanese congregation was trained and ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sudan (ELCS) to serve the Lutheran congregations in that area.
Both the English-speaking congregation and the Nuer congregation support South Sudanese communities and Lutheran congregations with prayers, financial support, and continued mission trips to South Sudan.
The Sudanese ministry in Akobo continues. Pastor Malone, representing St. John’s, taught the Book of St. John at the Sudanese Seminary in Yambio for two weeks in 2018 as part of the Lutheran Heritage Seminary Education program. St. John’s Sudanese Ministry supported the Akobo mission ministry by -supplying funds to rebuild their church in war-torn South Sudan and continued active involvement with Pastor Steven and his refugee camp mission outreach program.
If you are interested in this ministry, please contact us through the Contact page.
Water of Life
July 24th is the big holiday in Utah where Mormons and non-Mormons, alike, swarm to Salt Lake City to watch the Days of ‘47 parade and participate in the celebration at Liberty Park with food, games, entertainment, and fireworks.
For the past several years, St. John’s has sponsored the Water of Life outreach event on July 24th, on the front lawn of the church – right across the street from the celebration. At the event, we give away free bottled water, hand out donated Bibles in both English and Spanish, engage in conversations, and share God’s love with all who come by.
Several members from sister congregations have joined the members of St. John’s in volunteering a couple of hours of their time to hand out water and talk to people. We hand out over one-thousand bottles of water, share our witness of Jesus and God’s gift of the forgiveness of sin, and have a great time getting to know one another a bit better.
Because this is such a great way to share the Good News of the Gospel in our predominantly Mormon community, St. John’s would like to invite all area LC-MS congregations to participate with us in the outreach event.
Mission to Mormons
On Oct. 18, 2020, Pastor Robert (Rob) Bennett was ordained as Specific Ministry Pastor for Utah Missions. Pastor Bennett is responsible for an organized mission outreach to our Mormon neighbors in Utah.
St. John’s Church is eager to support this ministry and work with Pastor Bennett in outreach to our neighbors; speaking the truth in love to our friends, neighbors, and families.
