Our Church

Welcome to our church website! If you are new to our church, hoping to visit us while in Sydney, or have found your way to our site through an internet search; it's great to have you here with us. This website is for visitors and members and is a primary tool of communication for our church family. You can download the weekly bulletin, listen to Sunday sermons and find out what is coming up in our church. We are also on facebook so when you get the chance 'like' us and stay in touch with others from St. Paul's.

Just a quick introduction...

St Paul's is a congregation of about 100 members who generally live within a 15km radius of the CBD. There are others who travel even further to be part of our community. We are a diverse community with people from different walks of life, yet we are united by our common faith in Jesus Christ. If you are from another Christian/Lutheran congregation and are moving to Sydney and feel overwhelmed by the city, please make contact with us, as many of us have been in your shoes and know how scary it can be transitioning into life in Sydney.

Our Beliefs

St Paul's is a Lutheran Church...

The gospel message is at the heart of Lutheranism and that mesage is "that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 2:8,9) and that "while we were sinners Jesus Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). There is absolutely nothing we can offer or do to win God's favour or blessing, he gives it as a free gift and all we can do is give him thanks for his wonderful gift of salvation.

As people saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ we are called to serve our neighbour and be the living gospel in the communities we are a part of, not to earn salvation or win favour, but as an act of worship to the God who loves us.

In Sydney the Lutheran Church isn't as well known as some of the other Christian denominations; to others we are known as the 'German church'. Like most Lutheran Churches in Australia, St Paul's has a German heritage, but today we are a diverse community with members from various ethnic backgrounds. The Lutheran Church is a mainline church, was the first Protestant Church and is the one of the largest churches worldwide - in other words we aren't a cult or sect (as some may intially think)!

If you are looking for a more detailed explanation of the beliefs of the Lutheran Church you can find more information at the Lutheran Church of Australia national website (just click below and a new page will open).

http://www.lca.org.au/lutheran-church-of-australia.html

If you would like to talk personally about faith and our church you are welcome to contact our pastor

Our Mission

Being a church in the largest city in Australia brings about many opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ. At St Paul's we are currently in the season of discovering where God is leading us to serve. God is always calling his people to serve him but as a church we trust that God has a specfic call for us in the city.

In the past we have lived by the mission "reach, teach & serve... in Jesus' name". This is still very relevant for us today and guides us in all that we do. We look forward to adding new information over the course of 2013!

In the time being please pray for our church as we go on this journey of listening to God and trusting in him.

Our History

St Paul's Lutheran Church Sydney first started in 1915 but it was not until 1961 that we were located in Stanley Street on the East side of Sydney CBD.

st_pauls_architect_design

Early beginnings

Not many years after Sydney was first settled, a magistrate and grazier named Edward Riley was given a grant of land by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1814. This land stretched from the Botanic Gardens up to the heights of Darlinghurst Road and across to Hyde Park. Over the next eight years he added more parcels of land until he owned all the land as far as St. Vincent’s Hospital and across to the far side of Surry Hills. A portion of Riley’s Estate would one day be the site of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Stanley Street. In 1825 Edward Riley became depressed over trying to procure grazing land near Goulburn, finally driving him to take his own life. He left a wife and six children – and two conflicting wills. Dispute over the wills led to 19 years of legal wrangling between his family and a gentleman named Campbell who also claimed ownership of the Darlinghurst side of the Estate. After four court cases the frustrated judge settled the dispute in 1844 by dividing the estate into seven equal portions, with no regard to any surveyed roads. Each of the beneficiaries picked out of a hat to claim their portion. The traditional Gadigal aboriginal owners of this land had continued to roam and live on the land right up to this time. The land was sandy or clay and unsuitable for agriculture. Only after the court case was settled were the majority of streets surveyed, developers moved in and many houses were built. One of the cottages, built around 1870 was at 3 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst. City of Sydney archives give the last listed owner of the property as Mary Lister Hawkins in June 1951. The block of land only measured 26 ft. wide by 71 ft. deep, and the old cottage was 26ft. square with an attic. City Council inspectors described the cottage as derelict. The property was legally sold to St. Paul’s congregation, on 1st March 1956 for the sum of £3,500 however the tenant did not move out until January 1958 frustrating plans to start the new church building.

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Pastor Noske 1960's

Our Leaders

Leadership in our Church

St Paul's Congregation has a leadership team which is called, 'church council'. Leaders are elected by the congregation and have oversight of the ministry and administration of the congregation. The pastor, who is an ordained minister of the Lutheran Church, is also part of the church council.

At the beginning of every year we hold an annual general meeting where leaders are elected and reports given to the congregation. We also have a half yearly meeting to review our ministry plans and share with everyone what has been happening in the life of the church.

Our Pastor

Hello!

I'm Jason, the pastor at St. Paul’s Sydney. I am married to Jenni and have 3 children, Arianah Jacob and Patrick.

menjas

I grew up in Gawler, a large country town 40 km’s north of Adelaide in South Australia. I started my theological studies in 2002 in Adelaide and was ordained in the Lutheran church 2006.

I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids and cracking open a bottle of wine with friends. I love my Barossa Valley reds! I also enjoy playing guitar and video games when I get the chance. I love listening to music from rock and blues to classical music.

In ministry I am dedicated to growing Jesus Christ’s church and exploring new ways to make this happen. I have always enjoyed working in children and youth ministry’s and music ministry. I also enjoy spending time with people and listening to their stories.

I first felt the call to be a pastor when I was in high school but ignored it for a number of years. I did a term of study at University but didn’t enjoy it so I worked full-time for a number of years before entering the seminary.

My journey as a Christian has had many ups and downs, times where I wasn’t so close to God and other times where I was on fire for Jesus. But through all these different seasons in my life I know that Jesus had never left me. We worship a God who sticks with us through the good and bad. I pray that as you hear my messages online that you will understand the peace of God that comes to us through Jesus Christ and that you may grow in your faith in him and that you may understand that there is a God in Jesus Christ who is always with us.

Blessings,

Pastor Jason

Support Staff

Elaine Elliot

Elaine is our parish administrator

Our Worship

We worship every Sunday at 1030am. Secure off street parking is availabe from 1015am to 1030am in the Sydney Grammar carpark which is across the road from the church building.

Worship is a central part of our church community. In worship we come together, unified through the gospel, from different walks of life to receive God's grace as he meets us in his word and the sacraments. We are a Lutheran Church so our worship is liturgical and focussed on God's action towards us. At St. Paul's we embrace different styles of worship and love to sing both hymns and modern songs and those in between. Holy Communion is an important celebration within our church family and is generally celebrated every Sunday. We invite those who are baptised and confess Jesus Christ as Lord, who repent of their sins and recognise Christ truly present in the bread and wine, to share in this holy meal with us.

On the firstand third Sunday's of the month we will often have a contemporary worship service. In this service you will find that we sing songs from various traditions of the church, the liturgy is less formal and the pastor doesn't wear his traditional robes.

On the second and fourth Sunday’s of the month we worship in a more traditional style using a standard Lutheran liturgy and sing hymns from the Lutheran Hymnal (Australia) and the 'Together in Song' Australian Hymnal; we also sing newer hymns that are popular in the Christian Church today.

Children are an important part of our community and are always welcome at St Paul's. There is a special space for the children at the rear of the church and Sunday school is held during school term. We like to include the children in worship and on most Sunday’s have a kids message.

We have various opportunities for you to use your gifts in the worship service and we encourage you to do so. For example, you can lead a bible reading in worship, greet people at the door, or help with morning tea among many other things. If you are a musician and would like to share your gifts at St Paul's we would love to have you involved.

If you would like to know more about how we worship and why we do what we do please speak to our pastor