Tucked along North Tucson Boulevard in the heart of midtown Tucson, American Evangelical Lutheran Church has been quietly answering to the nickname God's Place for Grace for decades. The congregation, formally established in 1950, carries the motto "In Christ: Loving Equally, Serving Joyfully!" and describes itself as a welcoming, affirming, and inclusive congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. From its single-story building a short drive north of downtown, the church keeps a steady rhythm of Sunday worship, weekday Bible study, and music, while opening its parish hall to outside groups who need space to gather. A short walk from East Broadway and the historic neighborhoods that radiate outward from it, American Evangelical Lutheran sits in the kind of urban setting where the church's small scale, family feel, and long pastorate give it the character of a neighborhood institution.
"In Christ: Loving Equally, Serving Joyfully"
The words that appear on the church's homepage and on its printed materials describe both the congregation's identity and the way it hopes to be known in Tucson. American Evangelical Lutheran welcomes everyone who walks through its doors and treats each person as a child of God, regardless of race, religion, culture, or any other difference. The same spirit shapes how the church understands its mission outside its walls. Through the generosity of its members, the congregation supports local and international nonprofits, helps a few local families with practical needs, offers baptisms and confirmations, and shares the Good News of the Gospel both in person and online. Visitors are invited to come as they are. Children are not only tolerated in the sanctuary; they are actively welcomed, and a nursery area is set aside for parents who would prefer a quieter space for little ones.
Pastor Kim R. Taylor: Husband, Father, Theologian, and Pastor
American Evangelical Lutheran is pastored by the Rev. Kim R. Taylor, a Master of Divinity and a Lutheran pastor approaching his fortieth anniversary of ordination. Pastor Kim's biography, written in his own voice, traces a path from a small town on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in upper Michigan through a long list of jobs (carry-out clerk, ice-house worker, loan agent, cook, dishwasher, caterer, library research assistant, educator, merchant marine, theater director, musician, inspirational speaker, and performance pioneer) to his call into ministry. He is the first person in his family to hold a college degree. He was raised in Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Ludington, Michigan, a congregation founded by Swedish immigrants in the 1870s, where his mother had grown up. He has been married since 1971, is the father of seven children (four adopted), and numbers twenty-five in his immediate family.
Pastor Kim's journey into ordained ministry moved through a Lutheran school of theology on the south side of Chicago, where he and his wife Melody lived in a six-flat walk-up apartment while he completed his theological training in Black congregations on Chicago's south side, in the Pullman area and in Harvey, Illinois. That exposure shapes his ministry at American Evangelical Lutheran to this day. The congregation's welcome of LGBTQ+ members, immigrants, people of color, and others who have sometimes been pushed to the margins of the church is not an add-on to its identity; it grows directly out of his own experience of being formed in a community where worship, justice, and cultural difference were bound together.
He brings a similar openness to his pulpit. In sermons and Bible studies, Pastor Kim regularly draws connections between the Old Testament prophets, the ministry of Jesus, the writings of Paul, and the life of the present-day congregation. He is as comfortable referencing the historian Tacitus or the Roman governor Felix in a discussion of Acts as he is talking about a Tucson monsoon storm or the navel orange tree outside his dining room window. The result is preaching and teaching that is pastoral, grounded, and unafraid to bring the headlines of the day into conversation with the biblical text.
Sunday Worship at 10 AM
The central act of the congregation is its Sunday morning worship, held at 10:00 AM in the sanctuary at 115 N. Tucson Blvd. The service is Lutheran in character, marked by a weekly confession and forgiveness, readings from the Old and New Testaments, a sermon, prayers of the people, and Holy Communion. The congregation affirms the historic ecumenical creeds - the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed - and uses them as part of its regular pattern of worship. The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is part of the congregation's founding constitution.
Worship runs roughly an hour and is followed by fellowship and a chance to meet the pastor. Members and visitors are invited to stay afterwards for coffee, conversation, and the kind of unhurried visiting that is characteristic of a small church. The church's calendar also includes an All Ages Education Hour at 9:00 AM each Sunday, offering Sunday school classes for every generation that gather in the same hour so that families with children of widely different ages can attend together.
Livestreamed Worship on YouTube
For those who cannot be in the sanctuary, the entire Sunday service is recorded and posted to the church's YouTube channel as early as possible on Sunday, generally shortly after noon, depending on internet service and the availability of a tech volunteer. The recordings are the same service that takes place in the sanctuary, not a separate online event. Midweek Lenten services, the noon services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and other special services are also recorded and posted online, so that members who are traveling, ill, or simply unable to leave home can continue to worship with the congregation week by week. The livestream is a long-standing ministry of the church rather than a recent addition, and the technology is run by volunteers from within the congregation.
Lent, Holy Week, and Easter
American Evangelical Lutheran observes the seasons of the church year with the traditional Lutheran balance of solemnity and celebration. Ash Wednesday brings two services, at noon and 7 PM, with the Imposition of Ashes. Midweek Lenten Services follow each Wednesday at noon through the weeks of Lent, providing a midday pause for prayer and reflection in the middle of the work week. The noon services are recorded and posted for those who cannot attend in person.
The Triduum is observed with services at both noon and 7 PM on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The Maundy Thursday service includes Holy Communion and the stripping of the altar, marking the gift of the Lord's Supper and theologically the night of Christ's betrayal. Good Friday gathers the congregation around the reading of the Passion and the veneration of the cross.
Easter Sunday is the high point of the church year. The day begins at 8:30 AM with an Easter Potluck Breakfast in the parish hall - a long-standing tradition that brings together the early risers and the brunch crowd - followed by the 10:00 AM Festival Worship with full choir, festive hymns, and the joy of the Resurrection. Easter is consistently the Sunday of the year when the sanctuary is fullest and when visitors and returning family members are most likely to be present.
Advent and Christmas Eve
The Advent season at American Evangelical Lutheran centers on Sunday morning worship and the rhythms of waiting that the season is meant to teach. In recent years the congregation has made the deliberate decision not to offer Wednesday noon or evening Advent services because midweek attendance during Advent was low. The decision was announced openly and with gratitude rather than as a defeat; the energy that might have gone into a sparsely attended Wednesday service is instead poured into Sunday worship, the Christmas Eve service, and the congregation's ongoing Advent devotional practices.
The musical centerpiece of the season is Gospel Music Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, when the Gospel Music Group leads the congregation in song and worship is followed by a traditional chili luncheon in the parish hall. Advent calendars from ELCA World Hunger are distributed to help keep the focus on mission through the busyness of December, and Advent refrigerator magnets are given as small reminders of the season.
Christmas Eve brings the year's most intimate service: a 7 PM celebration that includes candlelight and Holy Communion. The congregation gathers in the dimmed sanctuary, the Christ candle is lit, and the service moves from the familiar Christmas readings into the lighting of individual candles passed from person to person down the rows. It is, in the words of one long-time member, "the night the church feels most like a family."
The Music Ministry
Music has always carried an outsized share of the church's ministry. A handbell choir rings regularly, and a vocal choir is available seasonally. Pastor Kim has been a musician for most of his adult life and has been the principal pianist at the church for many years, accompanying worship from the console as well as preaching and presiding from the chancel.
The congregation's musical life expanded in 2026 when, through an outpouring of increased giving, the church council hired a young pianist to share the role at the keyboard. Carson Lanning, then twenty years old and a student at the University of Arizona, joined the rotation and began playing for Gospel Music Sunday, freeing Pastor Kim to sing from the front of the church for the first time in years. The addition of a younger musician has given the congregation a fuller, more flexible musical palette and has been a small but meaningful sign of the church's intergenerational life.
Gospel Music Sunday has become one of the most anticipated Sundays of the year. Held at the start of Advent and again at other points in the church year, it pairs a full Gospel-music set with the regular Lutheran liturgy. Members of the congregation bring their musical gifts forward on other Sundays as well, offering vocal and instrumental pieces as part of the worship service. Anyone with a special musical talent is welcome to share it; Pastor Kim encourages people who would like to offer a musical piece for worship to let him know.
Pastor's Ponderings: The Daily Bible Study Blog
Perhaps the most distinctive ministry of American Evangelical Lutheran is its weekday Bible study blog, Pastor's Ponderings. Three mornings a week - Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday - Pastor Kim writes a short study of a passage of Scripture and emails it to a list of subscribers who want to keep reading and learning between Sundays. The blog is also posted on the church's website and is open to anyone who would like to follow along, member of the congregation or not.
The studies move sequentially through books of the Bible. In recent years the congregation has walked with Pastor Kim through the Gospel of Mark, Paul's letter to the Galatians, Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, the Psalms, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and the Acts of the Apostles. Each study opens with prayer requests from the congregation and the wider community, moves into careful exposition of the day's text, and closes with a brief pastoral word. The tone is conversational, the learning is substantive, and the writing is unmistakably Pastor Kim's own.
The blog doubles as the church's ongoing Bible study ministry. Members who cannot easily get to the church during the week - whether because of work schedules, health, mobility, or distance - can stay connected to a sustained engagement with Scripture. Subscribers receive the studies by email; others receive printed copies by regular mail. Pastor Kim has repeatedly asked those who want to keep getting the studies to sign up so the email list and the printed list stay accurate. During the summer months the Tuesday and Thursday rhythm sometimes adjusts so that the pastor and his readers can rest, but the Monday study typically continues year-round.
The studies are not sermons; they are pastoral teaching. Pastor Kim pulls in historical background (Tacitus on the Roman governor Felix, the practice of the Nazarite vow, the Persian edicts of King Xerxes), theological reflection (the relationship between Law and Gospel in Galatians, the place of the Psalms in the life of faith), and the everyday texture of life in Tucson and beyond (a sudden monsoon storm at 22nd and Kolb, the navel orange tree outside the dining room window, the experience of driving Jesse to work at Handi-car at five in the morning). The blog has become a quiet but significant extension of the congregation's ministry, especially for shut-ins and members who travel.
What the Congregation Believes
The congregation's statement of belief draws on the classic Lutheran articulation of the Christian faith. Lutherans believe in the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created and loves all of creation - the earth, the seas, and all the world's inhabitants. Lutherans confess that God's Son, Jesus Christ, transforms lives through his death on the cross and his resurrection to new life, and that God's Spirit is active in the world today.
The church teaches that when the congregation gathers for worship, it connects with believers everywhere, and that when Christians study the Bible or hear God's word in worship, they are drawn more deeply into God's own saving story. The historic ecumenical creeds - the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed - are affirmed and used in worship as confessions of the faith of the church through the ages and around the world. The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is part of the congregation's founding constitution. For those who want to read more deeply into Lutheran theology, the church points visitors to the ELCA website and to Pastor Kim, who is always glad to talk about matters of faith.
The welcome of the congregation is rooted in this confession. The page that introduces the church's beliefs sits next to the page that introduces the church as welcoming, affirming, and inclusive. For American Evangelical Lutheran, the historic Christian faith and the explicit welcome of all God's children are not in tension; they are one and the same gospel.
A Building That Opens Its Doors
The church building at 115 N. Tucson Blvd. is more than the congregation's Sunday home. The parish hall, classrooms, and sanctuary are used by the church for its own ministry and also made available to outside established groups that need meeting space. Currently, several support groups meet in the building in the evenings, a weekday morning exercise group uses the hall, and "A Time to Dance" dance classes are held at various times during the week. Narcotics Anonymous of Southeastern Arizona has used the building for its meetings.
The parish hall is also the gathering place for the congregation's own fellowship life. Carry-in meals after worship, the Easter Potluck Breakfast, the Advent chili luncheon, the summer Great American Picnic carry-in, and small-group lunches such as Foodies of Faith (a once-a-month outing to a local restaurant, with sign-ups coordinated through the church office) all happen in or around the hall. The kitchen is well-used, and members who enjoy cooking find plenty of opportunity to put their gifts to work for the rest of the church.
Outside groups that would like to use the building are asked to carry their own liability insurance and to coordinate with the church office. The congregation has, in the past, shared space with a new and growing church plant and would be open to that kind of partnership again. Weddings have been held at the church (Pastor Kim has officiated weddings for members and their families), and funerals are part of the regular pastoral ministry. The building is also the site of baptisms and confirmations that mark the rhythm of the church's year.
Volunteering, Altar Flowers, and the Prayer Chain
Members of the congregation are invited into nearly every part of the church's ministry. Within Sunday worship, openings include serving as a Lector (reading the Scripture lessons), an Acolyte (lighting the candles), a Worship Assistant (with training from Pastor Kim), or an Usher. Those who would like to share their musical gifts can join the handbell choir or the vocal choir when one is forming, or offer a special musical piece as part of the Sunday service. Members who are handy or who simply have time to spare are encouraged to offer their help with the upkeep and repair of the building.
The Prayer Chain is one of the quieter ministries of the congregation and one of the most consistent. Prayer requests come into the church office by phone, email, or in person, and are distributed to a list of prayer partners by phone, email, or text, depending on how each person prefers to receive them. Anyone who would like to pray for the requests that come in - or who has a request of their own - is welcome to call or email the office.
Members who wish to mark a special occasion (a baptism, a wedding anniversary, a birthday, a memory of someone they love) can do so by dedicating the altar flowers for a given Sunday. Flowers are provided by the church for a $30 dedication, or members may provide their own. The dedication is announced during the Sunday service, and the flowers are available to take home after worship.
Giving and Serving Beyond the Congregation
American Evangelical Lutheran is a small congregation with a long history of supporting ministries beyond its own walls. Members are encouraged to give as they are able, and the church makes giving as easy as possible. Online giving is handled through Tithe.ly, the giving platform newly partnered with the ELCA, and donations can be made by credit card, debit card, or electronic check, either one-time or as a recurring monthly gift. Donors may also choose to cover the processing fees so that the full amount of their gift reaches the church. PayPal is available as well, and gifts by mail are welcome at the church office. Members who sell on eBay can direct a portion of their sales to the congregation through the eBay for Charity program.
The congregation has, over the years, used its offerings to support local and international nonprofits through ELCA channels and beyond. At Christmas and Easter, members take up special offerings to purchase Global Barnyard animals - chicks, pigs, goats, and at times a cow - through ELCA World Hunger, gifts that are sent in honor of the season to communities around the globe. Members have also given to the community food bank and to other local ministries as needs arise.
The church also maintains a steady supply of blessing bags for the unhoused: small bags that include shampoo, soap, washcloths, tissues, and other items of personal care. Members are invited to pick up bags from the church and keep them in their cars to hand out when they encounter someone in need at a stoplight or on a median. The blessing bags have become one of the most concrete ways that members live out the congregation's welcome of "the least, the last, and the lost" in the streets of Tucson.
Staff and Church Council
Pastor Kim is the church's only called rostered leader and the constant pastoral presence at American Evangelical Lutheran. The day-to-day work of the office is carried by the Parish Administrator, who keeps the calendar, coordinates communications, and serves as the first point of contact for visitors and members alike. The building is cared for by a small custodial staff.
Governance is provided by the Church Council, a small group of members who give their time and gifts to the leadership of the congregation. The council includes a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Recording Secretary, and leaders for Parish Education, Worship and Music, Property Management, Evangelism, Social Concerns, and Member at Large. The council meets monthly and works closely with the pastor on the life and mission of the church. The congregation's annual meeting is the formal setting in which members affirm the ministry and programs of the church, pledge their support of time, talents, and resources, and set the direction for the year ahead.
The History of the Congregation
American Evangelical Lutheran Church was established in 1950 as part of the tradition that, in 1988, became the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The congregation grew up along with the postwar expansion of midtown Tucson and has been a presence on North Tucson Boulevard for more than seventy-five years. The building has been added to and adapted over the decades; the parish hall, classrooms, and sanctuary as they exist today are the result of many years of patient stewardship by members who have given both their labor and their offerings to keep the building a fit home for the church's ministry.
The longer arc of the congregation's story is the story of Pastor Kim's own ministry. When he arrived at American Evangelical Lutheran, the congregation was wrestling with some of the same dynamics he had seen in his earlier ministry: a small group of long-time members who held most of the power, a building that was being used by only a fraction of those who passed it every week, and a neighborhood that was changing faster than the church was prepared for. Over the years that followed, the congregation opened itself up - to new members, to new music, to new ways of being the church in a city that was itself becoming more diverse. The motto "In Christ: Loving Equally, Serving Joyfully" is not something the church inherited; it is something the congregation has spent decades learning how to live out.
That work continues. The congregation's small size is part of what makes its welcome feel personal. Newcomers are not lost in the crowd; they are greeted at the door, introduced to the pastor, and welcomed into the fellowship hour afterwards. Members know one another's names, prayer requests, and grandchildren. It is, in the most ordinary and most wonderful sense of the word, a family church - and it is in that family character that its strength and its future both lie.