Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church stands at 1331 West Main Street in Ephrata, a brick landmark on the western edge of the borough and a fixture of the Lincoln neighborhood since the early years of the last century. Rooted in the Lutheran Book of Worship and the historic Lutheran confessions, the parish is known for its Sunday Divine Service in the original nave, a Christian preschool housed in the same building, and a steady stream of mercy ministries that reach straight out from the building onto the streets of Lancaster County.
The story of Salem begins on February 13, 1852, when members of the local Lutheran and German Reformed Friedens Church resolved to erect a Union Church on Apple Street to serve both congregations on alternating Sundays. By the turn of the century that arrangement had outlived its usefulness. The Reformed side offered six hundred dollars for the old property; the Lutherans accepted, ground was broken on Main Street in late November 1901, and the new church was dedicated on September 7, 1902.
For most of the twentieth century the same minister served Salem alongside sister congregations; at one point a seven-parish grouping that also included Emmanuel, Jerusalem, White Oak (Penryn), Manheim, Muddy Creek, and Swamp, later winnowed to Salem, Swamp, St. John's, and Mellingers. In 1963 Salem became a single-church parish and has remained so since. The building has kept pace over the decades: it was wired for electricity in 1913, indoor plumbing arrived with the 1958 educational annex, a second Sunday service was added in 1987, and a 1993 two-story addition brought classrooms, the church office, the pastor's study, a nursery, an altar-care room, a kitchen, and a fellowship hall. The regular weekly communion that now defines parish worship was adopted in December 2000.
The Divine Service on Sundays and Thursdays
The Sunday gathering is the center of parish life. At ten o'clock in the morning the assembly fills the historic nave for a Lutheran Divine Service according to the Lutheran Book of Worship, with Holy Communion celebrated every week. The full LBW order is followed: a deliberate commitment that sets the rhythm for preaching, congregational singing, and the Eucharist.
On Thursdays the same Lutheran Book of Worship service is sung again at seven in the evening, this time in the chapel just off the nave. The Thursday offering keeps the same form for members and visitors who cannot come on Sunday morning.
Immediately before the Sunday service, Bible Study gathers at nine o'clock in the chapel. Members work through Scripture together in a setting that has been part of the parish rhythm for years.
Scripture, the Creeds, and the Book of Concord
Salem is a confessional Lutheran parish. The congregation's own statement of confession begins, "Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church is a community formed by Jesus in Baptism and gathered around Scripture, Prayer, and the Eucharist." Members hold to the doctrinal tenets expressed in the historical creeds and in the confessions collected in the Book of Concord of 1580.
The parish treats the Bible as the sole foundation of the faith and affirms the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds alongside the Lutheran Confessions. Catechesis, prayer, baptism, and the Eucharist are part of the parish's teaching vocabulary, and the parish points members to Luther's Small Catechism and the Book of Concord as reliable summaries of doctrine. Pastor Goodman subscribes to a common confession of 2005 that affirms the authority of Scripture and the Sacraments, the priesthood of all believers, and the mission of the Church as carried out in gathered congregations around Word and Sacrament.
A Navy Veteran as the Twelfth Pastor
The Reverend Jeffrey H. Goodman became Salem's twelfth pastor in 2009. A native of Lancaster County, he was raised in Manheim and New Holland and was baptized at Honey Brook United Methodist Church. He served in the United States Navy and Navy Reserve from 1992 to 1999, including a deployment to Okinawa with Fox Company, Second Battalion, Eighth Marines. After his service he studied history at Millersville University and then attended the Evangelical Seminary in Myerstown, Pennsylvania.
Pastor Goodman came into the Lutheran Church after years of discernment that included a long friendship with the Reverend William W. Spiegelhalder, a Methodist minister ordained in 1944 by Bishop Fred Corson of the Philadelphia Annual Conference. Both pastors, his former senior pastor and Pastor Spiegelhalder, participated in his ordination into the Lutheran Church. Pastor Goodman writes about those friendships, about liturgy, and about parish life. He hosts afternoon tea and coffee at the church during the week for anyone who wants to talk or study, and he can be reached at Pastor@Salemephrata.org. Outside of parish work he follows Navy and Millersville athletics, the Phillies, and a steady diet of theology and history.
Managing Motherhood: A Mercy Ministry to Mothers
Managing Motherhood is the parish's mercy ministry to women, mothers, and young children in the Ephrata Area, Cocalico, and Warwick school districts. Its aim is straightforward: provide baby care supplies, hygiene supplies, feminine hygiene supplies, children's books, catechisms, and baptism information at no cost to the guest.
Bags are given out on the third Saturday of each month from nine to eleven in the morning. Guests are asked to bring identification; one bag is given per guest. The work is supported by Salem members and by donations gathered across the parish. Questions about the ministry can be directed to the church office or to office@Salemephrata.org.
Handmade Pottery and Hospital-visit Greeting Cards
Salem's Pottery Ministry was started in 2022 by the parish's Membership Care Committee. A cabinet across from the elevator in the church building is stocked with handmade pottery pieces and greeting cards created by members of the congregation. Anyone in the parish may take a piece and a card, write the visit and the date on the clipboard in the cabinet, and bring both to someone who would welcome a word of hope, such as a shut-in, a neighbor recovering from illness, or a friend who simply needs to know they have not been forgotten.
Comforters for Lutheran World Relief
Each autumn the women of Salem gather around tables to tie comforters by the dozen. On the Lutheran World Relief In-Gathering Sunday the finished comforters are displayed around the nave, blessed in the liturgy, and packed for a regional rally point. From there they travel to the LWR distribution center in Maryland and on to people in need around the world. In 2023 the parish prepared forty-two comforters in a single season.
Salem Lutheran Pre-School
Salem Lutheran Pre-School operates out of the church building at 1331 West Main Street in the Lincoln neighborhood of Ephrata. The school's mission is to guide each child's academic, social, physical, and emotional development in a Christian environment, and its curriculum blends Bible stories, singing, prayer, language and literacy, mathematics, large and fine motor skills, and creative arts with the requirements for kindergarten readiness.
Three-year-olds meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from nine to eleven-thirty in the morning; four-year-olds meet Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the same hours. Tuition for the 2026 school year is nine hundred ninety dollars for the three-year-old class and eleven hundred seventy dollars for the four-year-old class, with a non-refundable thirty-five-dollar registration fee. Children must be three or four years old by September first of the school year. Registrations for Fall 2026 are being accepted through the church office at 717-733-6646. The preschool has an outdoor play area, a clean and bright facility, and reasonable rates as a point of parish pride.
Vacation Bible School and Parish Life
A summer Vacation Bible School is part of the parish calendar. Members gather between services for fellowship and hospitality, and the fellowship hall built in 1993 is the parish's social heart; it is also available for rental, with arrangements handled through the church office.
Planning a Visit to Salem
The Sunday Divine Service begins at ten o'clock in the morning in the nave at 1331 West Main Street in Ephrata. The Thursday Divine Service is held at seven in the evening in the chapel. Bible Study meets in the chapel at nine on Sunday mornings, and Managing Motherhood distributes supplies on the third Saturday of each month from nine to eleven in the morning. Recordings of the Divine Service and the weekly bulletins are available on the parish YouTube channel.
Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church has gathered on Main Street for more than a century. Its commitment has not changed: the parish continues to gather around Scripture, Prayer, and the Eucharist in the same Lutheran Book of Worship that has shaped its life since the building opened in 1902.