St. John United Church of Christ sits at the corner of West Church Street and North First in Mascoutah, a small Illinois town settled in the 1810s and reshaped by German immigrants who arrived in the late 1830s. The congregation those settlers founded in 1843 as the Evangelische Protestantische St. Johannes Kirche still stands on the same block today, now known as St. John UCC and home to about 350 adult members. It is one of Mascoutah's oldest institutions, a church that has watched the town grow up around its brick sanctuary, watched German give way to English, and watched two mergers in the twentieth century reshape its identity without changing its central work.
From German Protestant Roots to the United Church of Christ
The church's roots are in the German evangelical tradition. The earliest German settlers in Mascoutah included Siegmund Spiess, a well-educated pastor from Württemberg, who officiated at a wedding in July 1840 and a funeral that October before the congregation was formally organized. The Evangelical Protestant St. John Church was founded three years later by German Protestants from the united Evangelical (Lutheran-Reformed) tradition, members sometimes called German Lutherans. Their original members included Charles Alt, Philip Benz, Christoff Benz, Lorenz Leibrock, Philip Graesser, and others whose names remain part of the church's record.
For its first two decades, the congregation shared Union Hall, a one-storey frame building west of today's city hall, with a German Methodist group (now Bethel) and ran its own German school there. When the railroad and grist mills brought crowds downtown, the congregation moved in 1863 to its current site at First and Church Streets, building a brick church forty by sixty feet with two inside galleries. A tall steeple went up in 1891, electrical lights were added in 1893, and the cornerstone of the current sanctuary was laid in October 1923, with a total cost of $50,000 for the building and $15,000 for the Kilgen organ, pews, and furnishings.
Two mergers mark St. John's twentieth-century identity. In 1938 the Evangelical Synod joined with the Reformed Church to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and St. John became St. John E&R Church. Then in 1957 the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ, and the congregation took its present name. The shift from German to English happened alongside these mergers: World Wars I and II brought generational change, and the language of worship today is entirely English, though the German heritage is still remembered in the cornerstone inscription, in stained glass, and in the congregation's self-understanding.
Spirited Worship and What the Church Believes
Sunday morning worship begins at 9:00 a.m. The service follows the congregation's evangelical and liturgical heritage, with the historic Christian creeds (the Apostles' and the Nicene) and the UCC Statement of Faith recited, and the Gospel of Christ's death and resurrection at the heart of the proclamation. Communion is celebrated regularly, baptism is offered to children and adults, and the worship is described by the congregation itself as "Spirited worship" centered on the transforming love of God in Christ's cross and resurrection. Visitors are welcomed "without exception," and the congregation says plainly that "people matter to Jesus and so you will be welcomed here."
In its own words, the things that matter at St. John are an eternal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, knowing God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, owning the brokenness the Bible calls sin, receiving the forgiveness won in Jesus' death and resurrection, relying on the gift of the Holy Spirit, experiencing God's presence in the Gospel Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, belonging to the church as the body of Christ, and being attentive to God's Word and bold in prayer and praise. The Bible is treated as the authoritative Word of God.
The congregation is led by Pastor Rev. Cherie Hambleton, who was called and installed in July 2024. A graduate of Duke Divinity School, she was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1999 and previously served as campus minister at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and as a hospice chaplain. She is married to the Rev. Paul Burden, who serves Immanuel UCC in Hamel, and they have three children and two grandchildren. Rachael Bearth has served as Minister of Youth and Christian Education since June 2016, after thirteen years as a third-grade teacher at Mascoutah Elementary.
Music That Ranges from Chancel Choir to Gospelettes
The music ministry at St. John is unusually broad for a church of its size. The Chancel Choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 and sings twice a month and on special occasions. The Gospelettes, a six-to-eight-voice subset, specialize in gospel, spiritual, and a cappella singing in a less formal setting. The Jubilee Ringers adult handbell choir plays from bells cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry of London and rehearses on the three Wednesdays at 7:45 preceding each Sunday performance. The St. John Band, formed in 1989 and made up of brass, woodwind, and percussion players middle-school-aged and older, plays three times a year; St. John Brass and St. John Woodwinds are smaller ensembles that play anthems and accompany hymns in more intimate settings.
Younger musicians are part of the program too. The Heavenly Chimes, a chime ensemble for grades one through eight, rehearses Sunday mornings at 10:00 and plays four or five times a year. A Youth Choir for grades one through eight rehearses each Sunday at 8:45 and sings several times a church season. A Schulmerich carillon, dedicated September 20, 1982, plays bell music to the neighborhood. The Chancel Choir is directed by Dr. Catherine Burge, an organist, pianist, and accompanist who holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado. Will Layman directs the handbell and children's choirs, and Andrew Renth, a lifelong St. John member and brass player, serves as Coordinator of Music. A Christmas Cantata is presented each December with favorite carols and seasonal music.
Children, Youth, and the Faith Journey
Christian education runs alongside worship on Sunday mornings. Sunday school classes meet from 9:15 to 10:00 in age-graded groups from two- and three-year-olds through senior high, with separate adult classes. A paid nursery is offered from 7:45 to 11:45 on Sunday mornings for the youngest children. Classes run September through May and use crafts, music, drama, and worksheets to help children experience the Lord and grow in his Word.
Confirmation is a two-year journey for students in grades seven and eight. Most were baptized as infants; in confirmation they explore the meaning of their baptism and the Christian faith, then affirm that faith as their own and celebrate their calling to serve in the work of the church. A week-long ecumenical Vacation Bible School is held every summer. St. John hosts VBS jointly with Holy Childhood, Bethel United Methodist, and St. Martin of Tours ELCA Lutheran, welcoming children ages four through those completing sixth grade.
The youth ministry is led by Rachael Bearth. A Middle School Youth Group for grades six through eight meets most Wednesdays during the school year at 6:15 p.m. THE GATHERING, the high school group for grades nine through twelve, meets the second Sunday of each month at 4:00 p.m. for connection, study, and fellowship. An adult Bible study meets at 10:15 a.m. on Sundays in the Library or Fireside Room, and Pastor Cherie leads a discussion group around the TV series "The Chosen." Daily devotional booklets, including Upper Room and seasonal Advent and Lent editions, are available to encourage reflection through the week.
A 180-Year Tradition of Mission
St. John's long history of serving human need goes back to its founding decade, when members ran the German school and the Ladies Aid Society (founded 1869) raised money for the building and the wider community. The current list of missions reflects the same impulse. The Mascoutah Food Pantry, which St. John helped establish and whose current building the church led renovating, is a flagship local project. The Weekend Meals Program and Summer Lunch Program feed children in the area. The congregation delivers Thanksgiving dinners to over 200 neighbors each November. It packs backpacks for the homeless through Moms on a Mission, fills Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, gathers Christmas gifts for residential youth at Hoyleton Youth and Family Services, collects Ronald McDonald House can tabs, and sews pillows and pillowcases for Kinder Cottage in East St. Louis.
Beyond Mascoutah, St. John has sent missionaries and joined mission trips to Honduras, Ecuador, Kenya, El Salvador, and Lesotho, and has supported Puentes de Esperanza, Children's LifeLine in Haiti, the Heifer Project, and the ISC Ecuador Mission. It has been part of disaster relief to the Gulf Coast, Joplin, Harrisburg, and the Philippines. The church participates in UCC-wide offerings: One Great Hour of Sharing, Neighbors in Need, and the Christmas Fund. Locally, the church headed a community Habitat for Humanity house build in Mascoutah in 2009 and 2012. The church's stated mission is short: Know Jesus, Grow in His Spirit, Show His Love.
Fellowship and Service Organizations
Several groups meet at the church through the week. The Everfaithful Guild, the merged Women's Bible Class and Ladies Aid, meets the first Monday of each month. The Happy Quilters meet most Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m. until about 3:00 p.m. Boy Scout Troops 144 and 44 meet on Tuesdays; Cub Scout Pack 43, chartered by St. John UCC, meets on Mondays (the church has sponsored scouting since 1929). The Saturday Nighters, formed in 1973, is a fellowship and service group for middle-aged couples and singles. Feast of Friends offers family-friendly outings for young families, and Theology on Tap is a dinner-and-conversation group for adults of all ages. "Serving Others" organizes the Thanksgiving Dinner delivery to anyone in Mascoutah.
The physical plant has grown with the congregation. The 1954 three-level addition houses the current offices and gathering area; the 1968 to 1970 Educational Wing to the east added classroom space; a preschool and latchkey program ran from the church for decades, ending in 2007. An elevator added in 1983 made the building accessible, and handicap parking has been expanded on the north side in three projects in 2009, 2013, and 2017. The Fellowship Hall was completely renovated with new sound and visual technology and art glass windows in 2015. The Memorial Library was renovated in 2017, and the Memorial Garden landscaping project was completed in 2008.
Visiting St. John
Sunday morning worship is at 9:00 a.m. Adult Bible study meets at 10:15, and Sunday school for all ages runs from 9:15 to 10:00. Parking is available on adjacent lots, and the building is wheelchair-accessible via the elevator. A paid nursery is offered for young children from 7:45 to 11:45 a.m. Worship videos are recorded and posted weekly on YouTube, and the church's short mission statement, "Know Jesus, Grow in His Spirit, Show His Love," runs across its communications. Office hours are Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Friday from 8:00 a.m. to noon. The office administrator, Kelly Schuetz, can be reached at 618-566-7311 or office@saintjohnucc.org. Online giving is available through Vanco Services at secure.myvanco.com. The congregation celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2018 and now numbers about 350 adult members, with the church's longstanding welcome: people matter to Jesus, and so all are welcomed here.