A Church at the Corner of Maple and Walnut
On the corner of Maple and Walnut Streets in downtown Jeffersonville, St. Luke's United Church of Christ has anchored its neighborhood since 1915. The congregation is older still: its call to form came on May 13, 1860, when a small group of German-speaking Protestants began meeting in one another's homes. More than a century and a half later, St. Luke's is known across Clark County for a Sunday morning of blended worship at 10:00 a.m., for the Sausage Supper it has hosted since the Great Flood of 1937, and for the Saturday meal at Watson Hall that brings 75 to 175 neighbors through the doors each week. The congregation describes itself as a friendly family of faith, and welcomes everyone with the line it repeats every week: "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here."
From a German-Speaking Congregation to the United Church of Christ
The first formal constitution was adopted in October 1861, when the fledgling body bought an old Presbyterian meeting house and called itself "The First German United Lutheran and Reformed Congregation of Jeffersonville." The names changed as the nation's Protestant landscape shifted: German Evangelical Protestant Church, German Evangelical St. Lucas Church, German Evangelical Reformed St. Lucas Church, St. Luke's Reformed Church, St. Luke's Evangelical and Reformed Church, until 1957, when the congregation joined the newly formed United Church of Christ and became St. Luke's United Church of Christ. The first services were conducted entirely in German, and some German language portions continued into the 1930s. Today, the church notes, very few members can speak German, but the heritage remains visible in the food, the music, and the German potato salad served each February.
The building the congregation uses today is a 1915 Toledo-style sanctuary that replaced the earlier meeting house. Its Anchor Glass Co. stained glass windows are still regarded as among the finest of any church in the Louisville area. The building has been carefully expanded over the years, with a major renovation in 2012 that created multi-purpose meeting rooms for groups of 10 to 100.
The Sausage Church of Jeffersonville
Ask people in Jeffersonville what St. Luke's is known for, and many will answer: sausage. St. Luke's is often called "the sausage church" in the wider community. The Sausage Supper began in 1937, when the Ohio River crested at the 500-year flood level and wiped out most of the surrounding communities. For several days, the only way to enter the sanctuary was by rowboat. When the waters receded, two farmers in the congregation each donated a hog. The men made sausage, the women cooked up German potato salad, and the community was invited to the first fundraiser. More than 85 years later, the Sausage Supper is still held every late February, and members still gather to make the homemade sausage and German potato salad from the same recipe.
In recent years the church has added a fall companion event called Oktoberfest, held in late September, with homemade bratwurst and knockwurst, sauerkraut, rolls, and German desserts. Both events are open to the wider community and serve as major annual fundraisers. As the church puts it, the events are less "fund-raisers" than "fun-raisers."
Sunday Worship
Worship is at the center of life at St. Luke's. The Sunday service begins at 10:00 a.m. and runs in a blended style that mixes traditional liturgy with creative, fresh touches. The basic order is the same every week, but there are always moments that surprise. Music spans Bach on the pipe organ, beloved old hymns, praise choruses, and the occasional pop song. Each service includes a time of welcome and announcements, unison and responsive prayers, a children's message, a sharing of joys and concerns, an anthem by the choir or other special music, one or two scripture readings, a sermon, an offering, and congregational singing. The pastor and a lay liturgist lead the service together, and a printed bulletin helps everyone follow along.
Most people arrive in something between a suit and a t-shirt, and a few wear each. Children are always welcome in the sanctuary. The nursery is available throughout the service for any child under age 5; elementary-age children attend the first part of worship and then head out to Sunday School after the children's message. Children also serve as acolytes, lighting the altar candles most Sundays.
Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of every month, usually as "pew communion," in which the congregation remains seated and passes individual pieces of bread and small cups down the pews. From time to time, everyone is invited to come forward instead. Both wine and grape juice are always offered, and the table is open to anyone who wishes to participate, regardless of church membership or background.
After worship, the congregation gathers in Watson Hall for coffee, treats, and conversation. The last Sunday of each month is "Birthday Sunday," with cake for all and a salute to anyone celebrating a birthday that month. Special services mark the seasons of the church year: Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, along with a "Youth Sunday" that lets the youth take the lead. St. Luke's also participates in ecumenical services with its downtown neighbors: the Blessing of the Animals, World Communion Sunday, weekly noon Lenten services, and a Community Thanksgiving Service. The 10:00 a.m. Sunday service is livestreamed on the church's Facebook page.
Loaves and Fishes: A Saturday Meal at Watson Hall
St. Luke's kitchen is busier on Saturday mornings than most church kitchens are all week. Since 1993, the building has been the home of Loaves and Fishes, a weekly community meal founded in partnership with other local congregations. Every Saturday, a different volunteer group plans, prepares, serves, and cleans up a hot meal for 75 to 175 people who might not otherwise have one that day. The meal is served at 11:30 a.m. in Watson Hall, and the program is described by the church as much more than a soup kitchen: it offers a sense of community and welcome to those who might not find it elsewhere.
The church has long partnered with the Center for Lay Ministries, which it helped found in 1973 with local Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and Disciples of Christ. The Center runs a food pantry, an emergency assistance program, the Bliss House residential recovery center, and a children's meal program, and St. Luke's supports it through an annual financial gift and monthly food drives. Several members serve on its board.
Music of Many Styles
St. Luke's takes seriously the idea that variety feeds worship. The Music Director, Neva-Marie Scott, a trained pianist and native Louisvillian who joined the church in 2013, accompanies all worship services on piano and pipe organ, leads the choir, and coordinates the music program.
The choir offers musical leadership in worship every Sunday, with a repertoire that spans ancient to contemporary and unison pieces to four-part harmony. Singers in high school and older, of all voices and experience levels, are welcome; reading music is not required. St. Luke's also owns several octaves of handbells and hand chimes. Adults and youth in middle school and older ring handbells; children from age 4 up play chimes and sing together at Family Music Night on Wednesday evenings. A separate St. Luke's Band leads contemporary and praise music on various Sundays throughout the year.
The pipe organ was installed following the 1937 flood. It now has a refurbished Kilgen console paired with pipes from the original and other sources, and it is featured on the site of the Southern Indiana Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Several times a year, the church hosts a Coffee House open to the public, with an open mic for musicians, readers, and poets, and tables filled with coffee and homemade desserts.
Children, Youth, and the Confirmation Class
"Children are not just the future of the church; they are our present as well." That sentence opens the description of Children's Ministries at St. Luke's, and the rhythm of the week reflects it.
On Sunday mornings during the school year, elementary-age children join the first part of worship and then head out to Sunday School for Bible stories, games, crafts, and other activities. Wednesdays belong to Family Music Night, an hour of singing, chimes, crafts, Bible story time, and laughter for children of all ages, with breaks that line up with school vacations and holidays. Each December, the children present a Christmas Pageant during Sunday morning worship, rehearsing in the weeks leading up to Christmas during Family Music Night.
Every summer, St. Luke's joins its ecumenical partners for a week of evening Vacation Bible School, open to children ages 4 through 5th grade. A new theme is chosen each year; past years have included rainforest, pirate, and jungle. Special events run throughout the year, including an Easter egg hunt, a Halloween party, the church picnic, Christmas caroling at local nursing homes, and outings to Holiday World, bowling, and other local attractions.
Confirmation is a two-year program for youth in middle school and older, combining classroom study of scripture with mentoring, worship participation, and service. Once confirmed, young people are considered full, adult members of the church. The youth also lead worship, sing in the choir, hold leadership positions, and help out at the Sausage Supper and other events.
Through an anonymous gift, the church offers a generous college scholarship: any youth who completed Confirmation and remains active in the life of St. Luke's, and who carries a 2.5 grade-point average in a two- or four-year college, can receive up to $1,000 per semester. Each summer, St. Luke's also sends a group of campers to Merom Camp and Conference Center, the camp of the Indiana-Kentucky Conference UCC, and the church pays half the camp fee for any child entering third grade or older who wants to attend.
Caring Ministries
St. Luke's sees care for one another as a defining mark of Christian community. Every Sunday, members of all ages name their joys and concerns in worship; a prayer chain then commits to praying daily for those named, with extra requests during the week shared by phone or email. The church records the Sunday service on CD and mails copies to members who are homebound, so they can continue to worship wherever they are. The Women's Fellowship and the Board of Elders, working with the pastor, visit members and their extended family in nursing homes, hospitals, and in-home care, and bring home Communion several times a year.
The Building, the Organ, and Accessibility
The 1915 sanctuary is the centerpiece of an expanding campus. Sanctuary, kitchen, fellowship hall, and meeting rooms are all fully handicapped accessible. A ramp and elevator are located off the main parking lot entrance on the Maple Street side of the building, and an automatic door opener welcomes visitors at that entrance. A fully ADA-compliant restroom is on the basement level, with two large restrooms equipped with grab bars on the sanctuary level.
Parking is available on the streets around the church or in the lot behind the building. The sanctuary is open to non-members for weddings, and the building's meeting spaces are rented to community groups, businesses, and organizations for events of 10 to 100 people, with a modest contribution to support the church's ministries.
Downtown Partners and Wider Mission
St. Luke's sits at the heart of downtown Jeffersonville and shares its ministry with several long-standing partners. With Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Disciples of Christ, and other UCC neighbors, St. Luke's helps put on ecumenical Vacation Bible School and shares the Blessing of the Palms on Palm Sunday, the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, weekly noontime Lenten services, the Blessing of the Animals, Christmas gift bags for the Clark County Jail, and a Community Thanksgiving Service.
Through Our Church's Wider Mission (OCWM), the congregation supports the wider work of the UCC, including disaster ministries, local and global mission work, and special offerings such as the Christmas Fund, Neighbors in Need, and One Great Hour of Sharing. Each Christmas, the church purchases gifts for residents of Uspiritus (formerly Brooklawn), a residential care and educational facility for children founded by UCC predecessors, and collects school supplies each fall. The St. Luke's Knitters, who meet every Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., have knit more than 1,200 children's sweaters for Knit for Kids since the group began in 1996.
The pastor is Rev. Karen Barth, who came to St. Luke's in 2021 as her third called ministry in the Kentuckiana Association. The church is governed by a congregational polity: every member votes on major decisions about leadership, finances, and property, and the work of the church is carried out through a Council and five Leadership Teams - Finance and Property, Spiritual Life, Fellowship, Children and Youth, Mission and Evangelism - alongside a Board of Elders and a Personnel Team.
Visiting St. Luke's
St. Luke's United Church of Christ is located at 329 Walnut Street, at the corner of Maple and Walnut, in downtown Jeffersonville, Indiana. Sunday worship begins at 10:00 a.m. Anyone driving in from I-65 can take Exit 0 for Downtown Jeffersonville, follow Court Avenue about half a mile, turn onto Walnut Street, and go one block. Parking is available in the lot behind the church or on the surrounding streets. Handicapped access is at the Maple Street entrance, with a ramp and an elevator to the sanctuary.
The doors of St. Luke's stay open - on Sunday morning for worship, on Wednesdays for Family Music Night, on Tuesdays for the Knitters and the Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and on Saturdays for Loaves and Fishes. The fellowship hall fills each February for the Sausage Supper and again in late September for Oktoberfest. The welcome is the same as it has been since 1860.