Christmas Eve Service

Come join us for Christmas Eve service to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  St. James will have evening worship at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, December 24.  

All are welcome to worship with us!

Christmas Cantata at St. James

Come and hear the Christmas Choir and Orchestra at St. James perform Pepper Choplin's, The Heart of Christmas, at 5PM on Sunday, December 15. Let the Christmas story bless and strengthen your heart! 

Advent Daily Devotions

Click on the link below to check out these online 

daily devotions for Advent beginning today!

 Taking Faith Home for Advent

Prayer Ministry at St. James

Next time you are at St. James, be sure to take a moment to kneel at our prayer station at the back of the sanctuary, set up by our Guardian Angels Prayer Team. We have a kneeling bench as well as prayer candles and a prayer request box, where you can drop in your own specific prayer requests so that the Guardian Angel Prayer Team can be in prayer for you. The Guardian Angels pledge complete confidentiality, and can pray for specific concerns for you, or for general peace and caring.  

(Please note that this prayer box is separate from our church prayer list in Sunday's bulletin. If you would like for a name to be added to or removed from the prayer list in the church bulletins and newsletters, please contact the church secretary at 359-2122.) 

Pub Theology

Interested in sitting back with a beverage, enjoying fellowship, and engaging in a time of theological discussion with your fellow members from St. James? Come to Keg Cowboy at 6:30PM on Tuesday, October 22. Don't be afraid to raise your questions or voice your thoughts about God at our newest time of discipleship and faith development. See you there! 

Trunk or Treat

Come join us at the church on Friday, October 25, any time between 7-8:30PM for some fun and frolic.  Dress up in your wackiest costume and go from car to car as you rack up some awesome treats.  You may even experience some tricks along the way!

St. Francis Day Pet Blessing

Our Annual St. Francis Pet Blessing will be held at St. James on Tuesday, October 8, at 7PM on the front lawn of the church. Bring your creatures great and small to be blessed and to raise their voices with us as we worship our Lord together.  

St. Michael Sunday

Come to St. James this Sunday to celebrate The Feast of St. Michael The Archangel. For centuries, Lutheran Christians have considered this a principle feast of the church. The Lutheran Confessor, Philip Melanchthon, even wrote a hymn for the day, called, “Lord God, to Thee We Give.” So, who was Michael, and what does scripture tell us about angels? Why do we mention cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels every Sunday during Communion? Find out more about these creatures in our scriptures, songs, and sermon this Sunday, September 29, at 8 and 10:30AM.

Rally Day

Our annual Rally Day is this Sunday, September 29, at 9:15AM. All adult and children's Sunday School Classes are asked to gather together in the Fellowship Hall for our celebration. Join us for fun, fellowship, snacks, and entertainment as we kick off the new Sunday School year with our Youth Group Production of Joseph, This Is Your Life, a show in which Joseph, (of Old Testament and Technicolor fame), is the victim of a surprise reunion with his friends and family. There will even be a special guest appearance by Pharaoh himself! 

We will also provide the audience with an overview of our new upcoming Wednesday night education series beginning on October 9 at 6PM. Plus, we will haer testimonies from various Sunday School students and listen to the debut sing-along song extolling the virtues of Reuben's Famous Sandwich Shop! Mark your calendar for this special event, and don't miss out. 

Reaching Out in Christ's Name

St. James is a church that desires to spread the love of Christ throughout our community. On Sunday, October 6, from 4 to 6 PM, we will host a cookout in the Basin Rock community.  Come on out and help us spread the grace of God to others!

History of The Inquisition

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term "Inquisition"?  Torture?  Burning at the stake?  Brutality?  All of these things happened during the Inquisition, but why?  Find out the answer to this question and many more by joining us for our new Wednesday Night Educational Series beginning in October.  

Southern Ladies' Tea Party

All ladies of the church are invited to join us at our Southern Ladies' Tea Party on Saturday, September 21, from 11AM to 2PM in the Fellowship Hall at St. James. We will have live entertainment, good food, and fun fellowship! 

Cost is $2.50 for Girls 12 and under, and $5 for Women, payable at the door. Come along and bring a friend!

St. James Welcomes Dawn Smith Jordan

The marvelous thing about God is that the deeper the tragedy, the greater the grace.  Dawn Smith Jordan is no stranger to both. Through these things, she grew a ministry that reaches thousands throughout the U.S. and Canada.  Dawn Smith Jordan has accepted Evangelism’s invitation to bring her concert ministry to St. James on Sunday, September 8, at 4PM.  Bring friends, family, neighbors and co-workers.  A love offering will be collected for her ministry.  

 If you would like to visit Dawn Smith Jordan's Ministry website, simply click the link below.

 http://www.dawnsmithjordan.com/

Students, teachers, school bus drivers, and school personnel, you are all invited to bring your book bags, keys, or school related items to be blessed this Sunday during worship at St. James as we prepare for another school year. 

Mustard Seeds And Jesus' Love

St. James had a wonderful Vacation Bible School last weekend. There were hayrides and water slides, games and crafts,  songs and Bible stories, but most of all: we learned about Jesus' love for each of us! 

Sometimes as children and as young disciples of Jesus, we may feel like we can't make much of a difference in this big, wide world that God has made. But God's kingdom is like a mustard seed - tiny and insignificant looking, yet full of LIFE and able to bloom into a gigantic mustard plant with strong branches that provide shade and a place of rest for all of the birds of the air. 

Last weekend at Vacation Bible School, we held mustard seeds in our hands as we sat out among the trees, listening to the birds, and we remembered how God's all powerful Holy Spirit can work through even the youngest of us to share Christ's love and make a big difference in this world. 
  

Women's Bible Study

Beginning on Sunday, August 18, the women of St. James will have an opportunity to take part in a new Bible study just for them, entitled A Confident Heart.  The Study meets at 9:15AM in our Education Building.  If you would like to take part in this study, the book is available at LifeWay, Amazon, Proverbs 31 Ministries and other online sources.  Read ahead, and take advantage of the discussion questions at the end of each chapter in order to be prepared for class.  If you would like to know more about the author and/or purchase the book through Proverbs 31 Ministries, simply click on the link below and it will take you directly to Renee Swope's website:
http://reneeswope.com/aconfidentheart/ .

Vacation Bible School 2013

Sign up now for our Weekend VBS on Friday and Saturday, July 26-27, from 9AM-12PM. This year, we will hold our VBS at Hill Top Christmas Tree Farm, which is right near the church (1509 Nazareth Rd). Join us for a hay-larious time, as we go on hayrides, enjoy a campfire and play games in the field, sing songs, and learn Bible stories. (On the first day, bring a towel and a swimsuit, because there will be lots of exciting water games. On the second day, be ready for a hot dog roast for lunch.) 

Call the church office now to sign up or to purchase a t-shirt, if you would like one. (T-shirt fees must be collected by July 7 so that they may be ordered in time for our big weekend!) 

Garden of Grace

Inch by inch, row by row, God is making our garden grow, and each basket of fresh picked vegetables from the St. James Garden is being given to people in need in our surrounding community. May God continue to bless this garden ministry and the lives of those that we reach out to in Christ's name. 

Prayer Request

Please pray for the delegation of 15 persons from the South Carolina Synod who are traveling to Colombia this week to visit with our companion synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia. The delegation includes Bishop Herman Yoos, Assistant to the Bishop Mel Amundson, and Pastor Mark Cerniglia, coordinator of the companion synod relationship. The other participants are Cindy Yoos, Nancy Amundson, Joseph Cerniglia, Katie Sturman, Lauren Rawls, Adam and Carolyn Steele, Neal and Sharon Shealy, Philip and Melanie Wessinger, and Pastor Larry Hartsell. They will be visiting churches, church-sponsored schools, and other ministries in Bogota, Sogamoso, Tunja, and Soacha. Bishop Yoos will preach at a special youth service at San Pablo in Bogota on July 14.

Taking VBS into The Community

On June 25, the people of St. James ventured outside of our church walls and took Vacation Bible School to children in our community.  

One by one, children ventured out of their homes to hear Bible stories and music, to engage in crafts and games, to eat breakfast, have fun, and hear the Good News of Jesus.  

Praise be to Jesus, whose love reaches all people - and who is worshiped not only within the church walls, but on a grassy knoll right in people's backyard. 

Baskets of God's Love

Our church garden is bursting with produce. This first basket of squash and zucchini was freshly picked a few weeks ago and taken to people in need at Sistercare. How many more baskets will we fill and give out in our community to share God's love? Help us tend the church garden this summer. Sign up in the church narthex if you are available to pick fruit and vegetables, help us pull weeds, or carry our produce to people in need. We can work together to help fight hunger in Jesus' name! 

Welcoming Bishop Mbwilo

St. James was so very blessed to welcome Bishop Mbwilo and his wife from our Sister Synod in Tanzania on the first weekend of June. We enjoyed a delicious chicken BBQ dinner together, and then we held a presentation for him. He brought us his thanks from the people of Tanzania and spoke of how grateful his people were for all that we did for them. His heart was full, and so was ours as we heard all that he had to say. 

We bid the bishop farewell with our prayers, our music, and our love.  We also gave him and his wife a blanket that was knit together by our women of the church, a cross carved from the sycamore tree that has a long history and much significance to St. James, and a certificate from the SC Senate. May God bless Bishop Mbwilo, his family, and the Lutheran Church in Tanzania, whose voices join with ours past distance and language as we lift up the name of Jesus Christ.  

Summer Bible Study

Do you feel trapped in the machine of excess? In our summer Bible study, we will look more closely at seven key areas of excess in our lives: food, clothes, spending, media, possessions, waste, and stress. We will also examine what Jesus has to say to us about how to be His disciples in a world that is filled with overindulgence.  Join  us on Wednesday evenings beginning on June 5 at 6:30PM for this exciting study. 

Click HERE to watch the promo. 

Summer Youth Group

St. James Youth: Don't miss out on our youth weekday Bible studies and lunches, Youth Group games and fun on Sunday evenings, and exciting events like a lake party, tubing down the river, and climbing a ropes course this summer. Check out the letter from the pastors in your mailbox for dates and times, or call the church office for more details. All of your friends are welcome to join us! All the fun begins on Sunday afternoon, June 9. 

Summer Sermon Series

Have you ever been behind someone in traffic whose bumper sticker mentions Jesus? Have you ever had a person tell you, "Everything Happens for A Reason," or "God Won't Give You More Than You Can Handle?" What do these popular Christian sayings mean? Do we agree with them? Are they biblical? Join us at St. James at 8AM and 10:30AM worship during the month of June for an exciting summer sermon series on the cliches of Christianity. 

St. James Welcomes The Bishop of Tanzania

Three summers ago, the people of St. James Lutheran Church changed the lives of those who live more than 7,000 miles away. We sent two of our members as missionaries to Tanzania, bearing gifts that would help build shelter for those who had none,  

gifts that would provide school uniforms to children in need,

gifts that would provide cross necklaces and words of God's love during a week of VBS from our own children at St. James to those in Tanzania, 

 

gifts that would provide layettes for newborn babies and help to save their lives. 

This year, the people of Tanzania want to say thank you to us. They want to tell us how they are doing, and give us updates on the things that God is doing in their midst.

Join us in the Fellowship Hall for a welcoming meal for the Bishop from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania on Saturday, June 8, at 5PM. 

Father's Day Bulletin

God bless the Fathers at St. James! Help us celebrate the many ways that the men at St. James have blessed our congregation and our lives this Father's Day.   

Make a donation in honor or memory of a father or grandfather in your life with our annual Father's Day bulletin sponsored by the Lutheran Men in Mission. 

St. James Winter Retreat

St. James is holding a winter retreat in 2014. We will enjoy a relaxing weekend of fellowship, worship, and exploring in the NC mountains. Cost includes room and board. The last day to sign up and pay your $50 registration fee is May 31. Don't miss out on this wonderful event! Contact the church office for more details.  

OWLs Luncheon

Our OWLs group meets for lunch once a month together. At their last gathering, they enjoyed a delicious meal at Harbor Inn. Next time, they will meet at Ryan's Steakhouse. All are invited to join them for their monthly gatherings and their Monday Morning Bible Study. We are so blessed by the witness of our Older Wiser Lutherans!  

Happy Mother's Day

On Sunday, May 12, help us honor the mothers of our congregation by adding your mother's name to our annual Mother's Day bulletin and offering a donation to the Rebekah Circle at St. James. All proceeds will benefit Sistercare, a local agency for battered women and their children. 

Chicken Stew Cook Off at St. James

                   

On Saturday, May 4, from 6PM to 8PM, St. James will host a Chicken Stew (also known as Chicken Bog) cook off.  All proceeds will go toward a new air conditioning unit for our fellowship hall.  Come on out and join us for a great time of fellowship with neighbors and friends!