Our Story

St. Silas Lutheran Church is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and a mission plant of the Iowa District East.

In 2009, conversation began at St. Paul Lutheran Chapel in Iowa City about planting a congregation in North Liberty. Some parishioners, who lived in North Liberty,  wondered why there was no congregation there. The population of North Liberty had more than doubled in the years 2000 to 2010 and at the time 62% were unchurched. Iowa District East of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod established a subsidy plan to fund a new congregation in North Liberty, giving a rather generous length of time for it to become self-sustaining. The district also asked St. Paul to serve as the mother congregation - to help the daughter congregation with the practical matters of managing money, becoming a legal entity, etc. 

The new congregation was named after a missionary - Silas. Paul chose Silas to accompany him on a portion of his second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-18:22). Silas was imprisoned with Paul in Phillipi and after their release, the two traveled to Thessalonica and Berea preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the synagogues (Acts 16). 

The newly formed congregation offered its first Divine Service February 3, 2013 in a nursing home in North Liberty and continued to meet there until December 2013 when they moved to a rented site in a strip mall on Jordan Street in North Liberty. They met there for nearly ten years until moving to their newly purchased site in October 2023.

St. Silas Lutheran Church conforms its teaching and practice to the Word of God and offers the Christ-centered Divine Service every week with the Lord's Supper and the proclamation of Grace alone, Scripture alone, and Faith alone.

St. Silas professes to be "Confessional." This means that St. Silas Lutheran Church clings to the Lutheran Confessions as the correct interpretation and presentation of Biblical doctrine. Contained in The Book of Concord, the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church are statements of belief written by church leaders during the 16th century. (The simplest of these is Luther's Small Catechism.) The Augsburg Confession gives more detail on what Lutherans believe.

Our congregation is comprised of elementary aged school children, retired people, medical professionals, government employees, and many more.  We invite you to attend the Sunday morning Divine Service, Bible study, Sunday School, and other events as our guest and meet these outgoing, cheerful people.

 

Please contact us if you have any questions. 
We look forward to meeting you soon!

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