About our Congregation
(Worship, Membership, History, Organization, and the Sacraments)
Worship:
Children's sermons are a regular part of Sunday morning worship. We believe that young people learn their faith from seeing others at worship and participating with them
New Members:
We are always welcoming new people into our congregational family at Fellowship. People become members by Baptism and/or Affirmation (i.e. Confirmation) or Re-affirmation of Baptism or by letter of transfer from another Lutheran congregation. People who have different denominational backgrounds or those who are not yet baptized are encouraged to receive adult instruction by arrangement with the pastor.
New members are received in the fall and in the spring. Prior to new member receptions in late October and early April, the Pastor offers an "Adult Inquirer’s Classes" to integrate new members in to the life and faith of the congregation. We will welcome the new families, introduce them to others in the congregation and work with them to meet their needs and interests in the life of the congregation.
It is important to our congregation that we live up to our name, "Fellowship". This means including people in all conditions and times of life in our care and ministry.
Handicap Accessible: Our facilities are designed to be barrier-free for those with physical handicaps. We are also committed to do whatever is necessary to "normalize" our ministries to make them accessible to anyone who has special needs. Jesus' Gospel is for all.
Families: While we have many traditional families in our congregation, we are sensitive to the needs of blended families, single parents, those who have never married, were previously married or re-married.
Our History:
We are a congregation of the Southern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lut
heran Church in America (ELCA).We began as a new ministry of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1979 and were chartered and received as a congregation of the Synod in 1980.
The congregation met in the Northwest Career Center on Cranston Drive in Dublin, Ohio until it moved into the first unit of its present building on Sawmill Road in February of 1986. Offices were in the parsonage on Sarahurst Drive in Dublin until that time. There have been two additions to our first unit. A classroom unit was added in 1989 and the nursery, restrooms and narthex were tripled in size in 1998.
Pastor John Evans served as our Pastor/Developer until his retirement in 1982. Pastor Doug Campbell served our congregation from 1983 through 1987 followeed by Pastor Mark Keller from 1989 though 1990. Pastor Michael Sayre was called as our pastor in April of 1991.
How we are Organized:
The basic government of the congregation is vested in its Congregational meetings held three times a year in January, May and September. The month-to-month authority of the congregation is delegated to its elected Officers, Boards and the Parish Planning Council.
Fellowship Lutheran Church, Inc. is incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio as a non-profit organization. We operate under a constitution and bylaws which are approved by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
There are 24 elected leaders in the congregation.The Pastor, President,Vice-President and Secretary serve as the church's officers on the Board of Administration. (A Treasurer and Financial Secretary are appointed.) The congregation elects a Director and three members for each of the other five boards.
Administration
Property
Evangelism & Fellowship
Stewardship & Service
Education & Youth
Worship & Church Music
The four members of the Board of Administration and the Directors of each of the other Boards meet monthly as the Parish Planning Council to coordinate the ministries delegated to the Boards by the congregation.
The Sacraments in the Lutheran Church:
Baptism
Baptism is one of the two Sacraments in the Lutheran Church. It is the action or work of God by which he promises to create faith in the baptized. Baptism is more than a ritual. It is the means by which God creates a relationship with his people. It is the sign, seal and symbol of the salvation God freely provides for us through Jesus the Christ.
Because Baptism is God's work, not our own, we practice the Baptism of infants and small children. While unbaptized adults normally attend a period of instruction before being Baptized, it is still our understanding that they are the passive recipients of God's grace in the waters of Baptism.
Baptisms are done in our public services of worship, not privately, because of the pledges of prayer and support that the congregation makes on behalf of those baptized. The congregation is an essential tool by which God keeps his promise to create faith. The normal "mode" of Baptism in our congregation is "pouring" using water from the Baptismal font.
Holy Communion
We celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion regularly at both services every Sunday of the month and at other special times during the year such as Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Christmas Eve.
To accommodate the variety of traditions from which our members have come, we celebrate Holy Communion using individual cups of wine and a specially baked communion bread or communion wafers. At special festival services we celebrate communion by "intinction" using a common cup into which communion wafers are dipped.
The Communion Table at Fellowship is "open" meaning that all baptized Christians who have been receiving the sacrament in their own congregations and who believe that Christ is truly present in the sacrament to forgive their Sin are encouraged to receive His Body and Blood "in, with and under" the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper.